{"id":642972,"date":"2026-03-06T10:49:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T10:49:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/642972\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T10:49:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T10:49:20","slug":"player-grades-mavericks-vs-magic-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/642972\/","title":{"rendered":"Player Grades: Mavericks vs. Magic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\">The return of Cooper Flagg netted an all too familiar feeling for Mavericks fans; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mavsmoneyball.com\/dallas-mavericks-game-coverage\/56442\/mavericks-vs-magic-recap-4-notes-from-dallas-115-114-loss-at-orlando-cooper-flagg-klay-thompson\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:another clutch loss;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">another clutch loss<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The Mavericks fought hard all night, but as usual were unable to execute in the clutch, leading to the Magic stealing an improbable win.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Without further ado\u2026 let\u2019s grade the Mavericks<\/p>\n<p>Cooper Flagg: A18 PTS \/ 5 REB \/ 6 AST \/ 1 STL \/ 5 BLK -26 MIN<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">After what felt like an eternity, Cooper Flagg finally made his return to the lineup.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">It\u2019s wasn\u2019t Flagg\u2019s best shooting game, as his touch was clearly rusty, but he impacted the game in a multitude of ways. His defense was especially impressive, as his rim protection was felt all night, including an incredible sequence towards the end of the game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">His ability to effect the game in so many ways, on both ends, is what separates him in the rookie-of-the-year race, and makes his potential so tantalizing.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Khris Middleton: B19 PTS \/ 2 REB \/ 7 AST \/ 0 STL \/ 0 BLK -32 MIN<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Khris Middleton may be older than time itself, but he can still get buckets.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Middleton\u2019s off-ball ability and scoring chops have proven to be very valuable for this team, and could be very valuable for next year.<\/p>\n<p>Daniel Gafford: B12 PTS \/ 13 REB \/ 1 AST \/ 0 STL \/ 2 BLK -25 MIN<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">While Daniel Gafford had a good statistical performance, he still had a very frustrating game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">This mainly boils down to his sheer lack of awareness defensively, as he often finds himself completely out-of-position, which included the game winning shot by Wendell Carter Jr.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Max Christie: C-6 PTS \/ 3 REB \/ 3 AST \/ 0 STL \/ 0 BLK -28 MIN<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Max Christie receives this grade simply because he was nearly invisible during the game, contributing nothing on either offense of defense.<\/p>\n<p>P.J. Washington: B+18 PTS \/ 5 REB \/ 1 AST \/ 2 STL \/ 1 BLK -33 MIN<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">P.J. Washington has had an incredibly frustrating season, but has begun to find his form in the last month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">While this won\u2019t quell the trade rumors that are sure to follow him into the offseason, it is nice to see the old, uber-impactful version of Washington.<\/p>\n<p>Klay Thompson: A+24 PTS \/ 4 REB \/ 1 AST \/ 1 STL \/ 0 BLK -26 MIN<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Klay Thompson may be washed in many aspects, he can still shoot the ball with the absolute best of them.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Thompson\u2019s ability to make threes from any angle is so unique, and could be so valuable for next year\u2019s Mavericks.<\/p>\n<p>Naji Marshall: D-6 PTS \/ 4 REB \/ 5 AST \/ 2 STL \/ 0 BLK -25 MIN<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">In a game that was decided by one point, Naji Marshall\u2019s scoring was missed dearly, as he struggled to find any offense.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The one positive was his playmaking, as he racked up five assists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The return of Cooper Flagg netted an all too familiar feeling for Mavericks fans; another clutch loss. The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":642973,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3779],"tags":[20309,7,225,149,2619,2039,498,48,7139,5989,6,47,76,3883,59567,490,682,862],"class_list":["post-642972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando-magic","tag-ast","tag-basketball","tag-cooper-flagg","tag-dallas-mavericks","tag-daniel-gafford","tag-khris-middleton","tag-klay-thompson","tag-magic","tag-max-christie","tag-naji-marshall","tag-nba","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-magic","tag-orlandomagic","tag-reb","tag-the-mavericks","tag-washington","tag-wendell-carter"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116181845035005987","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}