{"id":662620,"date":"2026-03-17T10:21:37","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T10:21:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/662620\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T10:21:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T10:21:37","slug":"player-grades-recapping-the-mavericks-vs-the-pelicans-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/662620\/","title":{"rendered":"Player Grades \u2013 Recapping the Mavericks vs. the Pelicans"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dallas Mavericks<\/a> took on the New Orleans Pelicans<\/a> Monday night to close out a seemingly endless road trip. The Pelicans dealt Dallas a 129-111 loss<\/a>, resulting in a potentially meaningful impact on each team\u2019s draft chances this offseason. With the loss, Dallas and New Orleans are now tied in the standings, but the Pelicans have a 3-1 season series advantage (or disadvantage) over the Mavs.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s get to the grades!<\/p>\n

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Ryan Nembhard: C-2 PTS \/ 4 REB \/ 6 AST \/ 0 STL \/ 0 BLK \u2013 25 MIN<\/p>\n

A 1-for-8 shooting night drives Nembhard\u2019s grade down despite a solid assist total and even a few rebounds. He didn\u2019t have much playing time, but regardless, there was very little to write home about Monday night.<\/p>\n

Max Christie: B+12 PTS \/ 4 REB \/ 0 AST \/ 2 STL \/ 0 BLK \u2013 32 MIN<\/p>\n

Christie may just be finding his form again, with the second night of a back-to-back looking much like the first night. Christie didn\u2019t light up the box score, but he hit his shots (4-for-7 overall; 4-for-6 from deep) and even played a bit of defense in a solid game where Naji Marshall and Cooper Flagg (rightfully) got a ton of touches, leaving him to make the most of what he could. Fewer three-point attempts and more drives or mid-range shots would have been nice, but you can\u2019t argue with the results from deep in this one.<\/p>\n

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Naji Marshall: A+32 PTS \/ 8 REB \/ 7 AST \/ 0 STL \/ 0 BLK \u2013 33 MIN<\/p>\n

Although he wasn\u2019t as blazing hot from the field as he was on Sunday, Marshall was by far the best player for the Mavs on Monday night and converted on half of his 24 shot attempts. He did just about everything right, and it\u2019s a struggle to find anything to be unhappy about. Maybe no steals or blocks, but that is a nit-picky stretch. Marshall was just awesome across the board.<\/p>\n

Cooper Flagg: B+21 PTS \/ 7 REB \/ 8 AST \/ 2 STL \/ 1 BLK \u2013 30 MIN<\/p>\n

While not as dominant as Marshall was, Flagg had a great game in his own right. This is the second game in a row his turnover total was high (four), but his assist total was quite high as well. Once he refines that part of his game just a bit, he\u2019s likely going to maintain those high-assist nights with low-turnover performances and it\u2019s going to be amazing.<\/p>\n

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P.J. Washington: A-18 PTS \/ 7 REB \/ 1 AST \/ 1 STL \/ 0 BLK \u2013 31 MIN<\/p>\n

Washington has been showing glimpses of the player so many fell in love with. His grade drifts a bit high, in part because he re-established his baseline somewhat low of late. Monday night, he was 7-for-13, including 4-for-8 from deep, had zero turnovers, and committed only a single foul in a very nice complementary game.<\/p>\n

Marvin Bagley: A-9 PTS \/ 9 REB \/ 1 AST \/ 1 STL \/ 0 BLK \u2013 19 MIN<\/p>\n

Bagley has largely won me over at this point (if not many games ago). He was 4-for-7, including hitting his only three-point attempt and sniffed a double-double in under 20 minutes. Even better, six of his nine boards were on the offensive end. This was an efficient game where Bagley, like Christie, made the most of his minutes and touches.<\/p>\n

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Khris Middleton: C-6 PTS \/ 4 REB \/ 1 AST \/ 2 STL \/ 0 BLK \u2013 18 MIN<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not immediately clear what happened with Middleton Monday night, but it wasn\u2019t exactly pretty. He did a little bit here and there, but was only 2-for-9 in a game where he just never got comfortable.<\/p>\n

Final Thoughts<\/p>\n

The Mavericks have lost three of four matchups with the Pelicans, with whom they are now tied in the standings. The Pelicans are trending in the opposite direction as Dallas over the past few weeks, so the Mavs may just secure a lower place in the standings when all is said and done. While this obviously isn\u2019t the goal, the silver lining to a tough season is a potentially better draft pick come summertime.<\/p>\n

I invite you to follow me @_80MPH<\/a> on X, and check back often at Mavs Moneyball<\/a> for all the latest on the Dallas Mavericks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dallas Mavericks took on the New Orleans Pelicans Monday night to close out a seemingly endless road…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3796],"tags":[20309,7,225,149,2039,1022,7139,5989,6,478,470,4073,4072,675,59567,9856,682,814],"class_list":["post-662620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-orleans-pelicans","tag-ast","tag-basketball","tag-cooper-flagg","tag-dallas-mavericks","tag-khris-middleton","tag-marvin-bagley","tag-max-christie","tag-naji-marshall","tag-nba","tag-new-orleans","tag-new-orleans-pelicans","tag-neworleans","tag-neworleanspelicans","tag-pelicans","tag-reb","tag-ryan-nembhard","tag-washington","tag-zion-williamson"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116244024578416222","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662620","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=662620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}