The Dallas Mavericks lost 122-106 to San Antonio on Saturday while winning the shooting-percentage column. Dallas made 45 of 88 field-goal attempts, or 51.1%. The Spurs made 48 of 101, or 47.5%. San Antonio needed only three more field goals to win the comparison, but it got 13 additional attempts to produce them. That is where the game tilted.
The Mavericks’ shooting was good enough to disguise how little room they had for empty trips. San Antonio’s advantage was not simply that it made more shots. The Spurs kept creating more opportunities to take them, while Dallas had to make a larger share of its smaller supply count.
The numbers do not provide a tidy possession formula. San Antonio had 15 offensive rebounds to Dallas’ eight, while Dallas was charged with 21 turnovers and the Spurs with 12. Those categories overlap in their consequences and cannot be added together as an exact possession count.
They do explain why Dallas repeatedly had to withstand extra pressure after an initial defensive effort or surrender an offensive chance before a shot could even be attempted.
One fourth-quarter stretch put the problem under bright lights. Daniel Gafford’s layup at 11:32 cut San Antonio’s lead to 92-91. Devin Vassell answered with a 3-pointer at 11:15, then assisted Tarris Reed Jr. on an alley-oop layup at 10:40. Vassell missed a driving layup at 10:11, and San Antonio recovered the offensive rebound.
The sequence kept going. Stephon Castle missed a 25-foot attempt at 10:05, but Reed grabbed the offensive rebound. Gafford blocked Reed’s two-point shot at 10:00, only for Reed to recover the miss.
Julian Champagnie then made a 25-foot 3-pointer at 9:52. San Antonio did not score on every action, and offensive rebounds do not guarantee points. They did force Dallas to solve the same problem repeatedly: finish the defensive possession before the Spurs could start another one.
The lead grew from 92-89 after three quarters to 103-91 by the time Dylan Harper made a 3-pointer at 9:05. Walter Clayton Jr. answered for Dallas at 8:47, cutting the deficit to 103-94. San Antonio then restored its cushion with Champagnie’s 3-pointer at 6:31 and Harper’s at 5:53, moving ahead 109-94.
Dallas had a timely basket; the Spurs had the larger supply of chances behind the response.
That stretch should not obscure the fact that Dallas’ offense functioned well in important portions of the game. The Mavericks finished with 29 assists and scored 62 points in the paint. Their third quarter produced 29 points, trimming a 68-60 halftime deficit to 92-89.
