At 33.7 seconds left in the third quarter, Houston had rebuilt an 11-point lead. Amen Thompson’s alley-oop dunk made it 84-73, a score that threatened to turn Dallas’s comeback attempt into a fourth-quarter chore with very little margin for error.
With 21.9 seconds remaining, Zaccharie Risacher made a three on a Morez Johnson Jr. assist. Houston’s lead became 84-76. Dallas would start the fourth chasing eight, after spending much of the closing third-quarter stretch in danger of facing more. This was a reserve making the next job smaller for the players who would finish it.
Dallas won 116-111 Friday night, outscoring Houston 40-27 in the fourth quarter. Kyrie Irving and Cooper Flagg supplied 68 points between them, but Risacher’s contribution helped keep the game from demanding an even larger rescue. His value was measured in more than the 12 points beside his name.
The late third-quarter three was Risacher’s third of the evening. His first came with 9:12 remaining in the second quarter, when the Mavericks led 32-27. The second arrived with 3:27 left in the third, pulling Dallas within 71-68.
Houston answered with two Marcus Smart baskets, three Tari Eason free throws and more scoring before the period ended. Risacher’s shot did not stop the Rockets’ push; it limited how much ground Dallas still had to cover.
That is a better description of his night than a simple bench-scoring label. Risacher finished 4-of-9 from the field and 3-of-6 from three-point range in 28 minutes. He added six rebounds, three assists, three steals and a blocked shot. The production was scattered across the game, making it easy to overlook while Irving and Flagg eventually supplied the winning margin.
Risacher had contributed before those late third-quarter makes. His first quarter included an offensive rebound, a block on Jabari Smith Jr.’s driving floater and two defensive rebounds. He assisted Irving on a layup, then completed the exchange with a running dunk on Irving’s assist at 5.8 seconds.
His work was arriving in several columns of the box score while the score itself was still moving back and forth.
Early in the second, Risacher stole a bad pass from Smart and then took away a lost ball from Kevin Durant on a separate Houston possession. The first steal preceded an Irving basket. The second came before Risacher missed a running jumper. Those possessions did not turn him into Dallas’s primary creator, but they gave the Mavericks useful activity between the stars’ larger scoring bursts.
His three assists included passes that led to Irving’s two-point basket and step-back three. He also contributed on the glass while Houston’s Clint Capela and Eason made rebounding a persistent problem. Risacher’s two turnovers, including a second-quarter bad pass, kept the performance from becoming a clean supporting act. This was productive help, not flawless basketball.
