Sacramento Kept Stretching the Margin Whenever Dallas Pulled It Back

A final score of 115-100 suggests a clean break. Sacramento had to make several of them before Dallas finally stopped closing the gap Monday at American Airlines Center. The Kings were ahead by one at halftime, seven after three and nineteen late. The most important distance was the space between each Dallas rally and the next Sacramento basket.

The score kept moving in ways that mattered more than the final margin. Dallas was within a single basket for part of the third, and it got within seven in the fourth. Sacramento earned enough separation to keep those openings short. Some of the answers came from its best scorers; some came from players Dallas could ill afford to overlook.

Both clubs scored 35 in the second quarter, so Dallas went to the break a point behind. Daniel Gafford scored 15 of his 20 before halftime. That kind of interior finishing kept the Mavericks close enough to press for the lead when play resumed, and they did get it for a moment.

The third quarter showed how quickly the balance could move. Sacramento opened a little daylight with Zach LaVine’s 3-pointer, Darius Acuff Jr.’s 3 and Acuff’s driving floater, reaching 62-55. Malik Monk’s running dunk put Sacramento up by two, and Dallas then went ahead 65-64 when Gafford converted an and-one with 6:03 left.

That was the moment when a one-point halftime edge could have become Dallas’ game. Instead, Leaky Black’s 3-pointer put Sacramento ahead again at 5:49. Acuff followed with a pull-up jumper and a driving floater, and Black later hit another 3.

Acuff assisted both of Black’s long-range baskets. Sacramento led 81-74 after the quarter, with the margin up to seven while also absorbing Dallas’ brief turn in front.

The fourth quarter repeated the pattern with more space between the teams. Monk’s driving floater opened the scoring, and LaVine’s 3-pointer plus two Monk baskets, including a step-back 3, helped make it 94-79. Dallas still found a response. Walter Clayton Jr. hit two 3-pointers and Morez Johnson Jr. added a dunk, cutting the deficit to 94-87 with 5:59 remaining.

Clayton’s contribution was substantial rather than cosmetic. He scored 20 points, made four of five 3-point attempts and had 11 in the fourth. Johnson finished with 13 points on 5-for-5 shooting. Their burst gave Dallas a credible route back into the game, and it arrived with enough time left to make Sacramento earn the finish.

Sacramento scored the next seven points. Acuff got two at the line, Monk supplied a three and Acuff made a floater. When LaVine made his two late threes, the Kings moved from a 13-point lead to a 19-point one. The space Dallas had worked to shrink was wider than at any earlier point.

That distribution was the difference between surviving a push and ending it. Monk had 24 points, seven assists and five made 3-pointers. LaVine scored 23 with five 3s. Black finished with 12 points on four 3s and four steals. Sacramento had multiple players capable of answering a Dallas basket, and the answers came in different phases rather than from one isolated hot spell.

Dallas had meaningful counterweights. The Mavericks scored 40 points in the paint to Sacramento’s 38, made 29 of 35 free throws and briefly led in the third. Cooper Flagg added six assists, while Gafford’s finishing kept the interior attack efficient.

But Dallas made only 7 of 33 3-pointers, compared with Sacramento’s 19 of 43. The free throws and paint scoring kept the Mavericks attached; the perimeter gap made it difficult to stay there whenever Sacramento reopened the margin.

The box score will remember a 15-point difference. The useful number for Dallas was seven. That was a margin the Mavericks could still change in the fourth. They needed the next several possessions to go differently, and Sacramento took all the points available in the stretch that mattered.

Sources

ESPN: final game record and play-by-play

NBA: official game report

NBA: final box score