Twenty-one offensive rebounds did not buy Dallas 21 baskets. They bought opportunities, sometimes another miss and sometimes a trip to the foul line. The Mavericks squeezed 20 second-chance points from those extended possessions Friday, enough to make the glass a productive part of their offense rather than a consolation prize for inaccurate shooting.
Dallas beat Utah 112-100 at American Airlines Center with an attack that needed those second attempts. The Jazz managed five second-chance points. That difference mattered alongside the Mavericks’ advantages inside the arc and at the free-throw line, especially with most of the Dallas roster struggling from three.
Morez Johnson Jr. supplied the largest share of the work. He grabbed 17 boards, ten of them after Dallas misses, scored 13 points and finished with a plus-20 mark in 24 minutes. His work arrived in a stretch when the game was still unsettled.
At 7:34 of the third, he collected an offensive rebound. At 7:06, he secured another, and Kyrie Irving followed that possession with a 14-foot pull-up that put Dallas ahead 72-70. Johnson’s next offensive rebound came at 6:33, another chance that led to a P.J.
Washington free throw.
Santi Aldama and Zaccharie Risacher supplied important pieces around Johnson. Aldama had four offensive rebounds in 13 minutes. Risacher had three, including one at 8:03 of the fourth quarter that was followed four seconds later by his two-point basket, moving Dallas to 100-86.
He grabbed another at 6:01 and one more at 2:59. Johnson added an offensive rebound at 2:15, by which point the Mavericks led 110-96.
Those later boards were not all scoring plays either. Some came after Dallas had already created separation. They still denied Utah a clean finish to the possession and helped Dallas keep control while the Jazz tried to shorten the margin.
A rebound well after the initial miss can be less glamorous than a made three, but it can be just as important to the shape of a game.
The Mavericks made 9 of 32 attempts from outside, a 28 percent showing. Utah made 15 of 39 threes and gained 18 points from that part of the scoreboard. Lauri Markkanen made eight threes and scored all 24 of his points from beyond the arc. Dallas was losing the long-range exchange badly, so a conventional shooting night was not going to rescue it.
The answer came closer to the basket and at the free-throw line. Dallas made 30 of 61 two-point attempts, compared with Utah’s 21 of 43, and scored 48 points in the paint to the Jazz’s 36. The Mavericks also made 25 of 31 free throws while Utah went 13 of 14.
Those figures did not erase the outside discrepancy, but the offensive rebounds gave Dallas more chances to produce them.