Stats overview: 6 key stats from Mavericks’ 132-91 blowout win over New Orleans Pelicans

A win is a win in the NBA – even the ones that don’t make you jump for joy.

The Dallas Mavericks (8-7) picked up their third straight win Tuesday, 132-91 over the New Orleans Pelicans (4-11), who entered the American Airlines Center missing six of their top-eight players in their rotation due to damage. Sorry, Pelicans, not sorry – Dallas needs to pick up wins as the schedule starts to take a favorable turn.

The Mavericks held the Pels to just 40 points in the second half en route to the easy victory. Luka Dončić led the way for the Mavs with 26 points, five rebounds and five assists in the win, while Klay Thompson and Kyrie Irving combined to go 9-of-14 from 3-point range and combined for 38 more against New Orleans.

Here are six more key stats from one of the more ridiculous games of the year, but first, here’s another bonus for you: The Mavs have only won by a greater point margin than Tuesday night’s 41 points 13 times in franchise history, most recently the team’s 50-point win over Utah in December last year.

44: First quarter points for Dallas

The first quarter against a weakened New Orleans crowd was the Mavericks’ first 40-point quarter of the year. Last year, the Mavs exploded for 40-plus points in a quarter 21 different times. But hey, we take a little offensive rhythm, but we can get it this year. It’s never good to see the ball go in.

Thompson and Irving both went 2-for-3 from 3-point range in the opening quarter. Quentin Grimes came off the bench and knocked in his first two attempts from distance. It was good to see Dončić set the tone and do so with some defense on the first two possessions of the game. He stole the ball from Brandon Ingram twice and converted both times against a less-than-enthusiastic Pelican transition defense to force an early timeout from New Orleans head coach Willie Green.

Dončić had three steals on the night.

Grimes’ second 3-pointer rattled home at the first-quarter buzzer to give the Mavs a 44-29 lead after one. How that Pels team scored 29 in any quarter against a Mavericks team that was supposed to hang its hat on that end of the court, I’ll never know, but now is not the time to make a big deal out of it, I suppose.

19: Second quarter points for Dallas

I thought that was the case, but then Dallas continued to play with its food in the second quarter. The short-handed Pelicans outscored the Mavericks 19-8 to end the first half, and Dallas posted one of its worst offensive quarters of the young season right after one of its best. They managed just 19 points on 8-of-23 shooting in the second quarter.

The Mavs built a lead as big as 23 when Dončić hit his first and only 3-pointer of the first half, a step back from the left wing with 7:49 left in the second. Dallas was up 55-32 at the time, but the Mavs hit just two of their next 10 field goal attempts over the next five-plus minutes, including a pair in the field. New Orleans went to a zone look in the second, which seemed to confuse the Mavs on offense for a few minutes.

Still, the Mavs took a 63-51 lead into halftime. No harm, no mistake. Pelicans forward Trey Murphy III led all scorers with 14 in the half, while Irving and Dončić each had 12 for the Mavs. Murphy would only score five more in the second half.

6-of-19: Pelicans’ shooting in the third quarter

Photo by Sam Hodde/Getty Images

Then the Pelicans just fell apart in the third quarter. They shot just 6-of-19 from the field, including just 2-of-7 from 3-point territory, and turned the ball over six times in the frame.

The Mavericks built their lead in a hurry, and Thompson and Irving had everything to do with it. Thompson went 3-for-6 from 3-point land in the third, and Irving connected on both of his 3-point attempts. These came on back-to-back possessions with under three minutes to play in the third to put the Mavs up 87-65 at the time.

5-of-9: Klay Thompson 3-point shooting

Thompson used the blowout win as a little bit of target practice after combining to shoot 2-of-11 in the last two games. Captain Splash drained 5-of-9 from deep and then said in post-game interviews that he was still frustrated by “the one I missed in the corner and the other one on the right wing” after the 41 pint win.

Thompson finished the night with 19 points in 24 minutes with four rebounds and two steals.

24, 28, 30: Minutes played by Thompson, Irving and Dončić

In a game like this, you just want to secure the win and get to the locker room without any injuries, and hopefully with a little extra rest. Oh, yeah, and if you’re into the NBA Cup stuff, this was a good opportunity to pump up the scoring margin, since that’s one thing that counts for group stage tiebreaker purposes. The Mavs got it all done without having to run Dončić, who has been bothered by a sprained knee and groin this season, or the old guard of Irving and Thompson for excess minutes.

No Mavs starter was scheduled to play more than Dončić’s 30 minutes on Tuesday — the home team settling for a pretty comfortable win against the unfortunate New Orleans as the final six minutes went into garbage time. The Dallas bench contributed 56 points in the blowout win.

7: Mavericks in double-digit scoring

Seven Mavericks scored in double figures for the second game in a row. According to the Mavs’ broadcast team, it was the first time the Mavs have done it in back-to-back games since 2019.

No matter how depleted the teams ahead of them may have been, it’s good to see the roster start to find some rhythm and see shots start to fall. At least there are more positives than negatives at the moment, not least Jaden Hardy. Tuesday was his third straight game in double-figure scoring off the bench. He scored 11 points and had three assists in the win over New Orleans. Grimes also had 12 points and eight boards.