The Dallas Mavericks did not turn Oklahoma City’s visit into a rout with one dramatic avalanche. They kept taking small pieces of the game: 33-30 in the first quarter, 32-29 in the second, 29-22 in the third and 26-15 in the fourth. By the end, the arithmetic had become a 120-96 victory, but the more revealing number was the sequence of margins that produced it.
At halftime, this was still a basketball game. Dallas led 65-59, having won the opening half without shaking the Thunder loose. Two of Kyrie Irving’s three first-quarter 3-pointers came from Cooper Flagg, including the shot that made it 33-28 with 10 seconds left.
Flagg who spent the opening period doing more than hunting his own offense. He also found Daniel Gafford for a 3 at 8:29, an unusual way to begin a center’s scoring night but a perfectly ordinary example of Dallas moving the ball to the next available answer.
The second quarter created some separation, then allowed Oklahoma City to make the margin look manageable again. Max Christie’s 3 from Irving made it 46-36. Marcus Sasser supplied eight points in the period, scoring on a cut at 6:52 before adding a running 3 at 5:02 and a 15-foot pull-up at 4:10.
The Mavericks reached 54-42, their largest lead of the half, but the Thunder trimmed it before the break. Dallas had control; it did not yet have a comfortable evening.
That distinction disappeared in the third. After Oklahoma City scored first to make it 65-61, Dallas put together the kind of response that changes a game without requiring a single player to dominate every possession. Irving hit a floater, Christie made another 3, P.J.
Washington finished a finger roll and Zaccharie Risacher converted a tip layup. The margin moved to 74-61, then Flagg’s pull-up and Gafford’s alley-oop from Flagg pushed it to 78-63.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander answered with a 3 at 5:56, cutting Dallas’ lead to 78-71. Dallas’s next points came from Flagg, followed by several teammates. He made a 10-foot pull-up, Morez Johnson scored on a running layup, and Risacher finished a reverse layup from Walter Clayton Jr. Dallas led 86-75 after that exchange and closed the quarter ahead 94-81.
The seven-point quarter margin came from several contributors, which made Oklahoma City’s best punch feel temporary.
Flagg’s line still deserved attention: 26 points, eight assists and no turnovers. Yet the shape of the win was broader than his scoring. Clayton went 0-for-4 from the field and missed both free throws, but supplied five assists without a turnover.
Sasser added four assists, while Dallas finished with 30 assists against nine turnovers. Oklahoma City had 17 assists and 13 turnovers. That gap did not make every Maverick possession perfect, but it helped Dallas keep finding a new route when one scorer’s shot was not falling.
