P.J. Washington’s line began with a simple calculation: 6-for-12 from the field, 0-for-3 from 3-point range, six makes inside the arc and 12 points. He added four rebounds, two assists and no turnovers in 36:09. It was useful interior work for Dallas on Saturday night, just not enough to balance everything the Mavericks failed to provide around it.
San Antonio beat Dallas 122-106 at American Airlines Center, and Washington’s scoring profile explained part of the problem. The Mavericks could reach the paint and score there. They could not consistently win the rebounding battle or generate enough perimeter offense to make those interior baskets carry the night.
Washington’s first-quarter possessions illustrated the value of taking the shorter route. He made a 5-foot floater with 9:13 remaining, then a 9-foot driving floater at 5:37. With 38.3 seconds left, he finished a running dunk that put Dallas ahead 31-30. None of those baskets required a successful 3-pointer to become useful. Washington was finding points in places the Spurs had to defend honestly.
The problem was what followed the misses. San Antonio collected 15 offensive rebounds to Dallas’ eight and turned them into a 25-10 advantage in second-chance points. That gap overwhelmed a night in which Dallas actually shot better from the field: 45-for-88, or 51.1%, compared with San Antonio’s 48-for-101, or 47.5%.
The Spurs simply got 13 more field-goal attempts, plus six more made free throws and four more made 3-pointers.
Washington had another scoring route that barely registered: free throws. He attempted one and missed it. All twelve of his points therefore came from two-point field goals.
That is a perfectly useful way to score, but it left Dallas needing its other players to supply the value available from outside shots and trips to the line. San Antonio finished with eleven made free throws to Dallas’s five, alongside fifteen made threes to eleven.
Nor could Washington’s four rebounds in more than thirty-six minutes be detached from the wider possession problem. Gafford collected nine, including three at the offensive end, but Dallas still gave up fifteen offensive boards as a team. Rebounding totals cannot assign responsibility for every bounce.
They can show why an efficient individual scoring night did not supply all the work the Mavericks needed. The Spurs kept receiving another attempt.
Washington was also hardly alone in the perimeter shortfall, though his empty 3-point column made the shortage easy to see. Max Christie scored five points on 2-for-9 shooting and went 1-for-5 from deep. Zaccharie Risacher had 11 points and made one of three 3-pointers.
