At 1:41 of the third quarter, Naji Marshall assisted Morez Johnson Jr. on a dunk that put Dallas ahead 85-73. With 7:24 left in the fourth, Marshall assisted Johnson again, this time on a layup that made it 102-88.
The Mavericks had already built their separation, but those two plays captured the quieter value of Marshall’s night: he kept supplying the pass while other Dallas players took responsibility for the points.
Dallas defeated Utah 112-100 on Friday at American Airlines Center, improving to 5-4 while the Jazz fell to 1-8. Marshall finished with seven points, five assists, one rebound, one steal, one block and one turnover in 25 minutes. His shooting line — 3-of-10 from the field, 0-of-3 from three-point range and 1-of-2 at the foul line — belongs near the front of any fair assessment.
This was not a polished scoring performance disguised by a box score.
It was still an effective supporting performance, especially because Dallas did not need Marshall to impersonate its primary creators. The first Johnson basket arrived after Utah had taken a 60-59 lead on a Lauri Markkanen three-pointer with 10:19 remaining in the third. Dallas eventually reached 85-73, but Marshall was one piece of a broader response.
Cooper Flagg and Kyrie Irving supplied 21 of Dallas’ 22 points during the larger 22-10 stretch, with P.J. Washington scoring the other point at the foul line.
Marshall’s job in that sequence was visible in the final pass before a score. At 5:55 of the third, he assisted Flagg on a dunk. The Johnson alley-oop came at 1:41, leaving Dallas with an advantage that had grown to 12 points.
Marshall also assisted Irving on a 15-foot pull-up with 8:49 left in the fourth, then found Johnson for the layup at 7:24. The credited assists connect Marshall directly to those finishes. He added something to the attack while other players supplied most of the scoring.
That is enough to explain why the seven points do not tell the whole story. Marshall created five scoring links in a game when Dallas’ headline scorers were already carrying plenty. Washington scored 26, including 22 before halftime, and made 6-of-10 three-point attempts.
Flagg supplied 21 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists, while Irving scored 14 after opening the game with two points and a 1-of-11 shooting performance in the first half.
Dallas needed those scorers because the outside shooting was hardly dependable. The Mavericks made 9-of-32 attempts from three-point range and went 39-of-93 overall. Utah’s long-range attack was better: the Jazz made 15 threes, and Markkanen accounted for all eight of his field goals from behind the arc on the way to 24 points.
