‘The More Determined Team’: Dallas Mavericks Fall To Previously Winless Sacramento Kings 115-100

DALLAS — The Sacramento Kings came to American Airlines Center on Monday night still looking for their first win of the season and left with a 115-100 victory over the Dallas Mavericks. Dallas shot 7-of-33 from three-point range without Kyrie Irving, and Sacramento led by as many as 19 points in the fourth quarter.

The loss snapped a three-game winning streak and dropped the Mavericks to 4-3. Sacramento had lost its first six games, five of them by double figures, before improving to 1-6.

Mavericks coach Dusty May said nothing went well across the board for Dallas, from the coaching to the playing. He opened his postgame news conference with the Kings’ reserves.

“They were the more determined team tonight. The more prepared team. And they came in here and earned it,” May said. “I want to give a lot of credit to their bench. Those guys, their backup three wings, made a combined 12 threes for 36 points. So nights like that, you’ve got to find ways to overcome your lack of shooting and them shooting well. And we just, we weren’t able to do that tonight.”

Those three wings were Malik Monk, Leaky Black, and Emanuel Sharp. Monk scored a season-high 24 points off the bench on 9-of-14 shooting, including 5-of-8 from three, after failing to reach double figures in any of his first five games. Black added 12 points and 4 steals while going 4-of-6 from deep. Sharp made all 3 of his three-point attempts for 9 points.

Irving sat out with what the Mavericks listed as left knee injury management. The 34-year-old guard had averaged 21.4 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 4.8 assists through his first five games. Dallas was also without Sergio De Larrea (right knee sprain), Santi Aldama (right knee surgery), Tarik Biberović (right heel bursitis), and Dereck Lively II.

The Mavericks missed their first 10 attempts from three before Walter Clayton Jr. connected from 25 feet with 42.9 seconds left in the opening quarter. Sacramento took a 19-18 lead into the second.

Daniel Gafford scored 11 of his 15 first-half points in the second quarter, going 5-of-6 in the period. Two Clayton free throws with 5:22 left before halftime put Dallas ahead 38-32, its largest lead of the night. Monk scored 8 points in the quarter, and his 25-footer with 5.2 seconds left sent the Kings into the break up 54-53.

Max Christie did not come back out for the second half. The starting guard went to the floor after a turnover midway through the second quarter and checked out at the 6:59 mark. Early in the second half, the Mavericks announced he would not return because of a right hip injury. Christie finished scoreless on 0-of-5 shooting, all from three, in 7 minutes, 40 seconds.

May said he did not see the play on which Christie was hurt.

“I just saw that he was hobbling a little bit,” May explained. “They just said we’ll evaluate him tomorrow. Typically, the night of, it’s tough to have a clear evaluation, but we’ll reevaluate in the next couple days.”

Clayton started the second half in Christie’s place. Zach LaVine and Darius Acuff Jr. opened the third quarter with 3-pointers to put Sacramento up 60-53. Dallas did not lead again until Gafford’s three-point play with 6:03 left in the period made it 65-64, and that was the Mavericks’ last lead of the night. Black hit a 25-footer on the next possession to start a 10-2 Kings run, and Sacramento carried an 81-74 advantage into the fourth.

The Kings scored 13 of the first 18 points of the final period. Monk’s step-back 3 with 8:02 left made it 94-79. Clayton scored 11 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter, and his 26-footer with 5:59 remaining cut the deficit to 94-87. Sacramento answered with 18 of the next 24 points, closing the run on back-to-back LaVine 3-pointers that made it 112-93 with 2:18 to play.

Gafford finished with a season-high 20 points on 9-of-10 shooting and added 7 rebounds. Clayton tied his career high with 20 points in 23 minutes off the bench, going 6-of-9 from the field, 4-of-5 from three, and 4-of-4 at the line. Rookie Morez Johnson Jr. set a career high with 13 points on 5-of-5 shooting in 17 minutes.

Cooper Flagg had 17 points, 4 rebounds, 6 assists, and 2 steals, but he shot 3-of-19 and committed 6 turnovers. P.J. Washington scored 12 points on 2-of-9 shooting, and Naji Marshall handed out 7 assists.

Acuff, the seventh overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, led all scorers with 25 points, 5 rebounds, and 6 assists on 10-of-21 shooting. LaVine scored 23 points on 8-of-14 shooting, including 5-of-9 from three. Precious Achiuwa pulled down 10 rebounds, and Domantas Sabonis finished with 9 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists.

Sacramento shot 52.4% from the field and 44.2% from three while winning the rebounding battle 42-35. Dallas forced 20 turnovers and turned them into 19 points. The Mavericks also outscored the Kings 22-12 on second-chance points and made 29 of their 35 free throws.

Monday was Dallas’ seventh straight game with at least 100 points to open the season. It is the seventh time in franchise history the Mavericks have scored 100 or more in each of their first seven games.

Sacramento Kings Load The Paint Against Cooper Flagg

Flagg came into Monday averaging 26.8 points on 55.7% shooting through five games. He went 0-of-4 from three against Sacramento and 11-of-11 at the free-throw line, a career high for makes without a miss.

May said Dallas’ spacing and relocations around Flagg were not great as a whole. Several of the Mavericks’ early misses from three were good looks, in his view.

“They loaded the paint,” May said. “And there’s a cadence to it where he’s fanning out early, and we miss our first, probably, I think we miss our first eight threes, and we thought several of them were good looks. And at that point, it fuels their fire to get to him even more in the paint, and they’re collapsing on the run, second guy, third guy at him.”

“I don’t think our spacing or the relocations were great as a whole,” May continued. “And we just didn’t, we didn’t find any rhythm together.”

Sacramento went under Flagg’s screens and played him for his midrange jumper, Clayton said. Flagg is going to bounce back, in Clayton’s view.

“I think it was just kind of timing his dribble, and everybody was getting down there to the paint, playing him for his middy. Obviously, they was going under on his screens,” Clayton said. “And I think they just was in a gap heavy on him tonight. And obviously, it’s 82 games, like I said, man. Cooper is going to be good. He’s going to bounce back next game. He’s been great for us, and he’s going to continue to be.”

May said he did not see Flagg grab at his shoulder late in the fourth quarter. Flagg missed the Oct. 24 home loss to the San Antonio Spurs with a left shoulder sprain suffered a night earlier at Indiana.

Dallas took 13 unguarded catch-and-shoot jumpers and scored 5 points on them, according to play-type tracking data reviewed by Dallas Sports Journal. Sacramento scored 18 points on its 9.

Outside of Clayton’s 4-of-5 night, the Mavericks went 3-of-28 from three. Washington missed 6 of his 8 attempts, and Marshall and Zaccharie Risacher combined to go 0-of-7. May said Dallas did a nice job getting to the line, one of the places a team has to make up the difference.

“That’s basketball. When you take Walt out of it, who made four of those seven, we were, what do you think, 3-for-28,” May said. “And so it’s tough to win basketball games like that. You have to have a lot of different areas, the steals, turnovers, getting to the line, which I thought we did a nice job getting to the line. You have to overcome that deficit in so many other areas, and then we just weren’t able to do it.”

Christie entered Monday shooting 31.3% from three on 5.3 attempts per game. Every season has its ebbs and flows, May said.

“He’s put in a lot of work. He deserves to have success. He had a great summer, and there’s ebbs and flows and ups and downs in any season,” May said. “We always just kind of stress that water is going to find its level and just keep moving forward, whether things are going well or whether things are going poorly.”

“Just keep preparing the right way and keep believing and having faith, and your time will come,” May added. “So, just, 82-game season, we’re confident that water is going to find its level on our shooters.”

Gafford makes a point of speaking life into any teammate he sees with his head down. That included Flagg after the game.

“I never really pay attention to the reaction because I know he’s going to bounce back,” Gafford said. “So I just, whenever it comes to just the conversation throughout the locker room, I always say our response is going to dictate how we feel the next day or just like the next game. So it’s more of just me. I try to, like I say, speak life into people.”

“So whenever it comes to where I see anybody has their head down, one of the main things he said was, ‘I’m sorry for how I played tonight.’ It’s not on him,” Gafford detailed. “This is a team game. It’s night in, night out. If one person has a bad game or two people have a bad game, I mean, that’s still on the team because we play defense at the end of the day, too. So it’s like, it’s not just on one person at the end of the day.”

Walter Clayton Jr., Daniel Gafford Score 20 Apiece As Dallas Mavericks Turn To San Antonio

Clayton tied his career highs for points and for 3-pointers made. He had also scored 20 against Oklahoma City on Dec. 7, 2025, and at Milwaukee on April 5, 2026. Clayton, who signed a two-way contract with Dallas on Oct. 21, became the second Maverick this season to score at least 20 off the bench. De Larrea had 21 against San Antonio on Oct. 24.

For Clayton, the looks came off paint touches and kickouts.

“Just shots. I think whenever we got paint touches and we was kicking the ball out, we was getting great shots,” Clayton explained. “For me, they fell tonight.”

Gafford’s 9-of-10 night was his 13th career 20-point game while shooting at least 90% from the field. Since Gafford entered the NBA in 2019-20, only Jarrett Allen (16) and Rudy Gobert (14) have more such games. Gafford also blocked a shot for the seventh straight game, the first time in his career he has recorded a block in each of his first seven games of a season.

Dallas’ guards were getting killed on some of Sacramento’s screens, Gafford said. The Kings, by his account, were comfortable all night.

“I feel like the main thing the coach has said is they were comfortable,” Gafford explained. “We didn’t really make them do the things that we wanted them to do. They got the shots that they wanted. They were crashing the glass crazy. They kind of hit us in the mouth coming out in the second quarter. And it’s really just making us turn the ball over, honestly.”

Sacramento scored 34 points on 24 isolation possessions, including passes out of them, according to the tracking data. Eleven of those possessions came in the fourth quarter.

LaVine was very, very sound, May said, and Acuff is dynamic.

“They spread us out, and they made tough shots. Those guys are good players,” May said. “I thought LaVine was very, very sound. Obviously, Acuff is dynamic, and I thought they picked their spots well. But Monk, Monk, every time we made a run, he came in with a step-back three, dagger after dagger. So it wasn’t as if they didn’t make plays. Those guys, they went at us, and they made plays.”

The Mavericks lost the rebounding battle and too many 50-50 balls, Clayton said.

“I think, just being honest, I think they were more hungry than us tonight,” Clayton said. “I think we kind of played to that record. We didn’t play up to our abilities. Lost the rebounding battle. A lot of 50-50s. So I think we just got to come out with more energy.”

Sacramento played harder than Dallas throughout the whole game, Gafford said.

“Not necessarily. I feel like just the energy was a little low,” Gafford said. “I feel like we started off good, and just kind of, like, throughout the course of the game, we were, yeah, having plays here and there where it’s like our energy wasn’t into it. P.J. said it a lot in the locker room. He was like, ‘We played their record tonight,’ 100%.”

“And they came in with the mindset to just, it doesn’t matter their record,” Gafford noted. “They came in and they played like pros tonight.”

It is the next man up whenever Irving is off the floor, and everybody knows it, according to Gafford.

“We definitely missed him, 100%. He has a lot of gravity when he’s on the floor,” Gafford said. “He makes everyone’s jobs a little bit more easy. But whenever he’s not on the floor, everybody knows that it’s the next man up. Everybody has to take that next step and find ways to just make an impact without our star players on the floor.”

Without Irving, May said, Dallas has not been able to answer runs very well.

“He does so much for us in making big shots and calming us down. We haven’t been able to answer runs very well. That’s one area that he does,” May said. “But when one of your guys is out and another one just has an off night, you just, you got to have some other guys step up, and making shots is part of that. And they just didn’t drop tonight.”

The Mavericks know what they need to do to get better, Gafford said, and they have one day before their next game.

“We let this hurt until midnight, and we focus on the next one,” Gafford said. “Keep it pushing. We’ve got a big game coming up in two days. Playing a good Spurs team. Can’t really dwell on this too much. We know the things that we need to do to get better. And I feel like our response to this one is going to dictate how this season is going to go for us, for sure.”

Dallas visits the Spurs on Wednesday at Frost Bank Center. Tip-off is set for 8:30 p.m. CT on ESPN. Sacramento hosts the Los Angeles Lakers the same night.