‘Find Its Level’: Dusty May Confident In Dallas Mavericks’ Shooters After 7-Of-33 Night Against Sacramento Kings

DALLAS — The Dallas Mavericks made 7 of their 33 three-point attempts in Monday night’s 115-100 loss to the Sacramento Kings at American Airlines Center. Four of those makes belonged to Walter Clayton Jr..

Dallas missed its first 10 tries from deep and finished the first quarter 1-of-11. Through its first six games, the team had shot 35.0% from three on 37.2 attempts per game.

Mavericks coach Dusty May said Dallas did a nice job getting to the free-throw line, one of the areas a team has to win on a night like Monday.

“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.”

The Mavericks went 29-of-35 at the line and scored 22 second-chance points. Sacramento went 19-of-43 from three, including 8-of-11 in the fourth quarter, when it outscored Dallas by 8.

For center Daniel Gafford, the misses were the place to start.

“Shots weren’t falling. I think it kind of got in our head, honestly,” Gafford said. “I think that was one of the main things. They played harder than us throughout the whole game.”

Walter Clayton Jr. Goes 4-Of-5 As Dallas Mavericks Miss 26 Of 33

Clayton ended the Mavericks’ 0-for-10 start with a 25-footer with 42.9 seconds left in the first quarter. He made 3 of his 4 attempts in the fourth quarter, the last a step-back 26-footer with 1:29 to play. The four makes tied his career high for 3-pointers in a game.

The rest of the roster went 3-of-28. P.J. Washington was 2-of-8, Caleb Martin was 1-of-2, and Cooper Flagg and Naji Marshall each went 0-of-4. Zaccharie Risacher missed all 3 of his attempts, and Marcus Sasser missed both of his.

Dallas took 13 unguarded catch-and-shoot jumpers and turned them into 5 points, according to play-type tracking data reviewed by Dallas Sports Journal. Sacramento scored 18 on its 9 unguarded looks. On all catch-and-shoot jumpers, the Mavericks scored 14 points on 26 possessions, and the Kings scored 33 on 27.

It is an 82-game season, Clayton said, and some nights the shots do not fall.

“We got good shots tonight. I don’t think we got bad ones,” Clayton said. “Like I said, whenever we got in the paint, we kicked out. We got great shots. It’s 82 games. Sometimes they just don’t fall. So I think tonight was one of those nights.”

Gafford, in his eighth NBA season, said he could have communicated better with teammates once shots stopped falling. Self-doubt spreads, in his experience.

“I have the same thing. A shot doesn’t fall for me. I mess up on a play. When it comes to the offensive side, defensive side, sometimes we get in our own head,” Gafford explained. “But self-doubt is one of the most contagious things when it comes to any team in the league. One shot doesn’t fall. One guy has his head down, the next shot doesn’t fall, another guy does it.”

“So it’s just like we have to find ways to get past that,” Gafford continued. “And I feel like we’re going to, we responded the right way time and time again when it came to games that we’ve lost. So I feel like we’re going to be okay.”

Max Christie, Mavericks Wait For Shots To Fall

Max Christie missed all 5 of his attempts, each from three, in 7 minutes, 40 seconds before leaving in the second quarter with a right hip injury. He entered the night 10-of-32 from deep this season and is now 10-of-37.

May pointed to the ups and downs that come with any season. Christie had a great summer, the coach 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.”

Dallas played without Kyrie Irving, who sat with left knee injury management. Irving had made 16 of his 41 three-point attempts in five games.

The Mavericks visit the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday at Frost Bank Center. Tip-off is set for 8:30 p.m. CT on ESPN.