DALLAS — John Poulakidas made 4 of his 8 attempts from 3-point range Wednesday night, and the shots were not what Dallas Mavericks coach Dusty May wanted to talk about first.
Poulakidas scored 16 points on 5-of-10 shooting in 25:33 off the bench in a 101-97 preseason loss to the New Orleans Pelicans at American Airlines Center. He also went 2-of-3 at the free-throw line, grabbed 4 rebounds, 3 of them on the offensive glass, and finished plus-8. Only rookie Tobi Lawal, who also scored 16, matched him for the team lead.
The Mavericks rested Kyrie Irving and Cooper Flagg and played without six other players. Poulakidas did not play in Sunday’s 132-115 win over the Houston Rockets in Macao.
Dusty May On John Poulakidas’ Effort On The Glass
May loved the way Poulakidas mixed it up on the glass and came up with loose balls late. His teammates found him for the 3-pointers, May said, and he knocked them down.
“I thought he mixed it up on glass. He came up with some loose basketballs late in the game and just finding different ways to impact it. To be honest with the shots, he’s 4-for-8 from three. I thought his teammates found him,” May said. “He was open, they made good plays, and he obviously knocked them down. But I was most pleased with him sticking his nose in and playing with some physicality and some grit.”
“Three or four times in the second half, it felt like he was in the mix, and we got extra possessions because of that effort and fight,” May continued. “His shots go in. He can shoot on the move, he can shoot it off balance. … But like I said, we’ve got to do a better job of guarding as a cumulative group and keeping teams out of the paint whenever we have our small lineups. But more than anything else, I thought he competed tonight.”
Dallas grabbed 20 offensive rebounds and turned them into 27 second-chance points. New Orleans outscored the Mavericks 50-38 in the paint.
Poulakidas gave the credit for his looks to his teammates. When his number is called, he knows what he is there to do.
“My guys did a great job of setting me up, and I’m just doing my job,” Poulakidas said. “My number’s called, I know what I’m here to do, I know what I’m supposed to do. And I’m just putting the ball in the basket.”
Lawal, who played alongside Poulakidas with the Mavericks’ Summer League team in Las Vegas, kept his answer short.
“John does what he does, like the shooter,” Lawal said. “He’s going to play hard as possible, and he’s going to compete.”
Poulakidas On Dallas Mavericks’ Pace And The Trip Home From Macao
The Mavericks attempted 49 3-pointers Wednesday and made 10. Poulakidas sees a team playing faster and sharing the ball more, with Irving and Flagg making plays nobody else can.
“We’re playing faster, and we’re sharing the ball a lot more. The ball is less stagnant,” Poulakidas said. “Obviously, when you’ve got guys like Kai, guys like Coop, they’re going to make plays that nobody else can with the ball.”
“For the rest of us, we’ve got to continue finding advantages how we can and continue to play together and be selfless,” Poulakidas continued.
The Mavericks landed back in Dallas less than 48 hours before tip-off. Several of the young players who filled the minutes Wednesday played little or not at all in Macao, and Poulakidas saw resiliency from the group.
“I saw resiliency. We were all on a 18-hour flight less than 48 hours ago and with a 12- or 13-hour time difference,” Poulakidas said. “Just us young guys, we were always looking forward to the opportunity. And this league, you gotta get it, you gotta get it how you can as a young guy. So we knew we were gonna handle a little bit of adversity, knowing that, like I said, we were just 12-hour difference away. But I’m proud of the guys and how we fought back tonight.”
Dallas trailed 75-63 after three quarters and outscored New Orleans 34-26 in the fourth.
Poulakidas went undrafted out of Yale in 2025. He led the Ivy League in scoring at 19.2 points per game as a senior, was named first-team All-Ivy League and Ivy League Tournament MVP, and finished with 243 career 3-pointers, the second-most in school history. As a junior, he helped Yale beat Auburn in the first round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament.
The Naperville, Illinois, native began the 2025-26 season with the G League’s San Diego Clippers, averaging 14.7 points and shooting 47.3% from 3-point range in 24 games. Dallas signed him to a two-way contract on March 3, 2026, and he averaged 8.8 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 0.8 assists in 19.5 minutes over 13 games for the Mavericks down the stretch. He made 40.3% of his 3-point attempts, hitting 2.4 per game.
The Mavericks close the preseason against the Atlanta Hawks on Friday at American Airlines Center, with tip-off set for 7 p.m. CT.
