‘Beautiful, Great Feeling’: Naji Marshall Scores 22 Off Bench In Return To Form As Dallas Mavericks Fall To San Antonio Spurs
SAN ANTONIO — A little more than a week after an illness kept him out of two games, Naji Marshall scored 22 points on 9-of-12 shooting off the bench Wednesday night. The Dallas Mavericks lost 112-111 to the San Antonio Spurs at Frost Bank Center after Marshall’s 13 fourth-quarter points helped them erase a 19-point deficit.
Marshall missed Dallas’ Oct. 26 win at the Miami Heat and its Oct. 28 home game against the Oklahoma City Thunder with the illness before returning Oct. 30 against the Houston Rockets. He had 10 points in the Oct. 24 loss to San Antonio, his last game before the illness.
“Man, it was beautiful, great feeling. Talking about helping the team, I’m there for my teammates,” Marshall said. “I feel like I’m gonna let them down. Just being sick, I know I’m a human, can’t control that. But I just wanna win and be there for my team, so. Just blessed and happy to be back in my regular form.”
Naji Marshall Scores 13 In Fourth Quarter
Marshall went 5-of-7 from the field and 3-of-3 from three in the fourth quarter. His three-pointer with 8:17 left cut San Antonio’s lead to 94-92, and his three off a Cooper Flagg pass with 1:41 left tied the game at 111. On the next possession he blocked a De’Aaron Fox jumper, but Devin Vassell stole his pass at 1:24.
He finished with 22 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 assists in 25:58 and was plus-5. All 3 of his three-point attempts went in. Marshall signed a three-year, $52.2 million contract extension with Dallas in August after averaging a career-high 15.2 points in 2025-26.
Kyrie Irving said Dallas did not match San Antonio’s effort in a funky first half.
“He made a great impact, a huge impact, and we need more from him moving on throughout the season,” Irving said. “And tonight was a little funky in the first half in terms of how our offense was looking, but defensively, like I said, if we would have come up with some of those 50-50 basketballs, I think we’d be in here talking about a different game.”
“You got to give credit to them for their effort, and we just didn’t match it. So Naji coming in and picking up and being able to make some dynamic plays and some big threes really helped us a lot, and it shrunk the gap,” Irving continued. “And without him playing the way he did tonight, I don’t think we’d be in this game.”
Marshall had 5 rebounds, 2 of them offensive, and 1 block. Mavericks coach Dusty May said he was competitive.
“Naji was very good,” May said. “I thought he made good decisions with the ball. He was competitive. He was active on the glass. He played really, really well.”
Marshall On Playing For Dusty May
May closed the game with Marshall on the floor, and Marshall played 10:37 of the fourth quarter.
“I’m rocking with Dusty, whatever he do, whether he does or he doesn’t. I run through a brick wall for my team, so I just do anything, try to get the win,” Marshall said. “I’m thankful that I could contribute tonight, and hopefully we can carry this energy into Friday.”
Everybody on the roster is a good dude, according to Marshall, and the positive energy holds win, lose, or draw.
“This is a great guy. He loves the game. He loves his team. He’s all about his team. Win, lose, or draw is the same person every day,” Marshall explained. “And I think that helps me grow as a person, as a player, and just as a team. It’s contagious. Everybody’s a good dude on this team. Everybody has positive energy, win, lose, or draw. That’s something that you can’t buy, and just blessed to have.”
The Mavericks outscored San Antonio 60-44 in the second half and had 16 assists on 20 baskets after halftime.
“Energy, like that energy. Everybody sharing the ball, everybody rebounding. It’s contagious, bro,” Marshall said. “At the end of the bench, everybody up, clapping for each other, just that energy.”
Dallas (4-4) hosts the Utah Jazz on Friday at American Airlines Center at 7 p.m. CT.
