Four things from Chandler Parsons's big night and the Mavericks' 92-86 win vs. the Sixers

After a hot Mavericks start thanks to Chandler Parsons, the Sixers fought their way back to a lead in the fourth. But Dallas just managed to avoid being the Sixers first victim this season, riding Dirk's late game heroics to a 92-86 win.

Tonight wasn't pretty, but it was good enough to put the Mavericks (at least briefly) in sole possession of third place in the Western Conference. Sort of like this:

The Mavs' frontcourt was MIA tonight

Zaza Pachulia (who had literally no field goals... zero! In 29 minutes!) and Dwight Powell (3-5 in 26 minutes) were nowhere to be found tonight. The Sixers made it into the paint almost at will, obliterating the Mavericks 48 to 24 in points in the paint and outrebounding them 46 to 39.

Chandler Parsons' game is as pretty as he is

Parsons scored the first three points of the game (a circus shot and the and-one) on a Philly turnover and never looked back. In his 18 first-half minutes he looked like the player Mavs fans were hoping for, running the floor and shooting jumpers with a little more lift than we've seen from him so far. By the end of the first quarter, Parsons had already surpassed his season high in scoring.

He unfortunately suffered a potentially devastating injury to his face from of an inadvertent elbow from Jerami Grant in the second quarter. Luckily, he returned to the game unscathed and as handsome as ever to sink one of the Mavs' few three-pointers to stop a short Sixers run.

Parsons ended the night with 20 points.

The offense is still very inconsistent

Rick Carlisle rested Dirk, Parsons, and Wes Matthews Saturday against the Rockets, but to no avail. Almost the entire team looked completely checked out of this game.

Aside from Parsons, the Mavericks couldn't seem to hit a field goal, closing the first half shooting 40 percent from the field and 20 percent from three. The Mavericks haven't shot particularly well this season, but tonight was considerably worse than their previous efforts.

This was particularly discouraging against one of the worst defensive teams in the league, and it only got worse in the second half when Parsons hit his minutes limit.

One offensive bright spot: Philadelphia had a mind-boggling 17 turnovers in just the first half (27 for the whole game), and the Mavericks were able to capitalize on the Sixers' mistakes to the tune of 28 points.

Dirk is [still not] too old for this s**t

After the Mavericks let the Sixers take the lead in the fourth, Dirk bailed the team out because of course he did, scoring 12 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter.