Stats Rundown: 3 numbers from a Mavericks loss to the Heat

The Dallas Mavericks lost to the Miami Heat 125-110 Tuesday night in Dallas. Luka Doncic led all scorers with 33 points and five assists. Jalen Brunson got his first start of the year and put up 25 points. Tyler Herro led the Heat with 25 points on 3-6 shooting from deep.

The Heat are a good team on a hot streak right now, so the Mavericks were going to have to play almost perfect, especially since they were shorthanded. And Dallas played hard, but just didn’t have enough fire power to compete with Miami.

Here are three stats from the loss:

70: Points scored by the Heat in the first half.

The Heat lit it up in the first half, putting up 70 points, the most by a team in one half in the NBA this season. They got especially hot in the second quarter, scoring 46 points. The Mavericks have made modest improvements in defense this season, but that all went out the door in the first half. The Heat went 9-of-15 from deep in the first two quarters. The Mavericks tightened things up in the second half, only allowing 55 points, but just couldn’t clamp down enough to get the win.

52: The percentage the Heat shot on 3-pointers.

As mentioned, the Heat went 9-of-15 on 3-pointers in the first half. It’s hard for a team to shoot 60% from behind the arc, especially this season. Miami cooled off a bit in the second half, but not much. They ended the game 52% from three, and it’s just very hard to beat a team that shoots such a high percentage on 3-point shots.

The Mavericks couldn’t match them shot for shot, finishing the game shooting 33% from deep. So many games in the last couple years have come down to the Mavericks outshooting their opponents in order to win. This was just another instance where they had no answer in a shootout.

3: The number of fast break points scored by the Mavericks.

The Heat stifled the Mavericks’ fast break game all night, only giving up three points. Miami, conversely, scored 19 points on the break. That’s a significant difference. For all of Jason Kidd’s talk of running more this season, it hasn’t happened yet. The Mavericks came into Tuesday’s game ranked 25th in the league in fast break points at just 9.5 per game. Dallas is having trouble scoring in the half court, and they’re not getting easy buckets in transition. The Mavericks didn’t have an issue with effort tonight, as is the case sometimes. But overall, scoring is a chore right now, and fast break points are just another symptom of a sluggish offense.

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