Stats rundown: 3 numbers from a Dallas Mavericks win against the Oklahoma City Thunder

The Dallas Mavericks picked up their 13th win of the season Sunday night, defeating the Oklahoma City Thunder 103-84. The Mavericks held the Thunder at bay all night and finally pulled away in the fourth quarter, holding the Thunder to only 13 points.

Jalen Brunson led the Mavericks with 18 points. Maxi Kleber was the second-leading scorer with 16 points off the bench. Moses Brown also chipped in 15 points off the bench. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the Thunder in scoring with 18 points.

Here are three numbers from the win:

9: The number of rebounds Jalen Brunson grabbed.

Brunson led the Mavericks in rebounding, which is...weird? Brunson is a good rebounder for his size, but on a team with Kristaps Porzingis, Kleber, and Dorian Finney-Smith, it’s kind of odd for the 6’1 guard to lead the team in boards. Brunson only averages four rebounds per game, 134th in the league, but tonight he hustled on the glass.

50: The number of points the Mavericks scored in the paint.

The Mavericks outscored the Thunder by 30 in the paint, a big reason they coasted to a win. It’s important for Dallas to rack up a big margin in the paint because it seems like they’re going to consistently shoot less than 30% on 3-pointers most games. In their loss against the Indiana Pacers, for instance, the Mavericks also scored 50 points in the paint, but only outscored the Pacers by two. Without a large margin over the Pacers in the paint and shooting 13% from deep, the Mavericks lost by double digits. Points in the paint are huge for poor shooting teams.

0: The number of fast break points for the Mavericks.

One of the expectations when Jason Kidd took over as coach was that the Mavericks might finally run more. Rick Carlisle bottled up the offense in order to minimize turnovers, and it was thought the Mavericks might get some easy baskets by running more. I’ve been saying it for a WHOLE YEAR NOW. So the fact that they came up with zero fast break points is kind of a bummer. For a team that’s struggling to score, some easy baskets would be a nice remedy.

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