Stats Rundown: 3 numbers to know as the Dallas Mavericks pummel the Washington Wizards

The Dallas Mavericks beat the Washington Wizards on the road early Saturday evening, 109-87. They did so rather short handed as three starters in Kristaps Porzingis, Maxi Kleber, and Josh Richardson all missed the contest for varying reasons. To read more about the game and what happened, click here to read the recap.

Past the what, let’s get into some of the numbers that help explain the why or are at least some interesting data points to think about moving forward.

64: Jalen Brunson’s 2 point shooting percentage since March 24th

I am absolutely cherry picking a date and counting forward from there but since the Minnesota Timberwolves game, Brunson’s been a man on fire from two point range. He’s shooting under 33% from three these last several games but it’s not mattered one bit as his short range shot making has been utterly outstanding.

For the second game in a row, Brunson’s driving was key in opening up the Dallas offense. He’s forcing so little and his floater game near the rim is to the point where I expect them to go in. He also has not missed a free throw in three straight games now.

19: Dallas is undefeated in NINETEEN games where they lead after one

This is something I need explained to me as I’m struggling to find a correlation past “a good start results in a good finish for the Mavericks”. They’ve won 27 total games so that they’ve been leading after one in 19 of them feels wild. As does the fact that they’re just 8-21 otherwise. Commenters, feed me your theories.

21: Minutes for Josh Green

It was just Josh Green’s third highest minutes total in a game this season but they were easily his most since January. Though it may largely be due to necessity, it’s nice to see Green get some playing time. His offense is nothing short of brutal, but he played solid defense and rebounded the ball well on both ends. The Mavericks need him to play or their wing rotation will be exhausted by the playoffs. If he can manage to connect on the occasional three (seems a stretch given his attempts to date) his minutes should rise.

If you look real hard you can see what the Mavericks are interested in with Green, he just needs time to learn how to play.

Here’s the postgame podcast, Mavs Moneyball After Dark. If you can’t see the embed below “More from Mavs Moneyball”, click here. And if you haven’t yet, subscribe by searching “Mavs Moneyball podcast” into your favorite podcast app.