3 overreactions as Mavericks embarrassingly lose to Sacramento Kings

The Dallas Mavericks took on the West's worst on Saturday afternoon, as they played the Sacramento Kings on the road. With the news of Anthony Davis suffering his latest injury, it was interesting to see how they'd respond, with Cooper Flagg obviously being the first option.

Sacramento jumped on top of the Mavs from the beginning, putting Dallas down by 11 just 6:25 into the game. Keon Ellis was the one initially killing the Mavericks, as he had 11 of their first 17 points, and it wasn't long before the Kings pushed the first-quarter lead to 17, put a quick 9-0 run by the Mavs had the lead down to eight by the end of the break.

We had a Doug McDermott sighting in the second quarter, as he hit two threes in the opening minutes, and that helped build the lead back up to 16. They'd eventually build the lead to 18 as Russell Westbrook started to heat up, and they'd enter halftime up 59-44.

The third quarter was all Dallas... mostly. Cooper Flagg finally woke up, scoring 15 points in the quarter on 5/6 shooting, including 3/3 from behind the arc, which brought the Mavericks within three with 6:06 left in the quarter. However, the Mavericks would be outscored 17-2 over the next four-plus minutes, and that felt like it would end any chance of the Mavs winning this game, even as Jaden Hardy had five quick points as the Mavs made it an 11-point game by the end of the quarter.

Sacramento built the lead back up to 16 before back-to-back threes from Klay Thompson and D'Angelo Russell had the lead down to 10. And no matter what the Mavericks did after that, it never felt like they could cross that 10-point threshold. Down 11 with under five minutes remaining, Naji Marshall drove and fell hard, but no foul was called. Dwight Powell went 0/2 at the line soon after that.

Finally, P.J. Washington cleaned up his own missed three to finish a layup that had the lead down to 9, but DeMar DeRozan hit a shot from the elbow and was fouled while doing so, and that immediately pushed it back to 12.

Washington responded with a thunderous dunk, then Klay Thompson hit a three to make it a 7-point game. Another stop led to a Cooper Flagg bucket, and the lead was five. P.J. Washington was called for an offensive foul a few sequences later, and Max Christie missed a drive to the basket, but the ball went out on the Kings, and Dwight Powell was fouled on the inbounds. He'd make 1 of 2, making it a 4-point game with 11 seconds left.

DeMar DeRozan would ice the game with two free throws, and the Mavericks would fall to the Sacramento Kings 113-107, who were missing Zach LaVine, Domantas Sabonis, and Keegan Murray.

Here are three overreactions to this loss.

1. Do P.J. Washington and Cooper Flagg Fit Together?