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Feb 2, 2025; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Dallas Mavericks guard Brandon Williams (10) drives to the basket against Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell (45) during the first half at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-Imagn Images Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

Cavaliers deservedly blow out Mavericks' skeleton crew, 144-101

Originally posted on Dallas Mavericks on SI
By Austin Veazey | Last updated Feb 2, 2025 5:44 PM ET

The Dallas Mavericks somehow had to play basketball today after the ridiculous trade of Luka Doncic that occurred overnight, and, of course, they were playing one of the best teams in the NBA, the Cleveland Cavaliers. Dallas had almost every meaningful player out for this game, as Kyrie Irving, PJ Washington, and Daniel Gafford were dealing with minor soreness, Dereck Lively II is still recovering from a stress fracture, and Anthony Davis and Max Christie have yet to join the team.

With all of those players out, Dallas rolled out a starting five of Dante Exum, Spencer Dinwiddie, Klay Thompson, Olivier-Maxence Prosper, and Kylor Kelley against Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell, Max Strus, Evan Mobley, and Jarrett Allen.

As you would expect, with a talent difference as severe as this, Dallas stood no chance early. They used two timeouts in the first six minutes as they were staring at a 27-9 game. The Mavericks made four of their first 13 shots, two coming from Exum, while Cleveland started 10/14 behind 11 early points from Darius Garland.

The rest of the quarter wouldn't be any better. The smallest the difference would be for the rest of the quarter was 17 points, but Donovan Mitchell hit a stepback three at the end of the first, giving them a 50-19 lead.

Dallas started to find some offense in the second quarter, but even a stopped clock can be right twice a day. Dante Exum and Jaden Hardy helped the Mavericks score some points, but there was no defense to be found. Cleveland was wearing out corner threes and really just the three-point shot in general. By halftime, as they built a 91-46 lead, they were 16/22 on three-pointers and specifically 8/10 from the corners. Four Cavs, including Sam Merrill off the bench, had at least 12 points by halftime.

I hope you weren't expecting the second half to be any better. Dallas mainly just kept it from getting too much worse to start the third quarter, doing a little better job of not leaving shooters open. Sometimes.

Jaden Hardy gave the Mavericks seven points down the stretch of the third, but a dunk by Ty Jerome gave the Cavs a 119-75 lead by the end of the quarter. Dallas was shooting 37.8% from the floor to this point compared to Cleveland's 64.3%.

You don't need to know how the fourth quarter went; you can probably guess. Dallas was looking to get out of the game as quickly as possible, even taking back-to-back timeouts to not have any more media breaks, and they did that on their way to a 144-101 loss. Cleveland led by as much ass 53 late in the game before some garbage time buckets late in the game.

Dallas' offense took a little while to get going, and it would be the bench that would mainly give them any kind of scoring punch. Dante Exum (14 points), Olivier-Maxence Prosper (10 points, some came in garbage time), and Kylor Kelley (12 points and 11 rebounds in his first NBA start) were the only starters in double-figures, with Jaden Hardy (21 points), Naji Marshall (12 points), and Quentin Grimes (11 points) had 10+ off the bench. Klay Thompson was just 1/10 from the floor.

Just about everybody was in double figures for the Cavaliers: Evan Mobley (22 points, 11 rebounds, 4 blocks, 3 assists), Sam Merrill (27 points, 9/13 3PT shooting), Darius Garland (17 points, 10 assists), Jarrett Allen (14 points, 9 rebounds), Donovan Mitchell (12 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists), Georges Niang (13 points), Ty Jerome (12 points), and Caris LeVert (10 points).

The Mavericks will travel to Philadelphia to take on the 76ers on Tuesday. Whether Anthony Davis and/or Max Christie will be ready for that has yet to be seen.

This article first appeared on Dallas Mavericks on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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