Seven extra made 3-pointers are worth 21 points. Dallas made 14 of them; Indiana made seven. The Mavericks won 121-105 at Indiana on Friday, so the arithmetic deserves the first sentence—and does not deserve the last one.
Dallas’ long-range advantage was substantial without being mystical. The Mavericks shot 14-34 from beyond the arc, or 41 percent. Indiana went 7-32, a 22 percent return. Kyrie Irving accounted for five Dallas makes on 10 attempts and scored 24 points. Tyrese Haliburton went 0-4 from deep for the Pacers, though Pascal Siakam made three of five and finished with 23 points.
Irving alone made almost as many threes as the entire Indiana team. Flagg supplied two more without missing from beyond the arc, and Christie added another pair. Marshall, meanwhile, scored fifteen points without making any of his four long-range tries. The distribution matters: Dallas could get substantial scoring from a player outside the shooting surge while several teammates supplied its additional value.
A missed three is not automatically a failed offensive plan, just as a made one does not certify every preceding decision. Dallas’s successful perimeter night gave it room to withstand mistakes and fouls. Indiana’s misses made its recovery harder. The difference between those two shooting lines became a real scoring advantage, without revealing the quality of every individual attempt.
They did that through different kinds of scoring. At 6:40 of the second, Christie’s 28-foot 3-pointer made the score 57-31. Dallas reached 61-31 later, when Zaccharie Risacher scored on a two-point shot at 5:16.
P.J. Washington then made a 26-foot 3-pointer with 1:17 remaining, and Dallas carried a 77-43 lead into halftime. The margin was built with threes, but also with drives, offensive rebounds, steals and free throws.
A team does not create a 34-point halftime cushion by asking one category to carry every possession.
Indiana’s response after halftime supplied the necessary complication. The Pacers won the second half 62-44, and they scored 60 points in the paint to Dallas’ 54 for the game. That interior advantage keeps the night from becoming a simple referendum on perimeter shooting.
Siakam’s alley-oop layup at 7:17 of the third quarter cut into the deficit, and Obi Toppin’s dunk plus free throw at 4:22 showed Indiana finding efficient answers closer to the basket. Those possessions were not enough to erase the opening damage, but they explain why Dallas’ final margin was 16 rather than something gaudier.
The free-throw line also resisted a one-number explanation. Indiana made 20 of 28 foul shots; Dallas made 19 of 23. The Pacers won that scoring category by one point. Dallas’ separation came from the value of its made field goals, particularly the 21-point difference supplied by the 3-point column, rather than from winning every available scoring lane.
