The Dallas Mavericks [fell to the Indiana Pacers by a score of 135-131](https://www.mavsmoneyball.com/2025/3/19/24389997/mavericks-vs-pacers-recap-3-things-from-mavericks-stunning-135-131-loss-to-pacers). In one of the zanier games of the season, Dallas snatched defeat from the jaws of victory through self-inflicted wounds down the stretch. Missed free throws, turnovers, and clutch shotmaking from Indiana all combined to doom the Mavericks, and what looked like a surefire win turned into yet another embarrassing loss.
If you’re on Team Tank, things played out perfectly for you in this one. Dallas, missing all the usual suspects plus Klay Thompson, played well against an Eastern Conference playoff team. The game was entertaining and went down to the wire, but the result saw Dallas inch closer to dropping out of the play-in tournament and into the lottery. With less than a month to play in the regular season, we’ll see how many more games like this we get. Here are three numbers that might explain how this one went down.
6: Maverick players with at least 17 points
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PJ Washington led Dallas with 26 points, while Jaden Hardy (24) and Naji Marshall (20) joined him in the 20-point club. Kai Jones, a two-way player who returned from injury to play just his second game as a Maverick, chipped in 18. And Spencer Dinwiddie and Max Christie each scored 17 to round out the sextet. The Pacers’ defense is an absolute nightmare — Dallas played eight guys and three-fourths of them went off. Amazingly, Dallas found a way to lose this one despite so many guys contributing big-scoring nights.
+10: Points-off-turnovers margin for Indiana
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Dallas turned the ball over 13 times tonight. That’s not a catastrophic number, but the Pacers scored 22 points off those turnovers. Meanwhile, Indiana’s 11 turnovers led to just 12 Maverick points. Put simply, the Pacers capitalized on opponent mistakes while the Mavericks did not. This issue came to a head late in the fourth quarter, when Dallas threw the ball away multiple times while Indiana made them pay.
6: Missed free throws in the fourth quarter
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The Mavericks were in pole position to wrap this thing up late. But several one-for-two trips to the line kept the door ajar for the Pacers, who were playing the foul game. If just a couple of those freebies go down, Dallas probably escapes with a win. This team has struggled at the charity stripe for years; it’s hard to say just how many games they’ve blown because of their refusal to improve in this area.