San Antonio Spurs (1-2) beat Dallas Mavericks (1-2) 122-106 on the road on Saturday, October 24, never trailing at a quarter break.
How it unfolded
The Spurs led at every quarter break. The cushion peaked at 16 after the fourth quarter and the Mavericks never got back in front at a break.
What decided it
The Spurs gave the ball away on 11.4% of their possessions while the Mavericks did so 17.7% of the time and the Spurs recovered 30.6% of their own misses against 22.2% for the Mavericks. Protecting the ball is an easy edge to overlook, but each turnover costs a shot.
The game played at about 103 possessions per team. The Spurs scored 118.1 points per 100 possessions and the Mavericks scored 102.6, a difference of 15.5.
Who made the difference
De'Aaron Fox (SAS) posted the best line of the night by Game Score (21.8): 19 pts, 3 reb, 9 ast, 3 stl on 6-11 shooting. The team was +25 in the minutes De'Aaron played.
Game Score is a single number that weighs points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, shooting efficiency, fouls and turnovers. It is not an official stat, just a quick way to rank lines.
What it means
The result fit the pre-game Win Meter, which gave the Spurs about a 73% chance.
Across the last 8 meetings in our records, San Antonio Spurs lead 5-3.
The Spurs are now 1-2, and the Mavericks are 1-2. The Spurs last five before this game: W-L-L-L-L.
Written automatically by Tip Off Live software from box score data. Ratings and probabilities are our own model estimates.