The Dallas Mavericks (3-7) pulled their heads above water and ended their four-game losing streak on Saturday with a 111-105 win at the Washington Wizards (1-9) at Capital One Arena. Dallas got out to yet another slow start, but quickly corrected course in the first quarter. They may have wobbled throughout the second and third quarters, but Naji Marshall and Moussa Cisse came off the bench to course correct when the Mavs needed it.
The bench played a huge role for the Mavericks, before Cooper Flagg and P.J. Washington started to make winning plays down the stretch to help fend off Washington and avoid the rare season sweep at the hands of one of the worst teams in the NBA.
The Dallas reserves outscored their Washington counterparts 59-44, including a 30-piece from Marshall to lead all scorers in the win. The Mavs secured 10 offensive boards in the fourth quarter to help pull out the win, and those two were freebies, so here are five more stats that loomed large over the Mavs’ latest win.
4-of-5: CJ McCollum’s shooting start
After the Mavs let a floundering Ja Morant get off to a hot start on Friday’s first night of a back-to-back set at the Grizzlies on his way to a game-high 21 points in Memphis’ 118-104 win,
CJ McCollum was Morant’s mirror image to start the game against Dallas on Saturday. McCollum scored 11 points in the game’s first five minutes on 4-of-5 shooting as the Wizards shot out to an early 16-9 lead and forced Mavs head coach Jason Kidd to take an early timeout.
A couple of troubling trends are becoming calling cards for the 2025-26 Mavericks: the lack of will in correcting mistakes from last time out and coming out a step slow to start games. Another boneheaded miscue from the night prior reared its head as well in the first quarter against Washington: Max Christie fouled McCollum on a 3-point attempt the possession before McCollum forced that Dallas timeout after the Mavs fouled three 3-point shooters in the first half of Friday’s loss to Memphis.
McCollum would finish the first quarter with 14 points and four rebounds.
19-0: Mavericks’ first-quarter run in response
But, hark! On Saturday, the Mavs finally showed some signs of life early after that initial timeout with 7:06 left in the first quarter. The Mavericks’ second team fueled a 19-0 run over the next five-plus minutes.
Marshall came in and scored six points during the run, while Moussa Cissé, the two-way rookie from Guinea, gobbled up four rebounds on both ends of the floor and clogged up the lane by challenging and blocking shots.
Marshall picked off a bad pass from McCollum after Jaden Hardy connected on his first 3-point try the previous time down the floor on offense, then found a streaking Flagg for a high-flying transition dunk with 2:11 left in the first to put Dallas up 28-16 after the sluggish start. The Mavericks’ bench accounted for 15 of the 19 points during the run.
The Mavs outscored the Wizards 26-8 to end the first quarter to take a 35-24 lead after one. Marshall led the charge for the Mavs with nine points, two boards and two steals in the frame, an encouraging sign, as he seemed to be searching for his fit with this iteration of the Mavericks through the first nine games of this season, after having a career year in 2024-25.
12-2: Wizards’ second-quarter run
McCollum put it on the Mavs again in the second quarter, though, scoring nine more during a 12-2 Washington run that got the Wizards as close as four, down 42-38 with 8:13 left in the first half, after he canned a mid-range jumper and two free throws on consecutive possessions.
McCollum was the only effective weapon for the Wizards, but he was enough to keep Washington connected to Dallas throughout the first half. McCollum led all scorers with 23 points on 8-of-12 shooting at the half. McCollum suffered through a three-game cold stretch, wherein he scored just a combined 21 points (on 8-of-31 shooting), before breaking out for 25 points in 28 minutes in Friday’s 148-115 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Four minutes later, Corey Kispert’s first 3-pointer of the game brought the Wizards back within three, down 48-45, to erase most of Dallas’ largest lead of 14 points.
man. This is bad basketball
pic.twitter.com/puHAlXgG83
— MavsHighlights (@MavsHighlights)
November 9, 2025
The Mavs made just four field goals in the first 9:50 of the second quarter to roll out the red carpet for the Wizards to get back into the game. Dallas is showing us in their last three games that they are the equal of the NBA’s cellar-dwellers — they’re not clearly better than anyone in the NBA.
The Mavericks took a 57-53 lead into the locker room at halftime after scoring just 22 points and turning the ball over six times in the second quarter, sending head coach Jason Kidd back, once again, to the drawing board.
21: Third-quarter scoring from Alex Sarr and Cam Whitmore
The Wizards plowed back in front in the third quarter on the strength of (checks notes) Alex Sarr and Cam Whitmore. The Mavs finally did something about their CJ McCollum problem, holding the former star guard scoreless in the third, but all that did was open things up for Sarr, who scored eight, and Whitemore, who poured in 11 more as Washington moved back in front, 86-82, heading into the fourth quarter.
Kyshawn George found Whitmore open inside on a broken play for a slam to bring the Wizards to within 71-70 with 5:29 left in the third, before Sarr tipped home his own miss on a turn-around hook shot attempt the next time down to give Washington a 72-71 lead, their first since midway through the first quarter.
The Wizards took an 86-82 lead into the fourth quarter before McCollum awoke from his slumber for his first bucket of the second half with 11:05 left to play to put Washington up 90-82. That would ultimately be the only two points McCollum would score in the second half — he finished the night with a team-high 25 points and six rebounds in the loss.
30/8: Naji Marshall’s big night put Dallas over the top
Marshall scored seven big points down the stretch and hit 3-of-4 from 3-point range to steady the Mavs when they went through the tough stretches against the lowly Wizards. He was the constant on a night the Mavericks desperately needed someone to step up. Flagg found him streaking down the floor in transition with a nice touch pass that Marshall gathered in despite it being tipped on its way to him for a bucket to put Dallas up 104-101 with just over four minutes remaining. His third 3-pointer of the game came six minutes earlier when the Mavs had a chance to unravel, down 90-82 with 10 minutes left in the game.
The Mavs helped their own cause in the fourth quarter, gaining extra possessions with 10 offensive rebounds in the frame. Marshall led all scorers with 30 points and pulled down eight rebounds (three on the offensive glass) in the win. He led the Mavs’ bench to a 59-44 advantage over the Wizards’ reserve unit to help get the Mavs off the schnide.
“Shoutout to the bench mob, for sure,” Marshall said in his televised postgame interview. “It was a blessing.”
