While all the centers around him unfortunately have been falling like dominoes this season, Daniel Gafford has been that one stabilizing
force in the middle for the Dallas Mavericks.
Not only has Gafford (along with guard Spencer Dinwiddie) played in a team-high 44 of the Mavs’ 46 games this season. But Gafford also is averaging a career-best 12.3 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1.6 blocks, and ranks fourth in the NBA in field goal shooting at a gaudy 69.9 percent.
Overall, it’s the best season of Gafford’s six-year career.
“Honestly, I’m really just motivated right now,” he said. “I’ve got a lot of things that’s going through my head when it comes to the team, and a lot of guys are encouraging me to just keep my head about it.
“I don’t worry about mistakes. I don’t worry about the play before or anything like that. I just have a next-play mentality, and I try to be able to do my job at an elite level and make sure I talk on defense, block shots (and) grab rebounds. Do everything that I was brought here to do at an elite level every night.”
Gafford certainly played at an elite level during Saturday’s 122-107 loss to the Boston Celtics when he poured in 19 points, collected a game-high 15 rebounds (eight offensive) and blocked a game-high three shots in 33 minutes. He also has a flair for flexing his muscles and energizing the 
crowd, especially when he powers home a slam dunk with authority, as was often the case against the Celtics.
“I just feel like it gives us that extra push,” Gafford said. “If we don’t have enough energy, my energy is going to be able to just push guys. The dunks, the blocked shots, the screaming, that creates momentum for us.
“And throughout the course of the game, that helps us a lot because now we’re not worried about mistakes that we made beforehand. I’m just having fun.”
The fun for Gafford and the Mavs ceased with less than five minutes left in the third quarter when backup center Maxi Kleber fractured his right foot. With centers Dereck Lively II (right ankle stress fracture) and Dwight Powell (right hip strain) already sidelined, Kleber’s injury meant Gafford is the lone healthy center on the roster.
What’s more, Gafford has played 30 or more minutes in four of the past six games since Lively was injured Jan. 14 against Denver. Before that, Gafford had played at least 30 minutes in a game only once this season, Nov. 10 at Denver while Lively sat out with a shoulder injury.
Gafford usually has a tag-team job with Lively at center. But that’s not the case anymore with the injury.
“His minutes have definitely gone up,” coach Jason Kidd said, referring to Gafford. “We’re
stretching him. We’re running out of centers.
“It’s a heavy load for him to carry, but he’s one that has to pick up some more minutes here. He can score and rebound as well (and) he’s doing that for us, playing at a high level. But we’re going to have to lean on him, because he’s one of the last of the centers standing.”
As his minutes increase, Gafford doesn’t feel pressured to step up all areas of his game. However, he knows the Mavs are depending on him to hold down the fort in the middle on both ends of the court until the cavalry gets healthy.
And as he has the back of his injured teammates, Gafford tried to put this season in its proper perspective.
“It’s a lot of ups and downs in a season and we get flustered in certain situations, so I had kind of gotten in the mix of a lot of that,” he said. “So, I just took a step back, re-assessed a lot of stuff and just took a deep breath and was like, ‘It’s going to be OK,’ because one bad game does not make a season.
“A couple of bad games don’t make a season. At the end of the day, we’ve got another game after that bad game or after that good game. We just got to keep up.”
Here are the three takeaways from the Mavs’ 15-point loss to the Celtics.
IRVING HAS SOLID GAME: While playing a game-high 42 minutes against his former team, Mavs guard Kyrie Irving scored a team-high 22 points, grabbed four rebounds, distributed five assists and blocked a shot on Saturday. Irving has had to take on a bigger role – especially when it comes to initiating the offense — since Luka Dončić has been sidelined after suffering a left calf strain in the Dec. 25 game against Minnesota.
CELTICS A REBOUNDING MACHINE: The Celtics held a slim 51-49 edge over the Mavs in the rebounding department during Saturday’s game. That includes a 17-13 advantage in offensive rebounds. Six members of the Celtics grabbed at least five rebounds: reserves Luke Kornet (nine), Payton Pritchard (nine) and Al Horford (six), and starters Jaylen Brown (eight), Jayson Tatum (six) and Derrick White (five). Horford also had four offensive rebounds, while White, Pritchard and Kornet each had three.
RAINING THREES FOR BOSTON: Boston ended up doing what it does best. And that’s shoot three-pointers. The Celtics jacked up a lot of them (52) on Saturday and a lot of them (20) found their way through the basket. Boston converted just 2-of-10 three-pointers in the first quarter, then added 7-of-15 shots from downtown in the second quarter. That trend continued when the Celtics nailed 8-of-18 triples in the third quarter and wound up making 3-of-9 three-pointers in the fourth quarter.
X: @DwainPrice
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