NEW ORLEANS – Daniel Gafford said he felt like earlier in this season he was letting down his running mate at center, Dereck Lively II.
Make no mistake. Gafford, who is creeping up on the one-year anniversary of his arrival to the Mavericks, has let down nobody this season. But he couldn’t help the way he felt.
“At the start of the season, I felt like I wasn’t picking him up,” Gafford said after the Mavericks’ 137-136 win over the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday. “We’re a team and I’m supposed to have his back.
“Now that he’s out, it’s only right that I pick up where he left off.”
No worries there.
Gafford had 22 points and 12 rebounds against the Pelicans and has been on a serious sizzle since Lively went out with a stress fracture in his right ankle on Jan. 14.
Gafford’s numbers since Lively departed: 18.9 points and 10.6 rebounds per game and he has shot a remarkable 73.2 percent from the field.
Lots of those shots are dunks, but Gafford has mixed numerous nice jump-hooks that he is becoming very effective at.
Gafford was 9-of-9 from the field against the Pelicans and made all four of his free throws to go with four blocked shots and three assists. In other words, he was flawless. The Mavericks were plus-eight when Gafford was on the floor, best on the team.
As for his one-year anniversary with the Mavericks, Gafford said he doesn’t give it much thought and that he has handled it the way he thought best.
“I didn’t want to come in here and try to be the main guy,” he said. “They already got the main guy (Lively).”
Here’s our other takeaways from the win in New Orleans, which was the Mavericks’ third in their last four games.
Heating up: Klay Thompson had 20 points, the second game in a row he’s topped the 20 plateau. He had 23 on Monday against Washington. Is this the start of something big? Maybe. “We’re making an emphasis to get him the ball and to keep getting him the ball and value those minutes when he’s out there and call his number when we don’t have anything offensively,” Kyrie Irving said. “He’s one of those emergency buttons for us. He stays in rhythm and engaged. He does great things for us.”
Long-range weapons: For the second game in a row, the Mavericks made 20 three-pointers.
They hit 20-of-43 triples against the Pelicans after going 20-of-45 against Washington. It’s only the fourth time this season they’ve had 20 or more three-pointers and this is the first time they’ve done it back-to-back.
On a roll: P.J. Washington continues to run up big numbers in the absence of Luka Dončić and Lively. In the past eight games, Washington has averaged 19.5 points, along with 10.6 rebounds over the last eight games and he had 25 points and 14 boards against the Pelicans. He has not scored below 13 points or had fewer than seven rebounds in any of those games.
X: @ESefko
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