The Dallas Mavericks moved out of the NBA’s dreaded play-in tournament and into a more comfortable spot in the playoffs
Thursday night. And how did they celebrate the occasion?
They went out and put on an historic dunk-a-thon contest for the American Airlines Center sellout crowd of 20,277.
Luka Dončić scored 34 points and the Mavs crammed a whopping 18 dunks through the nets and went on to pound the Utah Jazz, 113-97. Coupled with the Washington Wizards’ 109-102 win over the Sacramento Kings on Thursday, the Mavs (41-29) are now in sole possession of the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference and half-a-game ahead of the 40-29 Kings, who slid all the way down to the eighth spot out West.
The Phoenix Suns, who own the same record as the Mavs, have climbed to the No. 7 spot in the West.
While things can change quickly in the playoff picture, the Mavs control their own destiny as far as owning one of the precious top six playoff spots out West. They hope to stay there or move even higher. Their quest to achieve that goal starts Monday when they face the Jazz again, this time in Utah, to kick off a five-game trip which also includes a pair of games against the Kings.
In Thursday’s meeting, the Mavs staged a dunk fest that kept the Jazz off-balanced and kept Dallas in position where they just kept on 
ringing up easy opportunity baskets. The 18 dunks ties for the second-most dunks in a game in NBA history, trailing only the 20 dunks the Los Angeles Clippers had on Dec. 21, 2019, while the Wizards collected 18 dunks on Dec. 1, 2021.
All of that muscle the Mavs put on display in attacking the rim just proved they now can win games with their physicality inside the paint at a time when they have a reputation for leaning heavily on the three-point shot to win games.
“When you look at just the past teams, we weren’t super athletic,” coach Jason Kidd said. “We weren’t going to win the dunk contest in the warm-up line.
“I think now we can compete in the layup line.”
Dončić, who also collected nine rebounds, eight assists and four steals, helped jump-start the Mavs’ most athletic dunk of the night. The five-time All-Star hit the floor near mid-court and out-fought Keyonte George for the ball, then tossed it blindly over his shoulders to Kyrie Irving, who promptly lobbed it high in the air, which Derrick Jones grabbed and jammed it through the rim to give the Mavs a 65-58 lead with 7:33 remaining in the third quarter.
“That was a great play, man, great play,” said Irving, who finished with 16 points, five rebounds and seven assists. “That’s when you know we’re rolling and we’re feeling good when we do kind of those selfless plays on the fly and we’re trying to create some momentum for ourselves.
“When one of our star players is on the floor, then everybody’s got to get on the floor, and that’s just what it is. That’s the example we set and we
follow and I think it just sets the tone for the rest of the team on what we have to do to win ball games. If (Dončić) is on the floor, we all got to get on the floor.”
Being on the back end of the crowd-pleasing play, Jones said: “Great hustle play by Luka putting his body on the line to get the ball and get another play for us. I told (Irving) at the beginning of the season, if he’s on a fast break and I’m trailing him, he can throw the ball up and take the layup, and I’ll be right there behind him to clean it up.
“Or he can throw the ball up in the air and I’ll go get it. We already got that connection going.”
It was a night where Daniel Gafford had a great connection going as he converted 10 of his 11 field goals and also had seven of his 10 dunks in the second half, including four in the fourth quarter when the Jazz made a semi-mild threat.
“Yeah, it was like one of those Wilt (Chamberlain) nights — 10-for-11,” Kidd said, referring to Gafford. “The quarterbacks love finding him.
“He has great hands. His ability to finish in traffic is something that we haven’t had.”
Utah chopped a 100-81 deficit down to 106-95 to make things somewhat interesting. But Jones perfectly executed a fast break dunk via a feed from Irving, and Dončić followed with a three-point play that put the Mavs comfortably ahead, 111-95, with 1:04 left.
“When you have talent, it’s always easy to say that you’re supposed to win, but you have to put the talent together and trust one another,” Kidd said. “Sometimes we want it to happen overnight.
“It’s March and we’re playing on both sides of the ball. We’re not shooting the three as well as we would like, but we’re still getting wide-open looks (and) guys are still taking them.”
The Mavs scored 62 of their points in the paint. And with Gafford thoroughly abusing the rim, the Mavs were well on their way to winning for the seventh time in their last eight games.
“(I was) really just making the right reads,” Gafford said. “There were a lot of guys that were coming to help getting guys (who) were getting downhill.
“That’s my job getting guys downhill. Whenever eyes are on me, just be in the right spot at the right time to catch the lob or get a dump off pass.”
And not only did Gafford score 24 points. He also had six rebounds and five assists. It marked the first time he’s enjoyed a 20-point-five-rebound-five-assist game in his career, and it’s just the third time a Mavs center had ever put up such a stat line. The other two were Roy Tarpley (Nov. 3, 1990) and Tom LaGarde (Dec. 30, 1980 and Feb. 11, 1981).
Irving, meanwhile, even got in on the dunk show after he caught a lob pass from Dončić and hammered home his fourth dunk of the season — one-handed style — which put the Mavs up, 75-56, with 4:32 remaining in the third quarter.
“It’s vital for us to keep attacking the paint and test teams at the rim,” Irving said. “(The dunk is) the most efficient shot in basketball.
“I just want to continue to have that mentality to attack other teams. It can help us tremendously as we get ready for the playoffs.”
The Mavs did some nifty bookend damage in this second quarter which helped them get control of this game. First, the Mavs opened the second 
quarter on a 9-0 run to assume a 35-27 lead.
Then, after the Jazz inched to within 42-39 of the Mavs, Dallas finished the second quarter on an 11-3 run and toted a 53-42 lead into the dressing room at the half. The Mavs’ halftime cushion would have been larger if not for their 6-of-15 showing at the free throw line.
And with the dunks coming time after time, the Mavs kept pouring it on until they build that insurmountable 19-point cushion.
“It brings energy in the building,” Gafford said of the dunks. “You get the crowd into it. It just kind of feeds into the offensive side, and then we get stops on the other end too.
“They put more fuel to the fire. We just come out and keep doing the same thing over and over again. (We) can’t get bored with it.”
The Mavs, who shot 50 percent from the field, also can’t get bored with their new status among the Western Conference’s top six teams.
“We just got to keep it going like that,” said Jones, who scored 12 points. “You just got to keep it going and finish out strong. We all know what we’re fighting for.”
X: @DwainPrice
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