At 7:44 of the third quarter, Marcus Sasser assisted Sergio de Larrea on a 24-foot jumper. He followed that pass with 3-pointers at 4:14 and 2:59, helping Dallas turn a 14-point deficit into a one-possession game. The Mavericks had located an offensive pulse. They did not keep it through the finish.
San Antonio defeated Dallas 122-106 on Saturday at American Airlines Center, leaving both teams 1-2. For the Mavericks, Sasser supplied one of the clearest examples of how the offense could function during a difficult night: he scored efficiently, created for teammates and briefly gave the third quarter a different rhythm.
He finished with 12 points on 5-of-9 shooting, went 2-for-5 from 3-point range and handed out five assists in 27 minutes. His plus-1 was a small box-score detail, useful context but no proof that his presence caused Dallas’s better stretches.
The third-quarter sequence gives the performance its shape. When Sasser found de Larrea at 7:44, San Antonio led 77-63. Sasser later assisted Zaccharie Risacher on a layup at 5:48, cutting the margin to eight. At 4:14, Sasser’s 25-foot pull-up made it 82-80. Another 25-footer at 2:59 reduced the Spurs’ lead to 84-83.
Fifty-eight seconds later, Sasser created again. His pass set up de Larrea’s driving floater at 2:01, putting Dallas ahead 85-84. Those possessions explain why the five assists matter more than a bare total: Sasser was directly involved in several baskets during the Mavericks’ strongest push, either finishing himself or supplying the pass that moved the possession forward.
Dallas scored 29 points in the third quarter and trimmed an eight-point halftime deficit to three. It was a productive response, though not the team’s best scoring quarter; Dallas had 31 points in the first and 29 in the second. The improvement came in the leverage of the possessions. The Mavericks turned a game that had been drifting toward San Antonio into a contest again.
Then the fourth quarter arrived without a sequel. Sasser began it on the bench, and Walter Clayton Jr. assisted Daniel Gafford on a layup at 11:32, bringing Dallas within 92-91. San Antonio answered with 11 consecutive points, reaching 103-91 before Dallas scored again.
Sasser returned at 9:01, but the offense did not recover its third-quarter timing. Clayton’s 3-pointer at 8:47 cut the deficit to nine.
Dallas then went through four failed field-goal attempts before Washington’s dunk at 5:27: Clayton’s driving layup was blocked by De’Aaron Fox at 8:22, Risacher missed a 3-pointer at 7:10, Washington missed a 3 at 6:57, and de Larrea missed a driving floater at 6:05. In between, Sasser grabbed the offensive rebound after Risacher’s miss, but Washington’s shot ended the possession.
