Walter Clayton Jr.’s first fourth-quarter assist arrived with Dallas still staring up at a substantial deficit. At 11:35, he found Cooper Flagg for a 9-foot driving floater, trimming San Antonio’s lead to 90-82.
The Mavericks would lose 112-111 at Frost Bank Center, but that pass introduced the more encouraging part of the night: Dallas had another guard capable of organizing possessions when Kyrie Irving stopped supplying the bulk of the scoring.
Clayton finished with eight points, six rebounds and five assists without a turnover in 21 minutes. Irving had scored 29 points, including 10 in the third quarter, but finished with two in the fourth on 1-for-5 shooting. That is not a reason to demote the team’s primary creator.
It is a reason to value the player who kept the offense from becoming entirely dependent on him.
Clayton’s next fourth-quarter assist came at 7:03, when Naji Marshall pulled up for an 11-foot jumper. Dallas trailed 98-96. There was no elaborate finish attached to it, just a ballhandler getting the possession to a productive scorer in position to shoot.
Marshall had already become Dallas’ most reliable fourth-quarter scorer, and Clayton helped keep that option in the game’s flow rather than waiting for Irving to manufacture another difficult attempt.
The most productive sequence came shortly afterward. At 5:48, P.J. Washington missed a running layup, and Clayton grabbed the offensive rebound. Clayton missed a tip shot at 5:44, then secured another offensive rebound. Ten seconds after Washington’s miss, at 5:38, Washington made a 24-foot three-pointer from Clayton’s pass to put Dallas ahead 103-100, its first lead since the opening quarter.
That possession was a compact argument for secondary creation. Clayton missed his tip, then secured another offensive rebound. That kept the possession alive for Washington’s three.
The Mavericks needed possessions that could survive a missed first action, and Clayton gave them one. San Antonio answered 18 seconds later with Victor Wembanyama’s only made three of the night, but the brief lead showed Dallas could produce a credible attack without handing every late decision to Irving.
Clayton’s fourth assist came at 2:54, when he fed Flagg for a 2-foot basket that made Dallas’ deficit 107-106. The timing matters. Wembanyama scored at 2:39 to put San Antonio ahead 109-106, but Clayton’s pass had already provided Dallas an immediate answer after the Spurs’ star had extended his influence over the closing stretch.
The sequence did not solve the game; it prevented one empty possession from becoming a larger problem.
His fifth assist was part of the total he assembled before the final minutes. Dallas finished with 29 assists and only eight turnovers, a strong organizational number on a night when the Mavericks shot 39-for-102. Their offense was hardly smooth, but Clayton’s zero turnovers helped keep the comeback from being undone by avoidable giveaways.
