The Dallas bench scored 44 points Friday night, and it did so in several different dialects. Morez Johnson Jr. kept possessions alive, Naji Marshall moved the ball, Walter Clayton Jr. supplied scoring and Santi Aldama returned to add frontcourt muscle. Utah’s reserves managed 19 points.
In a 112-100 Mavericks victory at American Airlines Center, that 25-point reserve gap gave Dallas enough support for its starting stars to recover without carrying every minute themselves.
Aldama’s return was the first encouraging piece of the reserve story. In 13 minutes, he scored eight points and grabbed nine rebounds, four of them on the offensive end. His impact was concentrated rather than theatrical: extra chances, a few finishes and three made free throws to open the fourth quarter.
At 11:39 of that period, Aldama converted all three attempts and pushed Dallas from 89-76 to 92-76. Clayton followed with a driving layup at 11:12.
That frontcourt work mattered because Dallas had no shooting cushion. The Mavericks made 9 of 32 three-point attempts, while Utah hit 15 of 39. Lauri Markkanen made eight threes by himself and scored 24 points, all from beyond the arc. Dallas had to win the game through other routes, and the reserves helped create those routes rather than waiting for the perimeter to become cooperative.
Johnson was the clearest example. He finished with 13 points and 17 rebounds, including 10 offensive boards. With Utah ahead 70-68 after Ace Bailey’s dunk at 7:44 of the third quarter, Johnson collected an offensive rebound at 7:34.
He secured another at 7:06, and Kyrie Irving then hit a 14-foot pullup to give Dallas a 72-70 lead. Johnson grabbed one more offensive rebound at 6:33. Those plays did not all become immediate points, but they kept Dallas’ possession alive.
Dallas then produced a 13-0 run to move from 68-70 down to 81-70 with 3:33 left in the third. The stretch was not uninterrupted for the rest of the quarter: Josh Green ended Utah’s scoring drought with a three-pointer at 2:48. Still, Dallas had changed the game’s direction.
Johnson later scored on a one-foot dunk at 1:41, with Marshall credited for the assist, and the Mavericks reached the fourth with an 89-76 advantage.
Marshall’s contribution was less about volume than connection. He scored seven points, handed out five assists and played 25 minutes. At 5:55 of the third, his assist set up Cooper Flagg’s dunk.
Later, he found Johnson for a layup with 7:24 remaining in the fourth, then added a running dunk of his own at 4:07 after P.J. Washington’s assist. Marshall did not need to become another primary scorer; he helped turn other players’ work into finished possessions.
Clayton performed the reserve job Marshall did not. He scored 12 points in 23 minutes, went 4 of 8 from the field and made one three-pointer. His assist on Aldama’s three-foot layup at 2:29 of the third was a small connective play, but his fourth-quarter scoring carried more weight.
