The Dallas Mavericks (19-30) fell to the Houston Rockets (30-17), 111-107, on Saturday night in a grindy, back-and-forth affair. Amen Thompson led Houston with 21 points, eight rebounds and nine assists. Cooper Flagg was stellar in defeat, scoring 34 points, grabbing 12 rebounds and dishing five assists.

Both the Mavericks and the Rockets started the game with many, many bricks. When Dallas called a timeout down 13-8 at the six-minute mark, the two teams had shot a combined 8-of-26 from the field. Flagg and Durant come out of the stoppage dueling, with the former driving the lane with authority and the latter connecting on beautiful jumpers. Dallas managed to hang with Houston early on as Alperen Sengun seemed to forget how to play basketball, missing all six of his attempts in the quarter. Brandon Williams’ efforts helped keep Dallas in the mix late into the frame with his paint probing, but Houston would end the quarter up 31-28.

The second quarter saw the Rockets continue to take Dallas lightly. The Mavericks went shot-for-shot with their betters in the first six minutes of the quarter. Following a Houston timeout, the Rockets finally managed to string together a few defensive possessions while converting on the other end. Sengun finally broke the seal on the basket with 5:05 left in the half to give the Rockets a five-point lead, forcing a Jason Kidd timeout. The lead grew to as large as eight, with Dallas managing to chop the lead to three with 30 seconds to go. But a Jabari Smith ally-oop and Durant 3-pointer gave the Rockets an eight-point lead heading into the half.

After outworking Houston on the boards on both ends in the first half, Dallas got hammered on the glass in the opening minutes of the third quarter. The Rockets grew their lead to 13 twice before Kidd called a timeout to settle the troops. The Mavericks just kept coming and had a chance to cut it to four on a Caleb Martin lay in, but it was blocked by two Rockets, which led to a Houston 3-pointer on the fast break. Martin later atoned with a made 3-ball and a free throw to cut the lead to five. Dallas entered the fourth down 87-82.

The final frame was more of the same: good basketball from both teams, with Houston being just a bit better. The Rockets managed to hold a double-digit lead for a significant portion of the period, but the Mavericks kept firing away. Klay Thompson’s back-to-back 3-pointers midway through the fourth gave the Mavericks some momentum, and a Flagg bucket with a foul gave Dallas a chance to make it a clutch game with under four minutes remaining. But he missed the free throw and Durant answered the possession to give Houston an eight-point lead.

Daniel Gafford made a pair of free throws to make it a clutch game with 2:30 to go, and he followed that up with a loose-ball dunk to pull Dallas within two. The Mavericks and Rockets traded baskets only for Naji Marshall to tie the game at 107 with 50 seconds left. Sengun answered the next possession with a post bucket over Max Christie, and Dallas called a timeout with 29 seconds to go. Flagg drove to the basket on the ensuing possession and pushed it too hard (there may have been uncalled contact). Dallas failed to foul and allowed an open-court dunk as Houston escaped Dallas, 111-107.

Have to make your free throws, guys

In a four point loss, the Mavericks missed 11 free throws. That can’t happen. The margins for the Mavericks are too tight most games, they’re *right there* in many contests so these self inflicted wounds really hurt. Flagg and Marshall combined to miss seven of them, and that will gnaw at them following this one.

Amen Thompson, everywhere all at once

Thompson’s the kind of player I struggle to explain to casuals. Everyone sees the top tier athleticism, but they also see the really bad 3-point shooting percentage. Here’s what I see: a guy who appears all over the basketball court. I don’t know how many deflections he had in this game, but his two steals don’t tell the tale. He pestered every passing lane he was near. Offensively, he grabbed five offensive rebounds. As a forward, that’s ridiculous. His nearly 80% free-throw shooting tells me there’s some hope yet to his shot, so this is a guy NBA watchers should keep a close eye on.

Extra Rockets possessions doomed Dallas

Dallas took 16 fewer shots than the Rockets. While they did reasonably well on the defensive glass in spurts against Houston, they didn’t do well enough, surrendering 18 (Dallas didn’t do bad themselves, grabbing 11). But if you get beat on the boards and turn the ball over more (11 to 6 in favor of Houston with fewer), then it’s really hard to win the game.