The Dallas Mavericks are still looking for their first win of the Summer League in 2024 after losing to the Miami Heat 92-79 in Las Vegas Wednesday afternoon.
Heat first-round pick Kel’el Ware shined, particularly in the fourth quarter, leading all scorers with 24 points. Mavericks forward AJ Lawson topped Dallas’ scoring with 23 points.
The Mavericks appeared poised for their first win following a strong first quarter, leading 21-14 thanks to contributions from Lawson and guard Jazian Gortman, who started after two solid performances in the previous games. However, the Heat took over from the second quarter onward. Miami outscored Dallas 23-11 in the second quarter and, despite a few Mavericks’ attempts to rally in the second half, maintained control in the fourth quarter.
To be fair to the Mavericks, this was a significantly better effort and performance than Monday’s loss to the Grizzlies, where the Mavericks had 27 turnovers and looked horrendous. Dallas kept pace with a good Miami team, cut down the turnover number to 18 and fought till the end. Ware was a monster, continuing his dominant summer after getting drafted 15th overall in the 2024 NBA Draft. In addition to his 24 points, he had 10 rebounds, three blocks and one steal. The Heat might have another keeper — Ware is awesome, and no one on the Dallas roster could physically match up with him.
Dallas has two more chances left to leave Vegas with a win, the next coming on Friday against Boston at 3:30 p.m. CT.
Alondes Williams had the dunk of the summer
We’re three games into Mavericks Summer League, and with three losses and Olivier Maxence-Prosper struggling, it’s been very difficult to take away anything of note from these games that’s related to Dallas. So instead we’ll lead off with this awesome dunk from the Heat’s Alondes Williams.
Whew, that’s nasty. Williams cocking it so far back and finishing strong was easily the most exciting part of this game, even if it came at the Mavericks expense. This dunk came when the Mavericks were mounting a rally and it felt like it was all downhill from this moment. Hard to blame them, this dunk was sweet.
AJ Lawson showed signs of life
Lawson has been a two-way player for the Mavericks a few times over the last couple of seasons, and this is now his fourth Summer League. That’s a lot of Summer League for one player, and eventually the opportunities will run cold, so this was very much a do-or-die summer for Lawson.
