The box that jumped first on Friday did not belong to the names on the marquee. It belonged to Morez Johnson Jr. on the glass.
Johnson posted his first NBA double-double with 13 points and 17 rebounds in the Dallas Mavericks' 112-100 Emirates NBA Cup win over the Utah Jazz at American Airlines Center. ESPN's box breaks the rebounds into 10 offensive and seven defensive, with 5-of-8 shooting, a three, two free throws, two assists, a steal and a block in 24 minutes and a plus-20.
The Associated Press said the 13 points tied his season best and that a one-handed alley-oop dunk sealed the double-double during Dallas's third-quarter surge.
Dallas is 5-4 and 2-0 in Cup play. Utah is 1-8 after a seventh consecutive defeat, per the AP. The Mavericks' site listed Utah at 1-7 after the game; the AP and ESPN scoreboard both carried 1-8.
Ten on the offensive glass
Cooper Flagg put Johnson's night in one sentence. "He was crashing every single time," Flagg said on the team's site. "Ten offensive rebounds - that doesn't happen without incredible effort. When he's in that mode, it's going to make us a lot better."
Those extra possessions mattered while Flagg and Kyrie Irving were still cold. The pair had six points on 3-of-17 shooting in the first half, the club wrote, and P.J. Washington's 22 points before the break plus Johnson's offensive rebounds kept Dallas tied rather than buried. Coach Dusty May grouped them together as the reason the Mavericks never faced a second-half hole.
Back from the shin splints
Johnson had been managing shin splints through camp and the season's opening week, the Mavericks reported. Asked about his status after the win, he kept it short: "I'm back man, I'm right here."
