A win is a win in the NBA – even the wins that don’t make you jump for joy.

The Dallas Mavericks (8-7) earned their third straight victory on Tuesday, 132-91 over the New Orleans Pelicans (4-11), who came into the American Airlines Center missing six of their top eight players in their rotation. due to an injury. Sorry, Pelicans, not sorry – Dallas needs to pile up wins as the schedule starts to take a favorable turn.

The Mavericks held the Pels to just 40 points in the second half en route to the easy victory. Luka Dončić led the way for the Mavs with 26 points, five rebounds and five assists in the win, while Klay Thompson and Kyrie Irving combined to hit 9 of 14 from 3-point range and score another 38 against New Orleans.

Here are six more key stats from one of the most ridiculous games of the year, but first here’s another bonus for you: The Mavs have won by a greater point margin only 13 times in franchise history than Tuesday night’s 41 points, most recently the team’s 50-point win over Utah last December.

44: First quarter points for Dallas

The first quarter against a weakened New Orleans bunch was the Mavericks’ first 40-point quarter of the year. Last year, the Mavs exploded for more than 40 points in a quarter of 21 different times. But hey, we’ll get some offensive rhythm however we can get it this year. It’s never fun to see the ball go in.

Thompson and Irving both went 2-for-3 from 3-point range in the opening quarter. Quentin Grimes came off the bench and scored from distance in his first two attempts. It was good to see Dončić setting the tone, and he did so with some defense on the first two possessions of the game. He stole the ball from Brandon Ingram twice, converting both times against a less-than-enthusiastic Pelicans transition defense to force an early timeout from New Orleans head coach Willie Green.

Dončić had three steals that night.

Grimes’ second 3-pointer rattled home at the first quarter buzzer to give the Mavs a 44-29 lead after one. How that Pels team scored 29 in any quarter against a Mavericks team that should have hung its hat on that side of the field I’ll never know, but this isn’t the time to make a big deal out of that, I think.

19: Second quarter points for Dallas

I thought that was the case, but Dallas continued to play with its food in the second quarter. The short-handed Pelicans outscored the Mavericks 19-8 to end the first half, and Dallas put together one of the worst offensive quarters of the young season right after one of the best. They scored just 19 points on 8-of-23 shooting in the second quarter.

The Mavs built a lead as large as 23 when Dončić hit his first and only three-pointer of the first half, stepping back from the left wing with 7:49 left in the second. Dallas led 55-32 at the time, but the Mavs hit only two of their next ten field goal attempts over the next five minutes, including a pair in the lane. New Orleans went to a zone look in the second, which seemed to confuse the Mavs on offense for a few minutes.

Still, the Mavs took a 63-51 lead into the break. No harm, no offense. Pelicans forward Trey Murphy III led all scorers with 14 at the half, while Irving and Dončić each had 12 for the Mavs. Murphy would score just five more in the second half.

6-of-19: Pelicans third-quarter shooting

Photo by Sam Hodde/Getty Images

Then the Pelicans just fell apart in the third quarter. They shot just 6-of-19 from the field, including just 2-of-7 from 3-point territory, and turned the ball over six times in the frame.

The Mavericks expanded their lead in a hurry, and Thompson and Irving had everything to do with it. Thompson went 3-for-6 from 3-point land in the third, and Irving connected on both of his 3-point attempts. They came up with back-to-back possessions with less than three minutes to play in the third, putting the Mavs up 87-65 at that point.

5-of-9: Klay Thompson 3-point shooting

Thompson used the blowout win as a bit of shooting practice after combining for 2-of-11 in the last two games. Captain Splash made 5-of-9 from deep and then said in post-match interviews that he was still frustrated with “the one I missed in the corner, and the other one on the right wing” after the 41-pint win.

Thompson finished the night with 19 points in 24 minutes with four rebounds and two steals.

24, 28, 30: Minutes played by Thompson, Irving and Dončić

In a match like this you just want to secure the victory and go to the dressing room without injuries and hopefully with some extra rest. Oh yeah, and if you’re into NBA Cup stuff, this was a good opportunity to increase the scoring margin, because that’s something that counts for tiebreaker purposes in group play. The Mavs have done it all without having to use Dončić, who has been dealing with a sore knee and groin this season, or the old guard of Irving and Thompson for excess minutes.

No Mavs starter had to play more than Dončić’s 30 minutes on Tuesday. The home team settled for a rather pleasant victory against the unfortunate New Orleans team, as the last six minutes turned out to be a mess. The Dallas bench contributed 56 points to the victory.

7: Mavericks in double figures

Seven Mavericks scored in double figures for the second straight game. According to the Mavs broadcast team, this was the first time since 2019 that the Mavs did that in back-to-back games.

As depleted as the teams ahead of them were, it’s good to see the squad starting to find some rhythm and the shots starting to fall. There are at least more positives than negatives at this point, not the least of which is Jaden Hardy. Tuesday marked his third straight game in double-digit scoring off the bench. He scored 11 points and had three assists in the win over New Orleans. Grimes also scored 12 points and eight boards.