Little things make a big difference, both in life and in basketball. I can think of countless examples in my personal life where scratching inches made a positive difference, and I’m sure you can too.

I recently had a conversation with someone with a basketball acumen that I respect immensely: my brother, Rob Harris. He tuned into the Pod Maverick podcast on Saturday night, where I had the privilege of joining Kirk Henderson and David Trink. Coming out of that episode, my brother suggested the idea that we at Mavs Moneyball discuss some of the little things that can get lost while watching a game, but nevertheless have a big impact on momentum swings and ultimately the outcome. As a result of that idea, we welcome you to the first episode of Turning Points after the Mavericks defeated the Jazz 110-102 on Monday night.

Turning point: Kyrie Irving’s late 3s in the first quarter

At the 59-second mark of the first quarter, Kyrie Irving missed a jumper that resulted in a Collin Sexton three for the Jazz nine seconds later. With the Mavs’ lead down to two, Kyrie came back on the other end and nailed a three of her own. After forcing a Jazz missed three, Kyrie scored another three of his own with one second left. Within a minute the two-point lead grew to eight points. This is an object lesson on why you keep hearing about quarter closings.

Turning point: Klay Thompson’s 3 near the end of the first half

With 33 seconds left in the half, Luka Doncic was at the free throw line. He hit his first attempt to give the Mavericks a five-point lead, but missed his second freebie. Dereck Lively cleared the offensive board, turned and delivered a pass to Klay Thompson, who was unsurprisingly in the perfect spot at the top of the three-point arc. Thompson calmly drained a three to extend the lead to eight on four-point possessions.

Turning point: Luka Doncic’s technical foul in the third quarter

In the third quarter, Doncic got on the referee’s bad side and earned a technical foul. The Tech came at the 7:26 mark with the Mavericks leading by 13. By the 6:16 mark, the Jazz had ripped off eight straight points to cut the lead to five and were hanging around. Techs are like a foul in baseball because they are so often a momentum killer for the offending team that can too easily result in a positive outburst for the opposing team.

Turning point: Luka Doncic’s three-pointer late in the fourth quarter

For our final turning point of the evening, we have something of a two-on-one. After Klay Thompson extended the Mavs’ lead to 11 just inside the five-minute mark, Dallas was ready to put it away and go into garbage time. The Jazz had other ideas. Jordan Clarkson hit a three, Collin Sexton got two more points off a Daniel Gafford goalie and Kyrie Irving had an uncharacteristic turnover to make it a six-point game and more interesting than Mavs fans wanted.

In came Luka Doncic, who hit his first three of the night to extend the lead to nine. To close, Kyrie hit two free throws and Luka added a layup around some key stops. The Stars took the lead in the closing minutes to take the win.

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