Saturday's matchup between the Dallas Mavericks and the New Orleans Pelicans started off like an exciting, close game. The teams had scored 31 and 28 points respectively, and Luka Doncic had poured in 11 early points.
Unfortunately for the Pelicans, the first half ended, and the third quarter couldn't have been worse for them. The Mavericks outscored the Pelicans 40-14 behind a blistering shooting performance of 60% from the field and 41% from three. Conversely, the Pelicans shot an abysmal 25% from the field and 9% from the field. The game was over after that.
Back on November 24th, I wrote about how the Mavericks' relative offensive rating was the best since 1990 with a +9.3. Prior to their game against the Pelicans, their relative offensive rating dropped a little bit to a +8.7 which is still good enough for 2nd since 1990. After Saturday's 130-point explosion, that number will definitely move up again.