NBA 2018-19: 3 Takeaways from the Sacramento Kings' win over the Dallas Mavericks

Final Score: Sacramento Kings beat Dallas Mavericks 120-113

Stats:

Mavericks - 53 rebounds, 22 assists, 5 blocks and 6 steals

Kings - 47 rebounds, 20 assists, 7 blocks and 6 steals

The Sacramento Kings ended the Dallas Mavericks' excellent home court winning streak with a seven point victory at the American Airlines Centre, spoiling Dirk Nowitzki's return home for this season.

Guards Buddy Hield and De'Aaron Fox scored 28 apiece as they led the way with Dallas rookie Luka Doncic in the scorers' column at the other end. The Mavericks had an 11-game winning streak at home, tied with the best home record in the NBA, but that was ended in fine fashion by the Kings.

Coming off a tough loss to the Golden State Warriors, where they gave up a 10-point lead in only the last three minutes of the game, the Kings held onto their lead for the entire second half yesterday to keep the Mavericks at bay.

Here are the three main talking points from the game in Dallas.

#1 Dirk Nowitzki return spoiled

The 40-year-old Power Forward for the Dallas Mavericks made history just a few nights prior as he became the only man to play 21 NBA seasons for the same franchise. On the court for only a few minutes, Nowitzki passed Kobe Bryant to claim the record.

After missing the first 26 games of the season while recovering from a pre-season ankle surgery, the veteran took the floor at the American Airlines Centre once again late in the first quarter, scoring three points in eight minutes.

Nowitzki entered the game to what can be assumed one of many standing ovations to come from this season, as it is believed this will be his last in the NBA, and in a Dallas uniform. But the future Hall Of Famer returning home just wasn't enough as Dallas failed to find it in them to secure the victory.

The Kings were intent on spoiling Dirk's party, and that's exactly what they did.

#2 De'Aaron Fox taking over

De'Aaron Fox has become a front runner for the Most Improved Player honour already this season. In just his second year in the league, Fox has improved his points per game by seven, rebounds by one and assists by three, while also drastically improving his shooting percentages from beyond the arc.

The 20-year-old from New Orleans, who was picked by the Kings with the fifth pick overall in the 2017 NBA draft, has quickly become one of the best players of the draft after a slowish rookie year. Fox had another outstanding game here against the Mavericks with a game-high 28 points, along with five assists and three rebounds.

The Mavericks had closed to within five points with a couple minutes left before Fox decided to step up and ice the game with a clutch layup and assist on back to back plays.

#3 Dallas' three point shooting woes

The Dallas Mavericks have been struggling from behind the arc in the past few games, and it didn't get any better yesterday.

After a low point of just 14% three point shooting in a loss to the worst team in the NBA, the Phoenix Suns, where Dallas shot a mere five of 33 from deep, they would have been hoping for a drastic improvement back up to their average of 35% 3FG%.

Unfortunately for the Mavericks, the increase was smaller than they would have hoped as they only reached 25% off nine of 35 three point shots against the Kings. If it were not for Harrison Barnes' 3 of 7 and Wes Matthews' 3 of 6, Dallas would have been blown out by the Kings as no one else could consistently find the bucket from deep.

Dallas will have to hope this trend doesn't continue if they want to keep their playoff position come the end of the season.

Edited by Musab Abid