The Dallas Mavericks (41-29) took care of business Thursday against the struggling Utah Jazz (29-41), securing another much-needed win as the Mavs jockey for position in the Western Conference playoff race. On a night when both the Sacramento Kings and the New Orleans Pelicans, the two teams right in front of the Mavs in the standings, lost, Dallas’ 113-97 win at the American Airlines Center vaulted the team into sixth and out of the play-in—for the moment.

Luka Dončić led all scorers with 34 points on 11-of-23 shooting, pulled down nine rebounds and found his teammates for eight assists in the win. He also recorded four steals on the defensive end. Daniel Gafford had another impact performance as well and finished with 24 points (a new high mark since being traded to the Mavericks) on 10 dunks and six boards.

After a slow start to the first quarter, the Mavs moved in front of the Jazz, 8-7, on a long 3-pointer from Dončić four minutes into the game. His leaning 3-point play in the lane with 4:47 left in the first put the Mavericks back in front, 15-14. Dallas started the game just 1-of-5 from beyond the arc against the league’s worst 3-point defense, continuing a trend from their two previous games, when they went a combined 19-of-65 (29.2 percent) from deep.

Dončić dragged the rest of the Mavericks along with 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting in the first, but turnovers and cold shooting from the rest of the roster held the Mavs back in the game’s early moments. Jaden Hardy’s corner 3-ball with two seconds left in the first pulled Dallas to within one, down 27-26, and that’s how the first quarter ended.

The Mavs looked a little better in the second quarter, but Mavs fans everywhere held their collective breath when Daniel Gafford came up lame after a collision with Utah big man Micah Potter under the basket with 7:26 to play before the half. He was favoring his left leg on the way to the Dallas locker room, according to the Mavs’ broadcast team. He was later seen back on the bench with ice on his hip, and he returned to action in the third. He jammed home a lob from Dončić on the Mavs’ first possession of the third, and all was right in Big D.

Dallas shot a putrid 6-of-15 from the free-throw line in the first half, letting Utah stay in the game even without starting point guard Jordan Clarkson, who sat out with a groin injury. Dončić, who is shooting a career-high 78.8 percent from the charity stripe this year, was just 2-of-5 in the first half. The team shot 12-of-13 from the line in the second half, so that was good to see.

Dončić provided the highlight of the first half in the waning minutes of the second, when he hit a step-back 3-pointer from deep on the left wing with 35 seconds left, took down the defensive rebound on the other end, then banked in another long 3-ball with two seconds left in the half. Dallas took a 53-42 advantage into the break.

The Mavs methodically built their lead early in the third. They scored the first six points of the quarter to extend the lead to 59-42 on two free throws from Derrick Jones Jr., then went up 63-46 on a broken play in the backcourt that ended in another Gafford dunk with 8:38 left in the frame.

The piéce de resistance came on a hustle play from Dončić, where he knocked the ball away from Utah guard Keyonte George, dove to the floor to recover the steal, then tossed a cheeky little pass over his shoulder to a streaking Kyrie Irving, who lobbed it three stories in the air for Jones. Jones skied for a vicious jam to give the Mavs a 65-48 lead.

Dallas gave some of it back late in the third as the Jazz battled back to within 10, down 83-73 heading into the fourth. The rout was back on midway through the fourth quarter. Irving’s pull-up 3-pointer midway through the frame put the Mavs up 100-81. Irving chipped in 16 points, five rebounds and five assists in the win.

P.J. Washington and Tim Hardaway Jr. can’t buy a bucket right now
Not to drop a turd in the Mavs’ bucket of joy, but P.J. Washington and Tim Hardaway Jr. just can’t buy a bucket right now. They went a combined 1-for-7 in the first quarter, including 0-of-5 from 3-point range. They finished the game a combined 3-of-13, with Hardaway recording a dreaded donut, going 0-for-4 on his own.

Hardaway came into the game shooting just 34.9 percent from the field in his last 10 games, and Washington hasn’t been any better, hitting just 37.4 percent overall and 24.1 percent from distance in that span.

However you feel about them, Hardaway and Washington are two key cogs for this team, and these are trends that need to reverse themselves down the stretch. They’re contributing nothing lately, and against playoff-level competition, they have to be able to give this team something — anything, please, on the offensive end. Washington might deserve a little more latitude because of his contributions on the defensive end, but watching these two has gotten rough lately.

This new winning formula is a real thing
The Mavericks allowed Utah just 15 points on 6-of-19 shooting in the second quarter and won the battle on the boards 30-24 in the first half. Meanwhile, on offense, Dallas cleaned up any lingering ball security issues and turned the ball over just once in the second quarter.

The Mavs not only scored 62 points in the paint against the Jazz, but 36 of those points came on 18 dunks. That sets a new high mark in the league for slams in a game this season as well as a new Mavericks single-game franchise record. The Los Angeles Lakers dunked the ball 17 times in a matchup against the Jazz earlier this year.

Across the second and third quarters, the Jazz turned the ball over 13 times and connected on just 1-of-15 on 3-point attempts. Lauri Markkanen had an especially tough night in Dallas. He’s been battling injuries lately and missed seven of eight coming into Thursday’s game. Markkanen finished with 20 points on 6-of-20 shooting (1-of-9 from 3-point land).