Mavericks desperately need Klay Thompson to do something he hasn't in 3 weeks

Dallas Mavericks fans who spent their Monday evening at the American Airlines Center were blessed with an absolute masterpiece from Klay Thompson for the first 10 minutes of the game that they will never forget.

Thompson sunk seven threes in the first quarter, tying Luka Doncic's franchise record for 3-pointers made in a quarter, and he was playing extremely aggressive right out of the gates. He seemingly couldn't miss, and the crowd was going crazier after every 3-pointer that he drained. Thompson's aggressive mindset was emphasized by assistant coach Jared Dudley before the game, as he told Thompson to play with confidence and get some shots up.

Thompson's 23-point performance came at the perfect time for Dallas, as he had an extremely quiet game against the Boston Celtics last Saturday afternoon. Thompson was hardly getting any touches against the Celtics, and Dallas' gameplan against the Wizards was a complete 180 from what transpired against Boston.

Mavericks need another hot shooting night from Thompson

Thompson heads into Wednesday night's game against the New Orleans Pelicans with all of the confidence in the world after one of his biggest games as a Maverick, and this trip to the Bayou presents him with a golden opportunity to give the Mavs something that he hasn't done since the beginning of January.

Thompson hasn't scored double-digit points in back-to-back games since January 7, and tonight's game against the Pelicans should give him a great shot at doing that. The Mavericks need some consistency out of him moving forward throughout this stretch without Doncic, and a double-digit scoring game could give him some momentum to keep the solid performances rolling, but also help lead Dallas to a win.

While the Pelicans' 12-35 record could lead fans to believe that the Mavs should have a cakewalk to a win tonight, the numbers say otherwise. Dallas has struggled recently, even against some of the worst teams in the NBA, and New Orleans beat them exactly two weeks ago following the goaltending no-call at the end of the game that doomed the Mavericks.

Dallas will be looking for revenge tonight as they'll be aiming to win three of four games for the first time since December, and another big Thompson performance could make or break tonight's outcome. Jason Kidd found the recipe for big Thompson games against Washington earlier this week by running basic off-ball actions for him and making sure that he gets early touches, and that must continue tonight.

This isn't to say that Thompson needs 10 3-point shot attempts in the first quarter every game, but it's clear that he deserves touches early on in games. He can get hot at any moment and singlehandedly change the game with his shooting, but he has to get the shot attempts to begin with. Thompson helped put that game away against the Wizards within minutes, and Mavericks fans will be hoping for more of the same tonight.

Thompson is too good of a shooter to not have plays drawn up for him throughout the game, and Kidd continuing to find creative ways to get him involved and emphasizing that his teammates need to feed him the ball as he did on Monday night should help his strong momentum rolling. The Mavericks need another win more than ever considering that they've fallen all the way down to the No. 9 seed in the West, and a hot shooting night from Thompson could lead them to that without a doubt.