Mavericks' path to winning becomes clear after eye-popping stat is revealed

On Sunday night, the Dallas Mavericks played the Miami Heat in an early-season matchup. After defeating the Denver Nuggets 123-120 on Friday night, the Mavs were looking to make their win streak five in a row with a win in Miami.

Despite Dallas' hot start, the team failed to take control of the game in the second quarter and during the final seconds, leading to a 123-118 loss. Once again, Dallas' clutch time woes haunt them in an important matchup to get their season fully on track.

While there were plenty of negative takeaways, particularly from the fourth quarter, the Mavs can take one critical point of emphasis from Sunday night's overtime loss.

The Mavericks need to dominant points in the paint if they want to win

Similar to the Mavericks' run during last year's playoffs, the team has begun to rely on their points in the paint production to dominate opponents. During the Mavs' four-game winning streak, they outscored every one of their opponents by a large margin inside the paint.

Against the Nuggets, Dallas' hot start in the first half from inside the paint helped them build a sizeable lead, which would give the team enough cushion to weather Denver's comeback attempts.

Out of the team's last five games, the only one the Mavericks didn't outscore their opponent when the game ended was the 121-119 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder. One thing the Thunder did well against the Mavs was creating off-the-ball action, which led to plenty of open buckets at the rim.

While the Mavs have still had some close calls since the beginning of their four-game winning streak, the team's dominance in the paint has become one of the few focal points to keep a close eye on.

With multiple rim-running threats like Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively II, it makes sense why the Mavericks have dominated down low the past five games. In addition to the Mavericks' centers, Naji Marshall has become an inside threat with his lethal floater game and newfound outside shot.

Marshall struggled to open up his offensive game at the start of the year but after his dominating performance in Denver, Marshall's full potential has been unlocked.

P.J. Washington has also proven his ability to score in bunches with his lethal post-up game. Washington has used his strength time after time to bully smaller defenders down low and use his patented push shot to score over any defender in his way.

With Marshall and Washington manning the forward spots and Lively II and Gafford hunkering down low, the Mavericks have established a rim-punishing unit.

While the team outscored Miami in the paint by a small margin, the team shouldn't be discouraged by the outcome, the Mavericks have a potential bounce-back game tonight against the Atlanta Hawks, which they can use to get back in the win column.

As long as Dallas dominates the points in the paint margin, they will have a good chance of beating the Hawks.