The Mavericks shot a ridiculous 69 percent in first half vs. Pelicans. (Nice.)

The Dallas Mavericks shot 69 percent from the field in the first half, which, first of all, nice. Second of all, damn, isn’t this worst team in the Western Conference?

Dallas was 29-of-42 shooting on field goals, while hitting 13-of-18 (72.2 percent) behind the three-point arc in the first half. To further highlight how absurd this was: Devin Harris, Dennis Smith Jr., Wesley Matthews, Salah Mejri, Dwight Powell, and J.J. Barea combined to shoot 23-of-28 (82.1 percent).

Obviously, the three-point shooting heated up in incredible fashion, but there were also many easy points to be had against a pretty porous New Orleans defense. (They allowed 24 fast break points! That is simply unacceptable.) Here’s an example of Dallas’ prized rookie just embarrassing the Pelicans defense.

And a lot of the catch-and-shoot jump shots looked this open.

The Mavericks scored more in a half than they usually do in THREE QUARTERS.

Two reasons: Every NBA team can get this hot. Usually not for this long, but there’s enough high-level talent on all 30 teams that basically anyone outside of, like, the 2011-12 Charlotte Bobcats are capable of something like this.

But the Mavericks are also slowly putting together an extremely respectable squad after a dismal start. Last year, they won 33 games and this season they brought back a similar squad. They’ve missed Seth Curry all year, a huge part of last season’s team, but they also added Smith and have several bench players performing at sensational levels.

Dallas won’t shoot like this every night, obviously. But with a win against New Orleans, and if they can beat Oklahoma City on the road on Sunday (which would be very difficult, to be sure), the Mavericks would even finish the month with a .500 record. They’re almost certainly going to get back to 30 wins this year, even if its not in their best drafting interests.

Also, New Orleans ... be better. This should be a playoff team!