After winning 7 games in a row during the middle of February, the Dallas Mavericks have hit a late-season skid. They will do everything they can to avoid yet another epic collapse, as the taste of last year’s failures are likely still in their mouths.
Mavericks Looking To Avoid Another Late-Season Collapse
Luka Doncic when asked about his 35-point triple-doubles while losing and how frustrating that is:
“It doesn’t matter, I just want to win man. That’s it.” pic.twitter.com/N2C4Ro2YsL
— Noah Weber (@noahweber00) March 6, 2024
The Kyrie Irving trade in February 2023 was supposed to make the Mavericks contenders in the Western Conference. Instead, they suffered a free fall, dropping all the way from 6th place to out of the playoff picture completely (including the Play-In). There were questions about the direction of the franchise given that Irving was made a free agent at the end of the year, but Dallas decided to run it back by signing him to a long-term deal.
It looked as though they had made the right decision early on. Their record back on January 16th sat at 24-17, and they were tied with the Pelicans for 5th place in the West. After the 7 recent 7-game winning streak, they were 33-23, and it looked as though they were setting themselves up nicely for a potential top-6 finish.
Dallas Is 1-5 In Its Last Six Games
Teams with the worst defensive rating since NBA All-Star Break:
30. Dallas Mavericks
29. Washington Wizards
28. Los Angeles Lakers(h/t @GrantAfseth ) pic.twitter.com/eDHDmPN6G9
— NBA Retweet (@RTNBA) March 6, 2024
Things have gotten rough since returning from the All-Star break. After getting a big win over the Suns in the first game back, the Mavericks have now lost 5 of their last 6 games, with the only win coming against the Raptors. In under two weeks, they have dropped from 6th place down into 8th, with just a single game separating them and the 10th-seeded Lakers. The 9th-place Warriors are just a half game back.
They’d better hope that they can pick up some wins this weekend before the schedule toughens up. After taking on the Heat on Thursday, they will take a quick, two-game road trip to visit the Pistons and Bulls, both of which they should be favored against.
But the following week brings some of the tougher matchups in the Western Conference. The following three contests for Dallas will be against the Warriors, Thunder, and Nuggets, with two of them being prime nationally televised games. Later on in March, they’ll play two straight against the Kings, and then will take on the Warriors twice in the span of 4 days in early April.
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