DALLAS — With another week in the books, the Dallas Mavericks have seemingly hit their first fork in the road in the still-young NBA season. The In-Season Tournament court has yet to debut and apparently neither has the Dallas defense.
The second leg of the double up in New Orleans resulted in their third loss of the season and with it came a rare awful performance from their megastar Luka Doncic. A win over the Wizards in D.C was sandwiched between a deflating loss in Milwaukee where Dallas disappeared in a fourth quarter rally from the Bucks. The back end of the weekend back-to-back ended with a miserable home loss to the upstart Sacramento Kings which put the Mavs in a 1-3 skid.
Sacramento ended their win with 129 points scored, a point shy of being the third 130-point piece for the Dallas defense in the last four games. Dallas suffered back-to-back losses for the first time this season and enters Thanksgiving week with a 9-5 record, which still has them atop their division but has seen them sink to fifth overall in the Western Conference.
After two back-to-backs, including one that started in Milwaukee and ended in Dallas, the Mavericks will hope to brush off the losses and chalk them up to tired legs.
Rest will be needed as they head to Los Angeles for their sixth road game in seven with a matchup against Lebron James’ Lakers on Wednesday, followed by a post-thanksgiving date with Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers on Saturday. Doncic seems to perform best when the lights are bright, especially against the Clippers, and the Kyrie-LeBron dynamic always seems to keep Irving motivated. That bodes well for Dallas, as the Lakers have five of their seven wins this year at home, and the Clips have only won at home to date.
While the Mavericks stand above all comers in the Southwest, they are not there in any way due to their defensive capability.
Entering the Sacramento match-up, Dallas was 25th in the league in points allowed at just a shade under 120 per game. They then got run off the floor by De’Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis. Sabonis in particular really punished the interior defense where the Mavericks are still searching for answers.
As the Mavs make their way through the holiday schedule, if they are to have any hope to compete for the postseason, Nico Harrison and the front office will need to prioritize a defensive upgrade relatively soon or inside beasts like Sabonis, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Nikola Jokic will continue to ravage them.
If an answer doesn’t come from the current cast of characters, Harrison may have to heat up the hot stove himself.
A trade would need to revolve around a valued young asset like Jaden Hardy or Josh Green to entice a deal, and likely will need to include Tim Hardaway Jr. to make the money work. Those aspects, along with just finding the right suitor with the right player willing to make a deal could make things difficult for Dallas. It might not be until later in the winter before things start to shake up in the NBA.
Kyrie Irving, Dwight Powell, Seth Curry, Grant Williams, Derrick Jones Jr., and Dante Exum were the players that Dallas signed during the summer.
Of the group, Williams and Irving are valued members of the rotation that seem to be untouchable. Powell seems destined to retire a Mav and Jones Jr. has been the value signing of the offseason. Exum and Curry are riding the bench and could interchange as either outgoing salary filler or to take some of the minutes opened up by trading Green or Hardy.
Their historic offense will continue to keep them in games, but superhero performances from Luka and Kyrie won’t matter if the defense isn’t getting it done.
Do you think the Mavericks will show resilience after the season’s first rough patch? Share your thoughts with Irvin on Twitter @Twittirv.
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