Only a week ago, the Dallas Mavericks were nosediving down the Western Conference standings with seemingly no end in sight. But, with help from some unlikely heroes, Dallas has righted their plane and are still holding on to a tenuous playoff position. With only six games left in the regular season, can this unorthodox group keep their season alive?
From Thursday, March 3rd to Sunday, March 27th, the Dallas Mavericks won only two games, and lost ten. On March 3rd, Dallas was sixth in the Western standings, five games ahead of the 9th seeded Utah Jazz. On March 27th, Dallas was ninth in the standings, sitting one game out with less than ten games to go.
In that span, the Mavericks have lost Chandler Parsons for the season, and have lost Deron Williams for five games already with a sports hernia, unclear of when, or if, he can return. One of their season’s early surprise, Zaza Pachulia, who was critical in holding Dallas’ defense together, has been relegated to the bench and has rotated in and out of even being apart of Rick Carlisle’s rotation. Dirk Nowitzki has been steady as always, but the way the Mavericks were trending it looked like there playoff hopes were slipping away.
But on March 28th, Dallas defeated the Denver Nuggets 97-88, improving their record to 36-38, but still holding steady in ninth place. The two top scorers were the diminutive JJ Barea with 18, and the second year big man Dwight Powell who had 16 points. The bench was the catalyst for Dallas, as Pachulia, Barea, and Devin Harris posted the three best +/- ratings.
On March 30th, Dallas narrowly edged out the New York Knicks 91-89, improving their record to 37-38, vaulting themselves back into the playoffs, surpassing Utah and Houston. JJ Barea played the hero again, coming off the bench to go 4-7 from three and carried the team with 26 points.
The Mavericks next played on April 1st, traveling to Detroit to take on a much better team in the Pistons compared to Denver and New York. The 31 year-old Barea and Pachulia were both inserted back into the starting lineup. Barea, who is averaging 10 points on the season, led the team for the third straight game, scoring 29 points to lead Dallas to victory. Carlisle continued to mix up his rotations, giving Dwight Powell, the starting center for a few games and a big part of the Denver win, barely a minute of game time, whereas the 29 year-old Tunisian rookie Salah Mejri played 24 minutes, despite being a DNP-CD in the last two wins. Mejri came in and made an impact, only scoring six points and seven rebounds, but also delivering a couple big blocks and tying Barea for the team’s best +/- with a +12.
Dallas pulled themselves together and received help from all over the roster to string together three critical wins that now have them back in the 7th seed, currently in line to be swept take on the Spurs in the first round.
But the Mavericks are by no means out of the woods yet. Their 38-38 record is tied with the 8th seeded Utah Jazz, and the 9th seeded Houston Rockets are just one game back with a 37-39 record. The final six games will be just as important as the last three in determining the outcome of their season.
Dallas isn’t particularly great at home, just 21-17 at the American Airlines Center, and isn’t particularly horrible on the road, posting a 17-21 record, so the fact that they have an equal amount of home and away games left doesn’t change much.
They travel to Minnesota tomorrow for a must win game against a poor Timberwolves team. Dallas can’t afford to drop a game against a team Utah has recently defeated twice with what is coming up on the rest of their schedule.
Dallas will also face off against Houston and Utah again, two games that will go a long way towards determining which two of the three teams keep their seasons alive.
The three other games are all against playoff bound Western teams, Memphis, LAC, and San Antonio.
Although they hold a slim lead now, the schedule is looking bleak for the Mavs, especially in comparison to Houston and Utah’s relatively easier schedules. The Rockets’ last four games are against the West bottom feeders, facing Phoenix, the Lakers, Minnesota, and the Kings. Utah has games against the Clippers and Spurs as well, but also have to face Phoenix, Denver, and the Lakers in their season finale. Dallas has easily the strongest schedule remaining, making their games against Houston and Utah even more important.
The Dallas Mavericks have strung together a massive three game win streak, and have found some unlikely heroes to guide them back into the top half of the standings. But if they still want to be there when the dust clears, Dirk Nowitzki and the rest of the Mavs will need to step up, and step up big.
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