Dallas Mavericks: Turning Point or Event Horizon?
By Reid Hanson
The Dallas Mavericks are in a freefall. Over the last seven games, the Mavs are 2-5, falling from the top of the playoff bracket to outside the picture entirely.
Monday’s loss to Denver was great example of what’s been plaguing them. Early holes, poor defense, and questionable effort all led to their demise. A Dallas team meeting immediately followed the loss, hopefully prompting some sort of downward-spiral-ending response.
Whether that meeting succeeds or not remains to be seen. But it’s clear this is a pivotal time in the Dallas Mavericks season and things cannot continue if the Mavs want to get back into the playoff picture.
Is this a turning point for the Dallas Mavericks or is it a freefall they can’t stop?
It would be disingenuous to not point out what has prompted such a decline in play. A couple weeks ago Dallas fell victims to some COVID fallout when they lost as many of five players to the protocols. One player is back but some of the Mavs best defenders remain out.
Dorian Finney-Smith, Josh Richardson, and Dwight Powell all hope to return at some point this week. Maxi Kleber will be out even longer.
Luka Doncic and James Johnson indicated that the Mavericks met after the game and several people, including Rick Carlisle, spoke, but they declined to give specifics about what was said.
— Brad Townsend (@townbrad) January 26, 2021
The fact that the Mavs lost about 3/5ths of their starting lineup explains why they’ve lost five of their past seven games. It doesn’t excuse the level of play from this current group, but in all fairness, it does explain some of the losses.
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With that said, it’s gut-check time. The Dallas Mavericks have been a tough team to watch. They’ve been sloppy and hapless. Worse yet, they look fairly uninspired. Not what you expect from a team coached by Rick Carlisle. Not what you expect from a team with one of the best players in the league (some guy named “Luka”). And not what you expect from a team with second round playoff aspirations.
The Event Horizon is point of no return along the outside of a black hole. It’s the point of no return, so to speak. With the season still in it’s early stages, it’s far from the point of no return for the Dallas Mavericks. There’s plenty of time to correct course.
But each loss gets the Mavs closer to that dreaded point, and their issues today are much deeper than missing key players. It’s imperative the Mavs correct these issues immediately and they can’t be relying on the cavalry to save them.
dark. Next. Is Luka Doncic OK?
The sky isn’t falling but there are issues plaguing the Dallas Mavericks that go beyond missing some key players.
- Published on 01/26/2021 at 13:15 PM
- Last updated at 01/26/2021 at 12:17 PM