Will the Dallas Mavericks overcome their playoff woes?

The Dallas Mavericks are currently tied for the fourth best record in the Western Conference. As it stands the Mavs are three games back from the Golden State Warriors for the third spot and two games up on the Denver Nuggets. If you want to look deeper into it, the team is three and a half games up from playing in the play-in tournament.

With nine games, some key games on the schedule include a Friday night matchup against the Minnesota Timberwolves, a Sunday primetime with the Utah Jazz and a April third event with the Milwaukee Bucks.

When everything is said and done though, only one question remains:

Can the Dallas Mavericks finally overcome their playoff woes?

Since the 2016 season, Marc Cuba’s squad has only made the playoffs twice. Both appearances concluded with first round losses to the Los Angeles Clippers. While last season was their best chance at beating the other LA team, they still came up short.

However, there might be hope that this year could prove to be totally different.

You see if the season ended today, Dallas would more than likely face the Utah Jazz in the first round. This could prove to be a good thing because the Mavs are basically even when it comes to facing Utah.

This season the team has gone 1-2 against Utah. Their first loss against the Jazz came on Christmas Day, a game in which Doncic did not play.

The second loss was by five points in late February. The Mavs got their revenge a month later as they beat Donovan Mitchell and company by eight points. While it seems like Utah has the edge, honestly Dallas has stood their ground and has an honest chance to pull the upset.

Not to mention the Jazz are on a two game losing streak in which they suffered defeats to the Brooklyn Nets and Boston Celtics. (ps: They fell to the Celtics by 28 points.)

If you remember these are teams that Dallas has recently beaten.

Don’t forget though sometimes season records can be deceiving. Against the Clippers last season Dallas had a 2-1 season record, but fell to them in the playoffs.

Nevertheless I believe this Sunday’s matchup will give fans a good idea as to who really has the edge though. Other possible playoff matchups include the Denver Nuggets and possibly the Golden State Warriors.

Against the Nuggets Dallas is 2-1, while against the Warriors the team has a 3-1 record. Basically against the three possible playoff opponents the Mavs have a 6-3 record.

Other highlights that should give Mavs’ fans hope this season are:

• 7-3 record over the last ten games
• 55.6 winning percentage on the road
• 67.6 winning percentage at home
• 32-15 record against the West
• 7-5 record on games decided by three points or less

Also just a side note, the last time Dallas won more than 45 games was during the 2014-2015 season. Plus with the way Doncic and Dinwiddie are playing anything is possible for the Dallas Mavericks.

So to answer the main question, MFFL should have high hope that this is the year the team can finally overcome their postseason struggles.