The Dallas Mavericks were one of the hottest teams in the NBA before the All-Star break but have significantly cooled down since. They lost their fourth game in their last five by losing 116-120 to a Joel Embiid-less 76ers at home. Kyrie Irving is not overreacting to the current cold spell, telling fans at home the team is going to be ok.
“We’re going to be okay, that’s for everybody that’s watching at home. We’re going to be okay. We gotta trust that we’ll be able to put the work in necessary to get us these wins. We’ve shown it before.”
Irving also got real on the team’s poor form right now and the worry that they could fall apart in the second half of the season like they did last year and miss the playoffs.
“We took a bit of a dip in the last few games, some tough losses on the road… We have to take accountability for that as players… No more excuses. We got 20-something games left. We know the positioning we’re in right now, we know what happened last year when we didn’t make it. We know what it’s like to fail miserably… There’s no excuses.”
Kyrie had a strong performance with 28 points on 50% shooting, but his cold start to the game set the team on the backfoot. Luka Doncic put up a 38-point triple-double and ended the game as a net positive, but streaks of inconsistency by the likes of Tim Hardaway Jr. drowned Dallas to a point that made a comeback nearly impossible.
The Mavericks have had a tough go of games over the last five games. They lost a game they should have been better in against the Pacers before losing to a miracle Max Strus comeback against the Cavaliers. After taking care of business against the Raptors, the Mavs have fallen to back-to-back losses against the Celtics and now the 76ers.
Mavericks fans know how a slide like this in March feels given what happened to them last season. They were a top-four seed before falling to the bottom of the West in two months. This season, they were anyway hovering around No. 7, so there is no room to go on a losing streak. This stretch has been a shame in terms of results because a lot of the on-court performances are encouraging.
Dallas looked like the better team towards the end of the 76ers game, effortlessly making a late comeback from down 18 in the fourth quarter but running out of time to complete it. They also outplayed the Cavaliers in that loss before a miracle comeback by Max Strus. Unfortunately, you don’t get wins for how you play if you’re score is lesser at the end of 48 minutes.
As a team, they’re much better than the roster that tanked at the end of last season. This is the ultimate test of Jason Kidd’s coaching ability, as he’s trying to figure out what his best lineups are. Daniel Gafford has seen his role reduced in favor of Maxi Kleber while Tim Hardaway Jr. has shot the team into the abyss over this stretch of games. Kidd’s lack of adjustment to these scenarios has frustrated fans immensely.
Given the competitiveness in the West, the Mavs should be worried that they’ve fallen two games behind the No. 5-seeded Pelicans. But the team is still looking dangerous and have one of the five-easiest remaining schedules in the NBA.
