Confidence is mandatory in the NBA. If you don’t have it, something’s wrong.
The best teams have it in abundance. And the Mavericks this season have every reason to be bubbly with confidence that could border on arrogance, which is how championship-caliber teams go into every game – knowing they should win.
The Mavericks’ wily veteran, J.J. Barea, has seen ups and downs during his 14 seasons. And he likes what he sees out of this set of Mavericks. After three very difficult seasons in terms of rebuilding and not having a lot of success on the court, he’s encouraged by the way this team has adjusted to winning ways.
“The confidence has to be getting higher,” Barea said after Friday’s robust practice leading into home games Saturday and Sunday. “But I think we’re doing a great job of staying in the moment, not getting too high and feeling like we’re doing good. I think everybody knows it’s still a long season.
“But the thing we know is that we got the talent to win games and be at the top of the league. So that’s good. But also we’re staying where we need to stay. Now, we know we should win, that we can beat anybody any night, so we got to be ready for that. I think we’re keeping our head in a good place.”
That’s not always easy when you have an MVP candidate in Luka Doncic doing remarkable things and strong contributors around him that are buying into their roles.
What’s also happening to the Mavericks is that they are enjoying things a lot more this season. That’s what winning will do and their 15-6 record that has landed them fourth in the Western Conference has instilled a very positive air about the Mavericks.
“I’m not going to lie, we’re having a great time,” Barea said. “I haven’t seen this vibe in a long time. The vibe is amazing. We just got to keep it moving forward.”
Busy bodies at home: The Mavericks have a pair of home games on back-to-back days, which is a rarity, but something that is happening more often with the NBA eliminating stretches of four games in five days.
“You got to try to take advantage of it,” coach Rick Carlisle said of the back-to-back home games. “It’s more common in the last two or three years since the schedule has been shifted to less back-to-backs and no four-in-five nights.
“We’ve had one or two each of the last three years. There are challenging aspects to them. But if they eliminated back-to-back games and four-in-five night games, you got to find a way to do well with them. You’re not traveling. The big thing is to concentrate on the first game first.”
Twitter: @ESefko
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