Starting with Utah, Mavs ready for stretch run

Coming out of the All-Star break, the NBA schedule-maker certainly didn’t do the Dallas Mavericks any special favors.

Not only do the Mavs come out playing the Utah Jazz twice in an 11-day span. Starting Sunday, they also play the Golden State Warriors twice in a five-day span.

The Jazz (36-22) are seeded fourth in the Western Conference standings – one-and-a-half games ahead of the 35-24 Mavs — and the Warriors (42-17) are seeded second. The Mavs and Jazz play Friday night in Utah and again on March 7 at American Airlines Center, and could wind up facing each other in the first round of the playoffs.

And in addition to playing at Golden State on Sunday, the Mavs play at the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday before hosting the Warriors on March 3.

But regardless of the competition going forward, coach Jason Kidd hopes his team can continue with the hot hand it had before the All-Star break when they won six of their last seven.

“They’re on the schedule,” Kidd said, referring to the Jazz. “It’s not life or death. It’s can we get our rhythm back — the same rhythm we had before the break.

“But sometimes (after) a break it takes a little time to get that rhythm back.”

Of the Mavs’ final 23 regular season games, 16 are against teams that would at least be in the postseason play-in tournament if the season ended today. That includes three games against the Jazz, two against the Warriors and one each against Philadelphia, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Boston and Brooklyn – five of the top eight teams in the Eastern Conference.

The Mavs, in fact, have the league’s 19^th toughest strength of schedule. The remaining teams on their schedule have a winning percentage of 49.9 percent, while the Jazz have the fifth toughest schedule at 51.7 percent, and are the only Western Conference team with a road trip longer than five games.

“Obviously they have a great team and great players,” point guard Luka Doncic said of the Jazz. “It’s tough to play in Utah. The crowd gets going. I’m concerned about everything.”

Asked if he’s one who frequently looks at the standings, Doncic said: “I ask my teammates and the coaches, so they tell me.”

Knowing that the Denver Nuggets (33-25) are only one-and-a-half games behind the Mavs, Kidd also glances at the standings periodically to see where his team stands.

“I think you’re going to look at it now coming out of the break to see who you are, to see who’s ahead of you, who’s behind you, and then there’s games every other day,” he said. “It’s something that you’ll probably look at mid-March just to see where you are.

“There are 23 games left, and after this (three-game road trip) there will be 10 on the road and 10 at home. We just have to take each game one-by-one and understand there’s going to be some wins and there’s going to be some losses. And at the end of 82 (regular season games), you’ve played them all and that’s going to be your seed.”

And as the season continues, Kidd primarily is looking to work his two newest acquisitions – Spencer Dinwiddie and Davis Bertans – into the rotation. Both have only played two games with the Mavs after being acquired in the Feb. 10 trade that sent Kristaps Porzingis to the Washington Wizards.

“We believe that we’ve got questions to answer with two new players, so getting them in the fold (is important) so that we can have those answers by mid-March,” Kidd said. “We have two new players that played two games, so we’re trying to get minutes under their belt and see how they handle different situations.

“But I like the way we’re trending on both sides of the ball – offense and defense.  And I think sometimes with the break you kind of ease back into things. So we’ll see, this being our first time together of trying to get that rhythm back and playing that level of basketball before the break. Then, from that point on we can start focusing on ramping up for the playoffs.”

Said center Dwight Powell: “It comes down to continuing to build our chemistry. I think we’re at a good place right now and I think there’s still a lot of room for improvement, which is super exciting.

“I think there’s some strides we can make defensively as well, and offensively. So I think we’re in a great position to continue to improve from the position we’re in.”

The Mavs have definitely made some tremendous strides defensively this season. Last year they only held 14 opponents under 100 points, and this year they’ve accomplished that feat 24 times and are 20-4 when they’ve done so.

When it came to becoming more productive on the defensive end of the court this season, Kidd said when he took over as the Mavs’ coach last summer he talked to the players about “accountability” and “chemistry” on a daily basis.

“We’ve asked from day one to be accountable on the defensive end and I think everyone has participated at a very high level for that,” Kidd said. “We know that this stretch here, we’ve got to get better and we can’t just be satisfied. But guys are participating, it’s a team defense concept, we’re helping one another and that’s a big thing.

“I thought we would talk about defense and make it a point that just understanding the offense the last couple of years has been at a very high level, and that if we can be in the middle of the pack defensively, that would put us in a position to win. I’m not saying we would win all the games, but defense was something that we talked about since day one and we continue to talk about it and the guys have bought in. I think we’re fifth in defense and that’s not easy to do in this league when everybody is scoring the ball at a high rate.”

The Mavs’ stout defense is the main reason they believe this will be the year they finally get out of the first round of the playoffs for the first time since they captured the 2011 NBA championship.

“We’re locked in on the defensive end and we worry about our principles and things like that, and try to hold teams under 100 (points),” center/forward Marquese Chriss said. “I think we’ve done pretty well the past month.

“We kind of focus on what we need to be building and what we need to be working toward. I think just the attention to detail and caring about what we need to do, and our principles. And then coach has us communicating. Whether it be on or off the court, he wants us to talk and be vocal.”

And with the rugged three-game road trip coming out of the All-Star break, the Mavs know this is not the time to be walking around on eggshells.

“It’s definitely the type of game I want to play,” said forward Reggie Bullock in reference to Friday’s contest at Utah. “I would say looking over my career the last few years I probably wasn’t on too many great teams that had a good standing of what the playoffs were possibly looking like for us.

“I’m just excited to be in this position with this different organization and how well we’re playing coming down the stretch. Every game should be competitive against us versus them.”

In other words, focus on the Jazz first, then worry about what’s next.

“There definitely are some consequences to (the game against Utah), but at the same time I feel like my team is prepared,” Bullock said. “I feel like coach is going to have us mentally and physically prepared for the game, and every game after this Utah game. It’s a tough stretch for us against some of the top teams in the league.”

The Mavs and Sacramento have the fewest amount of back-to-back sets left (two).

And then there’s Doncic, who has averaged a whopping 41.5 points, 12.3 rebounds and seven assists in the four games since the Mavs shipped Porzingis to the Wizards. That includes scoring at least 45 points in three of those four games.

Doncic, however, insists there is no connection between the two dynamics.

“I know everybody thought after the trade it was something, but it was just games,” he said. “Sometimes you feel good, sometimes you don’t.

“Sometimes you feel bad, sometimes worse. But I just felt good. So I think that was it for me.”

As far as who will be the Mavs’ No. 2 scorer behind Doncic, Kidd said that could be done by committee.

“I think when you look at it you’ve got (Jalen) Brunson, you’ve got quite a few guys who can fill that,” Kidd said. “It doesn’t have to be just one player.

“I love our roster. I love who we have. Spencer can be a No. 2, so we have a lot of different ways that we can go and guys can step up and be that No. 2.”

For Kidd, as he prepares his team for the season’s final 23 games, he’s looking for balance, rhythm and how they react after tough losses. He pointed to the recent surprising losses to Orlando and Oklahoma City in consecutive games as Exhibit A.

“The character of this group to come back and find a way to win the next couple of games (after those two losses), those are the things that I look for is how do we respond when things get hard or things don’t go our way,” Kidd said. “Because a lot of times it’s easy to say we’re ready when we’re winning and things are going our way.

“But I look at it the opposite of when things become tough, we’re not making shots or we’re not playing defense. How do we respond as a group? Those are the things that we’ll look at the next 23 games, which are not going to be easy.”

Twitter: @DwainPrice