Listening to the various talking heads on the national TV sports channels, most of the conversation hinges on the trials and tribulations of the Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets and whether they can overcome their injuries and face each other in the NBA Finals.
However, the team that’s not getting much love – and the team that has the best record in the NBA over the last 11 games — is the Dallas Mavericks. And that includes a pair of recent victories over the Lakers and Thursday’s 113-109 win over the Nets.
In fact, after overcoming various injuries and a plethora of players who were placed in the NBA’s health and safety protocol, the Mavs have posted an impressive 30-14 record since Feb. 6. And that noteworthy record came after the Mavs stumbled out of the gate with a 9-14 worksheet.
So what caused the remarkable turnaround?
“We just weren’t ourselves at the beginning,” superstar point guard Luka Doncic said. “We’ve got a couple of new guys and we had to get to know each other.
“But since then, I think we’re playing pretty good.”
Of those aforementioned 30 wins, the Mavs haven’t exactly been beating up on the league’s lesser teams, as 21 of those victories have come against teams that would either be in the playoffs or involved in the play-in tournament if the season ended today. And that includes 10 wins against teams that are currently seated in their two conference’s top six seedings.
In addition to those two wins over the Western Conference’s No. 7-seeded Lakers, during their recent surge the No. 5-seeded Mavs own victories over the West’s No. 1-seeded Utah Jazz, the No. 3-seeded Los Angeles Clippers, the No. 4-seeded Denver Nuggets and the No. 6-seeded Portland Trail Blazers.
From the Eastern Conference since Feb. 6, the Mavs have pocketed a win over the No. 2-seeded Milwaukee Bucks, two victories over the No. 3-seeded Nets, and a win over the No. 4-seeded New York Knicks, the No. 5-seeded Atlanta Hawks and the No. 6-seeded Miami Heat.
In other words, since Feb. 6, the Mavs own at least one win over the collective top six teams in each conference except the Philadelphia 76ers, who are seated first in the East, and the Phoenix Suns, who are seated second in the West. But the Mavs lost three games to the Suns by four, six and one point, respectively, prior to turning their season in an upward direction.
The main stumbling blocks for the Mavs have occurred when eight of the 14 losses during their recent hot streak have been against teams with a sub. 500 record. That includes three losses to the Sacramento Kings, and defeats at the hands of the Houston Rockets, San Antonio Spurs, Oklahoma City Thunder, New Orleans Pelicans and Indiana Pacers.
Still, going into Sunday’s 6 p.m. game in Cleveland, the Mavs are 39-18, are Southwest Division champions, and appear to be peaking at the right time. Which is what players and coaches alike would rather do if they had their druthers.
“I think it’s about resiliency,” guard Josh Richardson said. “I think that we had a lot of adversity early in the season that we had to overcome, and I think the guys did a good job of not putting their heads down and not pouting, because nobody’s coming to help you.
“I think we did a good job of just figuring it out.”
Indeed, the Mavs figured it out, whether or not the talking heads want to talk about it.
Mavs vs. Cavs the reboot: As his team gets ready to play Dallas on Sunday for the second time in three days, Cavs coach JB Bickerstaff admitted that the Mavs took his team out of their game on Friday when they took a 62-37 lead at halftime and went on to claim a 110-90 victory.
“I think early on we played in a crowd, which is where they wanted us to play,” Bickerstaff said. “They shrink the floor really well and try to keep you from getting to the paint.
“I thought early on we settled and tried to get through those, but ended up taking tough shots or turning the ball over.”
And that’s not all that the Cavs had to deal with.
“I thought we made them take some tough shots,” Bickerstaff said. “They have some tough shot-makers.
“(Luka) Dončić makes tough shots, (Tim) Hardaway (Jr.) can make tough shots, so I think the shots and the field goal percentage is what hurt us the most.”
Sexton credits Mavs’ defense: Cleveland point guard Collin Sexton credits the Mavs for bottling up the Cavs’ offense and making life miserable for them in the first two quarters of Friday’s game.
Sexton, who scored a game-high 27 points, acknowledged that he thought the Cavs over-dribbled too much while trying to pierce the Mavs’ vaunted defense.
“I felt like I over-dribbled a few down in there, and when it’s like that and you go down you’ve got to make sure the other guys around are moving,” Sexton said. “Sometimes we just got stagnant, or they pretty much ran us up the wire, so we couldn’t get our catch-and-shoots and get some threes up.
“So when it’s like that you’ve got to pretty much just continue to move and continue to cut and try to find some easy ones. We tried, but it’s a lot easier said than done.”
Briefly: The Mavs are an amazing 36-2 this season when they take a double-digit lead at any point of a game. They’re also an NBA-best 24-0 when they take a lead into the second quarter. In addition, after Friday’s 110-90 win over Cleveland, the Mavs are a perfect 13-0 when holding opponents under 100 points. . .In his last five games Tim Hardaway Jr. is averaging 27.4 ppg and shooting 53.9 percent from the field and 50 percent from 3-point range, and the Mavs are 5-0. . .Luka Doncic has scored 20 or more points in 55 of the 61 games he’s played in this season. . .The Mavs are 12-5 this season when Josh Richardson scores 15 or more points. Richardson tallied 18 points in Friday’s victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers. Also in the win over the Cavs, rookie Nate Hinton scored a career-high eight points on 3-of-4 shooting in 13 minutes.
Twitter: @DwainPrice
Share and comment