Dallas Mavericks: Week Of Familiar Foes Provides An Opportunity

The Dallas Mavericks will have a week full of homecomings and familiar players, which could help them start up another winning streak.

The Dallas Mavericks are fresh off of an unsuccessful road trip where they lost consecutive games to the Oklahoma City Thunder, Memphis Grizzlies and San Antonio Spurs. Usually, a losing streak like that would cause a team to free fall in the Western Conference standings, but the Mavs only fell from third to fifth.

They will have a chance to get back on track and start a new winning streak in the upcoming week. This won’t be an average week for the Mavs though. In each of their next four games, they will be playing an opponent that either has a former Mavs player or lost a player to the Mavs in free agency.

Saturday, Nov. 28 – Denver Nuggets

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The Nuggets didn’t exactly lose JaVale McGee, they cut him, and this game will not have any real emotional impact like the following few will but it is a big game for the Mavs. The Nuggets (6-10) provide the Mavs with a great chance to end a losing streak since they are superior at virtually every position.

The fortunate part about this game is it is not in the high-altitude arena known as Pepsi Center, which is in Denver. As long as the Mavs explosive guards can take care of business, they should end an ugly set of losses.

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Monday, Nov. 30 – Sacramento Kings

It won’t be as dramatic as when Rajon Rondo returns to the American Airlines Center, but this is game that will be very emotional. The Mavs always seem to get physical with the Kings, which usually results in a few technical fouls. Oh, and Rajon Rondo will probably want to stick it to the team that he quit on last April.

The good thing for the Mavs is that the Kings are only 6-11 despite a fairly well-rounded roster. They are also suffering from a few injuries as well between Caron Butler and DeMarcus Cousins, who did not play on Friday night.

Tuesday, Dec. 1 – Portland Trail Blazers

This will be another difficult game for Blazers fans as Wesley Matthews, one of their four starters that did not return, will be back in Portland. In his last game there, he tore his Achilles and will look to show off for some of his former fans. Also, the Mavs will meet up with Al-Farouq Aminu, who agreed to a four-year, $30 million deal shortly after midnight on July 1st.

The Blazers are only 6-10, despite a 4-2 start, and they also have a history of heated games with the Mavs. Previous matches between these teams have gone down to the wire and in 2013-14, they had two games end in buzzer beaters. Though Damian Lillard is still playing like a budding superstar, the rest of their team is lacking and the Mavs should be able to expose that.

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Friday, Dec. 4 – Houston Rockets

The history between the Mavs and Rockets has been nothing short of electrifying. Since Dwight Howard snubbed the Mavs in 2013, this has been an emotional rivalry, not to mention the fact that the Rockets managed to end up with former Mavs fan favorite Jason Terry.

The Rockets still have James Harden and the rest of their talented roster but they are 6-10 and were beat in Houston by a Mavs team without Wesley Matthews, Chandler Parsons and Dirk Nowitzki. The Mavs have showed that even if they are mismatched in a few categories, they have what it takes to beat a disappointing Rockets team.

No stretch is easy in the current NBA, but the Mavs have a great chance to get things back up to speed this week. With four straight games against struggling opponents who are under .500, the opportunity is there. The only difficulties the Mavs will have to face is J.J. Barea‘s absence and minute restrictions.

Barea will miss the next three games due to a right ankle sprain that he suffered against the Spurs. On the issue of limited minutes and back-to-back’s, Chandler Parsons and McGee are still being watched closely.

Next: JaVale McGee Looks Healthy

Last week, we saw how the Mavs played against elite teams in the West. This week, we will see how they react to a losing streak.