The Dallas Mavericks Are Fighting Back From Injuries, Bad Start

The Dallas Mavericks are still fighting to be competitive on the court despite numerous injuries and an abysmal start.

The Dallas Mavericks gave a valiant effort on Thursday night against the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Mavs held a 55-53 halftime lead, but fell victim to a 34-18 third quarter. Dallas lost the game 109-98. Russell Westbrook finished the night with 45 points and eight rebounds.

The Mavericks’ record drops to 16-30 on the year. They currently sit 13th in the Western Conference with an average margin of victory of -3.4.

The team has been taking losses since the summer. Dallas lost 17 win shares from their 42-win team this past offseason. Zaza Pachulia (6.0 win shares), Chandler Parsons (4.3), and Raymond Felton (2.7) were the biggest names that departed.

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The Mavericks added players such as Harrison Barnes, Andrew Bogut, and Seth Curry to counteract the losses. But Injuries began ravaging the team once the season rolled around.

Devin Harris spent the summer recovering from separate toe and thumb surgeries. He looked good heading into opening night, but then injured his left foot during the preseason finale. Harris would miss the first 16 games of the season.

Andrew Bogut has missed 22 games this year from a combination of injuries. Bogut has sat out at various times this year due to a sore calf, a right knee bone bruise, and right hamstring strain.

NBA legend Dirk Nowitzki dealt with a sore right Achilles that cost him 26 games in November and December. Deron Williams was also out in November with a left calf strain. He was able to come back, but went down with a sprained toe in the first half of their 103-95 win over the New York Knicks.

J.J. Barea has had issues with his left calf all season. He recently returned in a Jan. 7th loss to the Atlanta Hawks. However, he re-injured the calf on Jan. 20th against the Utah Jazz. He could be out for an extended amount of time.

Rick Carlisle says J..J. Barea (left calf strain) will most likely be out until after the All-Star break.
— Earl K. Sneed (@EarlKSneed) January 22, 2017

Wesley Matthews had been healthy all season. But even he was stricken by the injury bug. Matthews suffered a right hip strain in the team’s Jan. 22nd blowout win over the Los Angeles Lakers. He has yet to return.

Even Pierre Jackson, the team’s newest acquisition, suffered a left hamstring strain in the first half of the Thunder game. Harrison Barnes and Dwight Powell are the only two players that have appeared in all 46 games.

But through the roster turnover, losses, and injuries, the Dallas Mavericks remain a competitive team.

The Mavericks’ resilient nature is organization-wide, from the players up through the owner.

The roster is set up in a way that fosters a competitive atmosphere. The Mavericks have seven players on the current roster that are 30 years and older. This half of the roster is presumably too prideful to tank games. The remaining eight players are 26 and under. That half of the roster is learning from the older half and getting major minutes to develop into useful veterans down the line.

Head coach Rick Carlisle also isn’t someone that does a lot of losing. The 2006-07 Indiana Pacers are the only sub-.500 team that he has helmed in his head coaching career.

He didn’t even deal with many losing teams in his 11 years as an assistant. His first three seasons with the New Jersey Nets (1989 to 1992) were the only sub-.500 staffs of which he was a member.

But owner Mark Cuban is probably the most competitive person in the entire organization.

In late November the Mavericks were a league-worst 3-13. In turn, Cuban was faced with questions of if the Mavericks would tank the rest of the year.

Cuban refused to concede the season, saying in an ESPN report that winning is the best way to build for the future.

"“There are so many teams that became four years away from four years away because guys just learned how to lose,” Cuban said. “They stopped caring about any individual game and just got used to it, and you don’t want guys developing those bad habits. We have so many young guys on this team, we want the games to mean something. Not to be, ‘OK, who are we going to pull in the fourth quarter so we can lose this game?’ That’s not how teams develop good habits”."

The collective resilience seems to be paying off. The Mavericks went 2-13 in their first 15 games, with the worst average point differential in the league over that span (-10.1). They then went 9-14 in their next 23 games with the 18th-best margin of victory (-2.5).

But the Mavericks have now gone 5-3 in their last eight games. Their average margin of victory rose to 6.8 over this span, sixth-best in the league.

The Mavs’ perseverance has them within arm’s length of playoff contention despite their unflattering win-loss record. Dallas is 4.5 games out of the 8th seed, currently held by the Denver Nuggets. Continued improvement could set up a sneaky run for that last slot well into April.

But while a playoff spot is possible, it admittedly isn’t probable. Dallas currently has a 2.3% chance of reaching the postseason according to ESPN’s BPI Playoff Odds.

However, considering the organization’s competitive nature, the Dallas Mavericks aren’t going into the draft lottery without a fight.

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