Let’s face facts. The Dallas Mavericks (28-22) have beaten the teams they are supposed to beat, and failed to muster up many “meaningful victories” against the big NBA contenders. They have had opportunities, but failed to make any noise. That brings us to this week. The Mavericks have four big games this week, starting tonight in Atlanta. In order to be a viable contender, the Mavericks need to start showing that they can compete with the best of the best.
Nine teams currently have a better record than the Mavericks, and Dallas is 5-12 when facing those squads. Is this a fair judgment on where the Mavericks stand? Not entirely. Let’s not forget where people thought the Mavericks would end up this season:
It’s obvious that they have blown those predictions out of the water, but now they must show that they belong in the conversation for teams with a legitimate shot at a playoff run. It’s also clear that when this team is playing their best basketball, they prove to be an opponent that most teams in the West would want to stay clear of. By that, I mean that they would be a nuisance in a seven-game series.
With all of that being said, how can the Mavericks turn around their lack of success against the NBA’s elite? The Mavericks are now starting to get in a groove. You have to remember that for the first two months of the season, Wesley Matthews was still working his way back from a torn Achilles injury that he suffered at the end of last season. Chandler Parsons, who also had off-season injury was on a strict minutes restriction up until the middle of December, and is just now rounding into form. While Matthews has struggled as of late, most recently last night when he made just 2 or 12 shots.
“I’m not concerned about it,” Matthews said of his shooting recently. “I’m [ticked] off about it, I’m irritated and frustrated about it. But I’m not worried about it at all.
“I’m just going to keep shooting it. And I’m going to keep attacking the same way I have been, like I’ve always done. It’s just a matter of time before that glass breaks.”
The Mavericks just recently ended a January that included 18 games in 31 days. They now have 18 of their remaining 32 games at home, and will look to take advantage of that.
“We battled the whole way,” coach Rick Carlisle said of the teams January run. “We had some tough losses and some great wins. I’m not a big analyzer, but this stretch ends [Monday] in my mind. It’s 19 games in 32 days.
“I’ve never seen a stretch like this. Look, we’ve got a deep roster. We’re going to come out guns blazing [against Atlanta].”
We have heard this before. The team said all of the right things leading up to a stretch in the middle of January where they took on Cleveland, Oklahoma City, Chicago, and San Antonio. The Mavericks won only one game during that week. If the Mavericks can at least split the four games this week, they will head into the All-Star Break six games over .500, which far exceeds what the “experts” and “analysts” predicted.
Looking at the playoff picture as it stands right now, the Mavericks sit in the 6th spot, just one game behind Memphis, who they face this Saturday in the land of Elvis “The King” Presley. Pending some sort of wake-up call to the Houston Rockets, the Mavericks will seem to finish the season 5th or 6th, leaving them a match up with a team like Oklahoma City or Los Angeles.
The Mavericks have leaned on Dirk Nowitzki for much of the season, but snagged a huge bargain in the acquisition of Zaza Pachulia, who has been nothing short of phenomenal and quite possibly the MVP of the Mavericks up to this point. Now with the resurgence of Chandler Parsons, if they can find a way to get Wesley Matthews on track heading into the later stages of the season and into the playoffs, this figures to be a team nobody will want to face. Well, except for the Warriors, who are well, you know…
The Mavericks take on the Hawks on the road tonight, and then host the Heat and Spurs during the week, and will finish in Memphis on Saturday. If they want to start getting the respect they feel they deserve, it’s time to strap em’ up and go to work.
The Mavericks feel they are ready to do just that. Now, it’s time to let their play do the talking.
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