Injuries 'Bring Us Together': Luka Doncic, Mavs Thriving Amid Adversity
Heading into Thursday's home matchup against the Boston Celtics, the Dallas Mavericks are riding their longest win streak in more than a decade. They've been able to string together seven consecutive wins despite missing three of their most important players – Dorian Finney-Smith, Maxi Kleber and Josh Green – for multiple games.
Although the Mavs enduring all those injuries at essentially the same time is unfortunate, it seems to have lit a spark under the rest of the roster, and specifically, Luka Doncic.
"We're just playing, trying to win every game, and it's going great," said Doncic. "We're trying to make it more than seven. ... We have a lot of important injuries. It just brings us together."
During the Mavs' seven-game win streak, Doncic is averaging 41.7 points, 11.0 rebounds, 9.9 assists and 2.3 steals. Not only is he putting up massive point totals, including the league's first 60-point, 20-rebound triple-double, but he's doing it efficiently. Doncic is shooting 55.6 percent from the field in this stretch, including 40.7 percent from deep with an individual offensive rating of 136.
The encouraging part for the Mavs going forward is the fact that the rest of their roster, aside from Doncic and Christian Wood, hasn't really performed to the level it's capable of during this streak, at least not for a full game. Yes, Dallas has won seven in a row, but six of those seven wins have been by single-digits to teams with losing records.
Overall, there is still a lot of room for improvement, even before injured players return, as the Mavs head back home to American Airlines Center for Thursday's matchup with Boston and Saturday's game against the Zion Williamson-less New Orleans Pelicans.
“You relish those moments,” said Tim Hardaway Jr. of the Mavs being in several clutch-time situations lately. “You don’t want to be in them. But it’s basketball, things happen. I’m glad we’re in clutch situations. We battled back and got the job done.”
The games the Mavs are winning now are games they likely would've squandered in the first two months of the season, so they've definitely taken a step forward when it comes to executing down the stretch and keeping their composure.
"Obviously, we went through it in practice,” said Doncic of the Mavs thriving in late-game situations. “But second, just knowing each other. I think those things have helped us. And we got four stops in a row (in the win against the Houston Rockets) and that gave us the game.”
Dallas has forced its way into the top part of the Western Conference standings over these last two weeks. If Doncic and company can continue learning on the fly and stacking up wins, the Mavs could potentially be the top team in the West by the middle of January.
Given how this season began, wouldn’t that be something?
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