Mavs at Bucks GAMEDAY: Dallas Tries to Stop 3-Game Skid Against East Elite
As the Dallas Mavericks prepare to take on the Milwaukee Bucks on the second night of a road back-to-back on Sunday night, we'd love to tell you that things are going to be just fine despite the 9-9 team having lost three games in a row ... but more than likely, things are going to get worse for Dallas before they get better.
After taking on the Eastern Conference's top team on Wednesday in the Boston Celtics, the Mavs now face MVP-candidate Giannis Antetokounmpo and the 13-5 Bucks, who are the second-best team in the East. If a fully-healthy Dallas roster struggled against a severely shorthanded Toronto Raptors on three days of rest, it's reasonable to expect the Mavs to struggle even more against a true championship contender while also having heavy legs.
Luka Doncic played 43 minutes in the Mavs' 105-100 loss to the Raptors on Saturday night, so we'll see if he ends up sitting out against the Bucks for rest or powering through it. DallasBasketball.com will keep you up to date on injury report developments throughout Sunday.
"Of the 39 (3-point attempts), 25 of them were probably uncontested, or lightly contested," said coach Jason Kidd after Saturday's loss in Toronto. "That's been the whole year. It's about making 3s in today's game. ... Right now, we're just not shooting the ball straight."
Hopefully, for at least one game, the Mavs can "shoot the ball straight," because if they don't, they could be in for yet another embarrassing evening. If the Mavs lose to the Bucks, they'll fall under .500 for the first time since they were 2-3 on Oct. 29 after their inexplicable meltdown against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Here's everything else you need to know about the game tonight:
RECORDS: Dallas Mavericks (9-9), Milwaukee Bucks (13-5)
WHEN: Sunday, Nov. 27, 2022 at 7 p.m. CT
WHERE: Fiserv Forum (Milwaukee, WI)
TV: Bally Sports Southwest (BSSW), NBA TV
RADIO: 97.1 The Freak, 99.1 FM Zona MX (Spanish)
ODDS: The Bucks are 6-point favorites over the Mavs.
NEXT UP: The Mavs will now fly back home to take on Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors at American Airlines Center for the first time since the Western Conference Finals. Although the Warriors are a .500 basketball team, they've won two in a row and seven out of their last 10 games with Curry averaging over 30 points per game on 50/40/90 efficiency.
FINAL WORD: “This is our team," said Kidd. "(Luka) plays 4-on-3, he takes the shots when he has to, but I thought he played an incredible game of being unselfish. ... We just didn't make (3s) at the right time."
That "we just didn't make 3s" line from coach Kidd is starting to get old, though. If something isn't working, you have to try to fix it. Sticking with the same strategy with hopes of something magically changing is a good way to quickly dig your team into a big hole.
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