Dallas Basketball

West Standings Update: Dallas Mavs Still 5th, But Need Win vs. Atlanta Hawks Thursday

The Dallas Mavericks got some help on Wednesday night to keep them in the No. 5 spot in the Western Conference standings, but now they must jump back in the win column at home against the Atlanta Hawks to stay there.

Dalton Trigg

Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports
In this story:

Although the Dallas Mavericks' seven-game win streak was snapped by the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday night, the team held onto the No. 5 seed in the Western Conference heading into Wednesday's slate of games. And thanks to the Orlando Magic defeating the New Orleans Pelicans, the Mavs still have the No. 5 seed for now.

As of Thursday morning, here is what the West standings look like in the 4-10 spots: No. 4 Los Angeles Clippers (47-28), No. 5 Dallas Mavericks (45-30), No. 6 Phoenix Suns (45-31), No. 7 New Orleans Pelicans (45-31), No. 8 Sacramento Kings (44-31), No. 9 Los Angeles Lakers (44-33) and No. 10 Golden State Warriors (41-34).

Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

The Mavs are only one game up in the loss column on the Suns, Pelicans and Kings, but they hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over Phoenix and currently have the tiebreakers vs. New Orleans and Sacramento due to division records. Ideally for the Mavs, they'd win Thursday's matchup against the Atlanta Hawks and stay at least one game ahead of the rest of the pack in that No. 6-8 section.

Other games of interest to the Mavs on Thursday night include: Sacramento Kings at New York Knicks, Golden State Warriors at Houston Rockets (Mavs and Warriors will be facing each other on Friday night while being on back-to-backs), and Denver Nuggets at Los Angeles Clippers (Mavs are just two games back of the No. 4 seed Clippers in the loss column).

The last time the Mavs faced the Hawks, it was in Atlanta two weeks before the trade deadline when Doncic erupted for a career-high 73 points, which also tied for the fourth-highest single-game scoring mark in NBA history. Obviously, the Mavs hope that a 70-point performance isn't needed from Doncic this time around, as the additions of Daniel Gafford and P.J. Washington have completely changed the identity of the team.

During the last 13 games, the Mavs have the seventh-best offensive rating (117.9), the fifth-best defensive rating (106.8) and the second-best net rating (11.1). Dallas will be eager to bounce back from a 104-100 loss to the Warriors from Tuesday – a loss that came on the tail end of a tiring five-game road trip.

The Mavs will be without Dereck Lively II and Josh Green for Thursday's game, and although the Hawks' official injury report hasn't been submitted yet, we know they'll at least be without star point guard Trae Young and young forward Saddiq Bey. Stay tuned to DallasBasketball.com thoughout the day for more coverage.

Published
Dalton Trigg

DALTON TRIGG

Dalton Trigg is the Editor-In-Chief for Dallas Basketball, as well as the Executive Editor overseeing Inside The Rockets, Inside The Spurs, All Knicks, and The Magic Insider. He is the founder and host for the Mavs Step Back Podcast, which is a proud part of the Blue Wire podcast network. Trigg graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi’s College of Business and Economic Development with a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship in 2016. After spending a few years with multiple Dallas Mavericks-related blogs, including SB Nation’s Mavs Moneyball, Trigg joined DallasBasketball.com as a staff writer in 2018 and never looked back. At the start of 2022, he was promoted to the EIC title he holds now. Through the years, Trigg has conducted a handful of high-profile one-on-one interviews to add to his resume — in both writing and podcasting. Some of his biggest interviews have been with Mavs owner Mark Cuban, Mavs GM Nico Harrison, now-retired legend Dirk Nowitzki and many other current/former players and team staffers. Many of those interviews and other articles by Trigg have been aggregated by other well-known sports media websites, such as Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report and others. You can find Trigg on all major social media channels, but his most prevalent platform is on Twitter. Whether it’s posting links to his DBcom work, live-tweeting Mavs games or merely giving his opinions on things going on with Dallas and the rest of the NBA, the daily content never stops rolling. For any inquiries, please email Dalton@MavsStepBack.com.