Mavericks Return Home Riding Three-Game Win Streak to Face Warriors

The Dallas Mavericks have tied their longest winning streak of the season at three games, and they'll be putting that to the test on Thursday night as part of the NBA's Rivals Week. That has raised questions about who the Mavericks actually consider their biggest rivals, but that's another discussion for another day.

For this game, they'll welcome the Golden State Warriors to the American Airlines Center. It's the second big matchup between these teams this year, as the Mavs traveled to the Bay Area to play the Warriors on Christmas Day. Anthony Davis went down in the first half of that game with a groin/adductor issue, which forced him to miss a few games. He returned for a few games, then injured his hand, and will be out until late February, at least.

However, he's not the only star that'll be out for this game. The Warriors received devastating news earlier in the week when Jimmy Butler went down on Monday against his former team, the Miami Heat, clutching his knee. Not long after, it was determined that he had torn his ACL and would miss the rest of the year.

The Warriors were just starting to find their groove before that injury. They had a wild start to the season with a lot of road games and back-to-backs, but they had finally found some footing and had won 12 of the last 16 games, including winning that game against Miami. But Butler's injury will change the entire course of the season because they don't have a second scorer behind Stephen Curry now, and they lost to the Raptors the next day because of it.

Curry is still really good, averaging 27.1 PPG. But without Butler, who was averaging 20 PPG, there is no solidified pecking order behind him. Brandin Podziemski and Jonathan Kuminga are each averaging about 12 PPG, but Steve Kerr and Kuminga hate each other. De'Anthony Melton and Moses Moody are each averaging 10.7 PPG, but there's not exactly confidence that they'll be able to take that step.

The win streak for the Mavericks could be a little fraudulent, considering two of the wins came over the Utah Jazz, but the Mavs really took it to the Knicks on Monday. The Knicks have been struggling, but that doesn't excuse getting taken behind the woodshed like they were on Monday. It's up to Dallas to prove that this offensive surge is here to stay.