Mavs Step Back: Luka Doncic, Injury-Plagued Dallas Hit Wall; Better Days Coming?
Following a 120-111 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night, the Dallas Mavericks, who have been dealing with several injuries, appear to have hit a wall … at least when it comes to playing high-quality teams.
Yes, it’s encouraging that the shorthanded Mavs were able to erase a 22-point deficit and take a two-point lead with less than four minutes remaining, despite Luka Doncic shooting 9-25 overall and 2-11 from deep, but digging themselves into such holes has proven to be too much to overcome on several occasions.
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"I like what the group did short-handed. Everyone played and put us in a position to fight,” Mavs head coach Jason Kidd said after the loss to LAC.
“There's a lot of character in that locker room [with] understanding things weren't going well for us in the first half. But I thought we turned it around in the second half. No one feels bad for us that we're shorthanded, but those guys fought and put us in a position to win. We just came up short."
On today’s episode of the Mavs Step Back Podcast, we discuss how Dallas has seemingly reached its limit when it comes to playing shorthanded without Kyrie Irving, Dereck Lively II and Josh Green. However, despite having lost two consecutive games, brighter days could be ahead with the four-game stretch coming up for Doncic and the Mavs, which starts with a back-to-back against the Houston Rockets and San Antonio Spurs this weekend.
Although the Mavs biggest hurdle is getting healthy, they could also probably benefit from making a trade or two before February’s deadline. With that being said, we discuss one hypothetical trade option the Mavs could explore with the Chicago Bulls.
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