The Dallas Mavericks (19-26) host the Los Angeles Lakers (26-17) on a potentially snowy Saturday night at the American Airlines Center. The Mavericks are arguably playing their best team basketball of
the regular season to date and are currently riding a four-game win streak against a wide variety of opponents. The Lakers visit Dallas after stumbling against the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday. Each team has had at least one day of rest in what should be an outstanding primetime game on ESPN.
Here’s three things you should think about before tip-off.
For the love of basketball Mavs fans, no one trash talk Luka, okay?
Luka Doncic returning to Dallas will be weird until the end of his career. There’s no way around that. But one thing everyone can do is not poke the bear. The middle of the season for Luka has always been hard to give a shit about. You know exactly what I mean by that too. Some games, Doncic just isn’t all that focused and he seeks out things to piss him off. Everyone be very, very nice to him. Shout out about how good he is and remind him that stepback threes are a better shot for him than drives at the rim. No Luka Magic tonight (there will be Luka Magic).
The center minutes for both teams
On the Dallas side of things, Daniel Gafford should be coming back from injury, Dwight Powell is always and forever, and Moussa Cisse is a bit underripe in terms of experience. And Luka Doncic loves to hunt a center that cannot defend in space (or is his friend in Dwight Powell). While I don’t think Dallas should send doubles at Doncic like last game, how these centers hold up in the mismatches may well determine the game.
For the Lakers, DeAndre Ayton has hit his expiration date for caring and Jaxson Hayes is limited. If neither bigman pulls their weight on the boards, Dallas is going to eat the Lakers up on the glass on both ends of the floor and that may well determine the game.
For either team the center managing to hold might help pull their team across the finish line.
How long can the Mavericks keep this up?
The Mavericks won five of six games starting in late November. They’ve now won five of six again, starting with that win at home over the Brooklyn Nets on January 12th. The Lakers are not an easy opponent, but I see no reason why Dallas can’t beat them outright on Friday night. The special sauce to winning the drudgery games of January and February is playing hard, and head coach Jason Kidd has the Mavericks playing above their place in the Western Conference. Granted, part of why they’re winning is the red-hot three-point shooting (42.5% in these five wins), but the schedule is shaping up in a way the Mavericks could take advantage of. A win against the Lakers would mean five wins, and they play the Milwaukee Bucks on a short turnaround, but Giannis Antetokounmpo is now out for at least a month with a calf strain, and the Timberwolves have down night,s and then there’s the Spurs… ok, well maybe a seven-game win streak is the length this goes. But a guy can believe, yes?
How to Watch
This one will be on ESPN starting at 7:30 pm.
