We’re so close to the end of a dreadful 2025-26 season of Dallas Mavericks basketball that we can taste it.
Wednesday’s game between the Mavericks (25-54) and the Phoenix Suns (43-35) at Mortgage Matchup Center wraps up the final back-to-back set for Dallas with three games remaining on the schedule. The Mavs are coming into the game on the heels of Tuesday’s 116-103 loss at the Los Angeles Clippers, while the Suns come in on one night’s rest after dropping a game to the Houston Rockets, 119-105.
Star-spangled Cooper
Cooper Flagg’s brilliance in the two games before Tuesday’s loss has kept the flailing Mavericks in the wider NBA conversation, as opinions fly in every direction concerning the NBA Rookie of the Year race. His 25 points on 9-of-25 shooting against the Clippers isn’t quite as strong an argument for his candidacy, but he’s still filling up the stat sheet on a nightly basis as the season winds down.
The implications
The Suns will be motivated to win Wednesday’s game, as the Clippers sit just two games back of Phoenix for the seventh seed in the Western Conference, with the playoff picture coming into focus. The Mavericks’ motivation, as is well documented, is only for better draft lottery odds at this point.
This should be a fairly straightforward handshake deal between two erstwhile rivals.
Can-do attitude
The Mavericks’ try-hard tendency is admirable. The guys on the court are competitors, and it’s resulted in a 16-27 record in clutch games this season.
But the unspoken objective is clear: obtain the best odds to get as high a pick as possible in the upcoming NBA Draft. Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd needs to examine the end of the roster as closely as possible in the last three games of the season in order to give this team its best chance to find some upward trajectory next season.
How to watch
The Mavericks and the Suns tip off from Mortgage Matchup Center at 9 p.m. CDT. The game will be televised locally on KFAA Channel 29 and on sister stations throughout the Mavericks’ regional viewership area. You can catch the stream on MavsTV and on NBA League Pass where available.
