Dallas Mavericks losing their first two games of the 2025-2026 season wouldn’t normally raise too many alarms. It’s not the fact that the Mavs are 0-2 in an 82-game season. It’s HOW they are losing.
After
a disappointing opening night blowout loss to the San Antonio Spurs 125-92, the hope coming into Friday’s night’s home matchup against the Washington Wizards was that things would be different.
They weren’t in a 117-107 puzzling loss to a team who has a ceiling of around 30 wins this season. Here are five ominous numbers from Friday night’s matchup against Washington that should serve as warning signs the Mavs are in trouble.
Zero
This is the number of field goals the Mavericks made for a five minute stretch spanning from the end of the first quarter to almost midway through the second. This was in the midst of a 16-2 run from Washington that put the Mavs on their heels for the rest of the game.
If you were fearful coming into the season that the Mavericks didn’t have enough shot creation, welcome to your worst nightmare. Dallas’s lack of having someone who can facilitate an offense (or Jason Kidd’s refusal to play one who can), reared its ugly head on Friday night.
No shot comes easy with this offense, and stretches like this proved that. If you can’t generate offense against the Wizards, you don’t have an offense at all.
Six
This is the number of turnovers the Mavericks had BEFORE crossing half court. The Wizards have young talent, but their defense isn’t exactly suffocating. But you wouldn’t have know any different watching the Mavericks struggle to get across the timeline.
Jason Kidd decided to stay with the ultra-big lineup of Flagg, Thompson, Washington, Davis, and Lively II to start the game. After early signs of life as the Mavericks led by 14 halfway through the first quarter, their lack of having a point guard on the floor started to become apparent and eventually put them in a hole they couldn’t climb out of.
Dallas had 21 total turnovers, 18 of which were from Flagg, Washington, and Davis. Those were the three primary ball handlers who were trying to set up the offense. If you’re looking to generate easy shots, having three forwards being the catalysts doesn’t make much sense. Having an inefficient offense is one thing, but poor ball handling on top of that isn’t a good recipe for success.
Similar to opening night against the Spurs, the offense looked clunky, disjointed, with no real flow or spacing. So even when the Mavs got across half court, the offense was a pass or two with guys running around hoping something good would happen. Not much good happened.
Nine
This is the number of total minutes D’Angelo Russell played. After playing all nine in the first half, Kidd decided to bench him for the second half, instead going with minutes from Jaden Hardy and Brandon Williams.
The Wizards’ lead swelled to 17 with two minutes left in the third quarter. The Mavericks made runs, at one point cutting the lead down to 4 in the fourth quarter, but the turnovers continued to keep them at arm’s distance.
The Mavericks signed Russell in the offseason to be the engine who would give some semblance to a decent offense and for reasons unknown to this point, Jason Kidd has steered away from that early in the season. While Russell has his flaws, there’s a strong argument he can help guys like Cooper Flagg and Anthony Davis get to their spots for easier shots. Jaden Hardy is not an initiator, he’s a “shoot no matter what” kind of guard. Brandon Williams has promise, but not enough experience running offensive sets.
If Dallas wants to stay afloat in the West, re-inserting D’Angelo Russell is likely the best chance they have.
Forty-Two
This is the percentage the Wizards shot from three on Friday night. While it’s true that every team in the NBA can have a hot shooting night, this number has deeper implications for Dallas.
The big lineups Dallas in putting on the floor has multiple flaws. First, they’re too slow to effectively close out on shooters. The natural tendency for big men is to sag inside the paint. When you sag too far, shooters are open. When you attempt to close out, they blow right past you. The NBA has evolved to skewing heavily towards shooting and quickness. As a general rule, Dallas has neither.
Dallas’s lack of shooting on the perimeter isn’t a surprise as they shot 29% from three (10-34). If you can’t beat a team on the perimeter, which seems to be the secret sauce in today’s NBA, you have to abuse them inside, which Dallas didn’t do. The Mavericks outscored the Wizards inside 48-40, but were outscored on the perimeter 45-30. If that -7 difference isn’t enough to beat the Wizards, it’ll be a long season.
Forty-Three
This is the number of points Dallas has been outscored by in their two home games to start the season. It’s one thing to lose by a few points, especially to good teams, but to lose both by double digits is a far less-than-ideal way to start the 2025-2026 campaign.
Jason Kidd has decisions to make. Dallas has multiple flaws that have to be fixed or at most covered up for the first 20 games of the season, a part of the schedule that is extremely soft. The Mavs have to rack up wins now in a hellish Western Conference. It starts at the point guard position and running an offense. The energy from scoring easier buckets translates into better defense. The Mavs still need more quickness on the perimeter, but that may be more of a personnel issue and better offense can cover that up for a little while.
All in all, the Mavericks need to get wins. Period. If they can’t start stringing some together, the situation in Dallas will go back to a place they were last year: the lottery.
