Are the Dallas Mavericks (10-16) in their ascendancy as we inch closer to the potential return of star guard Kyrie Irving, who remains out as he recovers from offseason knee surgery? How high, exactly, is the ceiling for a team that makes things hard on both themselves at times with turnovers and offensive inefficiency, as well as on opposing offenses, with a defense that refuses to say die?
With five wins in the last six games in the Mavericks’ pocket, Monday’s matchup with the Utah Jazz (9-15) at the Delta
Center may offer a little more fuel to the flickering flame of optimism surrounding the team.
Utah’s third-leading scorer, center Walker Kessler, was ruled out for the rest of the year last month after sustaining a shoulder injury that will require surgery. That leaves the duo of point guard Keyonte George (22.9 points, 6.8 assists per game) and forward Lauri Markkanen (27.6 points, 6.7 rebounds per game) to do even more of the heavy lifting for a team looking to hoist itself from the cellar of Western Conference irrelevance. Jusuf Nurkic, who can be a bit of a Mavs killer at times, as well as second-year man Kyle Filipowski, are filling the void in the middle for the Jazz so far in Kessler’s absence.
Here are three questions the Mavs need to answer on Monday to continue their winning ways.
The box of chocolates conundrum
Even in the midst of what fans hope is a reversal of fortunes for the Mavericks, with five wins in six games, you never quite know what you’re going to get with this team. Forrest Gump would say being a Mavs fan is like a box of chocolates. After newly enshrined point guard Ryan Nembhard burst onto the scene with big games against the Los Angeles Lakers, Denver Nuggets and Miami Heat, his impact has been more muted in the team’s last three. While the Mavs put together special performances in wins over the Nuggets, the Heat and the Houston Rockets to right the ship after a woeful 5-15 start, they struggled to get past the Brooklyn Nets on Friday in a 119-111 win.
Is Anthony Davis going to be the 32-and-13 version of Anthony Davis on Monday at Utah? Or, are we going to be greeted with the version (1-of-9 shooting for a season-low two points) we saw in the Mavericks’ 132-111 loss at the Oklahoma City Thunder? Will Klay Thompson continue to show signs of life behind the arc, where he’s shooting 41.4% shooting in four games in December, or will he regress to another 0-of-5 or 1-of-8 night from deep, as we saw too many times earlier in the season?
At this point, no outcome should come as a surprise to anyone who’s been watching Dallas consistently this year.
The riddle of defensive identity
What exactly do the Mavericks hang their hat on? To a man, they’d probably tell you, “defense,” and that makes sense for a team that comes into Monday’s game un Utah with the seventh-best defensive rating (112.2) in the NBA.
But in their last six games, the Mavs’ offense has had to come along for the ride to produce those last five wins. Dallas has scored fewer than 114 points just once in their last six games, in that beatdown at the hands of the Thunder on Dec. 5.
Good defense simply hasn’t been enough for Dallas, at least not when the other half of the equation was one of the worst offenses in the league. Slowing Utah down on Monday doesn’t appear to be the toughest test of the game for the Mavericks. The Jazz turn the ball over with the worst of ‘em, 16.4 times per game, good for 28th in the NBA. They shoot the 3-pointer at just a 34.5% clip. That’s 25th in the league and just a hair better than the Mavs shoot it (34.1%). Utah comes in with the NBA’s 20th-ranked offensive rating, at 113.3.
No, what the Mavericks still need to show is the ability to consistently pair their solid defense with an offense that gives them a little separation on the scoreboard — to put teams away that deserve to be put away.
They should have an opportunity to do that on Monday at the Jazz.
Keyonte’s quiz
George has been on a tear recently, scoring 27 or more points in six of his last nine games. He went off for 39, to go along with eight dimes, six boards and two steals, in Friday’s 130-126 win over the Memphis Grizzlies. Both of the Mavericks’ best options at point guard, Nembhard and Brandon Williams, are smaller guys and don’t defend larger guards all that well. George goes 6’4 and has both the body to bully Nembhard or Williams on his way to the bucket, and the burst to easily get past anyone Dallas puts between him and the rim. It’s the one matchup against Utah that jumps off the page as an immediate disadvantage for the Mavs.
With D’Angelo Russell ruled out on Monday, missing his second straight game with an illness, the Mavericks are without a bigger point guard to throw at George on the defensive end. And speaking of injured Mavs, Daniel Gafford was upgraded to questionable for the game at Utah, according to the 5:30 p.m. NBA injury report, after missing the last three games with an ankle injury.
How to watch
The Mavericks visit the Jazz on Monday at the Delta Center, where tipoff is scheduled for 8 p.m. The game will be broadcast locally on KFAA Channel 29 and on regional sister stations throughout the Mavs’ viewing area. You can catch the stream on MavsTV as well as on NBA League Pass where available.
