Flop: Mavericks’ recent rough stretch
At the beginning of the month of March, the Dallas Mavericks were sitting pretty comfortably as the sixth seed in the West. Now they are seeded ninth, just outside the Playoffs with only nine games left. What happened in the last four weeks?
The Mavericks lost 10 of their 12 games over the last four weeks, making it tougher on themselves to make the Playoffs this year. Over the four week span, the team has been playing lacklustre defence allowing an average of 113.2 points. On Sunday, they gave up a season-high 133 points in a disappointing loss to the Sacramento Kings.
As part of those ten losses, the team has dropped games against the Denver Nuggets and twice against the Sacramento Kings. Other than these games, the schedule has been quite rough for the Mavs having to play the Warriors twice, the Cleveland Cavaliers once and the rising Portland Trailblazers twice in the span of nine days.
The past two weeks have just been disastrous, losing all but one game against Portland. To make matters worse, the team lost Chandler Parsons for the season after he was facing problems with the medial meniscus in his right knee. Deron Williams was also sent back to Dallas for an MRI and has been ruled out for the next couple of games with an abdominal strain.
Head Coach Rick Carlisle is known to use a deep bench but it won’t be easy making up for what Parsons brings to the floor. While keeping his focus on making the Playoffs, Carlisle also has to regularly schedule rests for his veterans in Dirk Nowitzki, Deron Williams and Wesley Matthews.
