Dallas Mavericks Injury Report (Jan. 5): Latest update on Kyrie Irving and Tim Hardway Jr's availability

The Dallas Mavericks will face the visiting Portland Trail Blazers on Friday, January 5. Both Kyrie Irving and Tim Hardaway Jr. are cleared to play and will be part of the Mavericks rotation. However, Grant Williams, Dereck Lively II, Richaun Holmes, and Dante Exum are all listed as doubtful due to injury.

With Irving and Luka Doncic both healthy, the Mavericks will enter their game against Portland as favorites. In fact, they are -10.5 on the spread and -520 on the money line.

Portland's roster is young, and the franchise is rebuilding. As such, the elite talents of Doncic and Irving should be more than enough to ensure Dallas secures a victory.

Nevertheless, the Mavericks' defense is a cause for concern. They currently sit 22nd in the NBA for defensive rating, which, for a contending team, is far from ideal. For all of the offensive upside Doncic and Irving provide Dallas, the lack of defense leaves them susceptible to shock losses.

As such, Scoot Henderson and the Trail Blazers will feel like beating Dallas is possible. Yes, it will be tough to slow down Dallas' offense, but finding ways to score shouldn't be difficult, especially when penetrating the perimeter defense and making reads as everybody rotates.

Defense has been an issue for Jason Kidd's team for the past couple of seasons. The additions of Williams and Lively II were supposed to help alleviate some of those problems, but that hasn't been the case so far.

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Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving are both present in early All-Star returns

On Thursday, January 4, the NBA released the results of the first round of fan voting. Luka Doncic sits first in the Western Conference among guards, having received 1.45 million votes. Kyrie Irving is fifth, having received 388,000 votes.

There are still multiple rounds of the All-Star voting process to go, including more fan votes. That could see Doncic cement his spot as an All-Star starter and Irving continuing to move up in the current rankings.

Dallas' two guards are both superstar-level performers. Irving is unquestionably the most talented ball-handler in the league, if not in league history. Doncic is arguably the best scorer in the NBA, at least from the guard position.

Pairing the two guards together was always going to ensure the Mavericks had a supercharged offense, with defenses being stretched to the max on the perimeter. However, both Doncic and Irving aren't known for their defensive ability and commitment.

It's that lack of perimeter defense that's been hurting Dallas this season, and until they figure out how to counteract their star players' defensive shortcomings, it will be hard to view them as legitimate championship contenders. After all, offense wins games, but defense is what wins championships.