4 things to watch for as the Mavericks try to snap the skid against the San Antonio Spurs

The vibes are bad in Mavsland after four straight losses and a 5-7 start, but this is a team Dallas knows how to beat.

The Dallas Mavericks (5-7) are searching for something — anything — to correct course after dropping their last four games as they welcome their Southwest Division rival San Antonio Spurs (6-6) into the American Airlines Center on Saturday. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

After missing Thursday’s dumpster fire of a 115-113 loss at the Utah Jazz with a shoulder strain, Kyrie Irving is expected to play and is not listed on the Mavericks’ latest injury report. Thursday’s win was Utah’s first on their home court of the 2024-25 season as careless wasted possessions and poor execution in crunch time spoiled the Mavs’ fourth-quarter rally.

Despite the black cloud hovering over the AAC, every game is an opportunity to show the rest of the NBA who this team really is, and at some point, the get-right is coming. If recent history between the two teams is any indicator, that could come as soon as tomorrow, but that has to come with a renewed focus on the little things that win games.

Turnovers, turnovers, turnovers

Dallas has turned the ball over 35 times in their last two losses to the Utah Jazz and the Golden State Warriors after averaging just 12 per game through their first 10 games. Anything north of three or four in Saturday’s first quarter against the Spurs and we hereby give you permission to switch over to college football, as we’ve seen that movie and the sequel already this week.

San Antonio is forcing 14.2 turnovers per game, good for just 20th in the league at this early juncture of the season, so this appears to be a bounce-back opportunity on that front.

Not the ideal slump-buster

Photo by Alex Goodlett/Getty Images

The Spurs are moving up in the world, from the depths of NBA despair that comes with two straight 22-60 seasons to a young core the team believes in anchored by a generational talent in the middle. They’re not playoff ready yet, as currently constructed, but they’re no longer an automatic win on the schedule. The Mavs have won the last five meetings between the Southwest Division rivals and 17 of the last 20 dating back to the 2019-20 season, but present context supersedes all that. The Mavs have lost their last four, albeit by a combined eight points, and six of their last eight, while the Spurs have won three of their last five after Friday’s 120-115 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Mavs will take any advantage they can get right now, so the fact that the Spurs will be on the second night of a back-to-back is not something anyone needs to apologize for, as the Mavs lick their wounds and rest in their own beds.

The Wemby of it all

Matchups between the Mavericks and the Spurs have become appointment television again since Dallas’ upswing last season coincided with the arrival of Victor Wembanyama and his game-wrecking skillset. Saturday may be the worst time to catch Wemby again on the schedule in light of the Mavs’ poor run lately, combined with the fact that Wembanyama went scorched earth his last time out. He poured in 50 points in a 139-130 win over the Washington Wizards on Wednesday on 18-of-29 shooting and 8-of-16 from 3-point range in just 32 minutes.

As cosmically unfair as it may sound, the 7’3” Wemby has been one of the NBA’s hottest 3-point shooters lately even as his volume from deep has ticked upward. In the two games before he became the second-youngest player ever to record a 50-point game, he combined to make 12 of his 21 3-point attempts. That’s 20-of-35 in his last three games.

Look for Dereck Lively II to bounce back from a dismal performance at Utah with another solid defensive effort against the league’s most dangerous big. Lively was in foul trouble all night against the Jazz, but he’s outplayed Wembanyama in two straight season-openers. Lively had 15 points, 11 rebounds and six assists off the bench in a season-opening 120-109 win over the Spurs last month. He got the start in Utah after primarily coming off the bench the previous 11 games. It will be interesting to see if Mavs head coach Jason Kidd gives Lively another start to try to mirror his minutes with Wembanyama’s, he lets the big-man rotation fall where it may or he pulls some weird lineup tinkers only his galaxy brain can fathom.

Keep an eye on rookie point guard Stephon Castle, who erupted for 22 points in the loss to the Lakers and seems to be adapting pretty well to life in the NBA after being selected with the fourth overall pick in June’s 2024 NBA Draft. It was his second 20-plus-point outing in his last four games.

Crunch time blues

Four losses in seven days by a combined eight points is something no NBA team should ever put their fans through, and we await our apologies in the form of a winning streak of no fewer than five games. These are our demands — we’ve been through enough.

How to watch

If our calculations are correct, that win streak starts (not so) promptly at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Local and regional fans can watch on Channel 29, and the game will also be televised on NBATV and streamed on MavsTV.