Mavericks vs Kings Preview, Injury Report, and Game Thread: Back to work everyone

New plan, same as the old plan

The Dallas Mavericks (28-25) host the Sacramento Kings (26-26) at home on Monday night. Both teams are still making a push for the playoffs after weird trade deadlines. Each team has won two of their last five, with Dallas winning recent games over the Boston Celtics and Houston Rockets. The Kings are coming off a win against the New Orleans Pelicans after two straight losses. Here’s the main things to know before the game!

• WHO: Dallas Mavericks vs Sacramento kings
• WHAT: Same story as the last few weeks, trying to get a win without the superstar
• WHERE: American Airlines Center, Dallas Texas
• WHEN: 7:30 pm CST
• HOW: Channel 29, MavsTv and Playback with Kirk, Matthew, and David

The injury report sucks again! Anthony Davis is out until Lord knows when with his abductor strain. Dwight Powell, Dereck Lively, and Caleb Martin are out. PJ Washington is questionable after his ankle injury against the Rockets. Maxi Christie has a shoulder strain. Dante Exum is questionable with Achilles tightness.

There’s a long segment to start today’s Hoop Collective pod where Brian Windhorst acts confused as to why AD being out indefinitely is actually news. Dallas, even without Davis, can still field a decent team, but the injuries as they have them have piled and piled and it’s going to catch up at some point. With a third of the season left, they need to aim to stack wins if they want to make the playoffs.

As you can tell below, you can join me and some other Mavs Moneyball guys in a room on Playback (embedded below) during the game (though I may not be able to start it until halftime). Also, consider joining Josh and I on Pod Maverick live after the game on YouTube, we should start after the game. Thanks so much for spending time with us here at Mavs Moneyball. Let’s go Mavs!