Mavericks vs Magic Preview and Game Thread: Dallas continues their home stand

Dallas plays a Sunday evening game at home against Orlando

The Dallas Mavericks (3-2) play Sunday night at home in the American Airlines Center against the Orlando Magic (3-3). The game starts at 6:30 pm and is on Channel 29 and MavsTV. Dallas needs to find a way to win after an ugly loss against Houston to begin their five game home stand. The Magic are adjusting to life without their star Paul Banchero, who is going to a while with an oblique injury.

• WHO: Dallas Mavericks vs Houston Rockets
• WHAT: The start of a five game home-stand for the Mavericks
• WHERE: American Airlines Center, Dallas Texas
• WHEN: 6:30 p.m. CST
• HOW: MavsTV, NBA League Pass, Channel 29 (local fans), also Playback with Kirk, Matthew, and David

The Mavericks injury report is consistent with the past several games: Dante Exum is out with his wrist surgery recovery and Maxi Kleber is out with a hamstring issue. The Magic have a longer report. Paulo Banchero is out with an oblique injury and will miss some time. Magic bigs Wendell Carter Jr. and Goga Bitadze are each listed as questionable with various lower body issues.

As I wrote in my longer preview earlier today, Luka Doncic playing better will help a lot of the Mavericks struggles. The defense needs to figure it out as well, but that’s certainly within their abilities. Keeping Jalen Suggs from getting going will be essential if Dallas wants to win this one. Dallas will also need to do a much better job on the rebounding than they did against the Rockets.

As you can tell below, you can join me and some other Mavs Moneyball guys in a room on Playback (embed 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 around 11:45 pm. Thanks so much for spending time with us here at Mavs Moneyball. Let’s go Mavs!