This season’s path has been riddled with obstacles for the Mavericks, but the variety of contributors has been the real story
No one can say the Dallas Mavericks have had an easy road this season. Injuries have been much of the story, starting all the way back in training camp. Add to that recent incidents like Naji Marshall addressing Jusuf Nurkic’s petty intimidation and Luka Doncic’s long term injury on Christmas Day, this team is putting it all to test.
But the good news is that they’ve largely passed many of those tests, at least to this point. That is thanks to the roster depth that Nico Harrison has assembled, which is the highlight of this week’s NBA Power Rankings Watch. If not for the play of guys like Quentin Grimes, microwave scoring of Spencer Dinwiddie in moment’s that one of the superstars is out, or the defensive reliability of Dereck Lively II, this team would not be positioned where they are in the West.
The Athletic
Rank: 6 (Tier 2: In a Good Place)
Last week: 4
Gift: Suzanne Vega
The Mavericks don’t need much. They’re playing fine. That is with Luka Dončić playing fine — by his standards, of course. There’s nothing wrong with 28.8 points, 8.5 rebounds, 8.1 assists and 2.0 steals. Perhaps the Mavericks don’t need more, but we all know Dončić is capable of more. Maybe he needs a little more inspiration, and I can think of no one better than the Grammy-nominated Vega, who wrote “Luka” in the 1980s. I’m sure Vega could re-work it for Dončić.
ESPN
Rank: 7
Last week: 6
Young riser: C Dereck Lively II
The 20-year-old has made the team’s controversial decision to tank in the final week of the 2022-23 season to keep its top-10-protected pick seem like a stroke of genius. The springy 7-footer is a phenomenal complement to the Mavs’ star duo as a defensive anchor and pick-and-roll finisher. He’s averaging 9.0 points, 7.8 rebounds and 1.7 blocks while shooting 70.8% from the floor as part of a rim-running tag team with Daniel Gafford. — MacMahon
NBA
Rank: 5
Last week: 4
The Mavs played two games against the Clippers without Luka Dončić last week, losing the one in which they were also without Kyrie Irving and winning the one with Irving in the lineup (even though he shot just 6-for-25).
Three takeaways
The Mavs are now 7-2 in games in which they’ve had only one of their two stars, 6-1 with only Irving and 1-1 with only Dončić. They’ve scored 119.5 points per 100 possessions over those nine games, with their win on Saturday just the seventh time this season that the Clippers’ sixth-ranked defense has allowed more than 115 per 100.
Quentin Grimes scored 20 points (on 7-for-8 shooting) off the bench on Saturday and is registering career-high marks in both points per 36 minutes (16.0) and effective field goal percentage (61.0%). That’s come with a career-best 42.3% from 3-point range but with a big drop in the percentage of his shots that have come from beyond the arc (from 73% last season to 58%). So he’s also doubled his free throw rate and has made more free throws in 26 games (35) than he did in 51 games last season (34).
Overall, the numbers haven’t been much different in 683 total minutes with only one of Dončić or Irving on the floor (118.1 points scored, plus-6.5 points per 100 possessions) than in 471 minutes with both playing (118.6, plus-8.9). And it’s best to have them both available so that the Mavs can have at least one on the floor for all 48 minutes.
Dončić is listed as questionable for the Mavs’ game against Portland on Monday. Their Christmas game against the Wolves will be the teams’ first meeting since Week 2 when Irving had his second-highest-scoring game of the season (35 points) in a six-point victory in Minnesota.
Bleacher Report
Rank: 7
Last week: 5
The Dallas Mavericks’ depth is better than it’s been for much of Luka Dončić’s career, but it’s about to go through perhaps its toughest test.
The superstar and perennial MVP candidate will reportedly “miss an extended period of time with his calf strain,” according to ESPN’s Tim MacMahon.
And though the Mavericks are winning the non-Luka minutes this season, they’re minus-3.8 points per 100 possessions when Dončić and Kyrie Irving are both off the floor, something that’s about to be a lot more common for the foreseeable future.