SALT LAKE CITY – The Mavericks have had some wins of late. The Utah Jazz were simply in shock.
So before the Mavericks play two of their most important games of the season later this week in Sacramento, they must first take care of business against the Jazz on Monday night at the Delta Center.
With seven wins in their last eight games, the Mavericks have climbed to 6th place in the Western Conference standings.
But things change quickly. If you don’t play for a few days, which the Mavericks haven’t done since Thursday night, you can drop to eighth, like they did when Sacramento and Phoenix won games this weekend.
That’s exactly where they were before winning seven out of eight.
So the start of this five-game journey is ridiculously important. The Mavericks can’t afford to lose games at this point in the season that they are favored to win.
And they’re favored by 8½ points, a huge number when you’re a visiting team.
“We have a great road trip to test,” coach Jason Kidd said. “We will see how we react.”
The good vibes, confidence and chemistry the Mavericks have developed through the ups and downs of a long season will indeed be vital if they want to improve their playoff status during this 11-day journey.
After Tuesday and Friday’s meetings with Sacramento, the Mavericks return to the other side of the country to play Houston, which is knocking on the door of the play-in tournament with a good run lately.
Then they return to the West Coast to play Golden State.
It’s an inconvenient trip in terms of travel. But these are the opportunities that can deliver a regular season and build a team for bigger things in the playoffs.
Here’s what else to look for in Utah on Monday:
- The Jazz were beaten in Dallas on Thursday and, although the Mavericks haven’t played since, Utah traveled to Houston and got bludgeoned by 27 points on Saturday. The Jazz have now lost five in a row and eight of their last nine.
- Utah hasn’t beaten a team with a winning record since Feb. 4 and 6, when they won back-to-back games against Milwaukee and Oklahoma City.
- The Mavericks will hopscotch across the western half of the United States on this 6,000-plus mile journey. Eight of their last 12 matches will be away.
- Luka Dončić has been simply fantastic ever since. . . well, almost the whole season. But especially since the starting lineup change when Daniel Gafford and Derrick Jones Jr. were reinstated. This group (featuring Kyrie Irving and PJ Washington) has won all seven games these players have started in together since March 7. Luka averages 34.1 points, 9.8 assists and 9 rebounds per game.
- The Mavericks are 2-1 against the Jazz this season, but were eliminated on New Year’s Day at the Delta Center 127-90. In Thursday’s game against the Jazz in Dallas, the Mavericks returned the favor, 113-97.
- Utah is led by Lauri Markkanen with 23 points and 8.2 rebounds per game. Collin Sexton is averaging 18.5 points and recently came off the bench.
MAVERICKS (41-29) at UTAH JAZZ (29-42)
- When/where: 8 p.m., Delta Center, Salt Lake City.
- Television: Bally Sports South West.
- Radio: 97.1 FM Le Freak; 99.1 FM Zona MX (Spanish).
X: @ESefko
Playoff Update: The Western Conference playoff picture changes almost every day. Here we will give you periodic updates on the latest West ranking preview.
The top six teams will advance to the playoffs. The teams ranked seventh through tenth will participate in the play-in tournament to determine the seventh and eighth seeds for the playoffs.
Western Conference Update
Team (top seed) Remaining games record (home-road)
Oklahoma City (2) 49-21……….6-6
Denver (1) 50-21……….7-4
Minnesota (3) 49-22……….7-4
LA Clippers (4) 44-26……….7-5
New Orleans (5) 44-27……….7-4
Phoenix (6) 42-29……….4-7
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*Sacramento (7) 41-29……….8-4
Dallas (8) 41-29……….4-8
LA Lakers (9) 39-32……….3-8
Golden State (10) 36-34………4-8
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Houston (11) 35-35………5-7
*–Owns tiebreaker thanks to better head-to-head record
