NBA Playoff Implications: Mavs Face Crucial Back-to-Back Against Jazz & Pelicans

The Dallas Mavericks look to shake off a 130-126 loss to the Phoenix Suns as they take on the Utah Jazz to close out a six-game home stand on Tuesday. The Mavs Step Back Podcast previews that game, Wednesday’s back-to-back against the New Orleans Pelicans and much more.

Dalton Trigg | Mar 7, 2023

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If the Dallas Mavericks are ever going to build some momentum heading toward the postseason, now is the time for them to do it.

Although no team is a pushover for a Mavs’ roster that severely lacks defense, Dallas’ remaining strength of schedule ranks 27th with 17 games to go. That stretch starts on Tuesday night as the Mavs take on the Utah Jazz to close out what has been a disappointing six-game home stand.

On today’s episode of the Mavs Step Back Podcast, I’m joined by my DallasBasketball.com colleague Grant Afseth to preview not only the Mavs-Jazz game at American Airlines Center on Tuesday, but also Dallas’ second night of a back-to-back matchup with the New Orleans Pelicans at Smoothie King Center on Wednesday.

The Mavs’ offense is not going to be an issue for the rest of the season, as Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving have already proved to be one of the best scoring duos in the league after just seven games played together. Doncic and Irving have played 321 possessions together and average an eye-popping 134 points per 100 possessions, according to Cleaning The Glass.

As good as the Dallas offense has been, though, it hasn’t been able to overcome a defense that is ranked 23th for the season and has been even worse than that since the trade.

Can the Mavs give enough effort to just become a league-average defensive team, or is that just not in the cards with the way this current roster is constructed? Even with the defensive shortcomings, can Doncic and Irving’s offensive fireworks power the Mavs to some important late-season victories, starting with Utah on Tuesday night? Were there reasons for optimism following the Mavs’ 130-126 loss to Kevin Durant and the Phoenix Suns?

You can listen to the entire episode here:

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Published Mar 7, 2023

DALTON TRIGG

Dalton Trigg is the Editor-In-Chief for Dallas Basketball, as well as the Executive Editor overseeing Inside The Rockets, Inside The Spurs, All Knicks, and The Magic Insider. He is the founder and host for the Mavs Step Back Podcast, which is a proud part of the Blue Wire podcast network. Trigg graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi’s College of Business and Economic Development with a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship in 2016. After spending a few years with multiple Dallas Mavericks-related blogs, including SB Nation’s Mavs Moneyball, Trigg joined DallasBasketball.com as a staff writer in 2018 and never looked back. At the start of 2022, he was promoted to the EIC title he holds now. Through the years, Trigg has conducted a handful of high-profile one-on-one interviews to add to his resume — in both writing and podcasting. Some of his biggest interviews have been with Mavs owner Mark Cuban, Mavs GM Nico Harrison, now-retired legend Dirk Nowitzki and many other current/former players and team staffers. Many of those interviews and other articles by Trigg have been aggregated by other well-known sports media websites, such as Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report and others. You can find Trigg on all major social media channels, but his most prevalent platform is on Twitter. Whether it’s posting links to his DBcom work, live-tweeting Mavs games or merely giving his opinions on things going on with Dallas and the rest of the NBA, the daily content never stops rolling. For any inquiries, please email Dalton@MavsStepBack.com.