Dallas Basketball

Luka Doncic's Mavs Plummet in NBA Power Rankings Following Tough Week

After being in the top 10, the Dallas Mavericks fell to the middle of the pack on NBA.com’s latest power rankings after going 1-3 over the last week.

Dalton Trigg

Luka Doncic's Mavs Plummet in NBA Power Rankings Following Tough Week
Luka Doncic's Mavs Plummet in NBA Power Rankings Following Tough Week /
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The Dallas Mavericks have hit a rough patch nearly halfway into the season, having lost six of their last nine games while juggling several different key injuries.

The latest loss was in blowout fashion, 127-90, to the Utah Jazz on Monday night in what was Dallas’ worst offensive performance of the season. After making their way into the top 10 of NBA.com’s weekly power rankings last week at No. 9, they fell six spots to No. 15 this week after going 1-3 in their last four games.

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Christopher Creveling-USA TODAY Sports

Among one of the key takeaways from Dallas plummeting down the rankings was the defensive numbers of Sixth Man of the Year candidate Tim Hardaway Jr. Although he’s put forth a good effort on that end of the floor, the advanced numbers haven’t reflected that.

“Tim Hardaway Jr. is tied (with a former teammate) for the league lead with 19 charges drawn and he’s mostly come off the bench, so he’s mostly defended against other reserves,” John Schuhmann wrote.

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“But the Mavs have been at their worst defensively (allowing 119.1 points per 100 possessions) with him on the floor. The Mavs blew a 20-point lead against the Cavs on Wednesday and a couple of critical Cleveland layups came with what looked like mistakes on Hardaway’s part, one failure to rotate and another failure to switch (or at least hedge) a back-screen.”

The Mavs now look ahead to a seven-game home stand, which will be their longest of the season. If Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving and Dereck Lively II can all stay healthy, look for Dallas to make yet another climb up the power rankings ladder in the next two weeks.

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Dalton Trigg
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.

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