NBA Power Rankings: Mavs Rising After Doncic, Wood Breakthrough?

The Dallas Mavericks flashed a ton of offensive potential this week. Where does that put them in this week's power rankings?

Jeremy Brener | Dec 19, 2022

The Dallas Mavericks sit at .500 and hold the ninth seed in the Western Conference a week before Christmas, but there's more than meets the eye.

The Mavs sit just 4.5 games back of first place and there's still a lot of basketball left in the season. This past week, the Mavs went 2-2, posting wins against the Oklahoma City Thunder and Portland Trail Blazers, where Christian Wood and Luka Dončić played their best offensive game together as teammates.

The team also lost a pair of games to the Cleveland Cavaliers, but that didn't prevent the Mavericks from moving up in this week's power rankings from Sports Illustrated. The team moved up two spots from No. 10 to 8.

"Both Mavericks losses last week came against the Cavaliers—the first was by 15 points, the second by one in overtime," SI writes. "Kemba Walker, playing in his third game with Dallas, went for a game-high 32 points in Cleveland, but it wasn’t enough with Luka Dončić out. In the team’s two wins at home against the Thunder and Trail Blazers, Dončić went for 38 and 33 points, respectively, but he still relinquished his scoring title lead to Joel Embiid—for now."

The Mavericks hope to continue their ascent this week with a two-game series against the Minnesota Timberwolves today and Wednesday in Minneapolis. Then, the team returns home to face the Houston Rockets on Friday before a Christmas Day showdown against the Los Angeles Lakers.

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Published Dec 19, 2022

JEREMY BRENER

Jeremy Brener is an editor, writer and social media manager for several Fan Nation websites. His work has also been featured in 247 Sports and SB Nation as a writer and podcaster. Brener has been with Fan Nation since 2021. Brener grew up in Houston, going to Astros, Rockets and Texans games as a kid. He moved to Orlando in 2016 to go to college and pursue a degree. He hosts "The Dream Take" podcast covering the Rockets, which has produced over 350 episodes since March 2020. Brener graduated in May 2020 from the University of Central Florida with a Bachelor's degree in Broadcast Journalism minoring in Sport Business Management. While at UCF, Brener worked for the school's newspaper NSM.today and "Hitting the Field," a student-run sports talk show and network. He was the executive producer for "Hitting the Field" from 2019-20. During his professional career, Brener has covered a number of major sporting events including the Pro Bowl, March Madness and several NBA and NFL games. As a fan, Brener has been to the 2005 World Series, 2010 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 NCAA National Championship between the Villanova Wildcats and North Carolina Tar Heels. Now, Brener still resides in the Central Florida area and enjoys writing, watching TV, hanging out with friends and going to the gym. Brener can be followed on Twitter @JeremyBrener. For more inquiries, please email jeremybrenerchs@gmail.com.