NBA Standings Watch: Mavs Stay Put on Day Off; Lakers, Suns Lose

The Dallas Mavericks didn't play on Saturday, but they still had a few things go their way with both the Los Angeles Lakers and Phoenix Suns losing.

Dalton Trigg | Mar 3, 2024

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With the Western Conference standings being as tight as they are, every day is a big one for the Dallas Mavericks, even when they don't have a game to play. Coming off a blowout loss to the league-leading Boston Celtics on Friday, the Mavs got some help in the West standings on their day off on Saturday.

Although the Mavs stayed at No. 8 in the West, they moved to within one game of No. 6 after the Phoenix Suns lost to the Houston Rockets. Keeping up with the Suns is significant, as Dallas won the regular-season tiebreaker if the two teams were to end up with the same record at season's end.

There is a good chance the Mavs can pass the Suns if they take care of business, though, as Dallas has the eighth-easiest remaining schedule, and Phoenix has the hardest remaining schedule.

Coming into Saturday night, LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers were just 1.5 games behind the Mavs at No. 9 in the West. However, following a loss to Nikola Jokic's defending-champion Denver Nuggets, the Lakers are now two games back of the Mavs while also having lost the regular-season tiebreaker to them as well. So essentially, the Mavs really have a three-game lead on the Lakers, who have the fifth-hardest remaining schedule in their final 20 games of the season.

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Other Dallas notes: 1) The Golden State Warriors have looked more like their old selves lately, having won eight of their last 10 games and climbing to within 1.5 games of the Mavs at the No. 9 spot in the West. Dallas still has three more games against the Warriors coming up on the schedule. 2) The Sacramento sit just a half-game ahead of the Mavs at the No. 7 spot in the West. Dallas still has two more matchups with the Kings during this final stretch of the season. 3) The New Orleans Pelicans currently occupy the No. 6 spot in the West, sitting 1.5 games ahead of the Mavs. New Orleans and Dallas tied at 2-2 in its regular-season series.

Sunday will provide another interesting day of watching the standings for the Mavs, as they take on the Joel Embiid-less Philadelphia 76ers, who have lost 12 of their last 17 games. Meanwhile, coming off a loss, the Suns have to turn around and face the No. 2 Oklahoma City Thunder on a second night of a back-to-back.

Check back in with DallasBasketball.com for more daily updates throughout the rest of this season.

Published Mar 3, 2024

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.