Mavs Next Problems: Luka’s Health & Harden's Rockets

Mavs Step Back Podcast works through the weekend, plus notes on Luka Doncic and Dallas Mavericks prep for Houston Rockets - and James Harden

Dalton Trigg | Jan 4, 2021

The Dallas Mavericks have certainly had some dramatic ups and downs in the early stages of this 2020-2021 season, with a latest 'up' being a 93-83 win over the Miami Heat at home just days after being run off the floor by the Charlotte Hornets. Could the Mavs finally string together consecutive good games with the Chicago Bulls up next?

They could not.

On this episode of the Mavs Step Back Podcast, Dalton Trigg and Matt Galatzan begin the weekend with a recap of the Mavs low-scoring win over the Heat. The win over Miami was the first for Dallas in nearly four years, and only the third victory against the Heat since the 2011 NBA Finals.

But now, fast-forward to some issues.

Mavs superstar and MVP favorite Luka Doncic, who hadn't played well against Miami in four tries in his young career, finally broke through, putting up an impressive stat line with 27 points, 15 rebounds and seven assists. Doncic was also able to knock down three three-pointers as well, something that was great to see, given his early-season struggles shooting from beyond the arc.

Now, however, Luka is nursing a quad problem. And following the loss to Zach LaVine and the Chicago Bulls on Sunday night, the Mavs finish the roadie with James Harden and the Houston Rockets on Monday night.

"We’ll just have to see how he feels when he gets up tomorrow and if tomorrow is going to be a possibility or not,'' coach Rick Carlisle said in Chicago.

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The podcast took us into the weekend. DallasBasketball.com will have updates throughout the day on Luka's status in Houston. And we will follow Carlisle's lead on this, as he reflected on the Chicago-Houston back-to-back - and maybe the entire 2-4 start - by saying, "Bitching about it's just not going to do any good."

Published Jan 4, 2021

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.