Mavs Step Back: Luka Doncic, Injury-Plagued Dallas Hit Wall; Better Days Coming?

The Dallas Mavericks, who have had to deal with several key injuries, have lost back-to-back games against title-contending teams, but a turnaround could be coming soon.

Dalton Trigg | Dec 21, 2023

Mavs Step Back: Luka Doncic, Injury-Plagued Dallas Hit Wall; Better Days Coming? /

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Dallas Mavericks

Following a 120-111 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night, the Dallas Mavericks, who have been dealing with several injuries, appear to have hit a wall … at least when it comes to playing high-quality teams.

Yes, it’s encouraging that the shorthanded Mavs were able to erase a 22-point deficit and take a two-point lead with less than four minutes remaining, despite Luka Doncic shooting 9-25 overall and 2-11 from deep, but digging themselves into such holes has proven to be too much to overcome on several occasions.

6B2301C4-D772-4242-AAF7-0058EE3E2A75 — USA TODAY Sports

"I like what the group did short-handed. Everyone played and put us in a position to fight,” Mavs head coach Jason Kidd said after the loss to LAC.

“There's a lot of character in that locker room [with] understanding things weren't going well for us in the first half. But I thought we turned it around in the second half. No one feels bad for us that we're shorthanded, but those guys fought and put us in a position to win. We just came up short."

Luka's Mavs Nearly Pull Off 22-Point Comeback in Loss vs. Clippers

On today’s episode of the Mavs Step Back Podcast, we discuss how Dallas has seemingly reached its limit when it comes to playing shorthanded without Kyrie Irving, Dereck Lively II and Josh Green. However, despite having lost two consecutive games, brighter days could be ahead with the four-game stretch coming up for Doncic and the Mavs, which starts with a back-to-back against the Houston Rockets and San Antonio Spurs this weekend.

Although the Mavs biggest hurdle is getting healthy, they could also probably benefit from making a trade or two before February’s deadline. With that being said, we discuss one hypothetical trade option the Mavs could explore with the Chicago Bulls.

Luka Doncic Primed to Pass Jason Terry on Mavs’ All-Time Scoring List

You can watch or listen to this episode below. Also, be sure to SUBSCRIBE on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and anywhere else you get your podcasts! Because of you, we have exceeded our 2023 goal of reaching 15,000 subscribers on YouTube, and we can’t thank you enough!

Published Dec 21, 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.