\n<\/p>\n
With injuries piling up, conflicting reports from sources, and a soap opera of trade rumors involving Anthony Davis, very little is happening for the Dallas Mavericks. The league’s trade deadline needs to get here quickly so fans can embrace whatever comes next, and the team needs to refocus on their vision. Part of that is embracing reality and putting themselves at their best for this summer’s NBA draft.<\/p>\n
All things considered, there are still bright moments to cling to in these games. Cooper Flag continues to give them wisdom. He is now nursing an ankle injury, but his composure and skill are evident most nights. Players like Naji Marshall, mentioned below in this week’s Power Rankings Watch, have stepped up their game – perhaps at the aforementioned deadline. Klay Thompson just moved into fourth place all-time in three-pointers. With so much in limbo it’s important to celebrate those small victories.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
\n\nForward Naji Marshall has been one of the bright spots of a difficult season in Dallas. He is averaging 13.6 points and 54% shooting, and his production has increased to 16.9 points on 58.6% shooting in his 17 starts. He was very effective offensively off the dribble, shooting 60.7 percent on drives. According to NBA Advanced Stats, only Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves have a higher field goal percentage among players ranked in the top 50 in points off drives. \u2014 MacMahon<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Level: 24 (Stage 4: Not a Fear Stage)<\/h4>\n
Last week: 23<\/h4>\n
\n\nPreseason win total:<\/strong> 41.5
Winning speed: <\/strong>29<\/p>\nVegas and national broadcasters were on NicoVision during the projection of this Mavericks team. Some even thought that Kyrie Irving will come back now. Alas, here are the Mavericks, with their injury-prone men out of a job, top free agent acquisition D’Angelo Russell has played zero 20-minute games since Thanksgiving and Cooper Flagg has split impressive performances with memorable outings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Level: 25<\/h4>\n
Last week: 25<\/h4>\n
\n\n\n
- \n
\nCurrently, Davis has played 29 of 74 games since being acquired (along with Max Christie) for Luka Don\u010di\u0107. This season, the Mavs are 10-10 with Davis in uniform, but he has been outscored by 4.6 points per 100 possessions in 626 minutes on the floor.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
- \n
\nThe Mavs were outscored by 28 points (54-26) in Chicago on Saturday, falling to 4-15 without Davis. They have scored just 106.7 points per 100 possessions in those 19 games, besting (107.5 points per 100 possessions) Cooper Flagg’s 844 minutes on the floor without Davis.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
- \n
\nThe offense was poor on both ends of the floor in Sacramento on Tuesday, but the Mavs secured the victory with two go-ahead buckets in the final minute. Flagg had the first (a tough finish off the glass, left) and assisted on the other (Brandon Williams 3), and is now 4-for-6 on shots to tie or lead in the final minute of the fourth quarter or overtime. Those four buckets are tied for fourth in the league.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Upcoming:<\/strong> With their loss at Utah on Thursday, the Mavs are 0-6 (one of three winless teams) in offseason games. They will have two more – vs. Brooklyn and Denver – as they play a four-game homestand this week.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Rank: 26<\/h4>\n
Last week: 25<\/h4>\n
\n\nThe Dallas Mavericks beat the Utah Jazz on Thursday, but it’s hard to find takeaways from the game without Cooper Flagg and Lauri Markkanen.<\/p>\n
Dallas lost to Utah last week, is 4-7 in its last 11 and just got some bad news about Anthony Davis. He may not need surgery on his injured hand, but he will be out for a few weeks and could still be traded before the deadline.<\/p>\n
With Flagg now dealing with his ankle injury, all signs point to the Mavericks chasing improved lottery prospects down the stretch.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With injuries piling up, conflicting reports from sources, and a soap opera of trade rumors involving Anthony Davis, very little is happening for the Dallas Mavericks. The league’s trade deadline needs to get here quickly so fans can embrace whatever comes next, and the team needs to refocus on their vision. Part of that is …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2556,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2555"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2557,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2555\/revisions\/2557"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}