If I had told you at the start of the season that DeAaron Fox would be the most talented player on the floor when the Dallas Mavericks (32-33, 13-18 away) visit the San Antonio Spurs (26-35, 15-14 home) in early March, you would likely have thought that Fox was added to Dallas as a finishing piece to a championship-ready roster. Oh, sweet innocent child of October, so much else has happened.
The Mavericks enter this one having lost the nationally televised misery fest to the Phoenix Suns 125-116 - a game that saw Naji Marshall have a career game of 34/9/10. Meanwhile, the Spurs dropped the Fox return game in Sacramento on Friday 127-109.
Two Franchises Underdoing Major Pain
Coming into this season, the Mavericks hoped for a return to the Finals. The Spurs hoped to be a sneaky play-in tournament darling.
The Dallas Mavericks' woes are well chronicled all over the interwebs. No more Luka Doncic, Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving on the shelf, Quinten Grimes has looked like the 76ers' best player more than once lately, and injury updates from the Mavs PR office sound like an off-brand Chat GPT wrote them.
The vibe in the Alamo City is not quite as bleak as its I35 neighbor to the north but there are two major causes for concern as the Spurs eye the off-season. Has Gregg Popovich - at age 76 and recovering from a stroke in November - coached his last game in the NBA? Popovich is the longest-tenured coach in all four major sports leagues in the United States. The living legend may be back on the sidelines but if he should retire the Spurs face a question they have not had to answer since 1996.
Victor Wembanyama's deep vein thrombosis diagnosis ended his season. The major risk of this condition is the possibility of blood clots that can lead to pulmonary embolism. The Spurs faithful have to be concerned about the status of their franchise player heading into next season.
Underwater
The Mavericks are now under the .500 mark for the first time all season at 32-33. After fighting like crazy to stay afloat with a nice stretch of gutsy wins heading into the All-Star Break, the Mavericks are now in millstone mode, sinking fast. While the Kyrie Irving injury has shifted priorities to bettering their lottery chances, this is a scrappy bunch who is still playing hard but find themselves outmanned and outgunned in game after game. Tanking implies intent, this is simply a predictable freefall.
On March 7th of 2024, the Dallas Mavericks notched a great road win in Miami, the beginning of a historic run as they won 16 of 18 games and vaulted into the 5th seed - on their way to an epic playoff run. Fast forward a year and this early March now sees a losing streak of five games in a row and counting - a painful juxtaposition. The voluntary nature of its inducement paired with a staggering amount of injuries has dovetailed to create a season that has Dallas fans dreaming of lottery luck instead of a return to glory.
A fun memory revisited.
I realize some of you want hard basketball analysis out of us right now. Maybe I could spend this section of the preview talking about Caleb Martin’s potential impact. Or whether Brandon Williams could find his way onto the roster next year. To be honest, I just don’t have it in me to feign importance when it comes to these few weeks of basketball doldrums.
Instead, let’s look back on the night Dirk and company shocked the world in the 2006 WCF Game 7:
Maybe someday, we can have a moment like that again in the years ahead. Maybe.
Go Mavs.