The Washington Wizards are off to Dallas, Texas, to face off against the Mavericks in the last game of a western road trip.
The Mavs entered the season looking like strong contenders to defend their Western Conference crown, but a slew of injuries and a bloodbath of a conference have relegated Dallas to standing by and watching everyone else have fun.
They’ve still got a chance to contend come playoff time, especially once Luka Doncic is fully recovered from his injury, but even getting there in the first place looks like a real challenge.
Meanwhile, “playoffs” is not a word in the Wizards’ lexicon for the foreseeable future. They’ve dropped 13 straight games and are careening down into the depths of league history as we speak. Being in the top three of the lottery is not at risk, so Washington needs to pick up a couple of wins fast before the season ends with single-digit wins.
Mavs decimated by injuries
Doncic suffered an injury on Christmas Day, and he’s been sidelined ever since. Doncic is due for a re-evaluation any day now, but absent one of the three best players in the league, the Mavs have struggled to stay afloat.
Dallas is still in the mix for the playoffs, but defending their Western Conference crown is looking like a taller and taller task by the day. As it stands, Dallas sits at ninth in the Western Conference standings, trapped in the 9-10 playoff game with the feisty Sacramento Kings.
With Dereck Lively II and Maxi Kleber both recently sidelined for extended periods of time, the Mavs are short the critical frontcourt depth that made them so dangerous from the second half of last year through the NBA Finals.
Lone star Mavs
Since Doncic’s Christmas Day injury, Kyrie Irving is scoring over 27 points per game. Every Irving bucket is absolutely critical for survival, as nobody other than Irving on the Mavs is scoring more than PJ Washington’s 13.8 points per game.
Klay Thompson has been a good pickup for the Mavs, but this is obviously not the Thompson of the Golden Dynasty. His defense is understandably gone after he tore his ACL and ruptured his achilles, and he now offers little beyond spacing the floor (which, to his credit, he is still great at).
Wizards’ outlook
Even in spite of the Mavs’ recent floundering, I’m not ready to say that this is where the Wizards break their active 13-game losing streak (the longest in the NBA right now, obviously). Kuzma, who was nearly traded to the Mavs last season, had a nice little bounce-back game against Phoenix the other night, but even that resulted in a 10-point loss to a Suns team that’s flopping around even harder than Dallas right now.
Luckily, the losing streak has a good chance of stopping at 14, as the Wizards are coming back home after the Mavs game to host the Toronto Raptors.
Wizards at Mavs tips off at 8:30 p.m. EST on Monday.