Mercifully idle, the Mavericks on Sunday quietly surpassed the season’s one-month mark.
It’s been an uphill slog. A week-by-week trudge on a treadmill that the NBA schedule-maker cruelly set on a steep gradient.
Dallas played 11 of its first 15 games on the road. Saturday night’s home loss to Houston, though, represented a crest of sorts — the start of a stretch in which the Mavericks will play 13 of 17 games at home.
What good will that do, however, if the Mavericks don’t conquer the home court mediocrity that has plagued them since last season?
“We’re conscious of it for sure,” guard Trey Burke said after Saturday’s result dropped Dallas to 2-3 at home this season.
Last season’s Mavericks were 19-15 in games played at American Airlines Center, 21-12 in true road games and 3-5 when playing in the neutral-site Disney World bubble.
Now, until further notice, they are playing without fans at American Airlines Center, as will be the case Monday when they host Denver and MVP candidate Nikola Jokic.
“I think collectively we’re trying to figure out what it is that can get us going at home, but it’s no fans anywhere, so, it’s really not an excuse,” Burke said. “We have to bring our energy every night.
“We tell each other that amongst each other going out on the court. But it’s easier said than done. We got to find a way to, you know, get our juice back here and build off of wins.”
Perhaps more disconcerting to the Mavericks than this season’s home win-loss ledger is the one-sidedness of the three defeats: 118-99 to Charlotte; 117-101 to Chicago; 133-108 to Houston.
Saturday’s thumping at the Rockets’ hands was somewhat more understandable, given that it was Dallas’ sixth game in nine days and fifth game in seven days.
It also was the second game of a back-to-back, following a down-to-the wire victory in San Antonio, but the Rockets also were coming off a last-minute win at Detroit.
All the while, the 8-8 Mavericks have had to withstand the losses of 47 player games to injury, injury maintenance, illness and COVID-19 protocols.
It’s a challenging confluence, being short of players during what coach Rick Carlisle describes as “our most dense stretch of scheduling.”
Even though the travel is dissipating, the density of games is not. The Mavericks will play four games each of the next two weeks, including games this Wednesday and Friday at the Western Conference’s hottest team, Utah (12-4), followed by two straight at home against Phoenix.
In the log-jammed Western Conference, in which just two games separated the teams in fourth through 11th place entering Sunday, the Mavericks seem to have weathered the elements that have been thrown at them.
“I’m not big on analysis right now,” Carlisle said. “It’s just kind of whistle to whistle, hour to hour, moment to moment here to get ready and try to grind our way.”
Help might be on the way relatively soon.
Carlisle said Saturday that of the four players who are out due to health and safety protocols — Josh Richardson, Dorian Finney-Smith, Dwight Powell and Maxi Kleber — Richardson has cleared quarantine and might be back sometime this week.
Carlisle added that “some guys,” plural, are working out at the team’s practice facility, declining to specify which of the other three players are doing so.
Less travel, and more bodies, should help, but in terms of their home struggles the Mavericks know there is one factor they cannot control. Center Boban Marjanovic said the Mavericks need to be more energized at the start of games, especially at home.
“Basically we need our fans, to be honest,” he said. “To support us, give that wind at our back. But I think so far we have done a great job, and we just have to keep it up.
“We expect the guys back as soon as possible, and we need to continue to play how we know we can play.”
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