With the season so very young, Mavs still have the playoffs on their minds

DALLAS – The Dallas Mavericks want everyone to pump the breaks a bit and remember that the NBA season is barely a month old.

Sure, the Mavs are fully aware that have the league’s worst record at 2-13. But after glancing at the standings, the Mavs see that they’re only five-and-a-half games behind Portland (9-9) for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

And with 67 games remaining in the regular season, that gives the Mavs a ton of hope.

"It’s still early in the season,’’ guard Seth Curry said. "Obviously we had a horrible start, but we can run off some games in a row, we can get back in the mix, get our confidence back and anything can happen.

"I’ve seen some crazy things in the league over the years. It’s about, like I say, compete and continue to play the right way and hopefully get that one win under our belt and feel a lot better about ourselves.’’

The Mavs host the New Orleans Pelicans (6-11) at 6 p.m. Sunday at American Airlines Center. That starts a stretch where the Mavs will play eight of their next 10 games at home.

"We’ve got to focus on the things that we can do,’’ coach Rick Carlisle said. "We’ve got to play to our strengths as much as possible, help each other cover weaknesses and just dig deep.’’

The Mavs have advanced to the playoffs in 15 of the last 16 years. The only time they missed out on the postseason occurred when they finished the 2012-’13 season with a 41-41 record.

This story was originally published November 26, 2016 at 6:54 PM with the headline "With the season so very young, Mavs still have the playoffs on their minds."