Hard work awaits Mavericks down final stretch of season

Following a 10-day break for the All-Star festivities, the stretch run for the Dallas Mavericks starts Friday when they play in Orlando.

The Mavericks must play better during their final 27 games than they did in their first 55 games if they plan on at least getting out of the first round of the playoffs.

The Mavericks are 29-26 and seeded sixth in the Western Conference playoff race. They are 17 games behind the San Antonio Spurs in the Southwest Division.

Overall, the Mavericks are 10-19 against teams who appear headed to the playoffs. That means they are 19-7 against teams who would be on vacation if the postseason started today.

Still, with only three sets of back-to-back games remaining and a stretch where they’ll play nine of 10 games at home, opportunities exist for the Mavericks to kick-start their season and become a major player.

“I think we’re still in a decent position,” forward Dirk Nowitzki said. “We’ll hopefully take care of home court during that stretch.

“Hopefully, we’ll stay healthy and keep competing and see what happens going towards the playoffs.”

1Do the Mavericks need to make a trade?

The short answer is yes.

The Mavericks are scoring at 100.8 points per game clip, but their defense has allowed 101.7 points per game. That is a recipe for disaster.

Houston Rockets center Dwight Howard is reportedly on the market. Would the Rockets facilitate a trade that would help the Mavericks?

If a Mavericks’ trade is forthcoming by Thursday’s deadline, owner Mark Cuban and president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson will have to be creative while protecting their current assets.

2Can they take advantage of a perceived favorable schedule?

Of the 27 regular-season games remaining, the Mavericks have 15 at American Airlines Center.

That includes home games against all five teams ahead of them in the West — Golden State, San Antonio, Oklahoma City, the Los Angeles Clippers and Memphis.

They have home games against seventh-seeded Portland and ninth-seeded Houston. But the AAC has not been a haven. The Mavericks are 15-11 at home, including losses to lesser opponents.

3Are they good enough to get some signature victories?

The Mavericks have two games remaining each against Golden State and the LA Clippers, and one against San Antonio, Oklahoma City and Cleveland.

The Mavericks are 4-13 against the top four seeds from the West and East. But two of those wins were over Boston and a third came against Golden State, which was without an injured Stephen Curry.

The other win was against the Clippers. Dallas needs to win some of these games.

4Can they get to 50 wins and earn the No. 5 seed?

They have 14 games remaining against teams that — on paper — the Mavs are clearly better than, i.e. likely non-playoff teams.

If the Mavericks win all of those, that gets them to 43 victories.

After that, they would need a 7-6 record against the meat of the remaining schedule. A 50-win season would likely earn the Mavericks the West’s fifth seed and a first-round matchup with the Clippers.

5Who will consistently provide scoring help for Dirk?

Even 18-year veteran Dirk Nowitzki, at age 37, said he shouldn’t be the team’s leading scorer at 17.6 points per game.

He is so widely respected by his teammates that they often find themselves deferring too much to him. Chandler Parsons is the most likely candidate to help. He averaged 20.7 points over the final 12 games before the All-Star break.

This story was originally published February 16, 2016 at 5:06 PM with the headline "Hard work awaits Mavericks down final stretch of season."