The Dallas Mavericks are on a Roll! (6 game win streak) (Improved Defense)
Hey what’s going on y’all welcome back to the channel and today I just wanted to talk to you about my favorite team the Dallas Mavericks because they’ve been on a roll lately they’ve won six games in a row and not only that both of their pieces that they added at the
Trade deadline Daniel Gafford and PJ Washington have looked really good and we’re going to talk a little bit more about that in depth so let’s get into it so six game win streak um that might not sound like much to some people but it’s one of the longer win streaks the
Mavericks have had in the past couple years I think since 2020 I think seven games is their long um but they’re rolling right now they’re playing really well and one of the big things that stands out about this win streak is that they’ve been playing good defense now all year the Mavericks have
Not really been a good defensive team but for these last six games they’ve been playing really good defense even before Daniel Gafford and PJ Washington came in they were playing some pretty good defense for those first couple games on this streak now we’ve seen Jason kid get good defense out of the
Mavericks before in his first season with the team but the last two years um this one and the year before uh we haven’t really seen the same kind of quality defense that we saw that first year and we’re finally kind of starting to see that again and you know that begs
The question is this sustainable can they keep this up and you know me when it comes to the Mavericks I tend to be a little bit more optimistic but I’m going to try to take a step back and really look at it and I think it could be
Sustainable not maybe as good as they’re playing right now but I think they can keep up a pretty good defense um at least above League average defense as opposed to being a really bad defense like they were before and there’s a couple of reasons for that one the
Energy this team is playing with is really great um Maxi Ker’s been back from injury he’s a good Defender and then as well as Daniel Gafford and PJ Washington those are both quality defenders in Daniel gafford’s case a pretty great defensive big to have in the middle um
So with the you know Collective effort of all these things I think the Mavericks can keep up a good defense through the rest of the year and into the playoffs now let’s talk a little bit more about Daniel Gaff and PJ Washington specifically um Daniel Gafford has been
Great he came in with a huge game right away had 19 points nine boards and like a block in that first game I believe and then he followed it up with another great game he had I think it was something like 15 points and 17 rebounds or 17 points and 15 rebounds something
Crazy like that with like four blocks to go with it and he’s just been really good he’s been playing good defense which is what we really need him to do he’s been a great lob threat other than in this last game against the Spurs but you know throwing lobs over wemi isn’t
The easiest thing to do in the world but he’s been really good for us and PJ Washington um some people might say he hasn’t been that great for the Mavericks especially because of his shooting numbers other than that first game where he had a decent scoring game uh he
Hasn’t been shooting the ball super well but he’s been doing pretty much everything else on the the court really well he’s playing good defense he’s making good passes um you know he has a couple moments where he looks a little like he’s still kind of getting used to
The offense and the shots are going to start falling I really like what I see from PJ Washington even if the shots aren’t falling quite yet and I’m confident that they will at some point and over these past uh stretches before we went on this win streak the Mavericks
Were kind of falling off a little bit falling in the standings uh but we were pretty banged up there were a lot of people hurt Dante exum’s been out for a little bit Maxi C’s missed a lot of time in and out uh Kyrie missed a lot of time Luca even
Missed a little bit of time you know we were we were pretty bang banged up and now we’re starting to see this healthy team again and they’re getting back on track with this as I said before six game win streak I I feel like I need to
Stop saying that I’m saying it too much but they’re just playing really well the defense is better the offense looks great and there’s just a new energy out there now Dante Exum still isn’t back uh and Max cber just missed this last game I don’t think that’s anything too major
But you know hopefully he’s back and we have our full lineup going forward or at least for the most part but that brings up one thing that I want to talk about this team’s depth I think typically the Mavericks have been looked at as a very topheavy team with not much
Underneath but I think now after this trade deadline and with the players that we have this is one of the more deep teams that we have in basketball so it starts with Luca and Kyrie obviously they’re great but now we have PJ Washington who can you know he scored multiple 40-point
Games throughout his career he’s shown that he can be a pretty good scorer and he plays solid defense he’s a really good player to have Daniel Gafford is really good he’s basically Derek Lively it’s basically like having two Derek is on the court except Daniel gaffard is you know a little more
Experienced then obviously we still have Derrick Lively we have Derrick Jones Jr Tim Hardaway Jr um who else we have Dante Exum when he comes back Maxi kber who I think is a very underrated player not only is he a capable perimeter Defender as a big man
He can play solid defense down low you don’t necessarily want him matching up with the better centers in the league but he can hold it down when he needs to and he can get out on the perimeter um he’s looked really good as of late he’s been hitting his threes he’s been
Creating off the dribble a little bit for himself when uh teams don’t give him the respect he’s kind of taking advantage of that he’s attacking a little bit more which I really like um sometimes he plays very passive in the past but he’s playing a little more aggressive he’s shooting his threes he’s
Getting dunks off the dribble and it looks really good even even Jaden Hardy has been stepping up lately since I think the beginning of the new year Jaden Hardy has been playing really well for us you know he doesn’t play a lot of minutes but when he’s in there he’s you
Know he’s hustling he’s playing better defense than he was before and he’s making his shots a lot more often than he was before also I got to give a quick shout out to AJ Lawson he doesn’t get in much but whenever he’s in I really like
What I see out of AJ Lawson but yeah so that health will be a major factor when it comes to the playoff time if this team can be healthy I think they’re they could be pretty dangerous in the playoffs especially with Luca and Kyrie at the top I don’t think okay that’s not
True I was going to say I don’t think any other teams has two scores as dangerous as that um but that’s not true uh the Suns you know they have Kevin Durant Devin Booker and then they even have Bradley Beal but like Luca watching Luca play basketball is
Crazy it’s like it almost doesn’t make sense how good Luca is sometimes you know he ends the game with 35 12 and 10 and that’s just another game for Luka we’re not even talking about it it’s like oh yeah Luka did luuka things and then Kyrie he just went off against the
Spurs you know it’s the Spurs they haven’t been great this season but he had a huge I think it was third quarter where he had like 17 or 18 in the quarter if not more um but really got the Mavericks back in the game where they they were struggling a little bit
Offensively to start that game but you can see the danger of having a player like Kyrie and Luca that can kick start an offense like that when you’re having it when the rest of the team’s having an off night and kind of let everyone else get their feet back under them and take
Over the load for the time being now as a result of the six-game win streak the Mavericks have moved back up one spot in the standings as of right now when I’m recording this they’re at number seven right now so still in the playing tournament and when you look at the
Western Conference they’re not really out of the woods yet there are a lot of great teams in the Western Conference and they’re all playing pretty well lately I think right now the worst team as of late in the playoff picture in the west has been the Kings and they’re five
And five in their last game or last 10 games they’re five and five in their last 10 games which means they’ve gone 500 you know and that’s like the worst out of the top 10 teams in the west as of lately the Lakers have been playing better lately the Warriors have been
Playing better lately the Suns have been playing really well lately um so it’s a really you know it’s just a battlefield out there in the west so with the Jazz doing the trades they did um they’ve kind of bowed out of the playoff picture so there’s really no danger of the
Mavericks falling out of the top 10 I think they definitely will be in the top 10 no matter what um but we really need to wait and see about is can this defense uh maintain itself and will they be able to stay in the
76 area or will they be able to get up to six I guess really cuzz seven and eight they’re still in the playing tournament the real goal is to get up to seven so you can avoid the playing tournament entirely because you know as much as I like the
Mavericks and I would like to pick them for you know winning a play in series it’s a it’s you know facing LeBron James in the playing tournament is not something is not a place you want to be facing Steph Curry in the playing tournament is not a place you want to be
Those guys can go off for one game they can take over and it’s that’s not a scenario where you want to be in I think the Mavericks could handle it um but if you can avoid that I think you’d want to avoid that at all cost you
Know so can they get up to the six spot obviously they could but with how many great teams there are in the west it’s not a certainty so we’re just going to have to wait and see about that but yeah they just played their last game before the Western Conference not with us
Western Conference their last last game before the All-Star break uh against the Spurs they won that one in a pretty convincing fashion even after a slow start so that was good to see um but they don’t play their next game until I think it’s the next Thursday after the All-Star break against the
Phoenix Suns and you know whenever the Mavericks and the Suns play you know it seems like there’s bound to be something going down and the Suns have been rolling pretty well lately you know they’ve been playing pretty well they got some new players in at the trade deadline just
Like the Mavericks did um not as high quality of player I feel bad saying that but you know not as good of players as the Mavericks got in the trade deadline I think I think most people would agree with that or darn near all people would agree with that other
Than Royce O’Neal I don’t know he’d probably disagree um because he got traded to the Suns just in case that wasn’t just in case you didn’t know that uh but yeah it’ll be it should be a good game I’m excited to see if the Mavericks can keep up their defense I think they
Will um they’ll be coming fresh off the All-Star break they’ll be reinvigorated a little bit hopefully maybe they’ll be they might be a little sluggish but hopefully they come in locked in ready to play with a new energy and I really can’t wait to see what happens you know
The same could be said about the Suns you know everyone’s getting this break everyone will have you know this amped up energy or you know LAX days Co we’ll just have to wait and see about that but it should be a good game I’m excited to see um I
Think the Mavericks could definitely close that game out uh suns are good they’re a good team obviously they have Kevin Durant Devon Booker all that but I think the Mavericks have more depth even with the Suns additions that they got and I’m just excited to see what the
M can do the rest of this season with their new additions in Gafford and PJ Washington I feel I kind of feel ridiculous saying this but I feel like I I definitely have them winning a playoff series in my mind well we have to wait and see what the matchups are because
It’s going to be it’s really going to be a grind in that Western Conference playoffs let me look at let’s look at uh how the standings shake up right now like who they’d be playing so right now um the way the playoffs would shake up
If we kind of ignore the play in and we just do the seven and eight seed just like how they used to be normal so seven will play two uh they’d be matching up against the Thunder and I think the Mavericks actually match up against the Thunder really well they just beat them
By like what was it by like 30 something the other day that first game after the trade deadline and then earlier in the season in a loss to the Thunder it was a loss but the Mavericks went on like this crazy 30o comeback like 30o run or something I
Forget the exact details because they lost and I was kind of upset after that insane comeback um so I kind of put it out of my mind but we’ve seen the Mavericks play some great basketball against the Thunder and I think especially with this better defense they
Would match up pretty well against the Thunder you know Clippers are dangerous um the classic Luca versus the Clippers matchup in the playoffs uh that would be dangerous nuggets as much as I hate to say it I can’t really bet against the Nuggets they’re just such a good team a well
Well oiled machine they know what it takes to win a championship they did it last season and Minnesota Timberwolves I think the Mavericks match up pretty well against them too so like really Suns same I I feel like the Mavericks could beat all of these teams we see in the playoff
Picture nuggets nuggets and Clippers are the two I’m most concerned about but I like how we match up against the Thunder I like how he match up against the Timberwolves Suns even the Pelicans Kings and then the Lakers and Warriors you know whatever so I could see you know it
Shaking out with the Mavericks in the Western Conference Finals maybe even going to the finals I’mma pump the breaks on that because if I had to you know let’s look at it objectively right now I’m probably taking the Nuggets that’d be my pick to make it out of the
West but I’m also really looking at the Clippers the Clippers have a lot of talent they play really well together and health permitting I know that’s a big if for the clippers but they’ve been healthy all year so I really think the Clippers have a good chance at making to the finals as
Well so I would probably hold off on them taking the Mavericks as my pick but I could see a world where it happens and I want that world to come true but yeah guys I just wanted to talk about the Mavericks a little bit they’ve been really good lately and you know I’ve
Been watching a lot of their games and I really like Daniel Gafford and I really like PJ Washington I just had to get this I just had to get this out I’m really excited about what’s to come so yeah if you guys enjoyed the video uh
Maybe leave it a like subscribe so you don’t miss the next one I would really appreciate it and uh I think that’s pretty much all I had for you guys I appreciate you guys and I’ll see you guys later peace
At the moment the Dallas Mavericks are on a 6 game win streak. Largely due to their improved defense and overall team health. Can they keep it up?
