Playoff update: The Western Conference playoff picture changes pretty much every day. Here, we’ll give you periodic updates on the latest look of the West standings. Look for it in our notes packages.
The top six teams are in the playoffs. Teams finishing seventh through 10th will be in the play-in tournament to decide the seventh and eighth seeds in the playoffs.
Western Conference update
Team (seed) Record Games remaining (home-road)
Oklahoma City (1) 48-20……….6-8
Denver (2) 49-21………..7-5
Minnesota (3) 47-22……….9-4
LA Clippers (4) 43-25……….8-6
New Orleans (5) 42-27……….7-6
*Dallas (6) 41-29……….4-8
——————-
Phoenix (7) 41-29……….4-8
Sacramento (8) 40-29……….8-5
LA Lakers (9) 37-32……….5-8
Golden State (10) 36-32………5-9
—————–
Houston (11) 34-35………6-7
*–Owns tiebreaker via better head-to-head record
MAVERICKS NOTEBOOK
What happened in San Antonio on Tuesday for the Mavericks was nothing less than a great bonding moment.
Not during the game, although that was a morale-boosting 113-107 win.
What showed more about the Mavericks is what happened after the game in the locker room behind closed doors after Luka Dončić had scored a very human-like 18 points and made just 6-of-27 field-goal attempts.
Coach Jason Kidd peeled back the curtain a little to clue everybody in on it before Thursday’s game against Utah at American Airlines Center.
“One of the biggest things after the game is he thanked his teammates in the locker room for picking him up,” Kidd said. “When a leader says that, those are big words. You come into the locker room and you don’t shoot the ball extremely well, but you rely on being the quarterback and other guys picked him up.”
Then, Kidd hit on the real value of Dončić’s words of gratitude to his teammates. Kidd knows that won’t be the last time that the Mavericks are going to have to lean heavily on Luka’s helpers.
“We’re going to need that at this time of year,” Kidd said. “We can’t just rely on Kai (Kyrie Irving) and Luka to score 100 points. We’re going to need other guys as we go.
“We know other teams are going to take away one of them when both of them are on the floor. And when there’s one on the floor, we’re going to have to play through other guys.”
In that respect, the Spurs provided a blueprint of sorts for the NBA on how to at least make life tougher on Luka. Of course, everybody else in the league doesn’t have a 7-4 shot-blocker like Victor Wembanyama.
But the point is clear.
The Mavericks got 16 points out of Dante Exum against the Spurs. Kyrie Irving took advantage with 28 points. Daniel Gafford had 13 points and eight rebounds. Dereck Lively II had 12 points off the bench.
Those players, plus P.J. Washington and, when he returns from an ankle sprain, Josh Green, will be critical to the Mavericks’ success in the postseason when defenses dial in on Luka even more than in the regular season.
Maximum results: Maxi Kleber hasn’t been shooting the ball particularly well most of this season.
He also missed a big chunk of games with a dislocated toe.
Now, as the final games of the season dwindle down, he’s one of the most reliable members of the rotation and one that in most cases is on the floor to close out games.
There’s a reason why.
In the Mavericks’ past 20 games, they have been plus-109 points when Kleber been on the floor. That’s plus-6.1 per game. That would rank ninth in the NBA if maintained for a full season.
The Mavericks are 14-6 in those games (Kleber was inactive for two of them).
That’s why Kleber makes sense for Kidd when he looks for players who do winning things at winning time.
“His basketball IQ is extremely high,” Kidd said. “He loves to play defense. We encourage him to shoot when he’s open. He’s all about the system. He understands the system defensively. He’s one to talk and help everybody on the floor.
“You look at the physicality we’ve been playing with when Maxi is on the floor, and with Gafford and Lively, it’s been extremely high. That’s the way Maxi loves to play. He doesn’t get recognized because he’s not scoring 20, but what he does for us defensively is huge and everyone in that locker room understands how important it is.”
By the way, during those last 20 games, Kleber has averaged just 3.9 points.
Clunky? Not the Mavericks: When Utah coach Will Hardy was analyzing the Mavericks before the game, he said the additions of Gafford and Washington seem to be “fitting in great.”
“Gafford is a physical force and clearly is somebody who pairs up well with Luka,” Hardy said. “P.J. Washington is a really talented young player. He scored 40-some points (43) against us in Charlotte. He’s shown the ability to not just shoot the ball but put it on the floor a little bit.
“The other thing I’m seeing is it looks like they are jelling pretty quickly. When I watch them play, it doesn’t feel clunky or off-balance.”
Facing the changes: The Mavericks are starting to learn what it feels like to win games with a diversified attack.
It’s not always reliant on the three-ball. And it now includes a more concerted effort on the other side of the ball, too.
“It’s a different roster,” Kidd said. “You look at the changes we made since the All-Star break, changing the starting lineup has been a plus. But guys are understanding that if you want to win in this league, you got to play both ends.
“We’re pivoting. Pretty soon we’ll be all about defense and no offense.”
All joking aside, Kidd emphasized that in a long season, changes happen.
“Early on, we were shooting the three at a high rate,” he said. “There was a shift in the roster, but also in understanding what it takes to win in this league.”
Briefly: Josh Green remained sidelined with a right ankle sprain . . . Before the game, much of the conversation was on taller ballhandlers, of which there are many in the NBA these days. “The league is getting bigger and they’re all athletic,” Kidd said. “They can all dribble. They all work on their games at the age of 10. The first thing they work on is dribbling. And the next part is shooting from half court. It’s all about range. It used to be smalls wanted to be centers and the centers wanted to be a guard. Now, I think everyone’s a guard. That’s just the way the league is now.” . . . And speaking of big point guards, Utah’s Hardy had this to say about the challenge of guarding Luka: “I don’t know if there’s anybody who is a good matchup with him.”
X: @ESefko
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