Mavs-Jazz preview: Long, crucial trip will provide many tests

SALT LAKE CITY – The Mavericks have been reeling in wins lately. The Utah Jazz have simply been reeling.

So before the Mavericks play two of their most important games of the season later this week in Sacramento, they must first handle their business against the Jazz Monday night at the Delta Center.

With seven wins in their last eight games, the Mavericks rose to No. 6 in the Western Conference standings.

But things change quickly. If you don’t play for a few days, which the Mavericks didn’t since Thursday night, you can slip to eighth, as they did when Sacramento and Phoenix won games over the weekend.

That’s exactly where they were before they won seven of eight.

So the start of this five-game trip is ridiculously important. The Mavericks can’t afford to lose any games at this point in the season that they are favored to win.

And they are favored by 8½ points, a whopping number when you are a visiting team.

“We’ve got a great road trip to be tested,” coach Jason Kidd said. “We’ll see how we respond.”

The great vibes, trust and chemistry the Mavericks have developed during the ups and downs of a long season will, indeed, be vital if they are to improve their playoff status on this 11-day journey.

After the Tuesday and Friday meetings with Sacramento, the Mavericks come back halfway across the country to play at Houston, which is knocking on the door of the play-in tournament with a strong run of play lately.

Then they go back to the West Coast to play at Golden State.

It’s an inconvenient trip in terms of travel. But these are the opportunities that can make a regular season and set a team up for bigger things in the playoffs.

Here’s what else to look for at Utah on Monday:

• The Jazz got hammered in Dallas on Thursday and while the Mavericks haven’t played since then, Utah went to Houston and was clubbed by 27 points on Saturday. The Jazz now have lost five in a row and eight of their last nine.
• Utah has not beaten a team with a winning record since Feb. 4 and 6, when they won consecutive games against Milwaukee and Oklahoma City.
• The Mavericks will hopscotch across the western half of the United States on this trip for more than 6,000 miles. Eight of their final 12 games are on the road.
• Luka Dončić has simply been fantastic since . . . well, pretty much all season. But particularly so since the starting lineup change when Daniel Gafford and Derrick Jones Jr. were re-inserted. That group (with Kyrie Irving and P.J. Washington) has won all seven games in which those players have started together since March 7. Luka is averaging 34.1 points, 9.8 assists and 9 rebounds per game.
• The Mavericks are 2-1 against the Jazz this season, but were blown out on New Year’s Day at the Delta Center 127-90. In Thursday match against the Jazz in Dallas, the Mavericks returned the favor, 113-97.
• Utah is led by Lauri Markkanen at 23 points and 8.2 rebounds per game. Collin Sexton has averaged 18.5 points and has been coming off the bench lately.

MAVERICKS (41-29) at UTAH JAZZ (29-42)

• When/where: 8 p.m., the Delta Center, Salt Lake City.
• TV: Bally Sports Southwest.
• Radio: 97.1 FM The Freak; 99.1 FM Zona MX (Spanish).

X: @ESefko

 

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.

The top six teams will be 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 left (home-road)

Denver (1)                   50-21……….7-4

Oklahoma City (2)    49-21……….6-6

Minnesota (3)            49-22……….7-4

LA Clippers (4)          44-26……….7-5

New Orleans (5)        44-27……….7-4

Phoenix (6)                42-29……….4-7

——————–

*Sacramento (7)       41-29……….8-4

Dallas (8)                   41-29……….4-8

LA Lakers (9)            39-32……….3-8

Golden State (10)       36-34………4-8

——————–

Houston (11)              35-35………5-7

*–Owns tiebreaker via better head-to-head record