How do the Mavericks beat the blues? Protection, road charm, poise

The Mavericks are 3-8 in the past three weeks, and four of those losses have come under .500.

They are one game ahead of 11^th– Oklahoma City’s seat in a packed Western Conference room. And 1½ games behind New Orleans in fourth place.

A simple breakdown of what’s going on with the Mavericks right now is that they’re in the doldrums. They won seven games in a row during the holidays, but their New Year’s resolution must have tormented fans because they’ve been hard on the eyes since early January.

And yet, when it comes to the big picture, they remain in the thick of it all.

“I don’t know if it’s funk,” coach Jason Kidd said after the Mavericks’ 127-126 loss to Washington on Tuesday. “It’s just a running game. You have to play all 82. You have to judge more at the end of the season than after each game.

And, of course, the Mavericks are learning a lot about themselves during these difficult times – especially that sticking together is paramount when things aren’t going well.

And until the defense improves, the collective morale of the Mavericks will be in jeopardy.

“At the end of the day, you can’t give a team that much 127 points,” said Spencer Dinwiddie. “You really can’t give 127 to any team.

“We should not be involved in such a game with them. They have two maximum players and one (Kristaps Porzingis) is injured. We should be able to stop them enough for our 126 points to beat their 125 or less. That’s really all it comes down to. We just have to be better in that regard.”

And the fact that it happened against Washington 21-26 rubbed salt in Dinwiddie’s wound.

“They’re not playing in vain,” he said. “They just come here to shoot. They have people who come off the bench just shooting because, after all, it’s a showcase for them. They’re out there trying to get money, but they’re not trying to play winning basketball.

“For a team (like the Mavericks) that has real aspirations and an MVP, a team that made it to the conference finals last year, we have to be better. No offense because we had 126. It could win a lot of games. But defensively, it’s not just another stop. Indeed, we should have 15 more stops.”

But as mentioned above, keeping the faith and spending hours in the gym is really the only way the Mavericks are going to change course and start building a base for their just-completed 1-3 home stance (and nine total home games). losses).

“There are a lot of upsides to that,” Kidd said. “Josh (Green) is back, he did a good job. Davis (Bertans) gave us some positive minutes. And you look at the little ball, it brings us a lot of points.

“We just don’t have stops. And this is what we should pay attention to. I don’t consider it funk. I think it’s just a matter of timely shots and timely stops, and right now we just don’t do that.”

Here are some more takeaways from the defeat by Washington:

TECHNICALLY SPEAKING: Not sure what else Luka Doncic could have done to take the Mavericks higher. He has 41 points and 15 rebounds. He also had a late interception that could have been a game-changer had he converted both free throws while fouled after a steal. But most of all, Luka is worried about a technical foul, which he received with 9:48 left in the third quarter. This earns him 11 of the season, although he believes Tuesday should be cancelled. “I don’t think I deserve them,” he said. “I heard the same thing that I said, someone else said, and not a technician. So I don’t think I deserved them.” They stand for several technologies in many games. As a reminder, when a player receives 16 technical fouls, he must serve a one-match suspension. Luka has 11 points with 33 more games to go.

CARRYING YOUR WEIGHT: Dinwiddie has been very solid lately with 20 points and eight top assists against the Wizards. In his last nine games, he averaged 20.4 points and shot 37.7% from 3-pointers. And it’s worth noting that the potential game-winning shot with 5 seconds left was calculated on Dinwiddie. But the pass from Luka never reached him.

ON THE WAY, JACK: The Mavericks now have more home losses (nine) than away wins (eight). This should change before the All-Star break. They play eight of their last 11 away games before the league enters its siesta. Much of the competition is centered around the Mavericks in the West standings. Better time than the next three weeks to draw a line in the sand and change everything.

Twitter: @ESefko