The Dallas Mavericks dropped the final contest of their five game road trip on Tuesday, losing 104-100 to the Golden State Warriors. Luka Doncic had another triple-double after recording 30 points, 12 rebounds, and 11 assists, while Kyrie Irving added 27 points. Nevertheless, the Mavericks, who were in the middle of a seven game winning streak heading into the affair, fell just short in San Francisco.
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr had nothing but positive words to say about the Mavs after the game, however. Kerr has clearly taken notice of Dallas' recent winning ways, and issued no shortage of praise on Tuesday night.
“This team obviously is playing at a really high level,” Kerr said, via Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News. “They were probably the hottest team in the league coming into tonight. They made a really difficult trip by the way, obviously with the schedule shift, they were in Sacramento for about four days, then flew to Houston, and turned right around. Of course, we're about to do the same thing.
“But for them it's a pretty rough trip and I appreciate, not that we had any choice, but the fact that everybody shifted their schedule around to make this work. That's meaningful. I just think that that's a great team regardless of fatigue, and the flight and all that, they're still really hard to guard and we held them to 100 points.”
Mavericks excel despite difficult road trip
The end to the road trip did not go according to plan. Still, the Mavs lost by just four points after a grueling trip.
Dallas kicked things off in Utah before heading to Sacramento for two games. As Kerr noted, the Mavericks spent four days in Sacramento before heading to Houston this past weekend. Finally, they returned to California to play the Warriors.
Most teams would have been more than content with two or three wins on such a difficult trip. Yet, the Mavericks won four of five games. Sure, they would have loved to earn a victory on Tuesday, but Dallas won't complain about a 4-1 record away from home.
The Mavs are now tied with the New Orleans Pelicans for the No. 5 seed in the Western Conference. Both teams hold a 45-30 mark. The Warriors, meanwhile, currently hold the No. 10 seed and final NBA Play-In Tournament spot with a 41-34 record.
Dallas now returns home and they will host the Atlanta Hawks on Thursday before a rematch with the Warriors on Friday.
The 2023-24 season is winding down. The Mavs have placed themselves in a promising position at the moment. Just a few weeks ago, Dallas was hovering around the No. 7-No. 8 seeds and it appeared that they were headed toward a play-in game. The Mavs have climbed the standings considerably as a result of their recent hot stretch, though.
The goal will now to be to finish the season on a high note. Dallas can still realistically surpass the Los Angeles Clippers, who they trail by just two games, for the No. 4 spot in the West. With that being said, the Mavs are tied with the Pelicans in the standings and the Sacramento Kings and Phoenix Suns are just one game back of both teams.
Buckle up, as the next couple of weeks will be thrilling to follow with so much uncertainty in the standings.
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