Mavericks assessment: Spencer Dinwiddie has regained his strength in Dallas blue

The Mavericks finished another great two weeks at 5-1 to end November and start December. This brings their record to 16-9 and places them tied for fourth place in the Western Conference behind Houston and Memphis. The five wins came as part of a seven-game winning streak and were against Utah (106-94), Portland (137-131), Memphis (121-116), Washington (137-101) and Toronto (125-118) . Oklahoma City ended Dallas’ streak and NBA Cup hopes by beating the Mavericks 118-104. Naji Marshall (illness) returned to action Tuesday, but PJ Washington caught the bug and missed the game against the Thunder. Dante Exum (wrist) remains out.

Grade: A

From now until the end of the season, I will include a graph of character development since the start of the year. For reference, an F is 0 and an A+ is 12:

For every “it’s over” at 5-7 there is an even louder “we’re back” at 4-9. Even with the sour taste of a loss to a good Thunder team, the Mavericks are still among the top five teams in the league. Over the last twelve games, Dallas is 10-2 with a 9.1 net rating and is tied with Memphis for most points per game. match (123.5). The offense has been humming, the defense has been steady, and the team is having fun. After starting the year 1-6 in clutch games, the script has flipped and the Mavericks have won five of their last six close games.

In short, the Mavericks are doing things they didn’t do in the first two weeks. The team looks good, they’ve taken care of business against bad teams, and the stars have shown up when they need to, outside of the loss to Oklahoma City. The Mavericks have continued to prove why they are a threat in the Western Conference, winning games with and without Luka Doncic. Things are going so well for them right now that even being eliminated from the NBA Cup looks like a blessing in disguise, as they will have had four days off when they play again on Sunday. With the disease that has spread throughout the team likely to have disappeared by then, the Mavericks could go on another huge run to end the year. It’s fun being a basketball fan in Dallas right now.

Straight A’s: Spencer Dinwiddie

Spencer Dinwiddie has been fantastic for Dallas lately. He has 25 assists and 8 turnovers in his last six games while shooting 46.2 percent from three. The importance of a backup point guard on a Luka Doncic team cannot be overstated. Doncic needs to be able to rest as long as possible without the Mavericks surrendering a lead, and Dinwiddie has allowed Dallas to do just that. According to PBP StatsDinwiddie has turned the ball over just 1.6 times per 100 possessions without Luka Doncic on the court. In addition, he commits errors at 15 percent, which means that he both takes care of the ball and puts the defense in unsafe positions. If that wasn’t enough, he also takes and makes big shots like these two against Memphis:

Dinwiddie has been everything the Mavericks hoped he would be, and the marriage between the two continues to be magical.

Currently failing: Dallas without PJ Washington

The Mavericks are now 1-5 without Washington this year. Their four-game losing streak earlier in the season came with a lot of emotion, and that emotion masked the underlying problem that Dallas isn’t the same team when Washington is out. He provides an element of size, playmaking and spacing that they can’t get from any other player on the team. Without him, the attack looks much more clumsy in conjunction with the fact that the defense is much softer. He is Dallas’ X-factor, and while they have other capable players to step into his role, Dallas will have an uphill climb if he misses a significant amount of time this year.

Extra credit: Luka Doncic

Doncic missed nearly two weeks in late November with a wrist injury. Before the break, Doncic appeared strained and tired and shot the ball poorly most nights. Since his return, he has averaged 28 points, 10.6 rebounds and 8.6 assists on 40 percent from three with two triple-doubles. He has looked fresh, energetic and back to his normal efficiency outside of the first half against Oklahoma City. With so much time off for a relatively minor injury, it would have been easy for Doncic to bounce back the way he started the year. To his credit, he took his health seriously and reminded the NBA world why his team did it NBA finals six months ago.