This week’s edition of the recap is a special four teamer! As always this is a showcase of the week’s brightest, but special attention must first be directed towards a team in freefall—a first for this column!
Where to begin with this team. In perhaps the most bizarre and head-scratching case of self-inflicted roster implosion coupled with basketball karmic juju, the Mavs find themselves now below .500, in the 10-seed looking to simply make the play-in game.
Flashback 284 days ago—May 30, 2024. The Dallas Mavericks, led by the best backcourt in the NBA, Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, cemented their first trip to the Finals since 2011 with a blowout victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves. Their two talisman ball-handlers registered 36 points apiece, sending media to ponder whether this pairing held the title as the greatest backcourt in NBA history. The vibes were at an all-time high.
Even after losing the Finals, the temperature around the team was high—this team, with their 25-year old point guard and complimentary pieces would be right back in the hunt next year.
And those sentiments were true. On December 7, 2024, the Mavs held on to a tough road win against the Toronto Raptors, 125-118, propelling them to a 16-8 record and the second seed in the West.
Just 18 days later, Luka Doncic injured his calf against the Timberwolves, and unbeknownst to the entire basketball world, would never don a Mavericks uniform again.
The following events are familiar now: Luka gets traded, newly acquired Anthony Davis gets injured in his first game as a Maverick, and Kyrie Irving tears his ACL. With 10 players on the injury report against the Suns, the Mavs faced the unprecedented predicament of possibly forfeiting a game due to the inability to field a roster of at least eight players.
They did not forfeit the game—but they did in fact lose. Now losers of five straight, the Mavs are in a free fall. Kyrie Irving is done for the year. Anthony Davis faces potential shutdown. Their Instagram account lost 700,000 followers. All of this in a span of 284 days.
No team has torpedoed their expectations, from title contender to lottery bound, as flagrantly as this team. It is the talk of the NBA, and for good reason, because the fall is so cataclysmic. The Mavs finished second in attendance last year and now see their stands barren as they shuffle out of every blowout loss. Their outlook on the season is grim, and we are watching it unravel in real time.
On the other end of the spectrum, no team has bested their preseason outlook quite like the Cavs. Now a mainstay on the weekly recap, the Cavs ratcheted their win streak to 14 on Sunday against the Bucks behind relatively low scoring 112-100 offering.
And it was their balance that carried them once again. No Cav scored more than 17 points, and it was Max Strus’ first time leading them in points in a victory this season. The league’s best offense has scored at least 110 points in each of the last 14 victories, a mark last reached by the 1986 Boston Celtics.
Over the last 15 games, the Cavs rank top three in both offense and defense, propelling them to sixth overall on defense for the season. The last time the Cavs finished top 5 on both ends was in 2008-09, finishing 66-16.
The Cavs have also yet to lose since acquiring swingman De’Andre Hunter from the Hawks on February 7—that’s a whole calendar month of winning! Since becoming a Cav, Hunter is shooting a blistering 50 percent from 3.
With a remaining strength of schedule in the bottom half of the league, the Cavs only have to go 11-7 to finish atop the East.
Since losing four time Defensive Player of the Year center Rudy Gobert on February 12, the Wolves have quietly reclaimed their form which saw them finish as the 3-seed last year. They started off slow, going 2-4 in the first six games of his absence, but have now reeled off five straight, punctuated with a season high 141 points against the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday with Gobert back in action.
Offensive improvement from Jaden McDaniels has sparked the Timberwolves offense. The fifth-year swingman had an abhorrent start to the season, averaging just 10.7 points per game up until February 1. In the 18 games since, McDaniels has upped that figure to 18.2 points per game on 50.8 percent from the field.
The reimplementation of Donte DiVincenzo has likewise paid dividends. Since returning to the lineup on February 27, DiVincenzo is averaging 15 points per game on a blistering 51.7% from three.
And of course, leading them out front, Anthony Edwards continues to build upon his career year. The NBA’s leader in 3-point field goals (257) shot 40.6 percent on them over the week, and although his scoring volume dipped (21.3 ppg), his efficiency from the field (50 percent) and in ball security (1.8 turnovers per game) signifies a willingness to unload the offensive burden he’s been carrying to his teammates.
The best team in the NBA kept it rolling, notching a perfect 4-0 week with commanding wins over Western Conference playoff threats Memphis and Denver.
Sunday’s win over the Nuggets was yet another showcase of the Thunder’s smothering defense, holding the historically efficient Nikola Jokic to 24 points on 23 shots and Denver as a team to 41.2 percent shooting from the field.
The win was a huge boon for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s MVP campaign, as opposite the Serbian he mustered a game high 40 points with 3 blocks.
With as many 40-point games as OKC has losses, Gilgeous-Alexander continues to build on an all-time guard season in blending volume and efficiency. This is his third consecutive year averaging 30 points per game on better than 50 percent shooting. In the history of the NBA, only Michael Jordan has matched that feat, and is the only other guard to register more than one season with those benchmarks (5).
Stay tuned for more NBA content, including midseason moves, contract updates, and more pieces about every team.
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