Photo: Peter Baba

After a strong start of the season, the Mavericks faced a collapse as they dropped from the 6th to 11th place in the Western Conference.

More importantly, this happened late in the season with very few games left to play. Dallas will try to keep the hopes of making the play-in tournament live tonight against the Kings.

If the Mavs lose or the Thunder win against the Jazz tomorrow, the season will be over for last year’s Western Conference finalists.

According to Luka Doncic, the main problem of his team is defense. “I don’t think offense is the problem. I’ve always said this,” the Slovenian superstar said, via Callie Caplan. “It’s our defensive end. I think anybody can score on us. Whoever it is, anybody can score on us.”

Statistically speaking, the Mavericks are not that bad on the defensive end. They are conceding 113.8 points per game which puts them in the 15th place among NBA teams.