The Mavericks could have really used a win on their home floor on Sunday night with one home game sandwiched between a pair of two game road trips.  After falling in Atlanta and Toronto last week, Dallas lost its third straight game in a 113-104 defeat at the hands of the Utah Jazz.  A lot of different things stood out in this game, but here are  three main takeaways:

Everyone: Dennis Smith Jr. is going to be okay.

The second-year guard missed Friday night’s game in Toronto after tweaking his ankle late in Wednesday night’s defeat in Atlanta.  Perhaps the night off worked for him because he easily had his best game of the young season with a career-high-tying27 points on 12/19 shooting.

Through the lane… Dennis Smith Jr! #MFFL pic.twitter.com/P7HkIQ6FpR

— NBA (@NBA) October 29, 2018

The most encouraging sign of the night for DSJ was the shape of his jump shot.  With a three-point shooting line of 3/4, hopefully there were some sustainable factors to the performance that can be carried on to the future.

Understandably, the starting lineup is yet to click on all cylinders

Sunday night’s game was the first time coach Rick Carlisle was able to field the starting lineup most thought Dallas would have from the start this season: Smith Jr., Harrison Barnes, Wesley Matthews, DeAndre Jordan and Luka Doncic.  When Barnes made his season debut Friday night, Smith Jr. missed the game with injury.  With Barnes’ injury having him been out since virtually the start of training camp, that lineup understandably started a bit slow with the Jazz leaping out to an 11-2 lead early on.  Carlisle acknowledged the struggle of trying to build chemistry on the fly:

“These guys haven’t played together as a group that mich.  Those things always take time.  We just gotta play with a more even level of force from start to finish.”

While it’s understandable to have a lineup struggle to mesh right away, the Mavericks may not have much more time to figure it out.  Now at 2-4 and headed to San Antonio and Los Angeles this week, things could get out of hand sooner than the team would have thought after sitting at 2-1 last Monday night following a win over the Chicago Bulls.

Rick Carlisle doesn’t care what you think about Wesley Matthews

"I don't care about that and I don't want to hear questions about shots." -Carlisle when asked about Wes' shot attempts

— Dallas Sports Fanatic (@Dallas_Fanatic) October 29, 2018

Even though Mavs Twitter makes their thoughts of him well known, Rick Carlisle doesn’t feel the same as you.  Coach was quick to shoot down any concern over the number of shot attempts his veteran wing had tonight (17) or any other night this season.  Carlisle tried to convene that it would be terrible for what the Mavericks are trying to be if they were trying to only have certain players shoot only a certain number of shots.

Matthews has certainly felt free to shoot the ball this season, and it has resulted him scoring 20 points or more in four straight contests.  Surely there can’t be a negative to that, right?

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A three-game losing streak isn’t how anyone wants heading into a two-game road trip against the San Antonio Spurs and a team in Los Angeles with LeBron James.  The Mavericks will need to figure some things out before they find themselves in a hole in the standings that will be too deep to dig out of this season.