It’s been an ugly past couple of games for the Mavericks, to say the least. Coming off back-to-back 30 point losses to the Grizzlies and Nets, you can bet your bottom dollar that Rick Carlisle set the tone for the rest of the season after the 39-point loss in Brooklyn. For the Wizards, they like the Mavericks, find themselves outside of the playoff picture. Since John Wall opted for season-ending surgery, it’s been the Bradley Beal show in DC, which is the focal point for Dallas to stop in tonight’s matchup.

Show some fight

The past two games marked the first time in the franchise’s 39 year history that the Mavericks have lost consecutive 30-point games. That certainly isn’t a historic statistic that you’d like to reach nor celebrate.

We get it; the Mavericks are not a good team right now. And that’s fine. We traded 80% of our starting lineup and are led by a freshly turned 20-year-old. With 19 games remaining, playoff hopes are out the window. The rest of this season rests on Luka and the young guys playing well and especially watching Dirk trot up and down the floor, launching threes for what may be the last stretch of games of his career.

With that said, let’s limit the 30-point losses. I mean, to the Grizzlies? At home? That was brutal. And I get the Nets are a feisty, middle of the pack playoff team in the East, but losing by 39 to DeMarre Carroll? That was gross.

Win or lose, show some fight, don’t give up, and pass it to Dirk.

Lottery implications

Whether people like it or not, this is the point we’ve reached with 19 games remaining. It’s a little late to crank up and holler “all aboard the tank train!” But, with the new lottery odds this season, the Mavericks ca increase their luck of jumping into the top 5 more than before, especially with losing their pick on the line.

As we all know, the Mavericks involved their 2019 first round pick in the trade for Luka to Atlanta on draft night last year. The protections on that pick are 1-5 so enable for Dallas to keep the pick, they need quite a bit of luck.

This is where tonight’s game comes to importance. Currently, the Wizards sit with the 7th worst record in the league; the Mavericks have the 8th worst record. The distance between the two teams? One game. Sitting in the 8th spot of the lottery, Dallas would have a 26.3% of jumping into the top 4. If they surpass Washington, those odds sneak up to 31.9%.

We’ve seen crazier things happen in the draft lottery, as a team always seems to get lucky and hops into the top 3-5. If that does indeed happen for the Mavericks, that will add just another caveat to what should be an exciting offseason.