The feel-good times of the Mavs ending their six-game losing-streak against the Wizards on Monday night lasted a little less than 48 hours.  If I had to say the exact time the good feelings ended, it would probably be at about 8:17 Central time on Wednesday night when Dallas was already getting throttled in what would be a terrible road loss to the Utah Jazz.

Luckily, Dallas has had two days to cleanse their pallet since then and had a productive practice on Friday.  Things don’t get much easier for the 3-8 squad as they now have to host an Oklahoma City Thunder team that, at 7-4 overall, has won seven straight games after a terrible start to their season.

With all that in mind, here are the three biggest things to consider before the game:

Starts… starts… starts!

The Mavericks are consistently having terrible starts to games this season.  Looking beyond what they trail by at the end of the first quarter, they’ve often sunk themselves within the first four minutes of games this season.  Some notable terrible holes they’ve dug themselves into early this season:

10/17 @PHX: 10-4, 2:53 in

10/26 @TOR: 7-0, 1:53 in

10/28 vs UTA: 11-2, 4:18 in

10/31 @LAL: 8-0, 2:08 in

There are plenty of other games where Dallas doesn’t get itself blown out right away, but it’s a gradual build towards a double digit deficit in the first quarter.  To their credit, the Mavericks have almost always made their games interesting at some point in the second half, but no one wants to have to resort to coming back from 15+ points every single night.

How to fix it?  Rick Carlisle isn’t going to change the actual starting lineup.  Those are the Mavericks’ five best players and they should start better.  They just have to get better as a unit so that the team is able to stick to its game plan and begin their substitutions without trailing big time.

With or without Westbrook, the Thunder are (is?) rolling right now

Oklahoma City lost its first four games to start the season and the sky was thought to be falling.  The team has done a 180 and rattled off seven straight wins.  They have won the last two games (Sunday in Cleveland and Thursday at home against Houston) without superstar Russell Westbrook.  As of early Saturday morning, there has been nothing said to dispute the report below by OKC insider Royce Young.

Russell Westbrook is currently listed as out for tomorrow’s game against the Mavs.

— Royce Young (@royceyoung) November 9, 2018

One huge thing to note is the Thunder’s ability to capitalize on turnovers.  According to NBA.com, they lead the league in points off turnovers at 22.8 points per game.  Wouldn’t you know it?  The Mavericks average the third most turnovers in the league at 17.6 per game.  Rick Carlisle said yesterday after practice that the team focused heavily on making sure they would protect the ball in tonight’s game.

Rick Carlisle on today's practice: "We spent a significant amount of time today on ball security. We certainly need to get better in that area and our guys understand it."

The Mavs average the third most turnovers per game (17.6) in the NBA.

— Dylan Duell (@DylanDuell) November 9, 2018

The debut of the “City” jerseys

Proud to have officially launched our Y2 City Edition Jersey! #TrueMaverick

Shop the collection: https://t.co/BdAi10YPj7 pic.twitter.com/0b45ec4bkV

— Dallas Mavericks (@dallasmavs) November 9, 2018

Yes, we’ve all seen these and expressed our dislike of them by now.  Maybe with the bright shades of blue, these will really pop under the bright lights during a game.  The worst part is without a doubt the giant primary logo on the front.  No creativity at all!

Why do the Mavericks always get the Nike employee who is ready to go home assigned to design their city jersey?  Between last year’s black, green, blue “DAL” look and now this, I’m convinced that the people at Nike up in Oregon are still just sour about the 2011 first round series between the Mavs and the Blazers.

The template was set in place by numerous people on Twitter over the summer: GREEN.  The fans want green.  Jalen Rose puts it best: Give the people what they want!  Tonight will be the first of many times the Mavericks wear this jersey throughout the remainder of the year, so have fun with that.

Other notables notes:

Devin Harris has a chance to play Saturday night.  The guard, who has been out since an injury on opening night in Phoenix, has been practicing with the team this week. More will be known about his status on Saturday morning… The Mavs/Thunder split their season series last year 2-2.  Each team won a game on the road… Former Maverick Nerlens Noel has not been given the Rick Carlisle treatment in Oklahoma City.  The big man has played in each of their 11 games this season and has averaged about 6 points and 5 rebounds in a modest 14.2 minutes per game… With the Dallas Stars and Nashville Predators playing an afternoon matinee at the American Airlines Center at 1 PM on Saturday, tip-off for Mavs/Thunder will be slightly later than usual at 8 PM.  The game will be available on Fox Sports Southwest.