The Mavericks lost again on Sunday night as the Sacramento Kings, who were on a nine-game losing streak, came into the American Airlines Center and led wire-to-wire for a 121-107 win. The loss dropped Dallas to 30-26 on the season and put them just a half game ahead of the Memphis Grizzlies in the eighth slot in the Western Conference standings. One could say that the Mavs are one insane Luka prayer being answered from being losers of five straight games as that buzzer-beater was the only win they have since April 8th.

What in the world is going on here? Mavs fans are not happy and you’d like to think the players and coaches aren’t too happy themselves. Someone has to have some answers for what exactly is wrong here. Who’s to blame? There’s not one single person or thing you can blame for the struggles, but we’ll still take a look at some of the easiest targets.

Rick Carlisle  
The long-time Mavericks coach has been receiving more heat this season than he has in a long, long time with the team’s rough start to the season and then some questionable finishes of games in recent weeks. While he certainly shouldn’t be completely without criticism, I think it is very foolish to just place all of the blame on Carlisle and to start packing his bag now.

Ultimately, this is a player’s league more than it has ever been. The players run the show and control 95% of what happens out on the court. So if the Mavericks get off to terrible starts every game at home, it’s sure as heck not the result of Rick Carlisle not emphasizing coming out strong or whatever cliches a coach can use to keep his team motivated. It’s the players (starters) who go out there and fall behind 12-3 to the Kings like they did on Sunday night.

I’m a fan of continuity in important roles in the organization. I don’t like how so many teams are just flipping through coaches over and over across the league while the ultimate problem is they just need better players. Rick Carlisle shouldn’t have a lifetime contract or anything, but firing him and just bringing in a new voice isn’t going to change much of anything.

Reserve/Role Players 
I think these players (everyone besides Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis) have a bit of a thankless job. When they have great games it’s often overshadowed by an epic game from Doncic or Porzingis or just a bad loss like with Dorian FInney-Smith’s 22 point game last night. When they play poorly, they’re all dismissed and everyone acts like Luka has to do everything himself.

The likes of Jalen Brunson, Maxi Kleber, Tim Hardaway Jr. and others always bring their absolute best effort to the floor. They’re the glue of this team that is led by two stars who don’t seem to be the greatest of friends off the court. They give the team its one little sliver of a fun personality with their smiles from the bench.

They simply need to bet better and more consistent.

This probably means the bulk of the Mavs’ roster needs to be changed this offseason to simply get better role players in here. Ultimately they’re role players for a reason. They can’t be counted on to always play lights out. Dallas just needs better play from player 3-10 on any given night after Doncic/Porzingis if they want to be the best version of the team they can be.

Doncic/Porzingis  
These two guys also just simply have to be better. They’re the only two players occasionally missing games for non-essential reasons during this crazy, condensed schedule. They’re the faces of the franchise. They simply need to be better with their play, with their energy and they need to appear more united to help this team in its effort to finish the regular season strong.

Of course Luka is amazing, but he’s not playing great from start to finish. He starts poorly and then recovers later. In his first quarter action on Sunday, he missed two shots and split a pair of free throws before checking out midway through the quarter with the Mavs down 14-8. The two missed shots were three pointers. In the fourth quarter he was getting to the basket at will en route to 22 points in the final frame. Bring some of that intensity right off the bat to avoid the team being down! Set an offensive tone!

For Porzingis, he just needs to hit the shots that he gets at a more consistent clip and he needs to figure out a way for himself to become a more appealing option in the fourth quarter. When the game slows down, his post-ups aren’t as appealing because they’re simply tougher shots. So he often just stands on the side while Doncic struggles to make something happen.

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There are no perfect solutions here. Hopefully the Mavericks can figure this out and at least have a positive run here over the final month of the regular season. At the current rate, their postseason trip could be quite short.