Mavericks digging themselves a hole to start season

The Mavericks have been notoriously slow starters in the Luka Doncic era. Last season, they began 12-8 despite winning six of their first seven games. In 2022-23 and 2021-22, they started 10-10 and 11-9, respectively. 

The same pattern has followed this season: Dallas is off to a 5-7 start after falling to the lowly Jazz on Thursday. 

Ordinarily, there wouldn't be much cause for concern for this team considering its firepower and experience. Besides the three-headed monster of Doncic, Kyrie Irving and Klay Thompson, the team boasts one of the deepest benches in the league including a battery of above-average role players. 

Furthermore, it has a proven leader in Jason Kidd who's made several deep playoff runs in his young head coaching career. Surely, it has all the ingredients to return to the NBA Finals.

This season, though, the Mavs can't afford to coast their way through the regular season. The West is even mightier than it was last season, with teams such as the Warriors (9-2), Suns (9-3), Rockets (8-4) and Lakers (7-4) making serious noise after battling for play-in spots last year. 

Furthermore, last year's top two seeds, the Thunder (10-2) and Nuggets (7-3), appear just as formidable, and teams such as the Timberwolves (6-6) and Grizzlies (7-5) will get better as the season progresses. 

The Mavericks must get it together quickly or face the risk of a play-in scenario, which would be a catastrophic failure for a team projected to win 53 games. 

Doncic knows well that his team needs to return to winning ways. That's why he was so peeved at his defensive lapse in the waning seconds of Thursday's loss to the Jazz. The Slovenian fell asleep on defense as his matchup, Jordan Clarkson, found John Collins for a wide-open dunk, leading to the Jazz's 115-113 win.

After the loss, Doncic took accountability for his defensive miscue.