The first couple of months of the season weren’t all that inspiring for the Mavericks.
Dallas, which kept its roster largely the same as last season, came into the new year with a sub-.500 mark at 17–18. At that point in the campaign, the Mavs ranked just 17th in offensive efficiency—a wildly disappointing metric given that the club broke an NBA record for the most efficient offense ever in 2020. Some of the dropoff could be attributed to Kristaps Porziu0146u0123is missing a quarter of the season’s games at that point in the schedule. But just as much, if not more, could be laid at the feet of franchise player Luka Donu010diu0107, who eventually acknowledged not coming into the season in the greatest shape conditioning-wise following a few weeks of relaxation after competing in the Olympics for Slovenia.