On Wednesday, the Dallas Mavericks played the Houston Rockets in their sixth road game in the last seven games. The Mavericks hope to extend their season-high winning streak to six games. The Mavericks look to seize their opportunity to climb up the western conference standings with the top teams currently struggling.

On Monday, the Dallas Mavericks played the Utah Jazz in the first game at the American Airlines Center. The Mavericks started this game without Kristaps Porzingis as he was ruled out for the game. The Mavericks offense went on a tear as they torched the Jazz by taking a 50-42 halftime lead. The Mavericks were able to finish off the Jazz and defeat the Jazz 111-103. Luka Doncic finished with 31 points while Dorian Finney-Smith added a season-high 23 points. With the win, the Mavericks record improved to 28-21 on the season, as they are now within distance of the fifth seed in the western conference with them being only three games back.

The Houston Rockets are coming into this game by going 2-8 in their last 10 games. They are recently coming off a close 133-130 loss against the Phoenix Suns on Monday to see their record drop to 13-37 on the season. The Rockets were coming into this season with hopes of trying to make playoffs but lacked of production seemed to take them on another path. The Rockets are currently the second-worst team in the NBA with only the Minnesota Timberwolves holding the worst record. This team is led by John Wall as they look to try to finish the season strong.

Coming into this game, the Mavericks lost their last meeting with the Rockets 133-108. The regular season series is tied 1-1. The Mavericks previously lost their regular season series last season 2-1 against the Rockets. Overall, the Rockets hold the all-time series with a record of 99-85

The Mavericks started this game by having Willie Cauley-Stein, Tyrell Terry, JJ Redick, Trey Burke and Maxi Kleber ruled out but Kristaps Porzingis returns to the court. As a result, the Mavericks went with Doncic, Richardson, Melli, Finney-Smith and Porzingis as their starting five in this game. The first points in the game would belong to Kristaps Porzingis as he nailed a two pointer for the Mavericks to get this game underway. The Rockets wouldn’t get their first points until the 10:53 mark as Christian Wood drilled a three pointer to take their first lead in the game at 3-2. Rick Carlisle would call a timeout with 10:00 minutes left as the Mavericks were trailing 7-2 in the game. Coming out of the timeout, the Mavericks turned to Josh Richardson but couldn’t convert as he missed a three pointer that kept the score at 7-2. The Mavericks were having a difficult time getting shots to fall down that allowed the Rockets to take control of the game. The Rockets were able to grab a 12-2 lead after a couple of free-throws with 8:57 left in the quarter. The Mavericks finally had a shot to go down after Luka Doncic drilled a three pointer to come within 12-5 of the Rockets with 8:22 left in the quarter. The Mavericks were playing extremely horrible and sloppy on both ends of the court which allowed the Rockets to create confidence into thinking they could actually beat the Mavericks. The Mavericks were able to cut their deficit to five points after Luka Doncic knocked down a free-throw with 5:56 left in the quarter to come within 15-10 of the Rockets. The Mavericks were able to get their offense to wake up but the Rockets were answering the Mavericks’ shots thus creating no digging in the Rockets lead. In the final minutes of the quarter, the Rockets were able to maintain control of their lead and take a 24-23 lead into the second quarter. The game leading scorer after one quarter of play would belong to Luka Doncic as he scored 11 points for the Mavericks. The Rockets were led by John Wall as he scored 10 points. The Mavericks finished the quarter by shooting 42.9% on 9-of-21 shooting from the field.

The second quarter would begin by having Dwight Powell nail a alley-oop from Luka Doncic for the Mavericks to get this quarter underway. The Rockets wouldn’t get their first points in the quarter until the 10:35 mark as Avery Bradley nailed a three pointer to tie the game at 27-27. The Mavericks were able reclaim the lead after Jalen Brunson drilled a three pointer to take a 30-27 lead with 9:27 left in the quarter. Both teams couldn’t get a shot to fall down for multiple minutes until Jae’Sean Tate nailed a jump shot to come within 30-29 of the Mavericks that forced Rick Carlisle to take a timeout with 6:56 left in the quarter. Coming out of the timeout, the Mavericks turned to Dorian Finney-Smith but couldn’t convert as he missed a three pointer that kept the score at 30-29. The game would remain a one point game for multiple minutes in the quarter until Christian Wood drilled a three pointer to take a 34-32 lead. In the final minutes of the quarter, the Rockets took a 47-42 lead into halftime. The game leading scorer after two quarters of play would belong to Kristaps Porzingis and Luka Doncic as they both scored 13 points for the Mavericks. The Rockets were led by John Wall as he scored 12 points. The Mavericks finished the first half by shooting 33% on 16-of-48 shooting from the field.

Coming out of the half, the Rockets were able to get on the board first in the third quarter by having Christian Wood nail a three pointer to extend their lead to 50-42. Kristaps Porzingis was able to score the first points in the quarter for the Mavericks as he nailed a completed a “three point play” by knocking down the “AND ONE” free-throw to come within 50-45 of the Rockets. The Mavericks were able to come within two points of the Mavericks after drilling a shot to come within 52-50 of the Rockets with 10:00 minutes left in the quarter. The Rockets once again made it a six point game after Christian Wood drilled a three pointer to take a 56-50 lead with nine minutes left in the quarter. Rick Carlisle would call a timeout with 8:52 left in the quarter after Christian Wood drilled another three pointer for the Rockets to extend their lead to 59-50. Coming out of the timeout, the Mavericks turned to Luka Doncic as he scored on a bank shot to come within 59-52 of the Rockets with 8:15 left in the quarter. The Rockets were able to extend their lead to 62-54 with 5:57 left in the quarter after John Wall drilled a three pointer. Rick Carlisle would call a timeout with 4:26 left in the quarter after the Mavericks were trailing 68-56. Coming out of the timeout, the Mavericks turned to Tim Hardaway Jr but lost the ball that resulted in Rockets getting two points off of it to extend their lead to 69-56 with less than 4:00 minutes left in the quarter. In the final minutes of the quarter, the Rockets were able to maintain control of their lead and take a 75-64 lead into the fourth quarter. The game leading scorer after three quarters of play would belong to Kristaps Porzingis as he scored 23 points for the Mavericks. The Rockets were led by John Wall as he scored 22 points. Through three quarters of play, the Mavericks were shooting 34.8% on 24-of-69 shooting from the field.

The fourth quarter would begin by having Jalen Brunson nail a two pointer for the Mavericks to get this quarter underway. The Rockets weren’t able to get their first points in the quarter until the 10:30 mark by having DJ Augustin nail a three pointer to extend their lead to 78-69. The Mavericks were doing everything they could to come within the Rockets but their shots were simply not falling down. Unless something drastically changes then the Rockets appeared to be in control of the game to finish with a victory. Still with plenty of time left in the game, the Mavericks were able to cut their deficit to four points after Tim Hardaway Jr drilled a jump shot to come within 80-76 of the Rockets with 8:20 left in the game. The Mavericks were trying to generate some type of a scoring run but the Rockets were there every time to match the Mavericks. With 6:52 left in the game, the Mavericks were trailing 84-80 with the Rockets calling a timeout. Coming out of the timeout, the Rockets were able to stop the Mavericks on defense as Luka Doncic missed a three pointer that kept the score at 84-80. The Mavericks were able to cut their deficit to one point after Dorian Finney-Smith drilled a three pointer to come within 84-83 of the Rockets with under 6:00 minutes left in the game. The Rockets were able to extend their lead to three points after knocking down a shot to extend their lead to 86-83 with 5:15 left in the game. With 2:35 left in the game, the Mavericks were able to tie the game 89-89 after Luka Doncic nailed a bank shot to erase the Rockets lead. The Rockets were able to reclaim their lead 91-89 after John Wall nailed a jump shot with 2:00 minutes left in the game. The Rockets were able to go on a 5-0 run to extend their lead to 94-89 with under 2:00 minutes left in the game. With 1:00 minute left in the game, the Rockets built a 7-0 run that forced Rick Carlisle to call a timeout with the Mavericks trailing 96-89. The Rockets appeared to be on their way to claim victory.

This team looked like they were going to get beat by a young Rockets team that’s in the middle of their rebuilding process. The Mavericks couldn’t get anything to fall in their offense and that played a crucial part in the game.

In the end, it was the Houston Rockets defeating the Dallas Mavericks 102-93 to snap the Mavericks season-high five game winning streak. The Mavericks record would drop to 28-22 on the season. Luka Doncic finished the game with 23 points on 9-of-26 shooting from the field in the loss. The Rockets were led by John Wall as he finished with 31 points. This was a horrible effort by the Mavericks as this was a game they were expected to win. The Mavericks shot 37.9% on 33-of-87 shooting from the field in the game.

The Mavericks will return home to play the Milwaukee Bucks at the American Airlines Center on Thursday in another back-to-back.