On Tuesday, the Dallas Mavericks played the Miami Heat as the Mavericks are hoping that the “force is with them”. The Mavericks are looking to get back in the win column for the quest of grabbing control of the fifth seed in the western conference standings.

On Sunday, the Dallas Mavericks played the Sacramento Kings in the night night of a back-to-back. The Mavericks started this game slow (like they usually do) as the Kings were in control of the first half by taking a 61-54 halftime lead. The Kings never looked back as the Mavericks proved to be no threat at all in this game, which led the Kings to grab a 111-99 win. Luka Doncic picked up two technical fouls, leading to an ejection, as those were his 14th and 15th technical fouls on the season. That is a concern for the Mavericks as if Luka Doncic picks up one more technical foul, he will be suspended for the next game. The Mavericks need to have Luka Doncic available for the rest of the games if they want to avoid playing in the “Play-in Tournament”. Despite being ejected, Luka Doncic finished with 30 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists in the disappointing loss. With the loss, the Mavericks record dropped to 36-28 on the season, as they are now the sixth seed in the western conference standings. The Mavericks can’t afford any more losses as these upcoming games could determine their fate in the western conference standings.

The Miami Heat are coming into this game by going 7-3 in their last 10 games. They are recently coming off a 121-111 win against the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday to see their record improve to 35-30 on the season. The Heat are coming into this season with high hopes of trying to make another run at reaching the NBA Finals. The Heat are currently 6th in the eastern conference. This team is led by Jimmy Butler as they look to finish the season strong and avoid playing in the “Play-in Tournament” If their current continues, they have a good shot at landing a top-six seed

Coming into this game, the Mavericks won their last meeting with the Heat 93-83 on January 1st, 2021. The Mavericks could sweep the regular season series against the Heat with a in this matchup. The Mavericks previously gotten swept on their regular season series last season 2-0 against the Heat. Overall, the Heat hold the all-time series with a record of 36-32.

The Mavericks started this game by having Maxi Kleber (right Achilles soreness), Kristaps Porzingis (right knee soreness) and Tyrell Terry (personal reasons) all be ruled out for this game. As a result, the Mavericks went with Doncic, Richardson, Hardaway Jr, Finney-Smith and Cauley-Stein as their starting five in this game. The first points in the game would belong to Trevor Ariza as he nailed a three pointer for the Heat to get this game underway. The Mavericks wouldn’t get their first points until the 10:57 mark as Luka Doncic drilled a three pointer to come within 6-3 of the Heat. Rick Carlisle would call a timeout with 10:12 left in the quarter after the Heat extended their lead to 12-3. Prior to this timeout, the Heat began the game on fire as they were knocking down every shot they took it seem like it. The Heat opened the quarter by making all of their first four attempts while the Mavericks made just one of their first two attempts taken thus far. It looked like this was a three-point contest by the way the Heat were knocking down threes. Coming out of the timeout, the Mavericks turned to Willie Cauley-Stein but couldn’t convert as he lost the ball which kept the score at 12-3 with 9:48 left in the quarter. The Mavericks were able to trim their deficit to seven points after Josh Richardson knocked down a jump shot to come within 14-7 of the Heat with 8:31 left in the quarter. The Mavericks were able to trim their deficit to four points after Tim Hardaway knocked down a three pointer to come within 16-12 of the Heat with 7:26 left in the quarter as the Mavericks offense started to find their rhythm. The Heat were able to extend their lead back to eight points after Kendrick Nunn nailed a layup to extend their lead to 20-12 with 6:18 left in the quarter. The Heat would call a timeout with 4:57 left in the quarter after the Mavericks trimmed their lead to 23-19. Prior to this timeout, the Mavericks were able to generate a 7-3 run to try to grab their first lead in the game. The Heat started to cool off a little bit but still wasn’t enough to lose control of the lead thus far. Coming out of the timeout, the Heat turned to Trevor Ariza as he was able to convert on a driving layup to extend their lead to 25-19 with 4:32 left in the quarter. In the final minutes of the quarter, the Heat were able to maintain control of the lead and take a 39-30 lead into the second quarter. The game leading scorer after one quarter of play would belong to Trevor Ariza as he scored 16 points for the Heat. The Mavericks were led by Luka Doncic as he scored 11 points. The Heat opened the quarter on fire as everything was clicking on all cylinders but the Mavericks were able to offset that by getting their offense to click. At the end of the first quarter, the Mavericks were shooting 60% on 12-of-20 shooting from the field. The Mavericks simply cannot afford to be sloppy against this Heat team as they will leave you in the dust real quick.

The second quarter would begin by having Jalen Brunson nail a layup for the Mavericks to get this quarter underway. The Heat wouldn’t get their first points until the 10:44 mark as Goran Dragic nailed a two free-throws to extend their lead to 41-32. The Mavericks were able to trim their deficit to four points (again) after Dorian Finney-Smith knocked down a three pointer to come within 44-40 of the Heat, which forced the Heat to call a timeout with 7:57 left in the quarter. Prior to this timeout, the Mavericks opened the quarter by making three of their first seven attempts while the Heat made just one of their first six attempts taken thus far. The Mavericks were able to generate a 8-3 run to get within reach of taking their first lead in the game. Coming out of the timeout, the Heat turned to Duncan Robinson but couldn’t convert as he missed a three pointer that kept the score at 44-40 with 7:40 left in the quarter. The game would find its way to be tied after Willie Cauley-Stein Knocked down a layup to tie the game at 44-44 with 6:41 left in the quarter. Rick Carlisle would call a timeout with 5:47 left in the quarter after the Heat would untie the game by leading 48-44. Prior to this timeout, the Heat were able to generate a quick 4-0 run to not allow the Mavericks to take the lead. The Mavericks had some opportunities to grab their first lead in the game but couldn’t get the shots to fall down. The Mavericks were right there with the Heat, they just needed to force some stops and get their shots to fall down. Coming out of the timeout, the Mavericks turned to Tim Hardaway Jr but couldn’t convert as he missed a three pointer that kept the score at 48-44 with 5:24 left in the quarter. The Mavericks were able to trim their deficit to one point after Tim Hardaway Jr knocked down a three pointer to come within 48-47 of the Heat with 4:37 left in the quarter. The Mavericks were able to take their first lead in the game after Luka Doncic drilled a three pointer to take a 55-52 lead with 2:39 left in the quarter. In the final minutes of the quarter, the Mavericks were able to maintain control of the lead and take a 63-54 lead into halftime. The game leading scorer after two quarters of play would belong to Luka Doncic as he scored 19 points for the Mavericks. The Heat were led by Trevor Ariza as he scored 16 points. The quarter was dominated mostly by the Mavericks as they were able to find rhythm with their offense and force some stops on defense. The Heat were as hot as the sun but got cold as Pluto as they couldn’t get anything to fall down on their offense in this quarter. At the end of the first half, the Mavericks were shooting 57.1% on 24-of-42 shooting from the field. The Mavericks still needed to play much better basketball on both ends of the court if they wanted to leave the arena with a win.

Coming out of the half, the Mavericks were able to get on the board first in the third quarter by having Dwight Powell nail a layup to extend their lead to 65-54. Kendrick Nunn was able to score the first points for the Heat as he nailed a driving layup with 10:20 left in the quarter to come within 65-56 of the Mavericks. The Mavericks were able to extend their lead to twelve points after Tim Hardaway Jr knocked down a three pointer to extend their lead to 68-56 with 10:02 left in the quarter. The Heat were able to trim their deficit to six points after Duncan Robinson completed the ultra-rare four point play by knocking down the “AND-ONE” free-throw to come within 69-63 of the Heat with 8:21 left in the quarter. The Heat would call a timeout with 6:52 left in the quarter after the Mavericks lead shrunk to 71-65. Prior to this timeout, the Mavericks opened the quarter by making three of their first seven attempts while the Heat made four of their first nine attempts taken thus far. Coming out of the timeout, the Heat turned to Kendrick Nunn as he was able to convert on a jump shot to come within 71-67 of the Mavericks with 6:40 left in the quarter. The Mavericks were able to extend their lead to back to nine points after Tim Hardaway Jr knocked down a three pointer to extend their lead to 76-67 with 6:04 left in the quarter. The Heat would call a timeout with 5:28 left in the quarter after the Mavericks extended their lead to 78-67. Prior to this timeout, the Mavericks were able to generate a 7-2 run to maintain control of the lead thus far. The Mavericks offense was clicking as they were able to take good quality shots to maintain control of the game but they better be careful because the Heat could wipe away their lead in a hurry. Coming out of the timeout, the Heat turned to Bam Adebayo but turned the ball over which resulted in a three pointer from Tim Hardaway Jr as he capitalize on the Heat turnover to extend their lead to 81-67 with 5:06 left in the quarter. The Mavericks were able to extend their lead to sixteen points points after Josh Green knocked down two free-throws to extend their lead to 88-72 with 3:47 left in the quarter. In the final minutes of the quarter, the Mavericks were able to maintain control of the lead and take a 98-77 lead into the fourth quarter. The game leading scorer after three quarters of play would belong to Tim Hardaway Jr as he scored 30 points for the Mavericks. The Heat were led by Duncan Robinson as he scored 17 points. The Mavericks were all over this quarter as they were knocking down shots while playing with tremendous amount of effort and energy. The Heat were not living up to their team name as they looked lost and out of sort in this quarter. Through three quarters of play, the Mavericks were shooting 57.8% on 37-of-64 shooting from the field. The Mavericks have now put themselves in a good position to leave the arena with a win but there’s still 12:00 minutes of basketball to be played and anything can happen in those final minutes of the game.

The fourth quarter would begin by having Goran Dragic nail a layup for the Heat to get this quarter underway. The Mavericks weren’t able to get their points until the 11:22 mark by having Jalen Brunson nail a jump shot to extend their lead to 100-79. The Mavericks hope to build a large enough lead so they don’t have to put their key players (especially Luka Doncic) back in the game. The Mavericks were able to extend their lead to twenty-three points after Dwight Powell knocked down the “AND-ONE” free-throw to extend their lead to 103-80 with 10:59 left in the game. The Mavericks have everything in their favor with the humongous lead and the time on their side, they would just need to play good enough basketball to maintain control of the game as time was expiring to leave the arena with a win. Barring a tremendous and magical run from the Heat, the Mavericks were on their way to a win.

This team looked like they had a uphill battle with the Heat as the Heat began the game scorching hot by refusing to miss in the first quarter, but the Mavericks were able to flip the momentum to their side and offset the Heat by getting their offense to catch fire to take a 63-54 lead at halftime. This is a very important game for both teams as the result of the game would have seeding implications for their respective conference. The Mavericks hope that this game does more good than harm in regards to their seeding in the western conference standings.

In the end, it was the Dallas Mavericks defeating the Miami Heat 127-113 to clinch the season series sweep. The Mavericks record would improve to 37-28 on the season. Luka Doncic finished the game with 23 points, 12 rebounds and 8 assists in the win. The Heat were led by Goran Dragic and Duncan Robinson as they each finished with 19 points. The Mavericks got huge production from Tim Hardaway Jr as he finished with 36 points, including tying the Mavericks franchise record of the most three pointers made in a game by going 10-of-18 from behind the arc. This was a HUGE WIN for the Mavericks as they are back to the fifth seed in the western conference standings, thanks to holding the tiebreaker over the Los Angeles Lakers. The Mavericks are still neck-and-neck in the western conference as there is absolutely no room for error for the rest of the season. The magic number to clinch the Southwest Division is 3 and to clinch at least the 6th seed in the western conference is 7

The Mavericks will come back home as they will host the Brooklyn Nets on Thursday. This will mark the seventh-to-last game on the season for the Mavericks.