The Dallas Mavericks are going to cause problems for years to come

The Dallas Mavericks took down the seemingly unbeatable Milwaukee Bucks last night and they did it without Luka Doncic. This team is scarier than previously imagined.

You can call this game a fluke if you want to. The truth is, the Dallas Mavericks shot the ball better than average and the Milwaukee Bucks shot much worse than they are accustomed to. Giannis Antetokounmpo was incredible, but no other Bucks starter made it to double-digits and really Kyle Korver was the only solid bench producer.

You can also call this game a sign of new life in Dallas. The Mavs didn’t just win this game, they really dominated the Bucks from start to finish. Aside from a slight hiccup before the end of the half and a slightly bigger hiccup in the waning minutes of the game, Dallas outplayed the top team from the East from tip-off to buzzer.

If you listen to national media, you will probably hear the first response more than the other. If you listen to local Dallas sports talk, it is probably more 50/50. Believe whatever you want to, but the fact of the matter is that the Dallas Mavericks played one of the most important games of their season last night.

Important is the key word there. This was not the game that will determine if the Mavs will make the playoffs, it wasn’t one of the best games that the Mavericks played and it wasn’t one that will go down in the record books for anything significant. It was among the most important games for the Mavs because it proved that Luka Doncic doesn’t have to play at a monster level every night for Dallas to win.

The Mavericks players that made the biggest difference in this game were Kristaps Porzingis and Seth Curry. They scored 26 points each and made big plays when they were needed. Others who played a key part in the game were Delon Wright, Dorian Finney-Smith, Jalen Brunson and Maxi Kleber especially. Each of those guys are under contract with Dallas at least through the 2020-21 season.

If you take the average age of the nine players that make up the Mavs core going forward (sorry Tim Hardaway Jr., Courtney Lee, J.J. Barea, Boban Marjanovic and Ryan Broekhoff), it comes out to just over 25 years per player, including an average of 22 years for the two stars of the team. Every one of those guy will be with the Mavs for years to come.

The game against Milwaukee is only one game, but it proves that the Mavs are ready to make a difference in this league again. Seeing that from a group of guys under 30 years old should scare the rest of the league. More importantly than that, it should bring excitement to the Mavs fans around the world.

Dallas is going to be a great team for years to come, and even though the upcoming stretch of games is scary and will likely result in some losses, there is no reason to lose faith in what this team is capable of. We may not see it every night, but we will see it often enough.