Dallas Mavericks: A Christmas Day game should be on schedule in 2020

The Dallas Mavericks may not be playing on Christmas Day this year, but the NBA is going to have trouble keeping them off the schedule in the future with how entertaining this team has been.

It is two days until Christmas and while you may be scrambling to get last minute gifts or flying home for the holidays, the Dallas Mavericks are preparing for a three-day break after the hardest schedule of the season so far.

There is news on the horizon that Luka Doncic could be back for the next game, but the NBA elected to have one of the most entertaining teams in the league sit out for Christmas Day and not play until the day after. The schedule was set prior to the season and the emergence of the top offense in league history (prior to last night), so I guess the NBA gets a pass on this one.

They won’t be so lucky next year. If the Mavericks don’t find themselves on the Christmas Day schedule in 2020, there will be a lot of unhappy NBA fans that haven’t had enough chances to watch this electric offense so far this season.

If you consider the fact that the Mavs are going to try and swing for the fences this summer (potentially) and add a true number three option, this team presents a whole new watching experience and, in reality, a considerable foe for a possible championship run. That is how good this team could be as soon as next year.

The NBA may have lucked out with the missed scheduling of the Mavs due to Luka being out with an ankle injury, but that doesn’t help the fact that the worst and most unrecognizable team in the league has a game on the big day. Some things you just can’t plan for.

It is fairly safe to say that the league largely underestimated what Luka Doncic and the Mavs would be capable of this year. Luka has taken a leap that even most top level Luka fans couldn’t have imagined this season. He went from one of the best rookies in NBA history immediately into an MVP candidate and one of the top 5 players in the league.

This is especially interesting considering Luka was not viewed as a generational talent by many NBA and Draft analysts. Again, even the biggest Luka believers didn’t believe he would be able to do what he has done at this point in his very young career.

For these reasons and the fact that it is safe to assume the Mavs will be in the top half of the standings among Western Conference teams, it would be good to plan out some hours in your Christmas Day to put the Mavericks game on, for those who start planning Christmas this early every year.

The Mavs have been a wonderful surprise to this NBA season and they will likely continue this success for years to come. If Dallas does get a game scheduled, it will be their fourth Christmas Day game in history and the first since the 2011-12 season.