Mavericks' embarrassing kryptonite will prove irrelevant if history repeats itself

After the Dallas Mavericks' loss to the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday night, they have now lost 8 of their last 10 games and three consecutive.

After one of the worst missed calls in NBA history, on what should've been a goaltending by Trey Murphy III in the final seconds of their most recent loss, the Mavericks are now 22-19 with a very tough schedule ahead of them.

In their next five games, Dallas will face the Oklahoma City Thunder twice, Charlotte Hornets, Minnesota Timberwolves, and Boston Celtics.

Since 2021, the Mavericks have only had one season (2022) where they have an above .500 record in the month of January.

Mavericks' January curse can vanish with an end-of-season hot streak

Since 2023, in the month of January, the Mavericks are now 15-23. This season they are 2-6.

There seems to be a consistent curse of brutal injuries and illnesses hitting this Mavericks squad, but on the positive side of things, if history repeats itself, Dallas will be just fine.

According to Jared Greenberg, an on-air reporter for TNT, the Mavericks are hopeful of Luka Doncic returning from injury before the All-Star break. If this is the case, fans could expect a similar end-of-regular-season run like what happened in the 2023-24 season and ultimately propelled the Mavs to the NBA Finals.

After the All-Star break last season, Dallas finished the season with an 18-9 record, which allowed them to avoid the NBA Play-In Tournament.

A very similar thing happened in the 2021-22 season where Dallas finished the season on a 17-6 record stretch after the All-Star game.

It may sound nice to hear that now, but Dallas will still have to overcome a lot of adversity in order for this to happen.

The number one thing right now for Dallas is to get healthy. Lately, we have seen Doncic, Kyrie Irving, and Dereck Lively II catch the injury bug. Even Mavericks veteran guard, Dante Exum, still hasn't played this season after having wrist surgery before the season began.

With the starting lineup of Doncic-Irving-Thompson-Washington-Lively II, Dallas has the highest net rating in the NBA for lineups played over 100 minutes together with a postive 23.5.

The unfortunate side of that is that specific lineup isn't even inside of the top 30 for the NBA for most minutes played together.

The recipe for Dallas going on the end-of-season run is just about getting healthy. They have proved to be one of the best teams in the NBA when they have their star players on the floor.

If Dallas can hold on tight for the next few weeks while Doncic recovers from a left calf strain, expect this team to start stacking up some wins.