Mavericks' next necessary starting lineup change is becoming painfully obvious

Dallas Mavericks fans can now take a deep breath after watching their idol Luka Doncic take the court for the Los Angeles Lakers against his old team for the first time on Tuesday night.

Even though the Mavs fell short, there were still plenty of positive takeaways. The Mavs fought back down by a double-digit deficit in the second quarter to make for an ultra-competitive second half.

Of course, as Mavs fans have known for seven years, it was Doncic who helped beat his former team, not by making a bunch of incredible shots, but by controlling the pace and making plays happen for his teammates.

The Mavericks also made a change to start out the second half that they must stick with until more guys get healthy.

Mavs must start Powell over Edwards at the five for more size

For a few games in the month of February, the Mavs have looked extremely small on the court. With not enough complete trust for Kylor Kelley and Moses Brown just yet, Jason Kidd decided to call Kessler Edwards' number to start at the five for the past few games.

Edwards at 6-foot-7 seemed to be the answer to fill the void at the five due to the ridiculous number of injuries the Mavs have gone through this season. Even though Kidd had admitted that Edwards has been doing solid work at the five, he made a note by saying that he is "not a starting center." Edwards is a true wing, and starting him at the five is not sustainable.

With Dwight Powell returning to the floor, Kidd must make a change to start him now at the five in the place of Edwards for height and rebounding. Edwards at the big was necessary for a certain time, but as soon as Powell is done with his minutes restriction, Kidd has no choice but to insert Powell in the starting lineup for the time being.

The first we've seen of this was against the Lakers when Powell started over Edwards in the second half. Edwards wasn't seen much at all after one half of play, but it didn't matter, the Mavericks simply could not rebound and it ended up costing them in the end with no rim protection.

One question moving forward will be if Brown will get minutes just due to the lack of rim protection. Brown was signed for the direct reason of more size being needed badly, but if he's not going to play, it no doubt has to be Powell and P.J. Washington manning the middle as best they can until Anthony Davis and Dereck Lively II come back.