Mavericks' nightmare season gets no break with brutal start to the 2026-27 season

The Dallas Mavericks' 2025-26 season was a nightmare, to say the least. Dallas lost 56 games in a season that was supposed to be promising, Kyrie Irving never returned from the ACL tear he suffered in March of 2025, and the team traded Anthony Davis before the trade deadline. Things did not go according to plan, and as a result, Dallas was in the lottery for the second season in a row.

Rather than a smooth start to get used to playing with one another, the Mavericks have an extremely difficult start to the 2026-27 season. The NBA released every team's schedule on Thursday, and Dallas' first eight games will be an uphill battle.

Dallas starts the 2026-27 season with a nightmare stretch

Five of the Mavericks' first eight games of the year are against playoff teams from last season. This includes two games against the San Antonio Spurs and Victor Wembanyama and one game against Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Outside of three total games against the top two teams in the Western Conference from a season ago, Dallas also plays the Houston Rockets twice, Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Miami Heat once, and Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers once.

The only "easy" game within the first two weeks of the season is against the Sacramento Kings on November 2 at home. The rest of the games are against talented teams that could be near the top of their respective conferences.

Dallas' revamped roster will need to get rolling quickly to avoid falling into a hole to begin next season, and the NBA didn't do them any favors with the first eight games of their schedule.

Dallas begins the season with a road game against the Rockets before traveling to Indiana to play Haliburton in the Pacers' home opener as he returns from an Achilles tear that kept him out for all of last season. Right after that, they play San Antonio, Miami, Oklahoma City, and Houston again. Their schedule lightens up when they play Sacramento next, but they play the Spurs again to close out their first eight games.

Why the Mavericks can't afford a slow start

This is a brutal stretch of games to start a new era, and Dusty May will be tested right away as he begins his first season with the Mavericks. Nothing will be given as May makes his jump to the NBA, and it won't take long for Mavs fans to see how this team stacks up to some of the best teams in the league.

If Dallas holds their own and wins some of these early games, they'll lay a great foundation to potentially shock everyone and become a respected team in the Western Conference again. They haven't made the NBA Playoffs since 2024, and some success here would tell the rest of the NBA that Mavericks basketball is back.

But if Dallas struggles and doesn't pose much of a threat to many of these teams, it could be the start of another down year after losing 99 games combined over the two seasons following an NBA Finals berth in 2024.

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