5 Massive strengths, 5 weaknesses for Mavericks heading into playoffs

5. Strength: Rebounding and physicality

While rebounding was a glaring weakness at one point in the season for Dallas, the Mavericks' physicality on the glass has been a huge strength recently. Dallas has a lot of players on their roster who maintain a pedigree of hustling hard and giving maximum effort, but those aren't the only determinant factors for how well an NBA team rebounds unfortunately.

After the Mavericks added P.J. Washington and Daniel Gafford at the trade deadline, it was very clear that Dallas would have a chance to win much more 50/50 balls when you take into consideration Washington and Gafford's blend of coordination and athleticism on the defensive end. Things are finally starting to turn in the right direction from a rebounding perspective now that Washington and Gafford are fully acclimated into Dallas' lineup and it's showing on the stat sheet.

The Mavericks are top five in rebounds per game in the league over the last 15 games, and top 10 in contested rebounds per game in that same stretch. This shift in Dallas' rebounding can also be attributed to Jason Kidd's decision to start Derrick Jones Jr. over Josh Green, as Jones Jr. has much more length and athleticism to grab both offensive and defensive rebounds compared to Green.

The Mavericks have been doing an extremely good job rebounding without the likes of Dereck Lively II as well, as his addition back into Dallas' lineup will bolster the Mavericks rebounding even further, especially when you take into consideration that Maxi Kleber will play much more minutes at the four when Lively II returns to the lineup.

We haven't even talked about how well Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving have rebounded this year, as the duo is averaging 14.2 combined rebounds per game this season, a number Mavericks fans will definitely take when one considers Irving is only 6-foot-2. The Mavericks have buy-in on the glass from everyone in their rotation even their superstars, so hopefully they can continue this trend heading into the playoffs.