6 Teams that are worse than the Dallas Mavericks despite their records

5. Sacramento Kings

The most important games remaining on the Dallas Mavericks' schedule are their consecutive games against the Sacramento Kings next week. Dallas plays them on Tuesday and Friday of next week on the road, and these games will decide who has the tiebreaker for the playoffs. The Mavs dropped their first two games against the Kings, and it's crucial that they find a way to win these games.

The Kings are 40-29 on the year, which is slightly better than the Mavs, and they better hope they don't see Dallas in the playoffs. The Kings don't have a true rim protector on their roster, meaning that the Mavs should be able to feast in the paint against them. No one averages above 0.7 blocks per game on the roster, and the Mavs have been at their best lately when their bigs get going early.

The Kings also likely just lost Kevin Huerter for the year, and P.J. Washington, Dereck Lively II, Maxi Kleber, and Daniel Gafford would collectively guard Domantas Sabonis, and they are more than capable of doing that.

Washington did a great job of guarding Victor Wembanyama earlier this week, and if they can keep Sabonis in check, they have a great chance of taking down the Kings in at least one of their matchups next week.

The Mavs now technically have a better record than the Kings after their loss last night to the Washington Wizards, but Sacramento had been ahead of Dallas for an extended period of time.