The Dallas Mavericks face off against the Phoenix Suns on Thursday in one of the most important games to date for the Mavericks this season. Phoenix is only a game ahead of Dallas in the standings, and this game between the Mavericks and the Suns will dictate the tiebreaker for the season series between the two squads.

It’s paramount that Dallas brings good energy in their first game out of the All-Star break on Thursday against one of their biggest Western Conference rivals, as the Mavericks still have room to improve in their remaining 27 games of the regular season despite their current six-game winning streak..

The Mavericks have less room for error after they expended draft capital at the trade deadline to get P.J. Washington and Daniel Gafford, so expectations have assuredly shifted for this Mavericks team compared to before the trade deadline.

Dallas Mavericks rookie sets big expectations for squad ahead of the playoffs

Dallas Mavericks rookie center Dereck Lively II doesn’t seem to be pressured by outside expectations of how well the Mavericks need to play for the rest of the regular season despite having just recovered from a broken nose, as Lively II went as far as to set his own expectations for the Mavericks ahead of the playoffs by listing them as dark-horse title contenders over All-Star weekend.

“We’re the dark horse that everybody doesn’t want to look at, but we’re in the back of their minds. We just got to keep this streak going, stay focused, and get each gameplan done when game time comes.”

– Dereck Lively II

Lively II’s confidence in Dallas’ chances at contention are definitely warranted given the talent that this Mavericks roster features post-trade deadline, but we obviously will need to see how the rest of the regular season and playoffs fare before we determine if his assumption was correct.

For more on Dereck Lively II and the Dallas Mavericks ahead of the NBA Playoffs, stay tuned as well have you covered.