Faltering Mavericks struggling to find right combination for star Luka Doncic

With their season slipping into disaster, the Dallas Mavericks notched a needed victory against the Indiana Pacers on Monday.

While necessary, the victory does not resolve Dallas’ issues with less than two weeks remaining in the regular season.

The Mavericks are struggling, star Luka Doncic is frustrated and the Kyrie Irving trade hasn’t worked like the Mavs had hoped.

On Jan. 14, Dallas was 24-20 and in fifth place in the Western Conference, just a ½ game behind Sacramento.

Today, the Mavs are 37-39 and in 11th place in the West, a ½ game behind Oklahoma City for a spot in the play-in game format.

Dallas is in danger of missing the playoffs after reaching the conference finals last season. Before Monday’s victory, it lost four consecutive games, including two in a row to Charlotte (14th place in the East) and seven of its past nine games.

The Mavs are 9-13 since Irving joined the team in that surprise deal with Brooklyn just before the Feb. 9 trade deadline, 7-9 in games in which Irving has played and 4-8 when Doncic and Irving play together.

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Their situation illustrates three issues: it is difficult to win in the NBA, competitive as ever this season; trades take time to work, if they work at all; and finding the perfect No. 2 option and the right role players alongside Doncic remains a work in progress.

Just 4½ games separate fourth-place Phoenix from 12th-place Utah in the West. The top three seeds (Denver, Memphis, Sacramento) have been determined, but the next seven spots are wide open. Dallas still has a chance but repeating last season’s finish will be a chore and it’s looking like a disappointing step backward.

In a vacuum, not one person absorbs all the blame. This is a collective effort. Irving’s statistics just about mirror the season he had in 40 games with the Nets this season. In 16 games with Dallas, he averages 26.3 points, 5.9 assists, 5.1 rebounds, 1.2. steals and 1.9 turnovers and shoots 50% from the field and 38.8% on 3-pointers compared to 27.1 points, 5.3 assists, 5.1 rebounds, 1 steals and 2.3 turnovers and 48.6% from the field and 37.4% on 3s with Brooklyn.

Offensive production from Doncic and Christian Wood has decreased post-All-Star break, but overall, the Mavs have remained a top-10 offense. The bigger problem is defense. Dallas has been in the bottom third of the league defensively for much of the season and has the 25th-worst defense since Jan. 14.

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The Mavs have also been on the wrong end of close games – nine of their 13 losses since Feb. 11 have been decided by five points or fewer. Their defensive issues have been exposed in the fourth quarter. With so much offensive firepower, the Mavs lack stoppers on defense.

It’s why they have problems winning games with Irving and Doncic. In those 12 games, the Mavs score 118 points and allow 114.5 points per 100 possessions when they are in the game together. It just hasn’t translated to victories. Irving is an easy scapegoat, but he’s not the problem.

Dallas’ predicament is similar to Houston’s when the Rockets had James Harden. They were good but had trouble finding the perfect No. 2. Harden and Doncic are both ball dominant and such high-usage players, it’s difficult to find the right lineups, especially a No. 2. The Rockets tried with Harden, adding Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook. The Rockets reached one conference finals with Harden.

The Mavs have tried Kristaps Porzingis and have had solid players around Doncic, including Jalen Brunson, Spencer Dinwiddie, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Wood.

In Monday’s victory, Mavs coach Jason Kidd sampled different rotations, looking for something that works better.

The disappointing season has had an impact on Doncic, who has had massive individual success and limited team success in his five seasons.

"It’s really frustrating," Doncic told reporters last week. "I think you can see it with me on the court. Sometimes I don’t feel it’s me. I’m just being out there, you know? I used to have really fun smiling on court, but it’s just been so frustrating for a lot of reasons, not just basketball."

That frustration has resulted in 15 technical fouls, and had his 16th not been rescinded by the league on Monday, he would’ve been hit with a one-game suspension.

One, let’s hope that Doncic rediscovers joy on and off the court. Two, those are concerning words from Doncic. Though he is in the first season of a five-year, $215.1 million contract with the Mavs, we know in today’s NBA a star isn’t locked into finishing a contract with that team. And there’s no guarantee Irving, who is in the final year of his contract, re-signs with Dallas.

The Mavs have issues that if not resolved will impact the direction of the franchise.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Mavericks struggle finding combination for Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving