The Dallas Mavericks have a little break after being eliminated from the NBA Cup by the OKC Thunder on Tuesday, as they’ll play Sunday and not again until Thursday, December 19th. That gives them a little time to rest and recover from minor ailments, like hopefully getting over whatever bug has swept through the locker room.

Despite the loss to the Thunder, NBA writers are still pretty high on the Mavs. Here’s where they sit on various power rankings.

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Andy Bailey, Bleacher Report, 5th: “The Dallas Mavericks ran into a buzzsaw in the NBA Cup on Tuesday, losing to the Oklahoma City Thunder (in OKC), 118-104. The Thunder were in control of that contest for much of the second half, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander pretty thoroughly outperformed Luka Dončić. And if you’re looking at that one as a Dallas fan, you might be a little concerned about a potential playoff matchup. But the more short-term takeaways for the Mavs this week are still undoubtedly positive. They’d won 11 of 12 games prior to Tuesday’s matchup with OKC. And that stretch included a road win over the Thunder. P.J. Washington, who might be Dallas’ best shot to at least slow SGA down, missed the most recent loss. And though he had an underwhelming 16 points on 15 shots Tuesday, Dončić does appear to be rounding back into his MVP form recently. In his five games since returning from injury (which includes Tuesday), he’s averaging 28.0 points, 10.6 rebounds, 8.6 assists, 4.0 threes, and 3.4 steals(!) while shooting 40.0 percent from deep.”

Kurt Helin, NBC Sports, 4th: “The Mavericks have been the second-best team in the West this season — they had won seven straight heading into Tuesday night — but that NBA Cup loss to Oklahoma City may be a sign that the gap from first to second is pretty large. Part of that loss was the Mavericks were without P.J. Washington, who is critical to their defense — Dallas is 1-5 this season in games Washington has missed. The Mavericks’ defense has looked better with Dereck Lively II in the starting lineup, and it is 9.7 points per 100 possessions better when Washington and Lively are both on the court.”

Colin Ward-Henninger, CBS Sports, 6th: “If Tuesday’s NBA Cup quarterfinal was a playoff preview, the Mavs should be slightly concerned. Luka Doncic was kept under wraps and they simply couldn’t get anything going against a lockdown Thunder defense. Dallas was playing well before the loss and there’s no reason to think that won’t continue, but they’re likely going to have that next Jan.17 matchup with OKC circled on the calendar.”

ESPN, 4th: “The Mavs have the league’s fourth-ranked offense despite one of Dallas’ scoring staples producing disappointing results. The Mavs average 14.1 field goal attempts off seven or more dribbles — third most in the league — but rank 27th in effective field goal percentage (42.9) off those shots. By contrast, Dallas ranked fifth in that category (52.9% eFG) last season, when the Mavs led the league with 15.1 such shots per game. The drop-off is primarily due to Doncic’s slow start after missing all of training camp and preseason due to a calf contusion. His effective field goal percentage on such attempts is a career-low 41.0%, but he’s improved since taking 10 days off to rest a sprained wrist and work on his conditioning (51.9% eFG in four games). Last season, Doncic had a 56.7% eFG on 683 shots off seven-plus dribbles, the best of the 28 players with at least 250 attempts.”

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