{"id":432211,"date":"2025-12-08T01:34:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T01:34:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/432211\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T01:34:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T01:34:22","slug":"have-dallas-mavericks-turned-a-corner-after-slow-start-p-j-washington-weighs-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/432211\/","title":{"rendered":"Have Dallas Mavericks turned a corner after slow start? P.J. Washington weighs in"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Mavericks<\/a> have reached a new level of consistency after claiming victories in four of their last five games.<\/p>\n

Dallas has struggled with inconsistency in player availability because of injuries, but the team received a big boost in Saturday\u2019s win over the Houston Rockets<\/a> when P.J. Washington returned from a four-game absence while nursing a right ankle sprain.<\/p>\n

Washington\u2019s return to the lineup was significant on both ends of the floor as he finished with 14 points, seven rebounds and a career-high five steals, which allowed the Mavericks to play with pace and thrive in transition.<\/p>\n

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It was a refreshing sight for Mavericks fans because Washington rolled his ankle exactly one week ago in Los Angeles<\/a> after landing on a basketball during pregame warmups. The injury forced him to miss his team\u2019s three wins over the Clippers, Denver Nuggets and Miami Heat, as well as Friday\u2019s loss in Oklahoma City. He reflected on the injury after the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just thinking, \u2018Bro. No way. I worked this hard in the summer to strengthen my ankles and then something like this happens.\u2019\u201d Washington said. \u201cIt\u2019s a freak accident. It happens sometimes, but I\u2019m just happy to be back. I\u2019m super glad I did do the work in the summer so I wasn\u2019t out too long.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a vast difference between the Mavericks team that Washington left, compared to the group he returned to. Anthony Davis <\/a>is a consistent presence in the lineup now. He played in his first back-to-back since returning from a left calf strain that cost him nearly a month.<\/a> After an uncharacteristic two-point performance Friday against the Thunder, Davis returned to his All-Star form and led the Mavericks on Saturday with 29 points, eight rebounds and two steals.<\/p>\n

Two-way guard Ryan Nembhard<\/a> has provided stability as the Mavericks\u2019 starting point guard, while Cooper Flagg<\/a> is gaining more confidence as a scorer, evident by his career-high 35 points against the Clippers, which was needed because of Washington\u2019s absence. <\/p>\n

That night, Washington began a trend of posting the name of a teammate who had an impressive performance on X. Flagg was his choice that night and he did the same for Nembhard following his breakout game in Denver.<\/a> After Saturday\u2019s game, Washington shouted out Brandon Williams, who scored 20 points off the bench.<\/p>\n

With the team hitting a new stride, Washington isn\u2019t paying attention to external chatter about the Mavericks. Instead, he wants to continue to help his team stack as many wins as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not really our goal, to silence anybody,\u201d Washington said. \u201cObviously, we didn\u2019t have the start we wanted, but it\u2019s a long season and a lot of games so we feel like we can find our pace and try to take it one day at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Washington\u2019s most memorable pilfer occurred late in the third quarter when he poked the ball away from Reed Sheppard and took the ball the length of the floor. Kevin Durant thought about contesting, but made a business decision and avoided Washington\u2019s second consecutive transition dunk. The Mavericks forward roared as the lead swelled to double digits.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really fun, but I was just a little tired because I\u2019ve been out. I was trying to catch my breath,\u201d Washington said of the sequence. \u201cIt was great. I just love to be able to be on the winning side of things. It just feels great seeing everybody smile, seeing the fans get into it and obviously things are starting to turn.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Mavericks will have five full days until Friday\u2019s game against the Brooklyn Nets, a stretch that provides the team to rest. Washington knows exactly how he plans to take advantage of the break.<\/p>\n

\u201cSleep. A lot of it.\u201d Washington said. \u201cAnd get healthy. I can\u2019t wait to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Find more Mavericks coverage from <\/b>The Dallas Morning News<\/b> here<\/b><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Mavericks have reached a new level of consistency after claiming victories in four of their last five…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":432212,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,19491,6272,347,2494,1596,3139,6650,1260,62,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-432211","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-american-airlines-center","10":"tag-anthony-davis","11":"tag-article","12":"tag-cooper-flagg","13":"tag-dallas","14":"tag-dallas-mavericks","15":"tag-mavericks","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-texas","19":"tag-tx","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115681380241718354","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}