The NBA scheduling gods definitely aren’t sending any love to the Dallas Mavericks to kick off their 2026-27 season. Their first six opponents? They stacked up a combined 292-200 record last year. Talk about a brutal gauntlet right out of the gate. This ain’t no warm-up act, folks, it’s a full-on test right away.
The Toughest Opening Stretch in the League?
Seriously, look at this lineup. Dallas gets hit with the Rockets (52-30) not once, but *twice*. Then they face the NBA finalist San Antonio Spurs, who came in with a monstrous 62-20 record. And just when you think it can’t get worse, they also draw the Oklahoma City Thunder (64-18), the only team in the entire Western Conference that had a better record than those Spurs. That’s three legitimate contenders, one an NBA finalist, in their first six games.
But wait, there’s more. The Indiana Pacers, while sporting a losing record of 19-63 last year, are a massive wild card. They are pegged as the team with the biggest turnaround potential this year. Why? Tyrese Halliburton is finally back to health after tearing his Achilles in the 2025 NBA Finals. Plus, they snagged Ivica Zubac and Kelly Oubre Jr. That’s a lineup that could easily put Indiana right back in the Eastern Conference mix. And then there are the Miami Heat. After a 43-39 run last year, they made the biggest splash of the entire 2026 offseason, landing none other than Giannis Antetokounmpo. You read that right. Giannis is now chilling in South Beach, leading a completely remade roster that also includes Bam Adebayo, Davion Mitchell, and two former Mavericks, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Klay Thompson. That game alone is going to be an absolute must-watch, lumped right in with all these other absolute killers.
Echoes of Last Season and a Questionable Future
The Mavs have gotta be feeling the pressure because last season’s start was a nightmare they desperately want to forget. They kicked off 2025-26 with a shaky 2-4 record. It didn’t get better; that sour stretch spiraled to 3-8, leading to then-General Manager Nico Harrison getting fired. They kept losing, hitting a miserable 3-10 after falling to the Phoenix Suns and Los Angeles Clippers. After that horrendous 3-10 start, they only managed a 23-46 record the rest of the way.
It’s not hard to picture a similar start this year, especially with this schedule. A 2-4 start? Easy. Maybe even 1-5. And yeah, another 3-8 start is absolutely on the table. If this team wants to make any kind of real jump this year, they’re going to have to play close to .500 basketball after this brutal stretch. But is that a fair ask from a team with a “cobbled-together” roster, led by a first-year coach who came straight from college? Team president Masai Ujiri’s first offseason definitely saw a “youth movement,” but the roster still feels like it’s got “one foot stuck in a previous iteration.” They’re hoping Cooper Flagg’s second-year maturation, along with a healthy Kyrie Irving, can actually lift them from last year’s abysmal run.
It’s going to be a wild ride for Dallas, and this opening stretch could define their entire season before we even hit Thanksgiving. What they need to do is somehow survive this gauntlet and give fans something to believe in, or it could be a long, long year.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Mavs Moneyball.
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