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3 things Mavs must accomplish before NBA Playoffs
3 things Mavs must accomplish before NBA Playoffs

Porzingis and Curry Lead Mavs to Bounce-Back Win in Minnesota Without Luka

Luka Doncic was out with a thumb injury, but Kristaps Porzingis and Seth Curry held down the fort, pouring in 65 points combined as the Dallas Mavericks got back in the win column in blowout fashion.

If there's one thing we've learned this season, it's that the Dallas Mavericks (37-24) don't stay down long. After enduring a tough loss in Miami on Friday night, the Mavs bounced back in a big way against the Minnesota Timberwolves (17-42) with a 111-91 blowout win on the road, despite Luka Doncic taking the night off to let his thumb heal.

Kristaps Porzingis and Seth Curry carried the Mavs by scoring 65 points combined. Porzingis tied his season-high with 38 points on 13-of-25 from the field (6-of-14 from deep), while also recording 13 rebounds, four assist and five blocks in 37 minutes. 

''The 38 points tells about a quarter of the story of what he did in this game,'' Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said. ''Defensively, he was phenomenal. Changing shots, blocking shots, rebounding the ball, deflecting, saving balls. It was a defensive clinic.''

Curry continued his hot streak by putting in 27 points on 11-of-17 shooting (3-of-7 from deep) with four assists.

Tim Hardaway Jr. was the third source of offense for the Mavs in this one, scoring 19 points and being a team-high plus-37 for the game. D'Angelo Russell was one of the few bright spots for Minnesota, putting up 16 points, nine rebounds, and seven assists.

With the win, the Mavs guaranteed themselves a winning record on the road this season. Dallas' road record currently sits at 21-10 with 10 road games remaining. The Mavs' 'road warrior' mentality has been an amazing thing to watch this season. Dallas has the third most road wins in the entire league this season, with only the Los Angeles Lakers and Milwaukee Bucks ahead of them. As hard as it is to win on the road in the playoffs, this would seem to be a great sign for the Mavs as the postseason inches closer.

Speaking of the playoffs, the Mavs could realistically finish anywhere between the 2-seed and the 7-seed at this point. With just 20 games remaining in the regular season, the Mavs, who currently occupy the 7-seed, are just a half-game back of the Oklahoma City Thunder for the 6-seed, one game back of the Utah Jazz for the 5-seed, three games back of the Houston Rockets for the 4-seed, and four games back of the Los Angeles Clippers and Denver Nuggets for the 3-seed and 2-seed, respectively. 

That's not very much ground to make up at all, especially when you consider that Dallas still has head-to-head matchups (two against Houston) against all those teams listed. If the Mavs can keep Doncic healthy and take care of business, they could be sitting pretty come mid-April.

The Mavs, now 2-1 on their current road trip, will look to finish the trip on a high note against the Chicago Bulls (20-40) on Monday night. Dallas is expected to reunite with big man Willie Cauley-Stein in Chicago, who has missed the last four games due to personal reasons. The timing couldn't be better for Mavs, as we don't expect to see Porzingis play on the second night of a back-to-back after logging 37 minutes in Minnesota.