Surging Heat set for matchup with fading Mavericks

When the Miami Heat visit the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday, the teams clash while on different trajectories.

On Tuesday, Miami scored its fifth win in six games since returning from the All-Star break on Feb. 23 with a 118-110 victory over the Detroit Pistons.

Jimmy Butler's 26 points led six Heat scorers in double figures, including 18 points each from Bam Adebayo and Duncan Robinson. For Robinson, Tuesday marked his fourth consecutive game scoring in double figures and his eighth outing of at least 12 points in Miami's last nine.

Robinson has started the last five games in place of Tyler Herro, the Heat's 20.8-point per game-scoring guard, who remains sidelined with a foot injury.

"The one thing I will say about Duncan is he puts in a crazy amount of time behind the scenes and player development," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "All of these things he's been working on, we encourage it. The coaches are with him hours on end working on all these moves."

Along with Robinson, Miami is getting key contributions from Caleb Martin. Tuesday's 15-point effort was his third straight double-figure scoring performance and fourth in the last five games.

Coming off the bench in the last four games, Martin is averaging 13.5 points - 3.1 more per game than his season average.

While Miami comes into Dallas 9-2 over its last 11 games since Feb. 6, the Mavericks dropped their third straight and fifth in the last six games on Tuesday in a 137-120 loss at home to the Indiana Pacers.

Luka Doncic recorded his 14th triple-double of the season with 39 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds in the loss. In surrendering 137 points to the Pacers, however, Dallas has allowed an average of 129 points per game over its last six contests.

The high yield is almost 10 points per game more than the Mavericks' mark of of 118.3 allowed per game. The Dallas defense allows the seventh-most points per game in the NBA, compared to Miami's sixth-lowest yield of 109.9 per game.

The Mavericks' recent woes on the defensive end have resulted in a 1-5 record over a stretch in which Doncic has been on fire offensively.

Tuesday's output was his seventh straight with at least 30 points. Over the last six games while the Mavericks have struggled to earn wins, Doncic is averaging 37 points per game - pushing his league-leading season average to 34.6 per game.

"When you look at leaning on Luka offensively, which we do and he delivers, we have to be able to cover him," Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said. "And cover not just Luka, but cover (Kyrie Irving), and the other three that are out there have to protect each other. It's not just one-on-one.

"The players are too good in this league to just play one-on-one," Kidd added. "We have to do, as a group, team defense. We have to guard the ball better. We have to help each other, then we have to finish the play by rebounding."

—Field Level Media