Spencer Dinwiddie has made a career out of being a Swiss Army Knife.
Do a little of this, a little of that, start, come off the bench, be a star, sit as the 15th man.
He’s done it all.
Right now, his job is to help keep the Mavericks’ season alive.
And when you are as short-staffed as the Mavericks, it’s a monumental task. But Dinwiddie and his ever-changing teammates are looking at the upcoming four-game trip that starts Monday at Brooklyn as a chance to retake control of their destiny in terms of making the play-in tournament as one of the top 10 seeds in the Western Conference.
Not that they have the luxury of looking at the big picture.
“We can’t really afford to look ahead,” Dinwiddie said Friday after he had a season-best 31 points and led the Mavericks to a 123-117 victory over a tough Detroit team. “We have to kind of take it a day at a time. Every day is different. We don’t know who’s going to be healthy on any given day. We don’t know if we got eight guys, nine guys. We don’t know what it’s going to be.
“So you take it a day at a time and try to keep the pulse going and wait for reinforcements. It’s all positive signs that way.”
The Mavericks have gone 2-4 in their last six games, which isn’t great, obviously. But it’s been enough to keep them tied with Phoenix at 34-37. The Suns own the tiebreaker, so they are 10th and the Mavericks are 11th. But those two and the Sacramento Kings are packed tightly in the 8-9-10 slots. Two will play beyond game No. 82. One will not.
The question for the Mavericks is what will happen with their health. Anthony Davis, Dereck Lively II and Daniel Gafford all had workouts with the Texas Legends on Friday. The promise of a better defensive team and getting some chemistry started for next season would be the impetus for getting one or more of those players back for some of the final 11 games of the regular season.
“This is all we got, and I feel like this is all we need, no matter who’s on the floor,” said P.J. Washington. “I just try to encourage my teammates and put confidence in them.”
Said Dinwiddie about the prospects of help on the way: “Especially A.D., but not just A.D. and Gaff, Live – with those guys, we become a force defensively. And (with) P.J. sliding down to the three (small forward spot), we become a really big defensive lineup.
“It’s trying to keep the heartbeat going and obviously waiting for the big dogs to get back. That’s all we’re trying to do right now. Stay in striking distance. You get a top-75 guy back. Who knows what could happen?”
In the meantime, Dinwiddie needs to simply do what he’s always done – whatever is needed.
In his past six games, Dinwiddie has averaged 21.3 points, 6.3 assists and 4 rebounds per game. He’s shot 39.5 percent from three-point range. Those are all-star-caliber numbers. He’s also played at least 35 minutes in all six of those games.
In fact, Dinwiddie’s played every Mavericks’ game since Nov. 22. He missed two early in the season because of coach’s decision. But any notion that Dinwiddie is prone to injury is off-base.
He has missed precious few games in the last four seasons and the ones he missed in 2021-22 were in back-to-back situations when he medically was not cleared to play two games in a row after returning from knee surgery.
This year, he’s on track to play perhaps 80 games if he doesn’t miss any down the stretch.
That said, if he got a day off because some of the Mavericks’ injured players returned, Dinwiddie probably wouldn’t complain. But he’s not expecting it. And neither are the Mavericks, who now have no choice but to lean heavily on Dinwiddie.
“We’ve been asking him to do that (run the team) since the injuries,” coach Jason Kidd said. “Him just being able to find guys and set the table has helped him be able to score.”
Again, whatever is needed.
Here’s our other takeaways from the win over Detroit:
Ups, downs for Washington: The Mavericks would not have won Friday’s game without the 27 points and four blocked shots. It was his third consecutive 25-point-plus game, the first time he’s strung three such games together in his career. But the Mavericks also had to survive the forward’s nine turnovers (out of 20 for the Mavericks as a team). “I’m kind of pissed off at myself because these nine turnovers, that’s terrible,” Washington said. “I got to be better. I just wanted to let you know that.”
Strong numbers: Naji Marshall had his sixth double-double of the season with 19 points and 12 rebounds. In his first four seasons with New Orleans, he had a total of four double-doubles . . . Washington had a three-pointer to start the game and that pushed him over the 5,000-point mark for his career. He joined a rare group that has amassed 5,000 points, 2,000 rebounds, 850 assists, 500 three-pointers, 350 steals and 350 blocks before reaching 400 games played. The others: Dirk Nowitzki, Vince Carter, Kevin Durant and Paul Pierce.
X: @ESefko
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