Dallas Mavs Schedule: The Most Brutal Stretch To Start NBA Season?

There is an argument to be made that the Dallas Mavs have the toughest start to the regular season of any team in the NBA.

Just what a team with a bunch of uncertainty needs.

The season tips off Wednesday with a trip to Houston. This is a Rockets team coming off a 52-30 record and fifth place finish in the West last season.

Including this game, Dallas will play four of its first eight games on the road. A far cry of a difference from last season where the Mavericks started the year with a six-game homestand before playing their first road game. Funny enough, it was against the Houston Rockets.

Ok so Dallas is on the road a lot to start the year. What does the competition look like?

Oh boy.

After Houston on Wednesday, the Mavs will travel to Indiana to play the Pacers on Friday. A team getting its star back in Tyrese Haliburton who tore his ACL in Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals. He rejoins All-Star teammate Pascal Siakam to bring back one of the 1-2 punches in the league. 

Immediately after Indiana, Dallas has its first home game on the second night of a back-to-back against San Antonio who swept the season series last year.

Welp.

Next, you take a visit to South Beach to play the Heat in the 1st edition of the Klay Thompson bowl. Now if you haven't been paying attention, Miami added a former two-time MVP in Giannis Antetokounmpo to pair with All-Star Bam Adebayo. Add in the aforementioned Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins, Davion Mitchell and Bobby Portis and you might have the best defensive rotation in basketball.

Staying afloat? Good.

For the fifth game of the season, Dallas returns to the AAC to begin a three-game homestand against the Oklahoma City Thunder who have seemingly found gold in the late lottery with Aday Mara. The rich get richer.

Game 6 is the start of NBA Cup Group Play for Dallas. For the first time this season they will play a team they've played already in the Houston Rockets.

Then, you can take a breath. Dallas ends the homestand for a matchup against the Sacramento Kings who are searching for an identity after losing Ben Simmons to a torn Achillies tendon. 

The breath is short lived, because to end the eight-game start to the year, the Mavs find themselves playing the Spurs again, but this time down in San Antonio.

The road for Dallas is treacherous, and we haven't even talked about the league-leading 16 back-to-backs they will pay throughout the season. 

If the Mavericks can find themselves 5-3, heck or even 4-4 coming out of this stretch, then that would be a confidence boost for the rest of the season.

Buckle Up.