Jalen Brunson provides update on the Mavericks current vibe status

The Dallas Mavericks are currently crushing it.

They’re on a six-game winning streak. Josh Green, who takes constant criticism from Mavs fans (myself included), has scored career-highs in back-to-back games and looked like a competent NBA player. The Mavs’ defense is absolutely rocking. The Mavs beat the No. 1 seed in the East by 14 points in their last game. They beat the Golden State Warriors by 17 points a few days before that. Dirk Nowitzki just got his jersey retired in front of a raucous crowd. From my perspective, the vibes around the Dallas Mavericks are awesome right now. But I’m not the vibe guru.

After the Mavs’ win over the Bulls, I asked Jalen Brunson how he would describe the vibes right now.

“They’re immaculate right now,” Brunson told me with what looked like a smile under his mask. “I think they’re very immaculate.”

We love when JB says the vibes are immaculate. As Mavs fans, we eat that right up. It’s great. But after Jalen gave his trademarked answer, he then took a different approach and told me why he thinks the vibes are so immaculate.

“I’m gonna change it up and go a little serious on this one,” Brunson said. “I think they’re so immaculate because we’re not even worrying about career-highs. We’re not worrying about jersey retirements. We’re not worrying about beating whatever number team that they are in the league. We’re treating every game the same. I think that’s why this squad has been so special. We just gotta keep it going. Like I said, we’re locked in right now and we’re gonna try to keep this going as long as possible.”

Jalen deserves a round of applause for that answer because he’s dead-on. We’re used to this Mavericks team playing to the level of their opponent. It feels like they never used to blow out bad teams. They used to let them hang around. That hasn’t been the case these last few games. On January 7, they crushed the Rockets by 24 points. A few games before that, they beat the Thunder by nine and the Kings by 16.

This team is trending in the right direction. They’re putting their foot on the gas pedal when it’s needed and they aren’t letting up. They just need to keep this same mindset going as they start to get healthier as a roster. When Kristaps Porzingis comes back and Luka Doncic is fully healthy, this team can’t regress to the team that waltzed through each game like it didn’t really matter. They have to keep trying to dominate the opposing teams. That’s the type of mentality that will lead to this team taking a leap whether the Mavs are active at the trade deadline or not.

It’s great to see a spark being lit under this Mavs team. Some teams peak early. Some teams peak late. Ideally, you want your team to be a steady presence at the top from start to finish, but with a team led by youngsters, that isn’t always going to be the case. Hopefully this is a step in the right direction for this Mavs team. Regardless, at least the vibes are immaculate right now.