Dallas @ Washington preview

Last Meeting ( Mar 15, 2017 ) Dallas 112, Washington 107

The Washington Wizards bounced back from a high-profile loss with an impressive win despite being without their star player. The Wizards hope to have All-Star point guard John Wall back when they go for back-to-back wins while hosting the struggling Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday.

Wall went down with shoulder injury during a 130-122 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday that featured some trash talking back and forth and sat out Sunday's 107-96 victory at the Toronto Raptors, leaving Bradley Beal to assume the lead role. Beal responded with 38 points and is about to take on a Mavericks' defense that is allowing opponents to shoot 48 percent from the floor - 29th in the NBA. That Dallas defense is a big reason the team owns the worst record in the NBA, but offense isn't lighting up opponents, either. The Mavericks are losers of six in a row and failed to score 100 points in five of those six setbacks.

TV: 7 p.m. ET, FSN Southwest (Dallas), NBCSN Washington

ABOUT THE MAVERICKS (1-10): Dallas had a chance against the only team in the NBA with a worse defensive field-goal percentage on Saturday in the Minnesota Timberwolves but fell behind early and never recovered. "We’ve got to help each other out," rookie point guard Dennis Smith Jr. told reporters after the loss. "Help each other and get open. I really think that’s the main thing. If we can just set screens and help each other get open, it would be a lot easier." Smith recorded just one of Dallas' 18 assists on Saturday and totaled eight assists and 18 turnovers in the last four games.

ABOUT THE WIZARDS (5-4): Beal was going up against an All-Star in Toronto's DeMar DeRozan on Sunday and came away as the best player on the floor after going 16-of-26, including 4-of-6 from beyond the arc. "He's really good," Washington coach Scott Brooks told reporters of Beal. "It's not a fluke. He's one of the best guards in the league. He just scores from so many places on the floor, so it's hard to double-team him. And we move him around in our offense so (opponents) don't get a daily dose of the same thing." Beal is averaging 38 points over the last three games and is shooting 57.1 percent from the floor in that span.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Wizards PF Markieff Morris is 3-of-14 from the floor in two games since returning from surgery to repair a sports hernia.

2. Mavericks PF Dirk Nowitzki, who is sixth all-time in the NBA in scoring (30,376), managed seven points in each of the last two games on a combined 5-of-17 shooting.

3. Dallas took both meetings last season and 13 of the last 14 in the series.

PREDICTION: Wizards 120, Mavericks 102