1987–88 Dallas Mavericks season


The 1987–88 Dallas Mavericks season was the eighth season for the Dallas Mavericks in the National Basketball Association. After the resignation of Dick Motta, the Mavericks hired John MacLeod as their new head coach.
Under MacLeod, the Mavericks got off to an 18–8 start to the regular season, then posted a 7-game winning streak in January, and held a 28–15 record at the All-Star break. The team then posted an 11-game winning streak between February and March, and finished in second place in the Midwest Division with a 53–29 record, earning the third seed in the Western Conference.
Mark Aguirre averaged 25.1 points, 5.6 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game, while Rolando Blackman averaged 18.7 points and 3.7 assists per game, and Derek Harper provided the team with 17.0 points, 7.7 assists and 2.0 steals per game. In addition, Sam Perkins contributed 14.2 points and 8.0 rebounds per game, while second-year forward Roy Tarpley provided with 13.5 points and 11.8 rebounds per game off the bench, and was named the NBA Sixth Man of the Year, and James Donaldson averaged 7.0 points, 9.3 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game. Also off the bench, Detlef Schrempf contributed 8.5 points and 3.4 rebounds per game, and Brad Davis provided with 7.2 points and 4.0 assists per game.
During the NBA All-Star weekend at the Chicago Stadium in Chicago, Illinois, Aguirre and Donaldson were both selected for the 1988 NBA All-Star Game, as members of the Western Conference All-Star team; it was Donaldson's first and only All-Star appearance. Meanwhile, Schrempf participated in the NBA Three-Point Shootout for the second consecutive year, despite only making 5 out of 32 three-point field-goal attempts, while shooting.156 in three-point field-goal percentage during the regular season.
Aguirre finished tied in 14th place in Most Valuable Player voting, while Perkins finished tied in eighth place in Defensive Player of the Year voting, and Tarpley finished tied in eighth place in Most Improved Player voting.
In the Western Conference First Round of the 1988 NBA playoffs, the Mavericks defeated the Houston Rockets in four games, and then defeated the 2nd-seeded Denver Nuggets in six games in the Western Conference Semi-finals. The Mavericks made their first appearance in the Western Conference Finals, where they lost to the defending NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers in a hard-fought seven-game series. The Lakers would defeat the Detroit Pistons in seven games in the 1988 NBA Finals, winning their second consecutive NBA championship.

NBA draft

RoundPickPlayerPositionNationalityCollege
120Jim FarmerGuardUnited States

Awards and honors

Week/Month

All-Star

  • Mark Aguirre was selected as a reserve for the Western Conference in the All-Star Game. It was his third All-Star selection. Aguirre finished seventh in voting among Western Conference forwards with 347,357 votes.
  • James Donaldson was selected as a reserve for the Western Conference in the All-Star Game. It was his first and only All-Star selection. Donaldson finished fourth in voting among Western Conference centers with 310,100 votes.
  • Detlef Schrempf was selected to compete in the Three-Point Shootout. Schrempf was eliminated in the second round.

Season