Despite a great start into this year's NBA campaign, the Mavs experienced some unexpected problems over the past four weeks. Trying to pull their act together, the Dallas Mavericks will head to Oakland to take on Monta Ellis and the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday at 3:30 a.m. GMT.

While the Mavs might not be overly content with their performance as of late, the Warriors have a completely different situation to deal with. Being at the bottom of the Western Conference with a disappointing 13-35 record, it looks like Golden State is about to miss the playoffs for the fifteenth time in the last sixteen years. Much like in the past, the Warriors showed significant defensive shortcomings which prevented them from winning numerous games despite solid efforts at the other end of the floor. In fact, Golden State is the worst defensive team in the league and allowed their opponents to score a whopping 112 points per game. One of the few positive aspects in 2009-10 has been the development of guard Monta Ellis who has been averaging 26.5 points, 5.4 assists, 4.2 rebounds and 2.2 steals per contest.

In contrast, Dallas still leads the Southwest Division, two games ahead of the San Antonio Spurs with a decent 31-18 record. That said, the Mavs have been struggling in January and won just five of their last ten games. Albeit the Mavericks seem to be bound for another post-season appearance, trade rumors continue to surround the franchise from Northern Texas. Especially the expiring contracts of Josh Howard, Drew Gooden and Erick Dampier are valuable trade chips and could very well be involved in a deal until the trade deadline on February 18^th. One issue in the Mavs' recent struggles has been their inability to consistently perform on the defensive end and their lack of consistency throughout the entire 48 minutes. Nonetheless, Dallas will evidently enter their encounter with the Warriors as favorites to come away with a victory in Oakland. Ultimately, Golden State does neither have the individual talent nor teamplay necessary to compete with the Mavericks down the stretch.

You can watch all games of the Dallas Mavericks and Golden State Warriors right here on www.watchlivenba.com, the home of NBA live streaming.