The Dallas Mavericks play host to the Miami Heat at American Airlines Center on Saturday.

The Heat (18-7) suffered a rare loss in their most recent game, albeit coming at the hands of a dominant Los Angeles Lakers squad. That's a team that not many clubs have beaten this year and it's more indicative of how good the Heat have been with that fixture coming down to the final shot. Prior to that, Miami won six of their previous seven games, battling for a Top-4 seed in the Eastern Conference. The thing that makes this club scary is their depth. While many NBA people know about Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo, players like Kendrick Nunn, Tyler Herro, Goran Dragic and Duncan Robinson have been huge surprises for this team this season. As long as this team can stay healthy, they're likely looking at homecourt advantage in the first round of the playoffs and are definitely a candidate to land an All-Star at the trade deadline with all of these pieces.

The Mavericks (17-7) were expected to be one of the most improved teams in the league this season with Kristaps Porzingis returning from his knee injury but no one could have anticipated them being this good. What makes that even more strange is the fact that Porzingis has struggled at times this season. It's all about Luka Doncic and it's truly horrifying for the rest of the league to see this kid playing the way he is. We're talking about a 20-year-old who's averaging 30.4 points, 9.9 rebounds and 9.3 assists per game. That would be impressive in a rec league or in China but for a 20-year-old to do that in the NBA is truly remarkable. That's why this club is in prime position for a playoff berth and in even better shape for a bright future. The future is now though, with Dallas entering this matchup winning 11 of their last 13 games.

Miami has swept each of the last two season series over Dallas, winning 14 of their last 16 games over them in total.