Dennis Smith Jr. missed the last five games before Christmas to rest his sprained right wrist.

He missed 10 games in all because of the injury, coming back to play a handful of times, but aggravating the problem was something that happened too often for his liking.

The starting point guard believes he's close to returning to action, and that he "for sure" will be in uniform before 2018 is history.

"I'm making great progress," Smith said after the final pre-Christmas game Sunday in Portland. "I'm getting better with everything, and it's feeling better every day. It'll be soon, I can tell you that, for sure."

The problem for Smith is that he has fallen on the wrist a couple of times and that makes matters worse. He also had trouble shooting from 3-point range with the pain in the wrist.

He originally suffered the injury Nov. 19 at Memphis.

One sure thing is that the Mavericks have struggled without him. They are 4-6 in games that he's missed because of the wrist.

They are fighting through a six-game losing streak, tying the longest skid of the season, which they had when they fell to 2-7 in October.

"I have no update on Dennis," coach Rick Carlisle said before the two-day Christmas break. "He's doing consistently better and hasn't had setbacks is what I can tell you."

Smith has been getting daily therapy on the wrist, but a big part of the recovery is simply waiting.

"We got some time now before our next game," Smith said. "I'll use those days to make sure I'm ready to play as soon as possible. I'll continue my rehab and workouts and I'm looking forward to being back out there as soon as possible. I'm tired of sitting out."

Staying alive: The Mavericks spent the Christmas break enjoying family and friends and trying not to reflect too much on their six-game losing streak.

This time, by the way, is a little different than the long skid they had in October.

Unlike then when the Mavericks were losing to some of the worst teams in the league, they have been playing mostly high-level competition during this losing streak.

"There's a lot of positives, but there's nothing to show for it in terms of wins," Carlisle said. "It's a case of the Western Conference almost-invisible margin for error. We'll just keep banging away."

The final game before Christmas featured not only Luka Doncic's incredible overtime-forcing buzzer beater, but a lot of guts on behalf of all the Mavericks, Carlisle said.

"It took a lot of resolve to hang in there when you get down 14, the second night of a back-to-back, getaway game and all that stuff," Carlisle said. "This team's playing with a lot of heart. We just got to stick with it. Getting to overtime was great, and then we had a bit of sluggish start that got us behind it a little."

The Mavericks have fallen two games under .500 at 15-17 with consecutive games against New Orleans on Wednesday and Friday nights. After that they play a home-and-home against Oklahoma City in what is one of the quirkier stretches of the schedule.

Briefly: They say it's a privilege to play on Christmas Day because it means you are thought of as a marquee-level team by the league. The Mavericks have not played on Dec. 25 since 2011, which was opening day in that season after a lockout interrupted the league's operation. The Mavericks had won the championship the previous season. With Luka Doncic's profile growing, the streak of non-Christmas Day games could be ending in 2019. ... The Mavericks players were allowed to work out on their own during the last two days, but there was no mandatory team practice. ... They will regroup for a walk-through before the first of the two games against the Pelicans.