As crazy as it may seem for a team with Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving to be at risk of missing the play-in, that’s where Dallas currently find themselves.
So as the Mavs take a long hard look in the mirror before attempting to salvage their season, we’ve worked out their various playoff scenarios so you don’t have to.
WHERE THINGS STAND
At 38-42, Dallas sits half a game behind Oklahoma City, who were meant to be tanking this season before their talented young core started ruining the front office’s dreams of tanking their way to a freakish Wemby-Chet combo.
The bad news for the Mavs is the Thunder own the tiebreaker over them, having won two of their three meetings this season (Dallas also needed overtime to get that singular victory over OKC at home).
If the tiebreaker comes into play, Luka’s 8-23 shooting night in that first loss to OKC will really come back to bite Dallas.
WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN FOR DALLAS TO MAKE THE PLAY-IN
Firstly, the Mavericks need the Thunder to lose their regular season finale against Memphis at home on Sunday.
An OKC win would mean the best Dallas can do is tie their record, and that won’t be enough thanks to all that inconvenient tiebreaker business.
But if the Thunder lose, the Mavs are in with a shot. However, Dallas would need to win their two remaining games against the Bulls and Spurs, both at home.
TLDR – Dallas need to get their shit together.
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