The Dallas Mavericks reached the NBA Finals last season when Luka Doncic carried an otherwise average team through the treacherous Western Conference waters.
This season, the Mavericks traded the generational star to the Los Angeles Lakers and the franchise sank for most of the second half of the season before landing the final play-in spot in the West.
No. 10 seed Dallas (39-43) now looks to take advantage of the life raft when it visits the No. 9 seed Sacramento Kings in Wednesday night’s do-or-die contest.
The season is over for the loser. The winner advances to play the loser of Tuesday’s contest between the No. 7 Golden State Warriors and No. 8 Memphis Grizzlies for a berth in the playoffs.
“We’re two wins away from getting to the next step of our journey,” Sacramento interim coach Doug Christie said.
The Kings (40-42) swept the three-game series from Dallas in the regular season, winning by 10, 1 and 24 points. Only the first matchup was in the rabid atmosphere of Sacramento.
“That place is really hard to win in a playoff atmosphere, so we’re looking forward to that challenge,” Dallas guard Max Christie said. “I think if we can get past that game, then that’ll help us hopefully get into the playoffs.”
The 122-98 loss to the Kings on March 3 was extra painful for the Mavericks. That was the night standout guard Kyrie Irving sustained a season-ending ACL tear in his left knee.
Irving’s injury came during a stretch in which Dallas lost nine of 10 games. Then despite losing four of their final five regular-season games, the Mavericks gained the last play-in spot as the Phoenix Suns collapsed down the stretch.
The Mavericks acquired standout Anthony Davis in the Doncic deal, but he has played in just nine games due to injuries. A threadbare roster remained and made it beyond challenging for Dallas to win games.
“It’s just a series of obstacles and adversities that we dealt with throughout the season,” Mavericks big man Daniel Gafford said. “There’s a lot of mental frustrations, a lot of emotions with a lot of stuff that went on throughout the team injury-wise, and I feel like the way we handled it is the way any other team would have. Just come out, keep doing the same thing that we do on a day-to-day basis.”
Dallas veteran Klay Thompson was on the Golden State team that lost to the Kings last season in the play-in round and he doesn’t need to be reminded what his stat line looked like.
Thompson missed all 10 shots and went scoreless in 32 minutes of the 118-94 loss in what was his final game with the Warriors.
He said his approach won’t change.
“Like I would approach any other postseason game — give it your undivided attention and ultimate effort and live with the results,” Thompson said.
Sacramento had its own upheaval as Mike Brown was fired as coach 31 games into the season. Later, star point guard De’Aaron Fox was traded to the San Antonio Spurs in a three-team deal that sent Zach LaVine from the Chicago Bulls to the Kings.
But Sacramento does have a potent threesome in star big man Domantas Sabonis, forward DeMar DeRozan and LaVine. Plus, the Kings won four of their past six games.
“I feel like we are playing our best basketball over the past six or seven games,” Sabonis said. “We have to use that momentum into the play-in.”
Sacramento also has burly big man Jonas Valanciunas and that is no small footnote. The Lithuanian has played in more play-in games (eight) than any other NBA player and holds the record of 23 rebounds in a game. This will be his sixth straight season in the play-in round.
“Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I’d rather be a 6 seed,” Valanciunas said. “It is what it is. Now we’ve got to fight and win the games.”
