The Mavericks certainly would like to be sitting among the top six teams of the Western Conference, assured of a playoff berth.
It’s something that looked plausible when they were 31-26 after winning their first game after the All-Star break.
Just 10 days later, Kyrie Irving went down with a season-ending knee injury and the Mavericks have gone 8-16 since.
Hello, play-in tournament, an instrument for filling the seventh and eighth playoff seeds in each conference. Originally, it was dreamed up by the NBA with a twofold goal.