Game 25: Houston Rockets (15-5) vs. Dallas Mavericks (8-16)

[Smitty]

Especially in the west.  9/10 is a death sentence.  Same if you lose the 7/8 game.  Will we see a team rest its entire starting lineup in the game for the 8th playoff seed?

One injury to SGA and the whole dynamic changes. With all these injuries in the NBA, it’s silly to worry about ‘what if’ in late April, in December. Control what you can control. The landscape changes drastically all the time.

[Mavs2021]

The incentives are just a mess in the NBA.  They spread out the odds to reduce hard tanking, but now the team that loses the play in has a legit shot at high pick (as Mavs demonstrated) and most teams are probably better off losing.  I'm not really sure what the point of the play in is.  Half the teams were already making the playoffs and at least a third were tanking.  I think its made things worse.

Eh I think people get a bit carried away. These 1.6% odds always happen at the most miraculous moments. Williamson to replace AD, Flagg to replace Luka, Wiggins to help LeBron, Kyrie to make up for LeBron, Rose to play at home. The one outlier is Atlanta, where the draft was so sh*t they could not even be bothered to fix it.

Don´t expect this to repeat. Plus Utah is getting Dybantsa. We all know Utah have planned this one for like 3-4 years. Ainge is not paying him seven million to play highschool basketball to end up in Charlotte.

Don´t think Silver feels obligated to compensate the Mavs more. It´s you want a high pick, get it yourself situation.