03-12-2026, 10:24 AM
(03-12-2026, 09:52 AM)DanSchwartzgan Wrote: How do you feel if Dallas wins tonight. That feels fairly likely and makes everything more difficult from here on out. Dallas is much better positioned to ‘accidentally’ win random games down the stretch. I’m really pleased NOP passed us. I see no world in which we catch Utah and see Memphis passing us as a real possibility…especially if we screw the pooch tonight.
I'm not sure why a Mavs win tonight feels "fairly likely." The Mavs have been awful. MEM players will be playing at home, so an opportunity they can play better (remember that players don't play to tank). We'll see what happens, but I'm not jumping on the "we are sure to fail" bandwagon. The Mavs do have a reason to lose just as much as MEM and UT.
That also applies to the rest of the games. If you simply compare the W/L records each game, both MEM and UT have games left to play that they "should" win. Playing against hard tanking teams jostling for the difference between seed 1 and 4 is going to be a very hard game to lose. Meanwhile, every remaining game for DAL will be against teams with a better record than them, with many of them against very good teams trying to nail down a better playoff seed.