Mavs Playoff Outlook: Dallas Wins Two In A Row To Stay In Hunt For West's Final Playoff Spots
By: Josh Clark
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DALLAS (105.3 The Fan) - The Mavericks are locked in a tight race for the West's final four playoff spots. With 7 games left to play, let's take a look at the teams Dallas is up against, and the schedules each team faces to finish out the regular season.
MEMPHIS (41-34): 5TH PLACE: 7 games remaining, .500+ 5, 3 Home, 4 Away (none)
PORTLAND (39-36): 2.0 gb: 6TH PLACE: 7 games remaining, .500+ 4, 5 Home, 2 Away (none)
HOUSTON (37-38) 4.0 gb: 7TH PLACE: 7 games remaining: .500+ 2, 5 Home, 2 Away (Against each other: @DAL)
UTAH (37-38) 4.0 gb: 8TH PLACE: 7 games remaining, .500+ 2, 4 Home, 3 Away (Against each other: DAL)
DALLAS (37-38) 4.0 gb: 9TH PLACE: 7 games remaining, .500+ 4, 3 Home, 4 Away (Against each other: HOU, @UTAH)
How they fared over the last 8 days:
Memphis (0-3), Portland (3-1), Houston (2-2), Utah (3-2), Dallas (2-3).
How far can they move up: Thanks to J.J. Barea and Wesley Matthews, Dallas stayed alive in the hunt for one of the west's final playoff spots. Dallas gutted out a two-point win at home against the New York Knicks minus Kristaps Porzingis. Dallas has their own injury problems, of course, as they playing without two of their key players in Chandler Parsons and Deron Williams.
Today, Dallas wakes up in a three-way tie for the 7th spot in the western conference. With 7 games to go, Dallas desperately needs to win their next two road games (DET, MINN) as they have a grueling task against five of the west's playoff slotted teams (HOU, MEM, @LAC, @UTAH, SAS) in the final games of the season.
The saving grace on the Mavericks' schedule is that they still have a game remaining against both Houston and Utah. Both of the matchups will surely be deciding factors in who makes the playoffs and who goes for the less than 2% chance of landing a top three pick in the lottery.
Mavericks Prediction: 9th seed (last week: 8th seed)
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