A day that could have been a celebration, and much of it was in any case, ended with a huge cloud over the heads of the Mavericks: the last game of the regular season let victory 52 of an extraordinary season (52-30). 63% win rate, above last year (58% in 72 games: 42-30) and all since 2010-11 (57-25), the only ring in the franchise. Since then, six visits to the playoffs and six eliminations in the first round. Not a series surpassed. The seventh, unlike the last two (the first with Luka Doncic) arrives, starting this weekend, with home court advantage. But the Mavs already knew all of this (the field advantage and the excellent balance of wins) before playing a game that, at the end of the good news, left the first sweep (4-0) in one regular season against San Antonio Spurs, hated texan rival. It was a 130-120 against a team that finished (34-48) in a very creditable tenth place in the West and now travels to New Orleans for the play ina place where no one expected Popovich’s men until the last third of the season.
And now, the bad news for the Mavericks.: his victory did not serve to climb to third place in the West because the Warriors did not fail (107-128) in New Orleans. Since the Pelicans were already ninth (and will have home court in the first play in, against the Spurs), shared breaks and played without tension. Willy Hernangómez, starter, finished with 8 points and 9 rebounds against a team shaken by Klay Thompson: 41 points and 7 triples in 31 minutes. The Warriors (53-29) have closed the season with five wins, escaping at full speed from a Mavericks who finished one game away and finally they could not take advantage, although they had the tiebreaker in favor, the loss of Stephen Currywho has not played since March 16.
Basically, Warriors and Mavs wanted to be third because normal cabals send fourth to a Conference semifinal against League Terror, Phoenix Suns (64-18). And in the third, to a first round against some Nuggets without Jamal Murray or Michael Porter Jr (they are still out: there has been no miracle at the end of the year) and with Nikola Jokic at a supreme level… but little accompanied and very tired after a regular season in which he has made a supreme effort to keep out of the play in to those of the rocky. The Warriors start against the Nuggets and would play in the second round against the Grizzlies. The Mavs finish fourth and their road is tough. First Utah Jazz, a team with serious chemistry problems but a lot of talent (led by Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert), a run-down title contender, and then the theoretically intractable Suns. The coconut.
And yet, that there was noa miracle on the last night It wasn’t the worst. Not because, almost at the end of the third quarter, Luka Doncic put his hand to his leg and very quickly asked for the intervention of the doctors. He left and did not return to the game. He left him with 28 points, 8 rebounds, 9 assists and the victory on track. He has a muscle injury in a calf of which there is not much more information at the moment. But it is curious, almost a dark sarcasm: in the penultimate game, Doncic was called for a technique that was the sixteenth and carried a penalty match. They took it away, and he was able to play. A priori great news… which has been bad. Neither the game was ultimately relevant for the victory of the Warriors nor did it hide more glory than an injury at the worst moment. An awkward. Expert Jeff Stotts assures that the average number of days off due to a problem like this is about 17, although it all depends on the degree of the injury, which is still unknown. The first news is not pessimistic, but there is another matter that has come up cross: the first Mavericks-Jazz will be the game that opens the playoffs, on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. Spanish time (noon in Dallas). That reduces recovery time. If the Mavs had played the Sunday night shift, it was basically two more days to spare for the Slovenian … and for the Mavs’ medical team.
Doncic’s twin will have Dallas holding its breath until Saturday. A bad ending to an extraordinary season, the fourth for the point guard and the first with Jason Kidd on the bench. The Jazz arrive, Mitchell and Gobert arrive and the option of the first series won after two consecutive years with losses against the Clippers in the playoff premiere. But now it all depends on a muscle that he made crack almost at the end of the third quarter, before a final quarter in which Jason Kidd was going to rest his starters. A stroke of bad luck in the final moment of his participation in a game that Doncic could not even have played and that ended up being irrelevant because the rest of the results did not accompany it. A calamity. Now, to wait for news, surely until Saturday itself.