The Dallas Mavericks will start their postseason journey on Wednesday night against the Sacramento Kings in the 9/10 game of the Play-In Tournament. The winner goes on to face the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday, while the loser’s season is done. The stakes are high, but the vibes of both teams are low. This game isn’t a great argument for the necessity of the Play-In.
Dallas enters the game 2-6 in its last eight games, losing four of its last five games by a combined 104 points. That’s not ideal. And to make matters worse, GM Nico Harrison and CEO Rick Welts did a secret media session on Tuesday that only increased the negative attention that has been shrouding the team.
Sacramento has won for of its last six games, but that came on the heels of them going 3-11 with losses to the Washington Wizards and Phoenix Suns in that stretch. That led star Zach LaVine to say the vibes weren’t good within the team in late March. They fired their coach before trading away De’Aaron Fox, then traded away Fox anyway.
With all of the turmoil between the two sides, who are people predicting to win?
READ MORE: Mark Cuban fires back at Mavericks’ Nico Harrison after Dirk Nowitzki disrespect
ESPN recently polled 10-11 of its best NBA writers to pick the winners of every Play-In Game, and so far, they’re 2-0 for the majority picking the winners.
Of the 10 writers polled for the Mavericks-Kings matchup, seven went with the hosting Sacramento Kings, leaving just three (Dave McMenamin, Jorge Sedano, and Ohm Youngmisuk) picking the Mavericks. Most betting sites agree, favoring the Kings by around 4.5 points.
Some Mavericks fans would just prefer to get this season over with as quickly as possible. It has been a season from hell between the injuries, the Luka Doncic trade, the disparaging comments from the front office, and a franchise that clearly doesn’t care about the fans anymore. Those fans may get their wish on Wednesday night starting around 9 p.m. CST.
READ MORE: Mavericks team governor makes confusing statement about season performance
Stick with MavericksGameday for more FREE coverage of the Dallas Mavericks throughout the 2024-25 Season
Follow MavericksGameday on Twitter and Austin Veazey on Twitter
