Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks' collapse from a playoff team to a lottery-bound squad is definitely one of the ugliest storylines of the 2022-23 season. A new look at how their playoff chances dwindled in just two months make matters even worse.
The Mavs are currently 11th in the West with a 37-42 record, one game behind the Oklahoma City Thunder for the 10th seed and the final Play-In spot. However, with OKC owning the tiebreaker, Dallas will have to win their final three games and hope that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and co. go at least 1-2 in theirs to steal that spot.
If the Mavs go just 2-1 in their remaining games, they will need the Thunder to lose all their upcoming match-ups.
However, the odds are stacked against Doncic and the rest of Dallas. As things currently stand, they only have a six percent chance to make the postseason, per Bleacher Report. They actually had a 96 percent chance to get into the playoffs last February after the Kyrie Irving trade, though as everyone knows, the move hasn't really yielded significant results for the franchise.
The Mavs playoff chances have dropped 90% in less than two months 😳
(h/t: @FiveThirtyEight uncoverednba/TT) pic.twitter.com/Men6LEbggE
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) April 4, 2023
It remains to be seen what will happen with the Mavs, but they don't have to overthink their path to the Play-In. They simply need to win. If the Thunder end up losing at least two games, then good for Dallas. If not, at least the franchise did everything they could do with the chances they have.
It's definitely a horrible turn of events for Luka Doncic and the Mavs, but in the end, they have no one to blame but themselves.
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