After beating the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday, the Dallas Mavericks will host the Chicago Bulls next in their bid to make the Play-In tournament. Fortunately for Luka Doncic and co., there's some good news for them on that end.
Dallas really needs to win their last two games of the season if they want to steal the 10th seed from the Oklahoma City Thunder. If they lose another match-up, they will need the Thunder to also lose their last three games.
Luckily for Dallas, they might be facing an undermanned Bulls team on Friday. Chicago head coach Billy Donovan hinted as much, noting that they could end up resting Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan and Nikola Vucevic. The team is already secured of a Play-In spot, so there's not much motivation for them to play their remaining regular season games. Beside, they need to be as healthy as possible come the Play-In.
“My feeling would be that Zach, DeMar, Vooch, those guys who have logged a lot of minutes, would sit down with medical to determine the game against Dallas,” Donovan shared, per NBC Sports. “The players will have a say-so in that.
Donovan added that the plan would be to have the trio play against the Detroit Pistons on Sunday to keep them in game shape for the Play-In.
That is definitely the break the Mavs need to improve their chances of overtaking the Thunder for the 10th seed. It remains to be seen what the Bulls will end up doing, though it'll definitely be a huge boost to them if any of Chicago's star trio ends up sitting out.
Whatever the case may be, though, Luka Doncic and the rest of the Mavs will have to be ready to whatever challenge Chicago brings them. Moreover, they can't be too complacent considering their position.
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