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On Wednesday, the NBA officially announced the groups for its 2025-26 in-season tournament, which will be the third straight year the league has put on the event. While the fan reception has been hit or miss so far, this year's tournament figures to have an extra bit of spice thanks to the fact that the Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks are in the same group.
Of course, the Lakers and Mavericks were at the center of the most shocking trade in basketball history several months ago, when Luka Doncic was traded for a package surrounding Anthony Davis, and fans on X, formerly Twitter, were quick to speculate that the NBA's supposed random draw to pick out the play-in tournament groups were actually orchestrated to get this matchup in particular.
“We gotta get used to seeing these Lakers/Mavs matchup now,” wrote one fan, alongside a graphic of a cow featuring Mavericks and Lakers logos being milked by the NBA.
“Lakers Mavericks yeah im sure that was just a coincidence,” added another fan.
“I see you adam silver with that lakers and mavs,” wrote another.
An intriguing matchup
While fans may speculate that the Lakers vs Mavericks matchup was put into place by the NBA, there's no denying that games between those two teams will be can't-miss television for years to come.
It was just over five months ago that the Mavericks shocked the sports world by sending Doncic to the Lakers just as he was entering his prime and less than a year removed from leading Dallas to the NBA Finals.
Fast forward to the present day, and both the Lakers and Mavericks have been looking for ways to retool this offseason–the teams won a combined one (1) playoff game a season ago.
Through two years, the in-season tournament hasn't been a great indicator of what's to come in the postseason, as neither the Lakers (2023's champions) nor the Bucks (2024's champions) won more than one game in their ensuing playoff run.
Still, that probably won't stop NBA fans from turning on the television when the Lakers and Mavericks tip off.
