DALLAS — Considering what they’ve experienced this season, the COVID-19-induced January funk, the stress of being mired in 14th place in the West as recently as Feb. 7, the Mavericks had extra reason to savor this attainment.
And breathe a deep sigh of relief.
There will be no dreaded play-in tournament for the Mavericks. Finally, in Friday night’s next-to-last regular-season game, Dallas firmly planted itself in the Western Conference playoffs with a 114-110 victory over Toronto in American Airlines Center.
The only uncertainties left are whether Dallas (42-29) will retain its current No. 5 seed or be the No. 6 seed — and whether it will play Phoenix, the Clippers or Denver in the first round.
The Mavericks can clinch the fifth seed with a victory in Sunday’s regular-season finale at Minnesota. Or with a Portland loss to Denver on Sunday. Or if Dallas and Portland lose and the Lakers win their two remaining games, creating a three-way tie: In which case the Mavericks would own the tiebreaker by virtue of their Southwest Division title.
Friday’s win was closer than expected, considering the Raptors (27-44) were without seven players, including their top four in number of games started: Pascal Siakam, Fred VanVleet, Kyle Lowry and OG Anunoby.
But Luka Doncic registered his 11th triple-double of the season and 36th of his career (20 points, 11 assists, 10 rebounds). Kristaps Porzingis scored 21 points and Dorian Finney hit two late 3-pointers to hold off the Raptors.
Jalen Brunson chipped in 19 points, 15 of them in the first half, for Dallas.
And, hey, Doncic got through the game without picking up his 16 technical of the season, meaning he won’t face an automatic suspension for Sunday’s finale.
Though Friday’s win was far from dominant, the Mavericks enter the season finale and beyond that the playoffs with considerable momentum.
They have won six of their last seven games; nine of their last 11; 12 of their last 15; and 34 of their last 50. And they’ve done it under duress, knowing that if they didn’t earn a top-six spot that they would be relegated to the play-in tournament.
And in that case, their season could have ended in a matter of two losses.
“Look, it’s great for our league,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said of the play-in tournament and the fact most seedings in the West and East still have not been determined.
“It’s really consumed social media. It’s consumed the internet. The league’s getting amazing attention with how close and competitive it is. Those are all great things. The way I look at it, we’ve all got to embrace the competitiveness of this.
“It does get nerve-wracking for everyone, but these are the moments you really learn to focus and block things out, and that’s how we’re going to have to proceed. You can look at the games on any given night, and you can analyze everything six ways through Sunday about how this affects this and that affects the other and all that. But really, you’ve got to control what you can control.”
The Mavericks controlled what they could on Friday. And now they control their ability to clinch the fifth seed.
