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#4 8th Seed
Dallas Mavericks
Currently: tied with Houston for 7th place, losing the tiebreaker.
I predict the Mavs, the team everyone was predicting wouldn’t make it back to the playoffs after DeAndre Jordan spurned them to go back to the Los Angeles Clippers. But behind the warlock Rick Carlisle and the never aging Dirk Nowitzki, the Mavs have fought tough to stay in the playoff picture even as their schedule got tougher down the stretch and they seemed in peril of dropping out.
No where was this mind set more evident than Sunday night when the Mavs held off the Portland Trail Blazers in an entertaining 132-120 overtime win. Dirk reached into the bag of tricks and helped the Mavs pull out a much needed win.
Through these last 12 games, the schedule softens ever so slightly and I expect them to take care of business as needed to ensure they make it back to the playoffs. They are going to face six current playoff teams, in addition to one vs the Jazz, but luckily the only game against those teams that serve as a back to back is against the Jazz and Clippers in the last week.
It would shock me if they fell out of the playoffs, but I always bet on the veteran teams come this time of the season.
Guess the Lakers players!
