OKC Thunder: Ranking difficulty of seeding schedules for all 22 teams
14th Mavs: -Cumulative opponent win total: 287
Seeding Game Record: 3-5, locked into seventh seed, will play Clippers. Of all the teams who posted losing records in the bubble, the Mavs benefited from the improvement of chemistry by their two best players and more importantly won games in clutch time.
- Rockets 153 – Mavs 149 (July 31)
- Suns 117 – Mavs 115 (August 2)
- Mavericks 114 – Kings 110 (August 4)
- Clippers 126 – Mavericks 111 (August 6)
- Mavericks 136 – Bucks 132 OT (August 8)
- Mavericks 122 – Jazz 114 (August)
- Blazers 134 – Mavericks 131 (August 11)
- Suns 128 – Mavs 102 (August 13)
Although the Dallas strength of schedule falls on the easier side they have to face a bunch of squads either chasing that play-in seed or teams directly ahead of them.
Undoubtedly the Mavericks want to avoid playing the Clippers in the first round so they’ll be keeping an eye on what happens with the Clippers and Nuggets. As of today, they would play the Clippers in the first round and that’s the last team anyone in the West wants to play first (even more so than the Lakers).
Game 6 is the most important on the Mav’s schedule since a win over Utah could help them move up. They lost the season series against the Jazz already by virtue of losing both contests earlier this season so they need to have a better record than Utah in order to finish ahead of them on the ladder.
Dallas also could be in tough later in their schedule depending on early results of other squads. For example, Game 7 is versus the Blazers who may need that win to secure the play-in seed.