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Kyrie Irving stans may not love to hear this, but there’s no question that your Los Angeles Lakers made a better trade in adding D'Angelo Russell, Malik Beasley and Jarred Vanderbilt as part of its three-team deal to get Russell Westbrook's egregious contract out of town, when it was unable to deal for the mercurial All-Star, now stumbling down the 2022-23 NBA season’s home stretch with the Dallas Mavericks.

Dallas, the Oklahoma City Thunder and LA all sport an identical 34-35 record. Due to tiebreakers, the Thunder are currently the West’s eighth seed, Dallas is ninth, having gone 7-9 since acquiring Irving from the Brooklyn Nets., and the Lakers are 10th. The Mavericks' wing defense without Spencer Dinwiddie or Dorian Finney-Smith has completely fallen apart, given Irving's lack of interest on that end of the floor.

A lot can change in the West tonight, as several play-in caliber clubs are active. In addition to LA's very winnable game against the 16-52 Rockets, the seventh-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves are facing off against the Boston Celtics, who unfortunately seem beatable with a 5-5 record in their last 10 games. The Mavericks are playing the lowly San Antonio Spurs, but will be doing so without their two best scorers in Irving and fellow backcourt All-Star Luka Doncic. The fifth-seeded Golden State Warriors will square off against the sixth-seeded Los Angeles Clippers. Both clubs sport identical 36-33 records so either way, someone will gain a bit more distance away from the play-in field.

Should both of the Lakers and Mavericks beat their tanking opponents tonight, LA will become the West's ninth seed, lapping the inactive Thunder. An LA win and a Mavericks loss would vault the Lakers to the West's eighth seed. A loss by the Lakers tonight would keep them in the West's tenth seed, by mere percentage points, over the inactive 33-36 Utah Jazz.

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