Mavs Predicted to Miss Playoffs Despite Kyrie Irving Trade?

As All-Star Weekend has come and gone, the NBA postseason is right around the corner. The Dallas Mavericks hope their new-look roster with two superstars is ready for another long playoff run.

With 22 games remaining in the regular season, the Mavericks hold a 31-29 record as they sit as the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference.

But, as we've seen throughout the year, the playoff standings in the West can change every single night.

Dallas sits just 2.5 games behind the Sacramento Kings for the No. 3 seed, but they're also just two games ahead of the 12th place Portland Trail Blazers, who would miss the postseason and the play-in tournament altogether if the season ended today.

Can the duo of Luka Doncic and new star running mate Kyrie Irving hold onto their playoff spot? Surprisingly, Bleacher Report doesn’t believe so.

In B/R's bold predictions for the remainder of the regular season, they predicted that the Mavs will end up missing the postseason.

"Dallas isn't going to have any problems generating offense with Dončić and Irving, and one can cover for the other if minor injuries pop up. That being said, the Mavericks needed to make a counter move at the deadline, perhaps a rim protector or another big-bodied wing to take the place of Finney-Smith.

Dallas sits just two games above .500 at 31-29 overall, hanging on to the sixth seed by a half game over the New Orleans Pelicans. In total, there are six teams two games or under behind the Mavericks, with the new-look Los Angeles Lakers sitting three-and-a-half games back.

If the Mavs have a bad week, they could easily go from No. 6 to No. 12 in no time."

Once you get past the headline, it's a fair assessment: Dallas' offense looks unstoppable with the acquisition of Irving, but their defense looks to be incapable of getting stops.

But, the same can be said for any team between 3-13 in the Western standings. Have a few bad games? You'll drop several spots. Win a handful in a row? You jump from the play-in into home-court advantage.

Making such a prediction when Doncic and Irving have only played two games together is risky, but we supposed that’s why B/R labeled it as a “bold prediction.”

Every game matters from here on out for the Mavericks, and if a playoff spot is on the line in the final few days of the regular season, we’ll put our money on Doncic and Irving finding a way to push their team through.

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