The chase for the final Play-In Tournament spot in the Western Conference appears to be a battle between three teams, two of which will make the tournament. The Dallas Mavericks lead the pack, at 37-39, half a game ahead of the Sacramento Kings and 1.5 games ahead of the Phoenix Suns.
When Kyrie Irving went down for the season with a torn ACL on March 3, Dallas looked like the least likely of the trio to ultimately make it. But the Mavericks’ shocking midseason acquisition, Anthony Davis, has returned from the adductor strain that he suffered in his Dallas debut, and the Mavericks are 4-1 with The Brow in the lineup.
When Dallas hosts the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday, it might welcome back another key contributor from a long injury layoff. Center Dereck Lively II, who hasn’t played since sustaining a stress reaction in his right ankle on January 14, has been listed as questionable for the contest. In addition to Davis, the Mavericks already welcomed back center Daniel Gafford, and now both members of the center duo that helped the team reach the NBA Finals last season look to be healthy for the stretch run. A deep run is unlikely, given that Dallas no longer has a playmaker as brilliant as Luka Dončić, but advancing into the main bracket is no longer completely inconceivable.
This season, the second-year pro is averaging 9.1 points and 7.8 rebounds per game while shooting 70.1% from the field, and he has proven himself capable of thriving without Dončić, putting up 11.8 points, 9.5 rebounds, and 2.2 blocks per game in the six full games he played between Dončić’s calf strain on Christmas Day and his own injury. He’ll likely be on a minutes restriction at first and might come off the bench behind Gafford, but he’ll eventually return to the starting lineup once he’s more fully conditioned.
The Hawks have been extremely solid against opposing centers since introducing Onyeka Okongwu to the starting lineup prior to the January 20 game against the New York Knicks, allowing the seventh-fewest rebounds and sixth-fewest second-chance points per game across that span, even if they’ve still allowed the fourth-most points in the paint. Either way, Lively doesn’t have much fantasy viability until his likely minutes restriction is lifted.
