The Mavericks wrapped up their 2020-2021 regular season with an uninspiring 136-121 loss at the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday night. Dallas allowed the young Wolves to shoot over 40% from beyond the arc and over 50% overall for the game and were never even close in the second half. On the plus side, the Mavericks’ loss didn’t cause them to fall in the standings and no one on their team played over 28 minutes.

Now to the more important stuff.

Dallas finishes the regular season 42-30 and in a three-way tie for fifth place in the Western Conference standings with the Portland Trail Blazers and Los Angeles Lakers. Thanks to the Mavericks winning the Southwest Division for the first time since the 2009-2010 season, Dallas won the tiebreaker with Portland/LA and find itself alone in fifth place. Portland finishes sixth thanks to their 2-1 season series win over the Lakers. The defending champions are the seventh seed and playing in the play-in tournament starting this Wednesday at 9 PM against Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors.

For the Mavericks. they’ll now get to face the Los Angeles Clippers for the second consecutive postseason after LA lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday night in a matchup of teams doing every they could to put the worse version of their team out on the court. The Clippers of course beat the Mavericks in six games in the bubble last August in what was an interesting/entertaining series that contained one of the most memorable moments in Mavericks franchise history.

While most fans probably wanted to take on the Nuggets without Jamal Murray, a rematch with the Clippers is certainly juicier.

Kawhi/Paul George.

Marcus Morris.

RAJON RONDO?!

So many villains ready to be booed at the first NBA playoff game at the American Airlines Center whenever it happens sometime next week. As of publishing, the series schedule is not yet available. Keep checking with Dallas Sports Fanatic for coverage of the Mavs/Clippers playoff series.