NBA Predictions: Latest Odds Hint at Mavs vs. Suns Playoff Rematch?

If you enjoyed Sunday’s fireworks between the Dallas Mavericks and the Phoenix Suns, you’ll love FiveThirtyEight’s latest NBA playoff projections.

The Dallas Mavericks are just 33-32 after losing a close, entertaining battle to Kevin Durant and the Phoenix Suns on Sunday. Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving and the new-look Mavs have now lost six of their last eight games with 17 games remaining.

Despite all those losses looking bad on the surface, though, there's a beam of hope shining through, as Doncic and Irving's chemistry continues to grow with the Mavs' schedule lightening up for the final stretch of the season.

All of the Mavs' last nine losses have been by single digits, and five of them have been one-possession losses -- meaning the team still has to figure out how to close games. That can be easier said than done when the dynamic of your team has changed so dramatically in the last month. Now, instead of just having one superstar, the Mavs have two for coach Jason Kidd to work with.

During the the three losses on this current homestand, the Mavs blew a 27-point lead in a three-point loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, missed on six opportunities to tie or take the lead in the final minutes of a two-point loss to the Indiana Pacers, and missed a game-tying, chip-shot floater in the final seconds of what ended up being a four-point loss to the Suns -- with Doncic having an uncharacteristic 8-23 shooting night.

Long story short: the Mavs' inability to close games has been annoying for the fan base to endure, but the team is closer than people might realize. Former coach Rick Carlisle recently stated his confidence in Dallas despite its recent skid, saying that he expects his former team to go on a big run to end this season.

Apparently, the people at FiveThirtyEight agree with Carlisle, as they currently have the Mavs predicted to finish as the fifth-seed in the West with a 43-39 record and an 82-percent chance of making the playoffs. That would mean Dallas would have to go 10-7 over its remaining 17 games, which seems like a conservative prediction based on the level of competition down the stretch.

FiveThirtyEight also has the Suns finished as the fourth-seed in the West with a 46-36 record, which means we'd get a seven-game series featuring the offensive fireworks we witnessed at American Airlines Center on Sunday.

Given how the Mavs upset the Suns in the Western Conference Semifinals last year, a postseason rematch between the two bitter rivals -- especially now that Irving and Durant are involved -- would be must-see television. Although both teams would rather see each other later in the postseason and not in the first round, the West has had a lot of parity this year, so a Western Conference Finals-caliber first-round series might be what we end up with when the dust settles.

“You see it from afar. It’s definitely different obviously being out here," Irving said of his first taste of the Mavs-Suns rivalry on Sunday. "The level of play rises. Emotions rise. I think we see everyone display that on their facial expressions or communicating with the refs, going back-and-forth.

"It’s a great rivalry to be a part of, but the big picture is to win the game and we failed at that today. We got to get back to the drawing board.”

Follow Dalton Trigg on Twitter.

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