The Utah Jazz will face the Dallas Mavericks in the first round of the NBA playoffs.
That was decided Sunday night in the final hours of the NBA’s regular season, as the Mavericks ended up with the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference and the Jazz the No. 5 seed.
Dallas got the 4 seed after the Golden State Warriors locked up the 3 seed by beating the New Orleans Pelicans.
With the Mavericks being the higher seed over Utah, the series will open in Dallas on Saturday at 11 a.m. MDT.
The schedule for the rest of the series is forthcoming.
This season, the Jazz and Mavericks split their four-game series, with Utah winning the first two and Dallas the second two.
The first game was on Christmas Day, while the last three occurred in a span of just over a month from Feb. 25-March 27.
That was after the annual NBA trade deadline (Feb. 10), which marked a turning point for the Mavericks as they traded Kristaps Porzingis to the Washington Wizards for Spencer Dinwiddie and Davis Bertans.
After the trade, Dallas closed with a 20-7 record.
The Jazz, meanwhile, went just 15-12 after the trade deadline.
The Mavericks, of course, are led by All-NBA player Luka Doncic, who leads them in points, rebounds, assists and steals.
Doncic, however, left Dallas’ regular-season finale with a calf strain, although ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that the injury may not be too serious.
That said, calf strains generally do mean some time needs to be taken to heal the injury.
Utah and Dallas have met each other in the playoffs just twice ever, with the Mavericks winning both series.
The first time came in the first round in 1986, and the second came in the first round in 2001.