FINALLY SIGNED: after very a long awaited time he is finally signed to play with the team….

The Mavericks suffered a late-night loss to Golden State on Tuesday, but fortunately, they maintained their position in the Western Conference playoff rankings. In spite of missing the opportunity to play the Sacramento Kings, who fell to the fourth-place Los Angeles Clippers, the Mavericks’ 104-100 defeat at Golden State kept them in the same spot going into the game. Despite having the tiebreaker against Sacramento, who also have a 45-30 record, they are still ranked fifth. The Oklahoma City Thunder’s luck was not quite as favourable. In Joel Embiid’s comeback game, they lost at Philadelphia and dropped from first place in the West to third, behind Denver and Minnesota, while playing without Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Yes, that’s ruthless.

The Mavericks have three home games approaching in four days, beginning Thursday against Atlanta. Taking care of business at American Airlines Center will be imperative.

 

Here’s the updated Western Conference playoff picture:

The game was the highly anticipated rematch between the teams that played in last year’s national championship game, won by LSU, 102-85. And the rematch in the Elite 8 didn’t disappoint. This time Iowa prevailed, 94-87.

 

“Right now how they’re promoting the women’s game is great,” Dallas Mavericks guard Tim Hardaway Jr. said. “Obviously, everybody wishes they did it sooner rather than later, but it’s exciting.

 

“They’re holding their own down there in the college game, and obviously up in the professional level as well. Kudos to them. We’re going to keep watching and keep supporting, and it’s exciting to see.”

 

With the win, the Hawkeyes earned a trip to this weekend’s Final Four in Cleveland. The Iowa-LSU game drew an average of 12.3 million viewers, making it one of the most watched games in any sport – besides the NFL – over the past year.

 

It also outdrew last season’s Texas Rangers’ game-clinching World Series victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks (11.48 million) and outdrew every NBA Finals game from last season except one.

 

Of course, a lot of the attention was centered around Iowa guard Caitlin Clark and LSU forward Angel Reese.