With today’s afternoon game against Memphis Grizzlies, the Dallas Mavericks end perhaps the most consequential regular seasons in franchise history. While the team has thrice been to the NBA Finals and made deep playoff runs a dozen times or so, I can’t think of another regular season as meaningful and painful to watch as a Maverick fan. bell hooks, the esteemed feminist scholar and theorist put it best: “Love is a combination of care, commitment, knowledge, responsibility, respect and trust.” As MFFLs, our love for this franchise was put to the ultimate test this year. Hopefully we can all find something to enjoy today – one last time — at least until the play in I guess. What’s at stake The season hasn’t turned out the way these southwestern teams hoped for back in October. After starting the season hoping to make championship runs, both the Grizzlies and the Mavericks will be in the play-in tournament this year. Memphis, having lost back to back games, now sit eighth in the west with no way to climb to seventh. They have absolutely nothing to play for tonight — aside from pride I suppose.The Mavericks are in a slightly better boat. They’ll play the Kings no matter what in the play-in. If Dallas wins, and the Kings lose to Phoenix, then the Mavericks will host the Kings for their play-in showdown. Ins and Outs On the Grizzlies front, expect a lot of missing Grizzly players. Ja Morant, Desmond Bane, Jaren Jackson, Luke Kennard, and even Zach Edey are listed as doubtful for a variety of ailments. Even Scottie Pippen Jr, a player who has played in 79 games this year, is listed as doubtful for today’s contest. The Grizzlies truly have very little to play for tonight. Our Mavericks also have their share of injuries. Klay Thompson will miss today’s game with a foot sprain. Joining him on the bench will be PJ Washington, who is out with an ankle injury. Anthony Davis played a fantastic game against the Raptors, so he’ll be out today with a left abductor strain. It’s almost over. A year ago, the Mavericks rested their key players in a regular season finale against the Thunder. They went on to lose to a superteam in the NBA finals. While it’s not impossible that this Maverick squad could go on an improbable play-in to play-off run and win the whole thing, those odds are slimmer than your average Slovenian.