How Bojan Bogdanovic’s season-ending injury impacts Dallas Mavericks

3 of 5

Dallas Mavericks Kristaps Porzingis (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images) /

Regular season impact

There is no word yet on what the NBA is planning if basketball returns. Will there be more regular season games before starting the playoffs? That only makes sense. Teams are going to want a few tune-up games. How many? It is an unanswerable question at this moment.

Even a handful of regular season games could have a massive impact in the Western Conference. The Jazz are currently fourth. They sit just 1.5 games behind the Nuggets for third.

There is a lot of room to move down, though. Utah is one game up on both the Rockets and Thunder. The Mavericks are just 2.5 games behind the Jazz. That is the difference between fourth and seventh in the standings.

More. 5 that may have played their last game with Mavericks

Will the NBA attempt to even out the games? The Mavs already have 67 in the bank. Utah has only played 64. If the goal to reach say 70 games for every team, the Jazz will play twice as many regular season contests as the Mavericks before heading into the playoffs.

Even if the NBA decides on just five games per team, the Mavericks could potentially pass the Jazz and move up the West. The two teams may end up squaring off in the first round of the playoffs too. There could be a lot of movement in a short stretch because the standings are tightly packed.

Next: Mavs vs. Jazz