Hey, look! Play-in games!

 The book-length NBA playoffs kick off tonight with two play-in games, and I can't tell you how excited I am not. Wait, did I say "not"? Slip of the tongue! Really!

Actually it is hard to get fired up about the play-in games, because they involve teams that would have missed the playoffs had the NBA not essentially said, "OK, you've had 82 games and six months to prove yourselves, but we'll give you ONE LAST CHANCE."

And, yeah, I know, everyone's making all kinds of noise about how the Lakers are playing really well and LeBron and AD are both momentarily healthy, and how that makes them a legitimate threat to win the up-for-grabs West. This presumes AD and/or LeBron don't get hurt again tonight in their play-in game -- which one or both probably will, because it's AD and LeBron.

In reality the NBA added the play-in games to alleviate blatant tanking by the bottom feeders for draft position. Give 'em hope, no matter how slim, and they'll play hard to the end. That was the rationale.

Of course, then the Mavericks came along and ruined it all.

The Mavs, see, were one of the bottom feeders that had a real shot at a play-in game. I mean, they were right there. And what did they do?

They decided to lose instead.

Seven of their last nine games, they lost. Kyrie Irving played  in seven games after March 20. Luka Doncic played just 13 minutes in a Friday loss to the Bulls, and neither he nor Kyrie played at all in the last game of the season, a 138-117 blowout loss to the hideous San Antonio Spurs.

But they preserved their lottery pick in the draft, so call it a W.

Truth is, when a Victor Wembenyama is there for the taking -- the golden goose in the coming draft -- a play-in game isn't much incentive to not tank. Your chance at an NBA title, after all, is yea more slim than your chance at Wembenyama. So fire up the First Armored Division, George Patton.

In the meantime, tonight we've got the Hawks at the Heat and the Timberwolves at the Lakers. And the Wolves will be without Rudy Gobert, who threw a punch at teammate Kyle Anderson during a timeout Sunday. He's been banished from tonight's game and probably any subsequent games.

Which I suppose means Gobert made history of sorts by executing the NBA's first one-man tank job. Though Victor Wembenyama will not be his reward.