SACRAMENTO – The Dallas Mavericks reached the National Basketball Association (NBA) Finals last season when Luka Doncic carried an otherwise average team through the treacherous Western Conference waters.

This season, the Mavs traded the generational star to the Los Angeles Lakers and the franchise sank for most of the second half of the season before landing the final play-in spot in the West.

No. 10 seed Dallas (39-43) now look to take advantage of the life raft when they visit the No. 9 seed Sacramento Kings in a do-or-die contest on April 16 (April 17, Singapore time).

The season is over for the loser. The winner will advance to play the loser of the contest between the No. 7 Golden State Warriors and No. 8 Memphis Grizzlies for a berth in the play-offs.

The Warriors defeated the Grizzlies 121-116 on April 15, led by Jimmy Butler’s 38 points and 37 from Stephen Curry.

“We’re two wins away from getting to the next step of our journey,” Sacramento interim coach Doug Christie said.

The Kings (40-42) swept the three-game series from Dallas in the regular season, winning by 10, 1 and 24 points. Only the first matchup was in the rabid atmosphere of Sacramento.

“That place is really hard to win in a play-off atmosphere, so we’re looking forward to that challenge,” Dallas guard Max Christie said. “I think if we can get past that game, then that’ll help us hopefully get into the play-offs.”

The 122-98 loss to the Kings on March 3 was extra painful for the Mavericks. That was the night standout guard Kyrie Irving suffered a season-ending ACL tear in his left knee.

Irving’s injury came during a stretch in which Dallas lost nine of 10 games. Then despite losing four of their final five regular-season games, the Mavericks gained the last play-in spot as the Phoenix Suns collapsed down the stretch.

Dallas acquired standout Anthony Davis in the Doncic deal, but he has played in just nine games due to injuries, and he is listed as probable due to a left adductor strain. A threadbare roster remained and made it beyond challenging for the team to win games.

“It’s just a series of obstacles and adversities that we dealt with throughout the season,” Mavericks big man Daniel Gafford said. “There’s a lot of mental frustrations, a lot of emotions with a lot of stuff that went on throughout the team injury-wise, and I feel like the way we handled it is the way any other team would have. Just come out, keep...