When you turn on the Mavericks vs. Rockets game on Tuesday you’ll notice something different than any other game being played that night: no In-Season Tournament court. For the second time this season, Dallas won’t be playing on its In-Season Tournament courtmaking the Mavs the only franchise in the league that didn’t debut a custom court for the inaugural event. The NBA is using special courts for IST games that feature bold colors and the tournament’s trophy (the NBA Cup) worked into the designs.
When the Mavericks hosted the Clippers on Nov. 10 for an In-Season Tournament game they played on their traditional court due to manufacturing issues. It appears those issues were not resolved before Tuesday. The Mavs instead will be playing on their City Edition court vs. Houston.
Dallas’ court was a light gray with a darker strip of gray running all the way down the middle. It also featured the same font styles that the team’s black city edition jerseys display. While the Mavericks are the only team that won’t play on their own In-Season Tournament court, team owner Mark Cuban isn’t entirely sad about the situation. “Hopefully it doesn’t get fixed,” Cuban said. “Not a fan of the courts, although it was a brilliant marketing idea.”
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This isn’t the first time Dallas has taken issue with the painted courts this season. When the Mavericks traveled to Denver to take on the Nuggets for an In-Season Tournament game earlier this month, the 3-point line on that court had to be repainted after Grant Williams realized in pregame shootaround that the line was painted too far away from the basket. In a matchup against the Pelicans, Luka Doncic complained after the game that New Orleans’ court was too slippery and that the teams shouldn’t have played on it because it wasn’t stable.
Obviously the Mavericks haven’t been fans of the new courts, and since they’ve been eliminated from advancing to the knockout round they won’t have to worry about playing on any for the rest of the season.
