Los Angeles Lakers vs. Dallas Mavericks

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Twice against the same opponent inside a fortnight at the business end of a season is how genuine dislike gets manufactured. Whatever happened in the March meeting is still in the building, carried by both benches and by everybody who watched it, and a Tuesday fixture that looked like filler when the schedule came out in August has quietly become something people have opinions about. That is the part of a season nobody can plan for. April also means rotations go strange - rested starters, young players getting a look, somebody on a ten-day contract playing the fourth quarter in front of eighteen thousand people. Go and watch somebody's third professional game. You remember those far longer than you remember a result, and they only happen in April. Prices for April midweek fixtures are the softest of the entire second half, so this is the stretch where a seat you have always wanted finally becomes a reasonable decision.