Here’s the deal, and they all know it.

Tonight, when the Lawrence High and Free State High boys basketball teams open the postseason with their first-round sub-state matchups, there will be no tomorrow.

It’s win or go home time for the Lions and Firebirds, a likely proposition for both teams.

LHS (12-8) opens the postseason as the No. 3 seed with a home game against sixth-seeded Shawnee Mission West (9-11). The Lions defeated the Vikings earlier this season — 53-38 — in a game that lacked for luster.

The Lions led just 17-15 at halftime and pulled away with a strong third quarter. Senior guard Dorian Green, who led the Lions this year with a 23.2 points-per-game average, scored 14 points in the game (his lowest single game output of the season) but had just five heading into the fourth quarter.

It didn’t matter. When the game was on the line, Green was at his best. That’s what led the Lions all the way to the Class 6A state title game last season, and that, in part, is what the Lions are hoping will lead them again this season.

The run starts tonight. Should LHS win, they’ll play Friday in the sub-state championship game at Free State High against either No. 2 seed SM East or No. 7 SM North.

Meanwhile, the Firebirds’ have a much more difficult task staring them in the face.

For starters, they enter tonight’s game with No. 1 SM Northwest on a 19-game losing streak.

This team is not nearly as bad as its 1-19 record suggests, but they certainly haven’t found a way to catch many breaks this year. Part of that is inexperience and part of that is just bad luck.

For the past two to three weeks, the overwhelming feeling within the FSHS boys basketball program has been, “we have to win sometime.” And the Firebirds have worked hard day in and day out with that on their minds.

The win never came, though, and now they face one of their toughest tasks yet.

There was a certain amount of optimism among the FSHS players at Tuesday’s practice. And why not? This team has worked hard, has never quit and still believes a win is possible.

Winning tonight is a mighty tall task, but just think what it would do for this team’s mindset if they could find a way to pull it off.

Safe to say 1-19 would quickly turn into 1-0, the place where this whole season began.

The Lawrence High and Free State High girls open sub-state play on Thursday. Check back with The Dividing Line then for a look at the matchup between the city’s No. 4 and No. 5 seeded teams.