Heading into Sunday’s game against the Utah Jazz, the Dallas Mavericks are 41-29 on the year and have won seven of their last eight games.
Dallas is playing together, locking in on defense, and playing with an energy we haven’t seen before from this team this season. Thursday night’s win over the Jazz was fueled by energy, as Mavs broke franchise record for dunks in a game.
No one would have thought it was possible with the squad they had at the start of the season, and they are show the rest of the league that they are real contenders.
Even though the playoffs are still a few weeks away, people are still considering the potential matchups they could have. It looks like Dallas will likely land somewhere between the five and eight seeds, but even the four seeds aren’t out of the question yet.
Bleacher Report’s Greg Swartz recently gave the top eight teams in each conference a “nightmare matchup” for the first round of the playoffs, and the Oklahoma City Thunder’s “nightmare game” was the Mavs. This is a series every fan wants to see, especially with fan chatter regarding who is better between Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luka Doncic, and the Mavs might just have the team to send the Thunder home over earlier than expected.
Swartz believes the Mavs are a bad matchup for the Thunder due to Doncic’s individual dominance in games against Oklahoma City this season as well as Dallas’ new additions Daniel Gafford and PJ Washington. This season against the Thunder, Doncic is averaging 34 points, 11.5 rebounds and 13.5 assists per game while shooting 42.9% from downtown.
Doncic is taking his game to the next level playing against the Thunder, and he missed Dallas’ last game against the Thunder in which the Mavs lost 126-119 on the road. If Doncic had played this match, the result could have been very different.
Swartz also explained that the Mavs were 1-2 against the Thunder this season, but one of Doncic or Kyrie Irving was absent in each of their losses. In the only game against the Thunder in which both Doncic and Irving were healthy, the Mavs won by 35 points.
Gafford has played particularly well against the Thunder since joining the Mavs, and he dropped 19 points and grabbed 15 rebounds in the last game. Chet Holmgren is the only elite rim protector on this list, and the Mavs might just have the interior presence to give the Thunder a tough series.
Only time will tell who Dallas’ opponent is in the first round, but being listed as a “nightmare opponent” against the Thunder, the Western Conference’s No. 1 seed, is a high compliment.
For all the latest news on Kyrie Irving, Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks this season, stay tuned.
