Dallas is atop of the West for the first time since Dirk left!
Wait a minute… so you’re telling me the Dallas Mavericks are actually good?! Perhaps my bias is showing. After all, I am the Gold Blooded King, dedicated scribe of the Golden Empire. And I have to admit that two of the most pivotal and impactful playoff series in my life time involved Golden State ripping the heart out of the Mavericks on national television.
Perhaps that is why even though I watched Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving lead a cohesive team effort to dismantle the upstart Minnesota Timberwolves, there was still this nagging unbelief about the realness of Dallas’ case for contention.
That word belief directly ties to the we believe warriors who stunned Dallas greatest player ever Dirk Nowitzki in the 2007 playoffs. That year, the Warriors were a plucky eight seed while the Mavericks were the top seed out west. That team was supposed to roll over the Warriors on their way to fighting for a championship but instead those Warriors outsmarted, out toughed and out competed the Mavs on their way to arguably the biggest upset in NBA history. THE MAVS WERE SOFT!
And then there was as recently as two seasons ago when the fearsome guard duo of Jalen Bronson and Doncic clashed with the Golden State in the Western Conference Finals.
And although 14 out of 19 ESPN pundits picked the Warriors to win that contest, nobody thought it was going less than 6 games, with several folks picking the series to go all the way to an ultimate 7th game. In reality, the Dubs crushed them in five games on the way to winning their fourth title of the Splash Bro-era. My take on the Mavs then? Too one dimensional, too heavily reliant on Doncic being brilliant in the pick-and-roll, and not enough auxiliary options to get them past the power of Strength in Numbers.
But that was then and this is now. First, they overcame long time post season nemesis Los Angles Clippers in a gritty six games exorcising the ghosts of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George from Doncic’s future. Then they stunned the number one seeded Oklahoma CIty Thunder reminding us all that youth is truly wasted on the young. And then they completely dismantled the Timberwolves, a team that had just don’t the unthinkable and halted the Denver Nuggets bid for a repeat championship.
Now the only thing standing in their way from immortality is a dangerous Boston Celtics team that is desperately looking to make good on over ta half decade of under delivering on championship expectations.
Tell you what Mavericks, if you can pass this final test, I might actually believe that you are the best team in the world. And that’s a gold blooded promise.