2021-2022 MAVS NEWS: 4th in West | WCF loss [ARCHIVED]

[KillerLeft]

I actually think the Mavs match up pretty well with the Warriors.  Mavs have been able to bother Steph and the Warriors may not have an answer for Luka.  I think that's a team the Mavs can get to the rim on consistently.

Recency bias alert...I don't love the Wolves matchup.  I think the Mavs win that series but they present a tough matchup.  End of the day they probably don't play enough defense in a 7 game series but they are a scary lower seed.

The Jazz concern me with a healthy Rudy because they make the Mavs even more 3 pt dependent than usual.  Would be an interesting chess match for sure.  

Not sure how I feel about the Nuggets.  Jokic would eat for sure.

There are unique advantages and disadvantages involved with every potential matchup for the Mavs. We could talk about those all day, and that would not be wasted time. "Styles make fights."

What I'm talking about is combining maturity, knowledge and experience WITH the the talent/style matchups you're envisioning (I think). 

I just feel for a variety of reasons that the Mavs are more poised to succeed right now than any of the teams I mentioned, especially in a 7-game series. 

I don't think Minnesota will be able to score well enough against Dallas once their transition offense is taken off of the table, which seems to happen more often than not in the playoffs. I think that might be the least scary team on the list, actually. Success is VERY new to them. 

Memphis is clearly more talented than Dallas, overall, but again, I don't believe they have the requisite playoff experience to be much of a threat (probably most worried about being wrong about this one). Going forward into the next few years, this will be a team to watch, for sure. 

Denver is great, and the home court advantage there is very real, but mitigated somewhat by the extra rest involved with a playoff series. And, without Murray, I'm sorry - they're just not scary, imo. 

Utah is MORE experienced than Dallas, and who knows, maybe they'll turn it on in the playoffs, but...I've been following them pretty closely over the past couple of months, and they are struggling!  Gobert/Mitchell don't get along. The defense hasn't been as reliable as in years past, and more and more often, teams are simply switching the pick and roll against them, knowing Gobert has no offense if you take the roll away (sound familiar, Mavs fans?) and (here's the difference relative to Dallas) Mitchell has not really figured out how to make them pay for this strategy. To me, this feels like a team about to lose in the first round and get blown up this summer. 

GS (if healthy) knows more about how to win in the playoffs than any three teams in the top 8 combined. For me, that could potentially be scary. Ditto for PHX, but literally only because of Chris Paul. The rest of that team is great, too, but it's Chris Paul who puts the fear into my heart, personally.