On a loop inside the Mavs’ practice facility, a highlight reel runs on and on and on, covering everything of note from the raising of Reunion Arena to the rise of Luka Doncic. Not as many milestones as you’d like to think for an organization well into its fifth decade. On the other hand, unlike a Cowboys fan, you don’t have to be old enough to correctly identify a phone booth to recall the last time the Mavs made the conference finals before the current iteration.
The ‘22 version was a scrappy little bunch defined by its defense as well as its “immaculate vibes,” per Jalen Brunson. The fact that it imposed its will on the Suns and Jazz before capitulating at last to Golden State was a testimony to what grit and determination can do to make up for what a team lacks in general basketball terms.
The difference between Jason Kidd’s Western Conference finals runs is the size of the talent this time around. These Mavs are taller, longer, deeper.
Better.
“This team is probably a little bit more talented than that first group,” Kidd said Tuesday, “and that’s not being negative.
“This group has a lot of talent.”
A good thing, too, because if these Mavs want to go where the ‘22 team couldn’t, starting Wednesday at the Target Center, they’ll have to beat a Minnesota team that can pretty much match everything they do. Even do them one better occasionally.
Like the Mavs, the Wolves can play big or small. They can build an interior wall of Rudy Gobert, Karl Anthony-Towns and Jaden McDaniels in which McDaniels, at 6-9, is the lowest point. Or they can bring in backup center Naz Reid, the reigning Sixth Man of the Year, for a five-out offense highlighted by Reid’s 34.6% average from deep.
Like the Mavs, the Wolves have an MVP-caliber talent in Anthony Edwards, just now coming into his own. And, like the Mavs, Minnesota plays excellent defense, officially the NBA’s best this season.
Just how good is the defense? In their four wins over last year’s champs, the Wolves held Denver to 99, 80, 70 and 90 points.
The Mavs’ clearest advantage over Minnesota? As good as Edwards is, Luka is still better, at least going into this series. He was back to his old self in Games 5 and 6 against Oklahoma City, and they’ll need that version to keep trending. They’ll also need Kyrie Irving to play like he did in the Game 6 clincher after a couple games when the Thunder held him under 10 points. Anything less than 20 a night won’t do now. Both P.J. Washington and Derrick Jones Jr., forced by Mark Daigneault’s defensive scheme to take bigger bites of the offense, must continue to assert themselves, as well.
Dereck Lively II — who had 12 points and 15 rebounds in Game 6 and looms as a better matchup for the Wolves’ bigs than Daniel Gafford — needs to pick up where he left off, too.
Basically, everyone in the rotation needs to play at just about career-best levels. The Mavs’ upsets of the fourth and first seeds notwithstanding, the Wolves present their biggest obstacle yet. Literally, you might say.
The Mavs bullied the smaller Thunder, rendering Chet Holmgren moot in a couple games and mitigating the mid-range game of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander through most of the series. The Mavs’ advantage in size meant Kidd didn’t miss Maxi Kleber, out indefinitely after that ugly spill against the Clippers. They could use him now against KAT or Reid. For that matter, he was one of the reasons the Mavs largely neutralized Gobert when the latter loomed large for the Jazz in the ‘22 playoffs. They did it then by drawing the world’s tallest eraser out of his comfort zone.
If Kleber’s not playing, who, exactly, among the Mavs’ remaining big men will force Gobert to leave home?
On paper, you’d be tempted to say the Mavs’ prospects don’t look promising. Like any playoff team starting out on the road, they need to steal a game. Hope that Minnesota is still a little wounded from its emotional, heavyweight bout against Denver. Might be nice if the Mavs could avoid falling on their faces in Game 1 like they did against both the Clippers and Thunder, too.
“We definitely know that we’ve gotten off to slow starts in series,” Kidd said, “so we want to try to change that.”
Here’s the thing about these Mavs, though: After both of the awful opening losses, they bounced back. Did the same after blowing Game 4 against OKC, which seemed like a deal-killer at the time. They’ve yet to lose two games in a row. At times they don’t even wait a couple days to make amends. They nearly pulled off a historic comeback from that ugly 30-point deficit against the Clippers, then overcame a 16-point halftime deficit in Game 6 against OKC. Frankly, I still don’t know how they managed the latter, and I was up close and personal.
Watching these Mavs puts me in mind of the motley group led by the likes of Luka, Brunson, Dorian Finney-Smith and Spencer Dinwiddie. They were fun to watch. No quit in them. These Mavs are far more talented, but the quality that gives them the most hope of going where the ‘22 team didn’t is a heart just as big.
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