MINNEAPOLIS – For Daniel Gafford, his NBA career had taken on a very similar path.
It consisted of 82 games. And even before those 82 games were over, Gafford had already made plans to take a vacation in the offseason.
But that all changed on Feb. 8 when the Washington Wizards traded Gafford to the Dallas Mavericks. At the time, Gafford had a strong feeling he wasn’t going to be taking an early vacation to some exotic hotspot this offseason.
“I wouldn’t be in this position if it wasn’t for that trade that happened in the middle of the season,” Gafford said. “I had trips and stuff planned for the end of the season already.
“I had to cancel a lot of stuff, but it was only because of the simple fact that I knew that we were going to be playing for something in the postseason.”
What the Mavs are playing for is a trip to the prestigious NBA Finals. Right now they’re preparing to play Game 1 of a best-of-seven series against the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Western Conference Finals on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at the Target Center.
And since the Mavs are very much playing for something, all vacations for Gafford – and his teammates — are put on hold. But that’s cool for Gafford, who was on vacation with the Wizards at this time last season.
“As much as you want to be on vacation, sometimes you just have to sacrifice a lot of stuff,” Gafford said. “And to be able to be successful in this league you have make those sacrifices.
“So, sacrificing a vacation is all good to me as long as I’m playing for something that means something.”
Since the Mavs were short of big men earlier this season, the acquisition of Gafford was made for them to have their ducks in a row on the front line for big moments like this. That’s because the Timberwolves have an array of talented big men in Karl-Anthony Towns, Rudy Gobert and Naz Reid, but that challenge is precisely what Gafford enjoys.
“I’m excited,” he said. “A day never goes by where I’m not excited just to be able to play another game of basketball.
“Every day isn’t promised, and every time you step out on the floor is not promised. I don’t want to be that guy that just comes out and I’m timid and just not excited to be in the position that I’m in today.”
Gafford saw Gobert and the Timberwolves rally from 20 points down in the third quarter and upset the defending NBA champion Denver Nuggets in
Game 7 of the conference semifinals this past Sunday to win that series, 4-3. So, he knows he’ll have a battle on his hands in this series.
“He defends spaces, in all honesty,” Gafford said of Gobert. “He’s real good at making sure his guys take the shots that he wants them to take — at the end of the day — and just making sure he contests on the back end when it comes to those shots.
“Just watching the game (Sunday) night and seeing some of the things that he was doing, it’s going to be a lot of things that he throws at us that we’re going to have to adjust to. But I feel like we’ll be ready for that.”
Gafford admits that in the one game he faced the Timberwolves this season, he didn’t fare too well. That occurred on Jan. 24 when Gafford was still with Washington.
In that game Minnesota defeated the Wizards, 118-107, as Towns finished with 27 points and six rebounds, and Gobert added 19 points, 16 rebounds and four blocks, while Gafford fouled with 10 points and four rebounds in 21 minutes.
“I got a chance to go against Rudy and Kat and all those guys in the middle of the regular season, and it was for sure a rough game going against Rudy under the basket (and) Kat driving down the basket,” Gafford said. “Defending multiple areas at one time is just something that was challenging 
where I was at one point before.
“But I feel like with the growth that I’ve had coming to this team, I feel like I’ve taken that step in the right direction.”
Of course, rookie Dereck Lively II and Gafford takes up the lion’s share of the minutes at the center position for the Mavs. And for them, plan one is simple.
“One thing for sure is we’ve got to make sure we stay out of foul trouble and really just stay patient,” Gafford said. “We’re not going to keep them from scoring points.
“But sticking to our principles defensively is something that’s going to help us out through this series. They’re going to throw a lot of stuff at us. We have a game plan and we’re going to stick to it.”
And hope that’ll carry the Mavs through the night.
“We’ve got to make sure we come out and just be as physical as possible and make sure we take care of the things that we need to take care of and be poised in the areas that we need to be poised in,” Gafford said. “It’s not going to be an easy series at all.
“They’ve got a big front line. We just got to go in and make sure we pay attention to detail and play through our principles.”
Overall, Gafford is happy he was able to get traded to the Mavs so he could put his vac
ation plans on hold.
“We’re going to come out and make sure we go out and just put all effort on the floor and really just come out and try to throw that first punch,” he said.
“I give my thanks to the man upstairs because I couldn’t have been in this position. I could be home right now. So, just thinking of that, I’m going to give pretty much all effort that I can to just be able to make the best of everything when it comes to this series and the series ahead. But it’s just one game at a time and just having the patience with it, and just poise and just being ready for the next day.”
X: @DwainPrice
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