MINNEAPOLIS – Anyone who has some Zyrtec that works on people allergic to Game 1 of an NBA playoff series, please get in touch with the Mavericks pronto.
They will begin the Western Conference finals against the Minnesota Timberwolves Wednesday night at Target Center and the Mavericks have yet to prove they can bounce into a series and take charge early.
In fact, they’ve never won Game 1 under Jason Kidd. They started down 0-1 three times in 2022. And in this year’s playoffs, they lost Game 1 in both the first round against the Los Angeles Clippers and the conference semifinals against Oklahoma City.
It didn’t much matter, ultimately. They won both series in six games.
But it would be nice to see the view from a 1-0 advantage in a series.
Just for a change of scenery, right?
Again, it guarantees nothing. Teams that win Game 1 on the road historically are barely a 50-50 proposition to win the series, (51.5 percent of the time).
Still, it would be nice. But if they don’t?
“Just keep fighting,” as P.J. Washington said. “Whether we’re up 20 or down 20, we still got to fight.”
That sort of refusal to buckle was evident in the first two series. The Mavericks faced big deficits against both the Clippers and Thunder and came back to win in a couple of those instances.
Now, they are underdogs again, albeit only slight underdogs. And you can be certain that nobody in the Mavericks’ locker room feels that they are long shots to win this series.
“I don’t feel like we’re an underdog at all,” Washington said. “We’re both in the Western Conference finals for a reason. I don’t know what people are thinking. But we’re confident in our abilities.”
As they should be, particularly Washington after averaging 17.7 points and 8.3 rebounds in the Oklahoma City series.
If the Mavericks have an advantage, it’s that they are playing with house money. They were not expected to reach the conference finals.
But they don’t act like they are playing with house money. They are hungry for more. It’s clear that they see an opportunity here with the defending champion Nuggets out of the running.
“I’m just glad we got more games to play,” said Derrick Jones Jr. “And we get to showcase why we’re a great team.”
That would be the best reason of all to try to take Game 1 on Wednesday and get everybody’s attention.
Here’s what else to look for in Game 1 as the Nos. 3 and 5 seeds in the West battle with a trip to the NBA Finals on the line in the best-of-seven series:
- The best thing you can say about this series for Luka Dončić is that there is no Lu Dort. The bulky, sticky defender for the Thunder was strong enough to throw Luka off his game at times. The Wolves don’t have any defenders with that sort of strength. That should allow Dončić to have some added room to operate.
- The Timberwolves won three times at Denver in their conference semifinal series. The Mavericks won twice at Oklahoma City. Clearly, the home court isn’t supremely important in this season’s playoffs. The Wolves were 26-15 on the road in the regular season, a game better than the Mavericks. To summarize, the home court simply doesn’t matter, or at least it hasn’t so far.
- The talking heads are asking if Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards is the new face of the NBA. He’s certainly a force, if not a face, in this league. This was his fourth season and his points and assists have risen steadily to a peak of 25.9 points and 5.1 assists this season. In the Denver series, he averaged 27.7 points after pummeling Phoenix for 31 points and 8 rebounds per game in the first-round sweep. Expect the Mavericks to switch up a lot of coverages on the guy they call Ant-Man with Jones asked to do a lot of the heavy lifting.
- Edwards, by the way, already has said he hopes to be charged with guarding Kyrie Irving, but that will unfold after tipoff.
- The Mavericks proved they can win big in the playoffs without Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving piling up monstrous numbers by taking care of business against OKC. Luka averaged 24.7 points in the second round, by far his lowest scoring output in any of the seven playoff series he’s been a part of. Irving averaged 15.7 points after averaging 26.5 in the first round of the Clippers. But with Washington, Jones and Dereck Lively II picking up the slack, the Mavericks got it done.
- Much has been made about the Wolves’ size and length. And the Mavericks will have to match up with that on both ends of the court. Karl-Anthony Towns is a 7-footer who can work the perimeter as well as the paint. As is sixth man Naz Reid, although he’s a tad shorter. But, as Jones said: “They got to guard us, as well.”
- Minnesota coach Chris Finch has had to adapt to sitting behind the bench since he got run over by his own point guard, Mike Conley, on April 29 during the first-round series against Phoenix. He needed surgery to fix his ruptured patellar tendon and assistant coach Micah Nori has been the voice patrolling the sidelines while Finch recovers. “That would be tough,” Mavs coach Jason Kidd said. “The accident happened, unfortunately, but it talks about their staff and Micah being able to step up and coach in place of Chris. When you look at what they’re doing with their head coach behind the bench. That’s got to be tough for Chris. But also it gives the other guys a chance to step up and they did.”
- This will be another test for Mavericks’ big men Daniel Gafford and Lively, who acquitted themselves well in the second round against 7-footer Chet Holmgren. Going against Rudy Gobert, Towns and Reid might be even tougher. But having them as a tag team helps. “It’s great to have the ability to come back with another 7-footer, especially with Maxi (Kleber) out,” Kidd said. “What Lively did in Game 6 (with 12 points, 15 rebounds against the Thunder), the ability to rebound and guard and finish was big time. We’re going to need both of those guys to be able to control the paint, rebound and also be able to score.” This will be Lively’s first action since being named to the all-rookie second team, to which teammate Derrick Jones Jr. said: “That’s just the start for him.”
DALLAS MAVERICKS (0-0) at MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES (0-0)
When: 7:30 p.m., Wednesday.
Where: Target Center, Minneapolis.
TV: TNT
Radio: KEGL 97.1 FM The Eagle; 99.1 FM Zona MX (Spanish)
X: @ESefko
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