NBA Analyst claims Mavericks are ‘most dangerous’ team entering 2023-24 playoffs
There are two days left in the 2023-24 NBA regular season, with the vast majority of the top seeds fighting for seeding within their respective conference.
In the Western Conference, there are two teams fighting for homecourt advantage: The Dallas Mavericks and Los Angeles Clippers, who are already locked into the No. 4 and 5 seeds with the Denver Nuggets, Minnesota Timberwolves and Oklahoma City Thunder securing the top-3 seeds.
Though it wasn’t too long ago that the Mavericks were fighting out the play-in race in the West, being the No. 7 or 8 seed for the majority of February and March. They have won 16 of their last 18 games dating back to March 7 and eclipsed the 50-win mark for only the third time since winning the Finals in 2010-11.
One NBA analyst recently had high praise for Dallas–suggesting they should be on everyone’s radar as we approach mid-April heading into May.
“[The Dallas Mavericks] are the most dangerous team that any team in the playoffs can face,” Eddie Johnson said earlier this week on Sirius XM Radio. “Denver has an advantage with execution. But you know what? You can understand that and attack execution.
“With Dallas, you have no idea. You have no idea, when Kyrie (Irving) drives right, that he can freaking spin left and shoot a hook. You ain’t ready for that. You hope he misses. Luka (Doncic), with his unorthodox shooting and his uncanny ability to see stuff off the dribble in traffic, which is different than (Nikola) Jokic. … It’s stuff that you can’t really sit there and gameplan against.”
I don’t think Dallas is the most dangerous, but they certainly are a dangerous threat to unseat Denver, should the two foes meet up at some point.
Over this 18-game stretch, their only losses have come to the Oklahoma City Thunder (by seven) and Golden State Warriors (by four), even though they have downed Golden State two other times over this stretch. I’ve been critical of Dallas’ defense at different pockets this season, but they have been the league’s best over that stretch while sporting the fifth-best offense.
The strength of schedule hasn’t been the greatest, either, but you can only beat the teams in front of you … and Dallas has done as good job of a job as anyone. Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving are playing exceptionally good basketball at the perfect time of the season to get hot, as has Daniel Gafford, P.J. Washington, who Dallas acquired at the trade deadline.
Do you think Dallas is the most dangerous playoff team in the NBA? Let us know in the comments!
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