Worst first-round opponent for each NBA Western Conference playoff team
Dallas Mavericks: LA Clippers
The Dallas Mavericks and LA Clippers only found each other twice during the regular season, the results of which don’t breed much confidence for the former’s chances against the latter.
LA won both games, and a Mavericks offense ranked as the best in the NBA — while scoring 116.4 points per game — put up an average of 103.0 in the two losses. The Clippers limited them to 40.6 percent shooting from the field and 28.4 from deep.
In Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and even Patrick Beverley, the Clippers have some of the best personnel to slow down the wonder of Luka Doncic. It was on full display in their Nov. 26 battle, when Luka coughed up seven turnovers while shooting 4-of-14 from the field and laying a goose egg in eight attempts from beyond the arc.
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Kristaps Porzingis had spurts of his All-Star self before the season shut down and Dallas was coming around to unlocking its full potential by slotting him at center. Doing that against LA, however, pits him up against the likes of Ivica Zubac and Montrezl Harrell (assuming they return to the Orlando bubble), two physically imposing bigs who are sure to drain the life from the skinny unicorn.
Dallas offers little resistance to the greatness of Kawhi, who put up 32.0 points and just 1.5 turnovers in 32.3 minutes a night in their two matchups.
Simply making the playoffs is a step in the right direction for a Mavericks’ team with two franchise pillars still plenty young. Only 1.5 games separate them and the sixth-seeded Rockets and a matchup against Denver. Having gone 2-1 against the Nuggets in the regular season, making up that ground offers a significantly better chance at an ahead-of-schedule second-round appearance compared to a Clippers team with legitimate title aspirations.