The Dallas Mavericks have a Texas-sized chip on their shoulder

Despite a grueling Game 1 loss in the NBA playoffs, Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks proved that—improbable odds aside—they will not go down without a Wild West-esque war.

Barring some unforeseen circumstances, the Dallas Mavericks are probably not going to win their first-round series in the NBA playoffs against the LA Clippers.

For as lovable as Luka Doncic is, for as great of a second banana as Kristaps Porzingis occasionally looks, and for as historically significant as Dallas’ offense was throughout the regular season, let’s face it: The chances of the Dallas Mavericks pulling off an upset are exceedingly slim.

But you knew this already, didn’t you?

You’ve heard the statistics. You’ve watched the regular season match-ups. Hell, you probably even listened to [insert any and every NBA media member here] slam the Mavericks’ first-round hopes due to their perplexing inability to score on and their embarrassing incapacity to defend the second-seeded Clippers. I know I did.

Every bit of recent information—whether it be media coverage, statistical deep-diving, or performing a simple eye-test—has told us one thing about the Dallas Mavericks: The Clips are their kryptonite. There is no navigating around that fact.

Since the playoff seeding was cemented—and even before then, due to the sheer amount of hypotheticals the convoluted Western Conference playoffs presented—the only Dallas conversation to be had was in regards to the Clippers’ likelihood to sweep Luka and his upstart band of flamethrowers in the first round of the NBA playoffs. An occasional, “Maybe the Mavericks can push the series to a fifth or sixth game,” was uttered, but the general consensus was that Dallas didn’t stand a chance.