The Dallas Mavericks have proved that their first-quarter performances this season are pretty good barometric indicators of the game’s outcome.
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Its been 10 years since we last considered the Dallas Mavericks as legitimate title contenders. That was back in Dirk Nowitzki’s peak days when they’d routinely finish among the top 3 of the Western Conference standings. However, they have as good a chance as any non-Nets team of winning the NBA championship this year, as evidenced by their play.
Luka Doncic has obviously been in all-time great form thus far. He’s also being complemented very well by the team that’s been put around him (for the most part).
In Josh Richardson and Dorian Finney-Smith, they have 2 extremely capable and switchable perimeter defenders. Tim Hardaway Jr has been a flamethrower in this year’s playoffs.
Jalen Brunson has turned into a capable point guard scorer and a sixth man, a la JJ Barea. Kristaps Porzingis is yet to go off, but the Latvian has the skillset to always keep defenses wary.
What’s more is that their starting lineup’s initial play in games seems to be a fairly good barometer for the result of the game.
Dallas Mavericks are 30-1 this season after winning first quarters of games
This might seem like a stat too good to be true, but it underlines the Mavs’ performances very well this season. Whenever they get off to a dominant start, they’ve looked like a championship team.
They’ve only lost 1 game this season when holding the lead after the first quarter. While this L came in this very playoff series against the Clippers, it still underlines how dominant they are.
The Mavericks headed to the bench after the first quarter today with a 28-26 lead. Can they hold on to take the series?
