Luka Doncic and his teammates remind Jason Kidd a little of the last Dallas Mavericks team to advance in the playoffs.
The coach now was the point guard then when the Mavericks had split the first four games of the 2011 playoffs against the Portland Trail Blazers. He recalls people thinking Dallas might not even get out of that series.
Instead, the Mavericks won the next two games and never looked back. They swept the two-time defending NBA champion Lakers in the next round and ended up winning the title themselves by beating Miami in the NBA Finals.
This year, Dallas again started 2-2, then won two straight to get by the Utah Jazz with a 98-96 victory on Thursday night. The current Mavericks don’t have the experience and may not have the talent of his title team, but Kidd said they are a special group.
“They truly believe, small or big — we’re not very big — but they find a way to win and they have fun doing it,” Kidd said. “And hopefully this gives us confidence going against the best team in the NBA right now.”
That would be the Phoenix Suns, the No. 1 seed after finishing 64-18 for the NBA’s best record. They also wrapped up their series with a Game 6 victory on Thursday in New Orleans and will host the Mavericks in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals on Monday.
“I think we’re going to have to play our best basketball,” Doncic said. “They were in the finals last year, No. 1 team this year, so it’s going to be really tough. The crowd really gets them going, so I think we’re going to have to play our best basketball to beat them.”
Doncic always plays well in the postseason, but it hadn’t resulted in a series victory yet. The Mavericks lost to the Los Angeles Clippers in each of the last two years, even though he averaged more than 31 points in both.
The Mavs had to open this series without their All-Star, who missed the first three games with a calf strain sustained on the final day of the regular season. Once he…