Jason Kidd thinks it’s “pretty cool” the Warriors have been playing zone against the Mavericks because he believes that means they can’t guard them 1-on-1.
No team in the history of the NBA has overcome a three-games-to-none playoff deficit. And the Dallas Mavericks do not care one bit.
After beating the Warriors 119-109 in Game 4 of the Western Conference finals on Tuesday night at American Airlines Center, Dallas avoided the sweep and extended the series for another game on their quest to accomplish the impossible.
Despite what history says, the Mavericks still are confident that they can win this series.
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"I mean, if you don't believe in it, you might as well just stay home, right?" Mavericks forward Maxi Kleber told reporters after the game.
"We come here to win games. Game 2, we had a big lead, we should have won the game. We gave it away. Game 3, we didn't shoot the ball well. We have the power to beat them. We just stay confident, that was one game. Now we're just focused on the next game, nothing else. Everything else is in the past. We don't have to worry about what's coming after this game. We just focus on that game, prepare again, analyze what we can do better on offense and defense, just go from there."
What the Mavericks have going for them is a nothing-to-lose mindset that allows them to play freely and throw everything they have at the Warriors, whose feet will be put to the fire the longer this series drags on.
"I mean, I don't really like to think about pressure that much," Kleber said. "I think the pressure is more on their side to win the games. We have at this point nothing to lose, so we just go out and play free. That's kind of what we did today."
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Just because no team in the history of the NBA has accomplished what the Mavericks have set out to do doesn't mean that it will never happen. Eventually, one team will find a way to overcome a 3-0 series deficit. The Mavericks' mindset: "Why not us?"
"Just got to take it one play at a time," Dallas forward Dorian Finney-Smith told reporters after the game. "It's going to be a hard game. I mean, it ain't going to be nothing easy. We want to do something special. Like you said, be the first team to do something special. It's going to be very hard, but we can do it. We just got to stick together."
"Now we won two games, against the wall," Luka Dončić added. "We got more to do, you know. This is nothing. We got three more. We have to go game by game and believe."
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Close-out games are difficult games to win for any team looking to advance, and the Warriors can attest to that better than any other team remaining in the playoffs.
As unlikely as it is that Dallas wins this series, the Warriors will do everything they can to prevent what would be the worst collapse in NBA history.
