When the Golden State Warriors face the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference Final, it’s apparent that Draymond Green will be facing a team he has great respect for.
The Mavs have been a fascinating team to watch all season, and the beatdown in Game 7 they handed to the Phoenix Suns turned heads around the basketball world. The result of the clinching game might have caught some by surprise, but not for Green, who now has been raving about the Mavs for a while.
Green on his podcast had picked the Mavericks to win the series before it began, waxing poetic about how strong of a team Dallas has. And in offering his assessment of the Warriors’ forthcoming opponent, he again gassed up Dallas – in particular for that Game 7 drubbing of the reigning conference champs.
“From the start of the season to now, they’re a totally different team defensively," Green said. "As you can see, they held the Suns to 27 points in the first half. It’s hard to find games in the NBA where a team has 27 points at the end of the first quarter, they had 27 points at the end of the first half. I mean, that was an incredible display of dominance by Dallas. Incredible display.
“… Luka (Doncic) got going and the rest of the guys followed. That, I’m sure, caught a lot of people off guard. Like I said, I thought they would win, of course I didn’t think they would win by 40, but the series outcome did not surprise me, it didn’t surprise me.”
Unsurprisingly, though, when it came time to make a series prediction, he chose Golden State.
The Mavericks have proven they can be a handful, and can hang with the top teams in the conference. Clearly, Green knows that beating Doncic and Co. will be no walk in the park.
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