The Dallas Mavericks duped us — some worse than others. But I can’t imagine many escaped the okie doke Dallas has pulled off in these playoffs. What okie doke, you ask? Let me explain.
Without trying to speak for everyone outside of Dallas, I think it’s safe to assume many NBA fans and bettors had a reasonable read on the Mavs coming into these playoffs. They were good, not great. Their first round win over the Utah Jazz was as much about Utah as it was about them.
It wasn’t until the Mavericks stunned the reigning Western Conference champion Phoenix Suns in the second round that we were forced to question that logic and think maybe, just maybe, Dallas was actually on to something.
