Can you feel the excitement in the air yet?
The Dallas Mavericks have a preseason “dress rehearsal” to take care of on Friday night in Utah, but after that … the next time they play a basketball game will be the real thing, as they return to the Game 7 crime scene to take on the Phoenix Suns at 9 pm CT on Wednesday.
When you have Luka Doncic on your roster, you automatically become a must-watch team every season … especially when you’re coming off a playoff run to the Western Conference Finals. According to Stubhub, the Mavs’ ticket demand for this season has increased by 257 percent compared to last season.
ESPN’s Zach Lowe has jumped on the bandwagon as well, as he ranked the Mavs as one of the top teams to watch on NBA League Pass this season.
“Doncic’s size and comfort in the middle of the paint – the dead zone for some ball handlers – open up endless possibilities. He’s at his most predatory dragging smaller defenders into pick-and-rolls. Switch, and he mashes them in the post with smirking cruelty. (He took sadistic pleasure brutalizing Patrick Beverley in the 2021 playoffs.) Send help, and he picks you apart,” writes Lowe.
Scroll to Continue
“Even against like-sized defenders and traditional coverages, Doncic is a three-steps-ahead genius burrowing inside. His high-arching step-back is borderline unblockable, and he has hit 50% from floater range over the past two seasons – and a LeBron James-esque 73% at the rim last season.”
Although the Mavs made it into Lowe’s Top 10, they were right at No. 10 on that list. The teams ahead of Dallas included: the Los Angeles Lakers, Minnesota Timberwolves, Milwaukee Bucks, Boston Celtics, New Orleans Pelicans, Denver Nuggets, Memphis Grizzlies, Golden State Warriors and Brooklyn Nets.
Make sure your TVs don’t overheat, because the Mavs will play the Grizzlies, Pelicans and Nets in the first eight days of the regular season.
Want the latest in breaking news and insider information on the Mavericks? Click here.
Follow DallasBasketball.com on Twitter and Facebook.
.