5 things to know about the Mavericks, the Celtics’ Finals opponents

Celtics

The NBA Finals are set to begin on June 6, with the Celtics taking on the Mavericks at TD Garden for Game 1.

By Amin Touri, The Boston Globe

May 31, 2024 | 10:37 AM

The NBA Finals are set, with the Celtics set to take on the Mavericks after Dallas took down Minnesota, 124-103, in Game 5 on Thursday.

While there were few surprises in the Eastern Conference playoffs, with the Celtics rolling through three rounds with just two losses, few expected the fifth-seeded Mavericks to be here. Dallas found itself tied, 2-2, against both the fourth-seeded Clippers and the top-seeded Thunder, before winning two Game 5s on the road and closing out each series at home in Game 6.

Then they blew through the Timberwolves, the Western Conference favorites after vanquishing the defending champion Nuggets, to book an unlikely place in the Finals.

Here’s what you need to know about these Mavericks.

1. Their offense revolves around Luke Doncic

The term “heliocentric” has entered the NBA lexicon in recent years to describe offenses that revolve around one primary ball-handler, initiator, and shot-creator (think James Harden with the Rockets as the quintessential example).

That’s probably not what Copernicus had in mind a few centuries back, but it’s what the Mavericks have become over the last few years with Doncic becoming the center of their basketball universe.

No player with more than 1,500 minutes played in the regular season had a higher usage rate (the proportion of a team’s plays a player ends by shooting, assisting, drawing free throws, or turning the ball over) than Doncic at 35.5 percent. And nobody is particularly close; the gap between Doncic and second place (Giannis Antetokounmpo, 32 percent) is as big as the gap between second place and 21st (LeBron James and Zion Williamson, 28.5 percent).

Doncic took 33.8 percent of the Mavericks’ shots (again, highest of any player with at least 1,500 minutes) and logged 49.2 percent of their assists (behind only Atlanta’s Trae Young and Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton), taking full control of the offense throughout the season.

Doncic scored 73 points in a game against the Hawks this season, a total surpassed in NBA history only by Wilt Chamberlain and Kobe Bryant.

It should be noted that his usage has come down notably in the playoffs, with his 31.8 percent mark ranking just fifth. But when the chips are down, the Mavericks still give the ball to Doncic and get out of the way.

2. They had only the 11th-best odds to win the title before the season

To underscore how unexpected this Finals run is: According to basketball-reference.com, the Mavericks were 25-1 to win the title this season, the 11th-best odds, behind teams such as the Grizzlies (missed the playoffs), Warriors (10th in the West, eliminated in the play-in), and Lakers (seventh in the West, out in the first round).

Dallas is the lowest seed to come out of the West since the sixth-seeded Rockets reached — and won — the NBA Finals in 1995. The only other fifth seed to make the Finals this century was the 2020 Heat, who lost to the Lakers in six games in the bubble.

3. They have one of the NBA’s most unusual ownership setups

There perhaps has been no more high-profile owner in the NBA in recent decades than Mark Cuban, the billionaire who bought the Mavericks at the turn of the century after they floundered throughout the 1990s and immediately turned them into a perennial contender.

With his hands-on approach, frequent disputes with the league, and prominence as an investor and personality on ABC’s “Shark Tank,” Cuban became the face of the franchise.

So it was a major surprise to many when Cuban sold his majority stake in the Mavericks to the family of late Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson for more than $3.5 billion in December.

But Cuban wasn’t going anywhere; despite the sale, he maintained control over basketball operations. How does that work, legally? Nobody seems to know.

It appears that Cuban managed to sell his franchise for more than 10 times what he paid for it, and he still gets to play fantasy basketball in real life with a $3.5 billion stipend. Not a bad deal.

4. Like the Celtics, they love shooting 3-pointers

Bob Ryan is going to hate this series.

Nobody took more 3-pointers this season (as a percentage of their overall shots) than the Celtics, who hoisted an absurd 47.2 percent of their attempts from downtown. Second place? The Mavericks, at 44.1 percent.

That number has come down in the playoffs, with opponents set on running the Mavericks off the 3-point line, but their 40.4 percent rate is still second-highest among teams that got out of the first round (and fourth overall).

The Celtics actually ticked up to 47.4 percent. Bombs away!

5. They finished the season hot, and haven’t cooled off

The Mavericks certainly didn’t look like title contenders in early March, when a 1-5 skid left them at 34-28 and staring down the play-in tournament.

Since then, Dallas has been on a tear, finishing the regular season 16-4, dispatching the Clippers in Round 1, upsetting the Thunder in Round 2, and ousting the Timberwolves in the Western Conference finals.

Including playoffs, the Mavericks are 28-9 since March 7. The only team with a better mark? The Celtics, at 28-7.

It’s not the Finals people expected, but the Mavericks looked like contenders down the stretch, and they have proven they belong on this stage.