There are a lot of “revenge” storylines tied to numerous teams in this year’s playoffs, one of those teams being the Dallas Mavericks. Last year in the NBA Bubble, Dallas fell victim to the Clippers in the first-round, losing the series 4-2. 

What was interesting about this series though was that Kristaps Porzingis suffered a knee injury halfway through that kept him out for the reaminer of the playoffs and Luka Doncic was playing with a sprained ankle. This team was not 100% whatsoever, yet they were in pretty much every game against the Clippers. 

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Now, both teams are definitely much different roster-wise than they were a season ago and the Clippers have major championship aspirations once again, but Dallas is not a team to count out from the start. 

The Mavericks won two of the three regular season meetings against the Clippers, even though Los Angeles was not at full strength for all of these games, but regardless, Dallas has shown the ability to keep up with the best of the best this year, even though they may not have the most talented roster in the league. 

Luka Doncic is one of the best players in the league and while he may not be in the discussion for league MVP, he has played like a true MVP candidate all season long. With Doncic playing the best basketball of his career and others stepping up at the right time for Dallas, this could definitely be an interesting series. 

The Clippers are highly favored in this series against the Mavericks, but anything can happen and these are the four x-factors that could very well end up deciding this series.