Series preview: Battle-tested Warriors take on surging Mavericks

The Golden State Warriors and Dallas Mavericks are set to meet in the 2022 NBA Playoffs Western Conference finals, beginning in San Francisco on Wednesday (9 ET, TNT) with both teams arriving here after traveling bumpy roads.

The Warriors finished with the conference’s No. 3 seed despite Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green sharing only a combined 11 regular-season minutes amid overlapping injuries. They dispatched the Denver Nuggets in five games in the first-round only to meet a young and physical second-seeded Memphis Grizzlies team that challenged them to six games.

The Mavericks finished with the fourth seed and held onto relative optimism that Luka Doncic’s brilliance, Jason Kidd’s arrival and a mid-season trade would finally help them advance past the first-round. They did, knocking off the Utah Jazz in six games and then upsetting the top-seeded Phoenix Suns in seven — a team that had set a franchise record with this regular season’s league-high 64 wins.

3 Things to Watch

1. The Warriors expect a fuller roster. Warriors coach Steve Kerr cleared the NBA’s Health & Safety Protocols after missing Games 4, 5 and 6 against Memphis. Warriors veteran forward Andre Iguodala could return as early as Friday in Game 2 after missing the Warriors’ past seven playoff games, including the entire series against Memphis, with a neck injury. And the Warriors expect forward Otto Porter Jr. to appear in Game 1 after missing the past two games with a sore right foot.

Clearly, the Warriors’ success mostly rests on Curry, Thompson and Green. But the other additions could have a huge trickle-down effect. Pending Kings head coach Mike Brown offered experience, strong preparation and defensive expertise, but Kerr provides unique offensive creativity and presence as the guide to their previous three-championship run. Not only did the Warriors miss Iguodala’s playoff experience and Porter’s versatility, they also became more vulnerable with fewer wing options. The Warriors may not have to worry about such issues against Dallas.

2. How will Luka Doncic top himself? It seems inevitable the Warriors will soon feel the pain that the LA Clippers, Utah Jazz and Phoenix Suns all experienced. No team has a solution for Doncic, particularly in the playoffs.

The Clippers survived a first-round nightmare against Doncic in 2020 (31 ppg; 50.0 FG%) and in 2021 (35.7 ppg; 49.0 FG%) only because they had Kawhi Leonard while Doncic had little help. This year, Doncic dominated against the Jazz (29.0 ppg; 46.9%) and the Suns (32.2 ppg; 45.7 FG%) while also leaning on his supporting cast.

After facing other thankless tasks against Denver center Nikola Jokic and Memphis guard Ja Morant, the Warriors have experience on handling a seemingly impossible defensive assignment. Expect the Warriors to throw multiple bodies at Doncic both big (Green, Porter, Kevon Looney) and small (Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins). Expect the Warriors to make Doncic work on defense…