(Photo by Sam Hodde/Getty Images)
Last season, the Dallas Mavericks were a massive disappointment after the team had reached the Western Conference Finals the previous year and seemed to be turning the corner with superstar Luka Doncic coming into his own as one of the best players in the league.
Despite trading for superstar guard Kyrie Irving ahead of the NBA trade deadline last season, the Mavericks fell short of making the playoffs and limped to the end of the 2022-23 campaign with an uncertain future ahead.
The NBA offseason seemed like a nightmare for the Mavericks as everyone began to question the Irving trade and whether Doncic would ever lead this team back to the NBA Finals, as the future started to look bleak in Dallas.
Fortunately for Dallas, the team made some solid moves in the offseason, like drafting rookie center Dereck Lively II, and everything started to come together over the course of the 2023-24 NBA regular season.
Now, the Mavericks are headed to the Finals, with Doncic joining elite company as one of six scoring champions to reach the Finals in the same season over the last 50 years, according to the NBA’s Twitter account.
Scoring champs to reach the NBA Finals in the same season over the last 50 years… Luka joins an elite group!
Doncic and the @dallasmavs visit Boston for Game 1 of the #NBAFinals presented by @YouTubeTV on Thursday at 8:30pm/et on ABC. pic.twitter.com/mmKiPM6gah
— NBA (@NBA) June 2, 2024
Fortunately for Doncic, three of the five other players on this list went on to win NBA titles, with Michael Jordan, Stephen Curry, and Shaquille O’Neal lifting the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
Although the Mavericks are considered the underdogs heading into this seven-game series against a very good Boston Celtics team that excels on both ends of the basketball floor, Dallas has proven to be as resilient as any team in the playoffs and seems to be up for the challenge of pulling off the upset.
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