NBA: How each non-LA playoff team can win the Western Conference

How the Dallas Mavericks can win the West 

Dallas must finally start hitting open 3’s

The Dallas Mavericks offense is pretty simple – run the offense through Luka Doncic and hit a ton of 3’s.

The Doncic part of the offense has been great – because Doncic is amazing – but the 3’s have not worked out as well. The Mavs have taken 38 3’s a game (5th in the NBA), but have only hit 35 percent of their shots (20th in NBA). The Mavericks had a historically great offense last year, but a lot of this was attributed to having Seth Curry and a healthier Maxi Kleber on the floor.

This season Dallas struggled early on with offense with Josh Richardson and James Johnson on the floor, not to mention a global pandemic messing up the team’s early season rotations. Guys couldn’t find their spots and frankly just weren’t making shots.

However, the team is heating up. Since Mid-March the Mavericks are hitting at 36.8 percent from 3 – which is steady positive trend. Doncic is shooting 36 percent, Kleber is now hitting at 41 percent, Tim Hardaway Jr. at 38 percent, and Jalen Brunson at 39 percent. Throw J.J. Reddick into the rotation and now this team might be a scary three-point shooting squad.

With how good Doncic is, shooters should be open all around the arc for Dallas. If they can heat up in the playoffs, this team might make a serious run.

Kristaps. Porzingis must take over games

It wasn’t too long ago that Kristaps Porzingis was a future MVP and a top ten player in the League. That obviously has changed with his injury history and sporadic play, but he’s had a really underrated good year – averaging 20.5 points per game while shooting 36 percent from 3 and posting a career-high in effective field goal percentage. Dallas will need a consistent version of Porzingis going into the playoffs.

Porzingis likes to play primarily as a pick-and-pop shooter but has lately shown the willingness to roll the basket and use his 7-foot-3 frame trying to draw contact and get easier baskets. With Doncic expected to get the majority of the defensive attention against the playoff opponents, Porzingis will need to take over quarters (or even games) with his offense. That’ll lesson the pressure on Doncic creating shots and give the Mavericks shooters more space to chuck it up.

Porzingis will also need to step up his game against the elite big men. Porzingis has shot only 38 percent in his last four games against Rudy Gobert, and 37 percent in his last four games against Anthony Davis. If he can score at a 45 percent clip and get over the hump offensively against elite defenders, Dallas might morph into an unstoppable force.