Former Dallas Mavs head coach Avery Johnson has officially thrown his hat into the ring for boldest prediction of the ongoing hiatus. Johnson recently predicted that the Dallas Mavericks could potentially sneak into the NBA Finals when the league picks back up in Orlando later this month.
Although Dallas is very talented, thanks largely to the tandem of point guard Luka Doncic and former New York Knicks big man Kristaps Porzingis, the Mavericks still have to play in the always dangerous — and absolutely stacked — Western Conference come playoff time.
As it stands today, the Mavs sit at a respectable 40-27 on the season, which is no easy feat in either conference but especially in the Western Conference. However, despite the team's success during the early portion of the 2019-20 regular season, the Mavericks currently reside in seventh place in the Western Conference standings, just one spot ahead of the Memphis Grizzlies, who presently own the eighth and final playoff seed.
If the regular season were to end today, the Mavericks would notably matchup against the surging Los Angeles Clippers in the opening round of the postseason as Kawhi Leonard and company are the No. 2-seeded team in the Western Conference behind only the crosstown rival Los Angeles Lakers.
Even though seemingly only Johnson is picking the Mavericks to make a deep postseason run in Orlando, Dallas does have at least one aspect of the upcoming NBA restart going for them — no home court advantage for the Clippers or any other top-seeded playoff team.