After the trade deadline, I kept saying Dallas was a dark horse in the West. The conference was too loaded to definitively say one team was gonna get to the Finals but this does not surprise me at all.
Back in October I didn’t think they would make the playoffs brcause they lacked size on the frontcourt and tough/effective rebounders. They had a soft and unidimensional roster last year . They struggled to have presence in the paint. They had elite scoring/shooting from the backcourt (Kyrie and Luka) but they were thin everywhere else. They were in 6th in offensive rating, but 24th in defensive rating. Back in October, I didn’t see the mavs making the playoffs. But the unexpected and surprising emergence of the rookie dereck Lively (who made an impact immediately and provided quality contributions) and the trade deadline acquisitions of Gafford/Washington greatly improved their team and made the mavs deeper, stronger, bigger, more intimidating in the paint, more dangerous offensively around the rim and better defensively(more blocks and defensive rebounds)