OKLAHOMA CITY – Well, at least this is familiar territory for the Mavericks.
They trail the Western Conference semifinals 1-0 after the youthful energy of the Oklahoma City Thunder showed itself and the Mavericks’ shooting didn’t. They proceeded to lose the opener of this best-of-seven set 117-95 Tuesday night at Paycom Center.
Not to worry. The Mavericks have been here before.
A lot.
They haven’t won Game 1 of a playoff series in their last two postseason runs. They went down 1-0 in 2022 against Utah, Phoenix and Golden State. And of course, they lost the opener to the Clippers in Los Angeles in the first round this year.