PLAYOFFS ROUND 1: #4 DAL (4-2) vs #5 UTA (2-4) |

[SwisherPrice]

I see a little more realism in the voting now than prior to game 1. Cognitive bias associated with fandom is very interesting.  I was until recently the only one with a Utah sweep (though with Luka, I would have picked Mavs in 5). Without Luka, I give the Mavs a 50-50 chance to win one game, and in that case, they could probably eek out game 5 before falling in 6.  Reading between the lines, I’m pessimistic Luka even sees the floor this series.  So it’s either a sweep or six game loss I guess.  This really sucks.  What a waste of time this season is turning out to be.

Everyone saw the Jazz as a good matchup because they have been struggling overall but I think without Luka, the Jazz might be the worst matchup for us in the West outside of the Suns. This is the perfect series for Gobert to showcase his skills - without having to guard Luka on the perimeter and also no big man on the Mavs to challenge him, he can just roam around on defense and rebound. And then they also have Whiteside - not sure how a team with one of the best centers in the league is also able to get a capable backup like him for cheap while the Mavs entered the season with their same frontcourt from the last 2 years 

Besides the big advantage at center, the Jazz have multiple scorers (Mitchell, Bojan, Conley, Clarkson) and they all scored 10+ in game 1 and have potential to shoot well from three.

Then, the playoff experience advantage is huge. That entire rotation has way more experience than the Mavs.