Almost four years ago, the Dallas Mavericks tied their first-round series against the Clippers at two games apiece in memorable fashion, as Luka Doncic hit a step-back three from the left wing over Reggie Jackson. It was a “Mount Rushmore” moment in Mavericks history and Luka Doncic capped it off with this quote after the game:
“If you don’t believe, you shouldn’t be here. We’ve believed from the beginning, and now we’re tied 2-2.”
Talk that talk, Luka pic.twitter.com/Dcs5zdVbDA
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) August 23, 2020
At the time, the Mavericks didn’t have a real shot of beating Los Angeles. The Clippers were fully healthy in year one of their Kawhi Leonard and Paul George experiment and were real title contenders. Dallas was beat up and inexperienced and guys like Michael Kidd-Gilchrist got minutes in that series. Despite this, it was clear that Doncic meant what he said. He single-handedly won Dallas that game four and for the first time on a big stage we saw that as long as Luka Doncic was playing, the Mavericks had a chance to win. “If you don’t believe, you shouldn’t be here” was the sentiment Doncic expressed. It gave the fanbase hope then, but it was hard to see at the time just how important those words were.
Four years later, the Mavericks have won their most games in a postseason since 2011 and find themselves two wins away from the NBA Finals. How they got here was no paved road and required loss and change of every kind. They have made trades at the deadline the last three seasons, each one altering the roster entirely. They have had a head coaching change, assistant coaching changes, a general manager swap out, and an ownership transition in the time since. Through all of this chaos, the belief the team has had in themselves has remained steady. We saw it when Dallas nearly took a 3-0 lead in 2021 against the same team that had beaten them the year prior. We saw it when they caught lightning in a bottle in 2022 and Luka Doncic led them to a blowout victory in game seven against Phoenix to send the Mavericks to the Conference Finals. Even when Dallas missed the playoffs in 2023 there was no doubt in their mind that they would be back the next year.
The Mavericks are in the midst of a magical run. They were propelled by midseason trades and carried by their stars. It is the perfect storm and everyone is hitting their stride at the right time. The possibility of winning a championship is now very feasible as they are just six wins away. The talent and coaching certainly have a lot to do with their success, but the belief they have in themselves to perform every night is what is driving it. They feel that they are the best team and that they can bring home the second Larry O’Brien trophy in franchise history. If they didn’t believe that, well, they wouldn’t be here.