Ranking the Mavericks' potential playoff opponents from piece of cake to nightmare

4. Oklahoma City Thunder

The Dallas Mavericks' most recent loss came against the Oklahoma City Thunder on the road, and the Mavs were without Luka Doncic in this game. Kyrie Irving did his best to help lead the Mavs to a tough victory, but it was clear the Mavs were missing Doncic.

If Doncic played in this game, the result would have likely been different, and the Mavs match up surprisingly well with Oklahoma City. The Thunder are a relatively small team outside of Chet Holmgren, and Daniel Gafford dominated in his last game against the Thunder.

While Shai Gilgeous-Alexander remains one of the top players in the NBA, he and Jalen Williams are the only two perimeter players that the Mavs would need to worry about. Josh Giddey has also played extremely well lately, but I don't see him carrying this momentum all the way into the playoffs.

OKC would likely use Lu Dort to try to slow down Doncic, but they would have no answer for Irving. This was clear in their last game, and any team trying to stop both Doncic and Irving is a hard task.

Not to mention, the Thunder have minimal playoff experience and the team is super young. This doesn't mean that they can't make some noise and surprise some people, but it doesn't look like the Thunder are the most likely team that could take down Doncic, Irving, and the Mavs.