6 Mistakes that doomed the Dallas Mavericks from winning the Finals

With the 2023-24 NBA season coming to an end on Monday night, the Dallas Mavericks completed one of their greatest seasons in recent memory after losing to the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals. Despite falling short of a franchise's second NBA championship, the 2023-24 Mavericks will go down as one of the most improbable Western Conference Champions in recent memory.

When fans look back on this team's best moments, they will think about their improbable series victories over both the first-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder and the heavily favored Minnesota Timberwolves in the Western Conference Finals.

Dallas proved they were the ultimate underdog and the team also proved that they will be legitimate contenders for years to come.

6 Mistakes that doomed the Dallas Mavericks from winning the Finals

From Luka Doncic's iconic moment against the Timberwolves where Snoop Dogg took notice of the young superstar's killer mentality, to the Mavericks blowout Game 4 victory in the NBA Finals, this season will go down in history amongst Mavs fans. However, even after a great season, Dallas still made many crucial mistakes that cost them a chance at their second NBA title.

Boston proved that they are one of the greatest teams ever assembled but Dallas still had many chances to even the series against the Celtics. Had the Mavericks corrected these six mistakes, perhaps the Finals would still be going on and the Mavericks would have a potential series lead headed back home for Game 6.

Here are six reasons the Mavericks could not complete the reverse sweep against Boston even after a dominate Game 4 performance.

6. Mavericks' perimeter defense got exposed against the Celtics

After a dominant Game 1 victory for the Celtics, it became abundantly clear that Dallas would need to defend the perimeter with a sense of urgency that they had not played with to that point. Not only did the Mavericks get torched by their former teammate Kristaps Porzingis, but players like Sam Houser and Derrick White lit up the scoreboard from behind the arc due to Dallas' lack of perimeter defense.

While the Celtics may not have shot better than 38 percent as they did in Game 1 from behind the three-point line, Boston still managed to get many open looks with their versatile five-out offense. Up until that point, Dallas defended the three-ball at a relatively elite rate, but Boston proved to be too much and too talented for the Mavericks.

The Celtics became a team that relied heavily on runs to space out their leads and with the three ball falling at an elite rate and the ability to get wide-open looks due to Dallas' inability to defend the five-out offense, Boston feasted for four of the five games in the Finals.

As the offseason approaches, it's clear that the Mavericks will need to make another move to bolster their perimeter defense. It has yet to be seen who the Mavericks could be interested in but a safe assumption amongst fans is that Tim Hardaway Jr. could have played his last game in Dallas after a strugglesome display all playoffs long.