Danger Zone: Mavs Efficient, Explosive & Confident As NBA Playoffs Near

Offensively efficient? Check, at an all-time level.

Offensively explosive? Check, in a record-setting way.

Offensively confident as the Dallas Mavericks get set for Monday's Game 1 of a best-of-seven NBA Playoffs series with No. 2 seed the Los Angeles Clippers?

So they say.

“That’s one of our strengths – our offense – and that’s just the way we play,” said Kristaps Porzingis said. “We’re a dangerous team on offense and on any given night we can surprise people and we can beat anybody with our offense.

"We just want to win games, and then everybody is going to be talking about us.”

What the NBA world is already talking about is the fact that the 2019-20 Dallas offense, featuring Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis, is officially the most efficient offensive season in the history of the NBA. The Mavs’ offensive rating of 115.9 points per 100 possessions eclipsed the old record of 115 points per 100 possessions set last season the Golden State Warriors.

“We can beat anybody with our offense,” said Porzingis, who averaged 30.5 points and 9.5 rebounds in the bubble, and joins Doncic (28.8 points, 9.4 rebounds and 8.8 assists overall, with an NBA-best 17 triple-doubles) on the eight-seeding-game NBA All-Bubble Team. “I think the next steps for us are bringing the rest of the things up to that level.''

Ah, the next steps. Ah, the next level. That's another way of saying Dallas needs to find a way to stop opponents. Game 1 is Monday at 8 p.m. and while the Mavs can score against them - hey, this season's Mavs set a franchise record by scoring at least 140 points in four games this season, and scored at least 135 points in three straight games for the first time in team history - trying to slow Kawhi Leonard and Paul George and company is an entirely different issue.

But maybe Dallas will just have to live by the sword ...

“I like to score,’ coach Rick Carlisle said. “What can I tell you? I like today’s game, I like skill players, I like guys that’ll move the ball, that can drive it and do all those kinds of things.”

Yes, but truth be told, Carlisle also likes to stop the other team from scoring. And that is not this Dallas' team's forte.

“We have a very tough matchup, but this is a great opportunity for us,” Carlisle said. “We know that we’re playing a team on the very highest level of this league.''

And Dallas also seems to know that it's best chance of success is to match its usual all-time high with the sort of efficiency and explosiveness that justifies its confidence.