The Dallas Mavericks will start tonight in the Western Conference Finals against the Minnesota Timberwolves, and series predictions are flying around. Before the Mavericks won the series, there weren’t that many supporters of the Clippers game, but after that, it was a series that was evenly divided among Thunder fans. So what did ESPN predict for the Western Conference Finals vs. the Timberwolves?
Of the 15 analysts surveyed by ESPN, nine predict a Timberwolves win, six predict a Mavericks win, and all expect the series to last at least six games. Some of the analysts who predicted the Timberwolves include Ramona Shelburne, Mark J. Spears, Kendra Andrews and Andre Snellings. Tim Bontemps, Tim Legler, Israel Gutierrez and Bobby Marks are on the list of analysts predicting the Mavericks.
Now read: Dallas Mavericks’ Luka Doncic welcomes matchup with Minnesota Timberwolves as ‘really fun’
Also, the Conference Finals MVP predictions include eight Anthony Edwards, five Luka Doncic, one Kyrie Irving, and one Jaden McDaniels (probably because he’s likely to be Doncic’s primary defender). I chose. Conference Finals MVP is a new award that began with the 2022 playoffs, and State’s Stephen Curry became the first player in the West to win the award after defeating the Mavs in five games.
This seems to be the consensus everywhere, with the Timberwolves winning the majority of predictions at a ratio of about 60:40. The Timberwolves are slight favorites in this series, but Dallas has been the underdog in every series so far but has come away with a win.
Luka Doncic’s health may be a deciding factor in this series as he’s been dealing with knee and ankle issues. He played better in the final two games of the Thunder series, but it was still his worst playoff series to date (still averaging 24.7 PPG, 10.5 RPG, 8.7 APG on 44.7/39.1/73.7 shooting splits). The Timberwolves may not have much experience at this stage of the postseason, but they are mostly healthy and have a young phenom in Anthony Edwards who made some big plays in the playoffs.
Game 1 begins at 7:30 PM CST at Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
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