The Oklahoma City Thunder sent the Pelicans to four games in the first round against New Orleans and gave them a week off for the second round.
The OKC Thunder decided their second-round opponent on Friday, when the Dallas Mavericks defeated the Los Angeles Clippers in Game 6.
The Mavericks sent the Clippers to Cancun as the American Airlines Center shook. This will be the fourth matchup between the two teams in the postseason.
The Mavericks had their best performance against the Thunder in 2011, but lost to the upstart Bricktown Boys in 2012 and 2016.
Oklahoma City fielded the youngest No. 1 seed in NBA history, the Dallas Mavericks added one of the best duos in the league in Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, and each roster has some fresh faces.
There's no shortage of star power in this series, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and two of the top three Most Valuable Player votes in Doncic, Irving, Chet Holmgren and Jaylen Williams.
The Mavs won easily on Friday and have a more proven playoff track record than the Thunder on paper, but Oklahoma City opens as the favorite to win the series, according to FanDuel.
The Thunder defeated the Mavericks in seven sets, -122, to advance to the Western Conference Finals for the first time since 2016.
In the regular season, Oklahoma City had a 3-1 record against Dallas, with only one game featuring both Doncic and Irving in the Mavericks' lineup.
Oklahoma City has proven to be better than the Mavericks over the course of an 82-game season, and the Mavericks have really come back to life after the NBA trade deadline, and their domination of the Pelicans puts them in the postseason stakes. It was a good sign of the Thunder's ability to cope.
Combine these and it's easy to see why the boys of Bricktown are favored in this series before public funding sways things in one direction.
The Oklahoma City Thunder will begin Game 2 of their series against the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday, May 7th inside Paycom Center. The contest will be broadcast on TNT, with tip-off scheduled for 8:30 PM Central Time.
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