It wasn’t always pretty for the Dallas Mavericks but they made it to the NBA playoffs. Dallas put a run together late in the year to earn a spot in the playoffs; they finished with the 6th seed. Waiting with the 3rd seed is the Oklahoma City Thunder and their dynamic duo of Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant. Oklahoma City won the season series 4-0 over Dallas and the consensus expects the same results in the playoffs as well.

In order for Dallas to make this series competitive it will need to the following, easier said than done I know.

Stop Russell Westbrook. If you can’t stop Westbrook, at least get in his way or something. Kevin Durant is the more polished player and the one destined for the Hall of Fame but Westbrook puts fear in your eyes. Westbrook is one of the best point guards in the world right now. He can slash to the hoop in a blink of an eye, or stop on a dime and drill a pull-up jumper. He’ll even stare down the guard, almost admitting he’s going to shoot, and drain a three right in their face.

Westbrook is a bad man, and the Mavericks only option is to let Wesley Matthews guard him and hope he misses. Hopefully Dallas conjures up a better plan, if not Westbrook will eat the Mavericks lunch.

The second key to victory is rebounding. OKC averages 49 rebounds per game compared to Dallas’ 43, not far off but individually it’s not close. Kevin Durant, Enes Kanter and Westbrook average 8 rebounds per game while Ibaka is just shy of them with 7. The Thunder’s starters combine for 34 rebounds per game. Dallas starters only average 16 as a starting unit.

That can’t happen in this series. Expect to see a heavy dose of Pachulia, Mejri and Powell in order to get the difference on the glass smaller. Based on game one success we’ll see who Dallas will start at center going forward.

The final key for Dallas is simply Dirk. This Dirk shows he still has it and as long as Dirk still has it, you cannot count the Mavericks out. They have to get the ball to Dirk early and often, he has shown in the past that he can score on OKC, so use that. If Dirk does not score at least 25 in every game Dallas loses the series. They need Dirk.

The world seems set on OKC easing through this series but I would not close the door on Dallas just yet. After all, it is the NBA playoffs, anything can happen.