Before they boarded their flight to Boston on Tuesday, the Mavericks got hit with a few questions about the 7-3 elephant in the room.
Kristaps Porzingis, the former Maverick who never quite worked out the way everybody hoped, is expected to return in the NBA Finals from a leg injury that kept him out of the previous two rounds of the playoffs.
When coach Jason Kidd was asked about Porzingis, he had a logical response.
“They were good without him,” he said. “They’re going to be pretty good with him.”
Indeed, the Celtics breezed through the Eastern Conference with a 12-2 playoff record.