Warriors-Mavericks: Dallas writers all on Mavs in six, but bookmakers favor Dubs

The Dallas Mavericks just took down the NBA’s best regular season team in the Phoenix Suns, so it stands to reason they could upset the No. 3-seeded Warriors in the Western Conference finals.

Or at least, that’s the reasoning likely used by many of the Dallas Morning News reporters who made their picks for the series Wednesday morning.

It was a clean sweep among the Morning News’ five-writer crew: Mavs in six.

After Luka Dončić outfoxed the dominant Suns and the Dallas defense shut down Phoenix’s offensive machine run by Chris Paul, it’s certainly fair to assume they’ll present a strong challenge to the Warriors, who didn’t look particularly cohesive in the back half of their series against the Memphis Grizzlies.

The Dallas crew pointed out some of the same concerns many folks here have about the Warriors: The stars are now three years older than they were the last time they made the Finals. Golden State doesn’t have an obvious candidate to slow down Doncic. The Warriors’ ever-present turnover problem may finally bite them.

Here in the Bay, our own Dieter Kurtenbach represented Bay Area News Group in the pick-making business and predicted a Warriors series win in five games.

From a national perspective, Sports Illustrated’s panel of 14 writers leaned toward the Warriors, with 10 votes for Golden State and four for Dallas. ESPN, after picking unanimously against Dallas in the last round against Phoenix, again favored the higher-seeded team, with 14 votes for the Dubs and five for the Mavs.

Bookmakers are siding with the national perspective that the Warriors should be favored, too: Golden State is listed on VegasInsider.com at -225 to win the series and is the overall title favorite (+142) as of Wednesday night. They are also 5.5-point favorites to win Game 1, according to Vegas Insider.