ESPN Analysts Split on Dallas Mavericks and OKC Thunder Western Semifinals Series

The Dallas Mavericks tip-off for Game 1 of their Western Conference Semifinals series against the Oklahoma City Thunder tonight, which has people putting in their predictions.

ESPN polled their NBA analysts for predictions on the series and came up with a dead tie; 7 people picking the top-seeded Thunder and 7 picking the Mavs. All of them predicted the series to go at least six games, with nine analysts picking the series to go the full seven games. The analysts who chose the Mavericks to win the series include Chris Herring, Israel Gutierrez, Marc Spears, and Tim Legler.

The Thunder opened as small favorites on betting sites to win the series, but the series prediction with the lowest odds on DraftKings is the Mavericks winning in 6 games, followed closely by the Thunder winning in 7.

Oklahoma City won the season series 3-1, but both Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving only played in one of those games, a 35-point blowout win in the first game following the trade deadline and the debut of PJ Washington and Daniel Gafford. Doncic was injured and didn't play in the following game and just about no one played for Dallas in the last game of the season against OKC as their playoff seeding was already locked up.

This sets up an entertaining series between two young superstars, Luka Doncic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, entering their prime at 25 years old and two of three finalists for the MVP award, which should be announced in the coming days. Doncic led the Mavericks to the Western Conference Finals two seasons ago while the Thunder's sweep of the Pelicans in the first round was OKC's first series win since trading for Gilgeous-Alexander in the 2019 offseason.

Game 1 begins tonight at 8:30 p.m. CST from Paycom Arena in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Stick with MavericksGameday for more coverage of the Dallas Mavericks throughout the NBA Playoffs 

Follow Austin Veazey on Twitter