Despite a historically prolific offense, the seven-seed Dallas Mavericks weren't given much of a chance in their first-round series with two-seed Los Angeles Clippers. The Clippers have reigning finals MVP Kawhi Leonard, a second superstar in Paul George, and the deepest rotation in the NBA.

While Dallas has a couple legitimate stars of their own in Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis, they're far less playoff-tested—this is Doncic's first playoff series—and the supporting cast is missing some key players. Four Mavs are out for the season, three due to injury. The fourth, Willie Cauley-Stein, opted out of the season before the restart due to the impending birth of his child.

Cauley-Stein's departure opened up a slot on the roster that the Mavs used to sign Trey Burke, who'd played 25 games for Dallas in 2018-19. Burke spent 25 games with Philadelphia this season, averaging six points in 13 minutes per game before getting waived—in a cruel twist, to make room for a trade that brought former Michigan teammate Glenn Robinson III to Philly.

Dallas didn't bring in Burke to sit on the end of the bench, though. They had a hole at backup point guard after Jalen Brunson needed season-ending shoulder surgery. Burke is familiar with coach Rick Carlisle's system and has a certain chemistry with Tim Hardaway Jr., who's flourished as the team's third option this season. In the eight seeding games leading into the playoffs, Burke averaged 12 points with a 4:1 assist-to-turnover ratio in 24 minutes per game. He even dropped 31 and 6 in his season re-debut:

Playoff basketball is a different beast, though, and game one against LA didn't make Dallas' chances look any better than they appeared heading into the series. While Doncic poured in 42 points, Porzingis was held in check before a (questionable) ejection, and other than a hot-shooting Seth Curry the Mavs got nothing from the rest of the team. After Dallas held a narrow halftime lead, the Clippers pulled away in the second half. Burke went 1-for-5 in 20 minutes.

[Hit THE JUMP for Vintage Burke.]

Burke got off to a better start in yesterday's game two, scoring seven first-half points as the Mavs again held the edge at the break. They kept the momentum going in the third quarter this time, in part because Burke finished it off with a layup (and should-be and-one) straight out of his college days:

With the Mavs up by ten early in the fourth, Doncic picked up his fifth foul. It felt like if Dallas were to win, it'd be by the skin of their teeth. Instead, the bench took over, led by Burke:

After a 127-114 victory, Dallas put Burke on the podium for the postgame presser:

That dominance by the Mavs’ bench was clear when superstar point guard Luka Doncic went to the bench nursing five fouls early in the fourth quarter with the Mavs up, 98-88. But instead of the Mavs wilting without Doncic, they started thriving behind Burke and Curry as the Dallas lead grew to 18 points.

“We know (Doncic is) our go-to guy, but things happen,” said Burke, who tallied 16 points in only 18 minutes. “So we knew we had to stay together, we knew we had to continue to huddle up on all dead balls.

“That’s a tough team over there with more experience than what we have. But we feel like we match up great with them, we feel like we have the pieces to win this series, so tonight was a big night for us.”

His final stat line: 16 points, 7-11 FG, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, a block, and a lone turnover. Hardaway, for his part, had 17 points and 3 assists.

Even if you're not into the NBA, the bubble has provided high-quality basketball—it seems like the better backdrop has led to sharper shooting—and plenty of reason to tune in as a Michigan fan. Burke, Hardaway, Duncan Robinson, and Caris LeVert are all playing big roles. It's been a joy to watch.

Incidentally, Philadelphia dropped to 0-2 in their first-round series against Boston yesterday. With Ben Simmons injured, they played without a point guard—traditional or otherwise—in the starting lineup and gave 15 minutes to Raul Neto, who went minus-17. Just, you know, putting that out there.