The Mavs weren't a spectacular 3-point shooting team during the regular season at 36.5 percent. In three games against the Lakers, Dallas dipped to 32.4 percent, only to drain a whopping 46.2 percent in the four-game second-round series.

"L.A. is a team that gave up the third-most 3s [attempts] in the league during the regular season," said Mavs coach Rick Carlisle. "Part of that is their philosophy of having a collapsing defense that’s very heavily shifted towards the ball, and it’s made them very successful. And then they do a good job of flying out on 3s, but they give up a lot of attempts."

Against the Thunder defense, which is allowing 33.9 percent shooting from beyond the arc in the playoffs, the Mavs are expecting harder closeouts to force Dallas, as Harden said, to put the ball on the floor and get off the arc. The Mavs shot the 3-ball better than their average against the Thunder in three regular season games at 37.1 percent.

"[Oklahoma City] will contest everything," Carlisle said. "So nothing will come easy."