By John McMullen
Perception is often greater than reality.
The Dallas Mavericks have been a dominant regular season team since the turn of the century thanks in large part to the spectacular future Hall of Famer Dirk Nowitzki.
The German superstar arrived in Big D back in the 1998-99 season and by his third campaign in north Texas, was averaging 21.8 points per game. The Mavs also happened to win 53 games that season. Since then, Dirk has never scored under 20.0 ppg and Dallas has never failed to crack the 50-win barrier. Nowitzki has earned 10 All-Star nods, a Most Valuable Player Award in 2007 and four appearances on the All-NBA First Team over that span
But his Mavericks are far more famous for their playoff failures in both 2006 and '07. After taking a 2-0 lead over Dwyane Wade and the Heat back in the 2006 NBA Finals, Dallas fell apart at the seams and lost four straight to Miami.
The team looked like it rebounded nicely in '06-07, winning a franchise record 67 games but any goodwill that cultivated was quickly lost when the Golden State Warriors became the first eight seed to upset a No. 1 in a best-of- seven format, taking the heavily-favored Mavs in six games.
Of course those Dallas teams grew up under offensive mastermind Don Nelson and were all about offense, a philosophy that clearly faltered in the grind-it- out, half-court mentality of the NBA postseason. Conventional wisdom said that Dirk and the Mavs were soft, a label that they have been trying to shed ever since.
After the Warriors debacle in '07, mercurial owner Mark Cuban, along with Donn Nelson, Don's son and the team's President of Basketball Operations/General Manager, have been slowly remaking the team around Nowitzki.
The big breakthrough came back in February of 2010 when a blockbuster deal brought former All-Star forward Caron Butler, center Brendan Haywood, and guard DeShawn Stevenson from the nation's capital to Dallas for a package of players.
The deal landed three tough, hard-nosed players in the Lone Star State and was clearly designed to inject more of a defensive mindset to a team that ignored that end of the floor for far too long.
Things ramped up even more before this season when the Mavs acquired big man Tyson Chandler from the Charlotte Bobcats. One of the best interior defenders in all of basketball, the 7-foot-1 Chandler finished third in the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year voting this season.
This group of Mavericks waltzed into Los Angeles, a city in which they were 11-53 all-time versus the Lakers in the regular season and 0-10 in the playoffs, and promptly took the first two games of the Western Conference semifinals, the latest of which was a dominant 93-81 victory on Wednesday.
"If you told me before we were going to win both games, it would have been hard to believe. But I believe we earned it," Nowitzki said.
The Mavs success in Hollywood marks the first time that the two-time defending champs have lost the first two games of a playoff series at home since 1977 when Bill Walton's Portland team beat them in the Western Conference finals. Those Trail Blazers went on to win the title that year.
Perhaps even more impressive than the wins in LA, however, is how the Mavs got it done. Dallas has tightened the screws in the fourth quarter allowing the Lakers just 35 total points over two games on 33 percent shooting in the final frame.
Kobe Bryant, the best player of his generation and perhaps the best closer in the game, has made 23 field goals in the set but none of them have been layups or dunks.
Does that sound like a soft team?
"They're executing extremely well and we're not making the right reads defensively," Bryant admitted.
The Mavs success in the series also seems to have gotten in the Lakers' heads.
"I think all 13 of our guys have trust issues right now," said Lakers center Andrew Bynum. "We're a talented team so we kind of get by sometimes...at this point it's obvious because this team is cutting us apart and we're not doing anything about it...now it's time to really sit down and ask ourselves the tough questions."
Those tough questions will have to be addressed in Dallas now and if history is any kind of precursor, the Lakers are in deep trouble. LA is just 2-16 all time in the postseason when falling behind 0-2. Meanwhile, in NBA history, teams that go on to win the first two games on the road have won the series 15 of 18 times.
"This series is far from over," Nowitzki said. "I've been around a long time. I've been up 2-0 before and ended up losing the series...we have to stay focused, stay together, let our home crowd rise us on Friday, and hopefully get another great win."
No NBA team has ever escaped an 0-3 deficit.
"With the crowd and being at home, I think we just took a piece of their heart," Stevenson told NBA.com on whether he's ever seen the Lakers this frustrated. "I haven't [seen them this frustrated]. I don't know if it's winning back-to-back titles or being tired, I don't know what they're going through."
In the end, the Charmin references aren't going to dry up until the Larry O'Brien Trophy takes up residence in Cuban's office but for those caught up in the Mavs' perception, it might be a good time for a reality check.
1 comment:
Dirk is one of the most underrated players in NBA history. The Mavs change up their roster so much but he is the one constant, and they win ~ 50 games every year. I’d love to see him get a ring this year, it would really help change the way a lot of NBA followers see him (primarily colored by European stereotypes).
Post a Comment