Playoff Failures Make Dallas Mavericks a Popular Draw for West Foes

Only a few NBA teams have been as successful as the Dallas Mavericks during the past decade.

Yet the franchise has as much hardware to show for it as the Los Angeles Clippers, Milwaukee Bucks, Minnesota Timberwolves, and Washington Wizards, the league’s annual bottom feeders.

That’s because the Mavs, despite averaging 56 wins per season since 2000-01, have never translated their regular season dominance into postseason glory. Consider them the NBA’s Indianapolis Colts—without the one championship.

During the Peyton Manning era, Indianapolis has routinely been at the top of the standings during the NFL’s regular season, only to flame out early in the playoffs, with the lone exception being 2006, when Manning finally led the Colts to a championship.

Over the last 10 postseasons, Dallas has lost in the first round four times and in the conference semifinals four times. The Mavs’ best showings came in 2002-03, when they lost to interstate rival San Antonio in the Western Conference Finals and in 2005-06, when they lost to Dwayne Wade and the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals.

Even that was considered a monumental disappointment. Dallas led that series 2-0 and was ahead by 13 with six minutes to play in Game 3, but ended up losing that game and each of the next three, relinquishing a great opportunity to own the Larry O’Brien Trophy.

As horrific as the finish to that series was, nothing compared to what happened the following spring. The Mavericks won an NBA-best 67 games. Dirk Nowitzki was named MVP. Dallas was finally going to get over the hump.

Except they didn’t. The eighth-seeded Golden State Warriors shocked the world by sending the Mavs home after six games of their first round series. Nowitzki scored eight points in the deciding game, coming up small when it mattered most as he has many times during this run of playoff futility.

These failures haven’t gone unnoticed and, as Denver Nuggets’ Coach George Karl stated earlier this week, West playoff teams would line up to play the Mavericks when the playoffs begin next weekend. Karl’s club has solid footing as the five seed heading into the final week of the regular season, while only a game separates Dallas and Oklahoma City for the three and four seed. A quick look at the potential first round matchups prompted Karl to say the following:

“If we had to pick and choose on it, we would probably say 55 percent Dallas, 45 percent Oklahoma City… I just think right now our speed might have more effect against Dallas than it will against Oklahoma City.”

Karl was putting it nicely and speaking subtly, but if you read between the B.S., he was saying that Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook scare him a hell of a lot more than Nowitzki and whoever is supposed to be the Mavs’ No. 2.

That’s interesting because for as young and athletic as the Thunder are, and as great as Durant and Westbrook are, they have played in just six playoff games. The Mavs are a veteran group loaded with playoff experience, which is a big factor in these series. Name the last truly young, inexperienced team to win an NBA Championship. Maybe 1991, Michael Jordan’s first championship team.

Speaking of MJ, and I’m not suggesting he and Dirk are on the same level in any way, but, like Michael, Dirk is a superstar and has been considered one of the league’s few for about 10 years now. Do you think any head coach would call out Jordan’s Bulls one week prior to a potential playoff series?

No. Never. Because Jordan would rip your heart out and step on it, and then pick it up and windmill it through the basket just for the heck of it.

Dirk? My guess is he shrugged his shoulders and went on with his day, not feeling the least bit insulted after Karl basically suggested that his Nuggets would waltz into the second round without the least bit of trouble, if they are lucky enough to draw the Mavs.

As is the case with just about all of the NBA’s foreign stars, Nowitzki is mentally soft. He has zero killer instinct and simply doesn’t seem to understand how sports psychology works in the western hemisphere.

Coaches and players around the league have taken notice. Karl took the time to make it known exactly how scared his bunch is of the 54-25 Mavericks. I think he was speaking for the rest of the West field as well.

No one is afraid of Dallas.

Nor should they be.

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