Football
Associated Press 17y

Dream season ends in nightmare for Mavericks, Nowitzki

DALLAS -- The wins, the streaks, maybe even the MVP award --
they're all meaningless now to the Dallas Mavericks.

The only things anyone will remember about their 2006-07 season
is colossal failure and how little Dirk Nowitzki did to prevent it.

Dallas didn't merely fail to win a championship. The Mavs didn't
even get out of the first round, making it two straight
embarrassing playoff exits, both featuring Nowitzki more as a
bystander than a difference maker.

"It's not like last year in the finals, which was very
painful," owner Mark Cuban said after Golden State eliminated
Dallas late Thursday night. "It's the first round and we couldn't
get it done. We'll move on."

OK. But in what direction?

Cuban maintains "we're not going to blow everything up," so
don't look for anything drastic such as trading Nowitzki or firing
coach Avery Johnson.

Still, something has to be done to find the guy or guys who can
prevent meltdowns -- such as letting a 42-win team oust a 67-win
club, and blowing a 2-0 lead in the finals.

"We just didn't have the energy, we just didn't have the
concentration," Johnson said, describing the Golden State series
in a way that also sums up Dallas' loss to Miami in last year's
finals. "What bothers me more than anything, we just didn't have
the confidence. And we just got rattled, and that's not good."

The Mavericks won the most games in franchise history and might
have had more victories if Johnson hadn't backed off after
clinching the league's best record. They still lost only 11 times
after an 0-4 start.

They did it with a roster designed to win in a variety of ways.
That's how they strung together streaks of 12 and 13 wins in a row,
then a franchise-best 17-game run. No other NBA team ever has had
three streaks of at least 12 straight wins in a season.

Nowitzki was the best player on the best team, earning the first
All-Star game start by a Dallas player and likely earning him the
MVP award in a few weeks. If so, it'll be the first for someone
knocked out in the opening round of the playoffs since Houston's
Moses Malone 25 years ago.

Against Golden State's smaller lineup, Nowitzki was
uncomfortable from the start and never found a groove. He dazzled
the last 3:20 of Game 5, but Game 6 already was a lost cause by the
time he made his second shot.

"You play your heart out for six, seven months, you win 67
games, and it really means nothing at this point," Nowitzki said.
"This is tough to swallow."

The Warriors series may have helped the Mavericks plot their
offseason plans by confirming one suspicion (Nowitzki's lack of
leadership) and exposing several weaknesses: the lack of a forceful
personality, the need for low-post scoring and the absence of a
true playmaker, someone who can create his own shot or set up
everyone else. Dallas fans agonizingly know the point-guard
prototypes -- Baron Davis and Steve Nash.

Once the Mavs figure out who they want to inject new life into
their club, they'll have to figure out how to get him.

Free agency won't be the answer. Dallas already is over the
salary cap, even with the big contracts of Jerry Stackhouse and
Austin Croshere expiring. The Mavericks are likely to try keeping
Stackhouse; it would be quite an indictment of the franchise if he
opts to go elsewhere.

So for Dallas to shake things up, it'll have to be through a
trade.

Dealing Nowitzki would be a bigger shocker than losing to Golden
State. Giving up Josh Howard, their only other All-Star, would be a
surprise, too, although it takes something to get something. Devin
Harris and DeSagana Diop also could be trade bait, but their youth
and relatively cheap contracts are also reasons to keep them.

"I like the way we've put this team together," Cuban said
before Game 5. "This is not a team where you need a lot of
changes."

Before fans and NBA historians write off this team as
underachievers, remember that the Warriors were the only team the
Mavs never beat this regular season. In fact, had Dallas won any of
the three meetings, Golden State wouldn't have made the playoffs.
So there's a good chance the Mavericks would be waiting for the
Utah-Houston winner right now had anyone else landed the No. 8
seed.

For many reasons, Dallas simply was a bad fit against Golden
State, setting the stage for one of the biggest upsets in NBA
playoff history.

Statistically, it already is because of the 25-game disparity in
regular-season records. But the Warriors have been playing so well
since pairing a healthy Davis with Stephen Jackson that a long
playoff run is possible. That might let the Mavs off history's
hook, at least enough for the dubious distinction of "biggest
upset" to remain with the 1994 Seattle SuperSonics, the first No.
1 seed to go down in the opening round.

Cuban was quick to point out a postscript on those Sonics
shortly after his team joined them in the record books.

"Two years later," he said, "Seattle was in the finals."

^ Back to Top ^