Critics can't touch Mavs' big rebound

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Critics can't touch Mavs' big rebound

04:37 AM CDT on Tuesday, April 10, 2007
[By Kevin Sherrington / The Dallas Morning News]

The Mavs' 96-86 victory Monday over the Clippers might not mean much to you, especially if you're still miffed that they're not going to win 70, but it was a milestone, nonetheless.

And not just because it clinched home-court advantage throughout the playoffs for the first time in club history ...

Or that the home team in Game 7 of the Finals has won 13 of 16 games ...

Or that the Mavs won't have to play both San Antonio and Phoenix ...

Or that Avery Johnson can officially remove his foot from their backsides and start resting them up ...

Or maybe you look at all of the above like Jerry Stackhouse does.

"It means something," he said, "but it don't mean nothin' once the playoffs start."

Hard to argue that kind of logic. Once the playoffs start, everything changes.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves here. Before the Mavs get out of a regular season in which they've proven masters of dealing with the issues at hand, it's time for us to do the same.

First, let's look back at a little painful history. Maybe you remember the book on the Mavs after they blew the Finals last year.

A monumental, paralyzing collapse. Critics said they'd never get over it.

Here's how bad it was: Nothing they do this season will make up for it.

"Still haven't gotten over that," Jason Terry said.

And he probably won't get over it, either. Even if they win it all. Two rings will always be better than one.

But Terry hasn't let the collapse against the Heat consume him, and neither have his teammates.

Instead, they focused on the task at hand. And that was to avoid any navel-gazing and build an NBA champion game by game, win after win after win.

The result as of Monday? Historic, by club standards, and it provided some ancillary benefits you might not have figured.

Example: Had the Mavs been a 50-win team this season instead of a 60-win team, critics would have focused on them all year. They'd have harped on the hangover from the Finals, maintained they blew their shot, raised doubts the team might not have been able to answer.

And what happened instead? The Mavs took care of business. They piled up win after win after win, and they became the best non-story in recent NBA history.

Only a couple of losses to Phoenix in the last month stirred up much fuss.

And if the Mavs' consistent excellence kept critics from pounding their pedigree, what exactly was there to complain about?

Dirk Nowitzki's worthiness as an MVP. And critics raise an interesting point, if not an accurate one.

Nowitzki doesn't rate the star power of Kobe or LeBron. And he has a better supporting cast than either.

But if you accept those arguments, you have to ask why the Mavs only had two All-Stars.

Or why the additions made to this season's roster barely rated a shrug at the time.

And yet the Mavs have proved night after night this season that their sum is greater than their parts.

They don't dazzle. They're not as fun as the Suns. But they sure do win.

How do they do it so much? Johnson will tell you it's because they can play different styles at different tempos, they penetrate, they get "timely stops."

Translation: They impose their will on other teams. They don't rely simply on talent. Talent ebbs and flows.

But the will to win is ...

"Every single night," Devin Harris said.

This is what Monday proved. The 63 wins before Monday, too.

Night after night, win after win after win, the Mavs have answered all questions.

Of course, more questions will come in a couple of weeks, when the Finals disaster will be the topic of the post-season.

Johnson's ready to concede the point about the regular season. He may even bring up his '95 Spurs, as he did Monday, a team that won 62 games, beat the Rockets five out of six in the regular season and still watched them sweep Orlando for the title.

But for now, anyway, those questions can wait. The Mavs have done all that anyone could ask. A short round of applause, please, before they go back to work.