The Dallas Mavericks currently stand fifth in the Western Conference. Not bad, considering the stop-and-start season they’ve gone through thus far. The season has been one that’s seen age and fatigue, important new players and rustiness mix together for stretches of brilliance. Often, the Mavericks have looked like a team either in too much disarray to care on a nightly basis, or not close enough to full strength to respond in the sort of manner they’d wish to.
The latter is in part true. Lamar Odom has quite obviously had one of his worst professional seasons since coming over from Los Angeles, though with every spark of production on the floor there remains hope that he’ll play the key contributor role he was brought in for as the regular season comes to a close. Finals MVP Dirk Nowitzki came into the season without the benefit of his famous German training regimen, thus having to work himself into form on the fly. Starting center Brendan Haywood and Delonte West, who could still prove to be the most important — at least interesting — signing, have both missed significant time with injuries, but are expected back soon.
Short-handed as Dallas has been at times, new faces have been stepping into the rotation to share the scoring load with Nowitzki and Jason Terry. The once-fabled Rodrigue Beaubois has finally been healthy enough to contribute consistently; Ian Mahinmi’s minutes as a starting center are serviceable and Brandan Wright seems to have found a home and a comfort zone off the Mavs’ bench. Dallas’s journey so far as champions has been a unique one, in large part due to the fact that they are not the same team as the one who defeated the Heat last June. That was one team making a glorious, out-of-nowhere run in the only season constructed as they were; to say it lingers in the mind of Vince Carter as much as it does Terry’s, for example, would probably be unfair.
But with only two games between the current Mavericks and the ninth spot in the standings, every night basically means they’re teetering on the edge of major failure. Recently the talk has begun to reflect that situation, as Jason Terry — who has never really been one to make understatements, said this before last night’s win over the Houston Rockets.
“It’s definitely better than having a huge lead and trying to figure if you’re going to rest guys or not,” Terry said Tuesday. “Now you just jump right into it and it will be good playoff-type basketball all the way through until the first round.”
One thing about the Mavericks — the core of them at least in Nowitzki, Terry and Jason Kidd — is that they’ve seen it all. Some of the additions they’re heavily counting on — Odom, West, Carter, to be exact — they’ve all been in their share of late season wars as well. Because they’re all wearing the same uniform, they’re all in some ways defending champions; except, of course, that narrative is going to drive some harder than others as Dallas pushes for a playoff seed. But a prevailing thought concerning this team in a season like this has been to just qualify, no matter how ugly or at what seed, and then let the real season begin.
The Mavericks, the team they are today, may not all be current champions, but the fundamental need to simply make the playoffs first and foremost is something every player can relate to. That they are utilizing the late season (in terms of motivation and pure necessity, they have no other choice) as the beginning of the elimination rounds means that one doesn’t have to be currently wearing the crown to understand the importance of getting another shot at it.
Griffin Gotta contributes to The Hoop Doctors and is a co-managing editor of Straight Outta Vancouver. The story arcs and infinite weirdness of the NBA are addictions he deals with every day. Email him at griffingotta at gmail dot com.
