boutons_
10-28-2007, 10:25 AM
October 28, 2007
Postseason Flops Cast a Pall Over the Mavericks’ Successes
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
This time last year, the big question surrounding the Dallas Mavericks (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/dallasmavericks/index.html?inline=nyt-org) was how they would bounce back after choking away a 2-0 lead in the N.B.A. finals.
Their response was impressive. Three double-digit winning streaks, a first in league history. Sixty-seven wins, fifth-best in league history. Dirk Nowitzki putting up the numbers and leadership that would make him the team’s first Most Valuable Player award winner.
Then, the Mavericks threw it all away again, finding an even more humiliating way to lose — in the first round to a Golden State team that needed a huge push to merely scrape into the playoffs. By many measures, it ranks as one of the most colossal upsets in pro sports, making Nowitzki’s award feel a bit hollow and leaving the Mavericks with a long summer to stew over their failures.
How does a team overcome flops in consecutive postseasons?
The answer will come not from Mark Cuban (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/mark_cuban/index.html?inline=nyt-per), their billionaire owner, or Nowitzki, their German star, but in the Cajun twang of their coach, Avery Johnson, a k a The Little General.
For starters, he has already gotten everyone past the Warriors series. Players are almost unanimous in their dismissal of it as a perfect storm — a streaking team against one that had been cruising into the playoffs, a bad matchup on top of that with whatever inside knowledge the former Mavericks coach Don Nelson (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/n/don_nelson/index.html?inline=nyt-per) shared with the Warriors. Jerry Stackhouse went so far as to say the Mavericks were lucky to have stretched the series to six games.
To Johnson, the disheartening part was not losing that series, it was failing to get back to the finals.
“I wouldn’t have been any happier had we won the first round and lost to Utah,” Johnson said, referring to what the Warriors did in the second round.
Nowitzki says the best approach is to “keep it fresh in your mind, but try to focus on the future.”
“You don’t want to harp on what you’ve done wrong, you’ve got to find ways to move on,” he said. “But still, the frustration — I won’t forget.”
Neither have the league’s general managers.
In their annual survey, only 15 percent picked the Mavericks to win it all. That is a lot better than the chances they gave Nowitzki to repeat as the M.V.P. He got no votes.
Such low expectations are actually helping the Mavericks’ mind-set. With the division rival Spurs (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/sanantoniospurs/index.html?inline=nyt-org) once again the reigning champs and teams like the Suns (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/phoenixsuns/index.html?inline=nyt-org), the Celtics (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/bostonceltics/index.html?inline=nyt-org) and the Cavaliers (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/clevelandcavaliers/index.html?inline=nyt-org) drawing more attention this preseason, Nowitzki described Dallas as being in “the underdog role.”
Few know how to work that better than Johnson.
Only 5 feet 11 inches with an unreliable jump shot, Johnson started his pro career in the United States Basketball League, then changed N.B.A. teams six times in six years. Still, he managed to play more than 1,000 N.B.A. games over 16 seasons. He was not only a starter on San Antonio’s first title team, he made the series-winning shot. Spurs fans adore him so much that his jersey will be retired this season, even though he now coaches their division rival.
After more than two years running the Mavericks, he is 143-39 and was named coach of the year award. But success is defined by the postseason, and he is only 22-20, with losses in 8 of his past 10 games.
“Some champion teams have to experience the agony of defeat to move forward,” Johnson said.
( yep, and the Mavs have broke their bank paying the dues of their playoff blues http://spurstalk.com/forums/images/smilies/smilol.gif )
In hopes of joining the list of teams that had to pay their dues before savoring a title, Mavericks brass decided to keep the core of the team intact. That meant re-signing Stackhouse and giving Devin Harris a contract extension rather than asking him to prove himself during the final year of his rookie deal.
“Look, we’re not perfect, but we have done some pretty cool things the last two years,” said Donnie Nelson, the team’s president for basketball operations .
Referring to the series against Golden State, he added, “I don’t think you just take six games and throw everyone out.”
Probably the only way the front office would change its stance is if the Lakers (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/losangeleslakers/index.html?inline=nyt-org) were willing to trade Kobe Bryant (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/kobe_bryant/index.html?inline=nyt-per) to a Western Conference foe. Nowitzki is untouchable, but everyone else, including the All-Star swingman Josh Howard, could be packaged.
Otherwise, the Mavericks are going to take another crack with the same crew, hoping experience and a training program with more of an emphasis on working with weights will be enough to get them over the top.
“When you have a team that’s right there, it’s about being able to handle prosperity — winning 15 games in a row or getting to the finals — but it’s also about handling adversity,” Johnson said. “When you’re not playing as well — when you have a losing streak or you’re having a bad four or five games in a playoff series — how are you going to deal with it?”
Postseason Flops Cast a Pall Over the Mavericks’ Successes
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
This time last year, the big question surrounding the Dallas Mavericks (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/dallasmavericks/index.html?inline=nyt-org) was how they would bounce back after choking away a 2-0 lead in the N.B.A. finals.
Their response was impressive. Three double-digit winning streaks, a first in league history. Sixty-seven wins, fifth-best in league history. Dirk Nowitzki putting up the numbers and leadership that would make him the team’s first Most Valuable Player award winner.
Then, the Mavericks threw it all away again, finding an even more humiliating way to lose — in the first round to a Golden State team that needed a huge push to merely scrape into the playoffs. By many measures, it ranks as one of the most colossal upsets in pro sports, making Nowitzki’s award feel a bit hollow and leaving the Mavericks with a long summer to stew over their failures.
How does a team overcome flops in consecutive postseasons?
The answer will come not from Mark Cuban (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/mark_cuban/index.html?inline=nyt-per), their billionaire owner, or Nowitzki, their German star, but in the Cajun twang of their coach, Avery Johnson, a k a The Little General.
For starters, he has already gotten everyone past the Warriors series. Players are almost unanimous in their dismissal of it as a perfect storm — a streaking team against one that had been cruising into the playoffs, a bad matchup on top of that with whatever inside knowledge the former Mavericks coach Don Nelson (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/n/don_nelson/index.html?inline=nyt-per) shared with the Warriors. Jerry Stackhouse went so far as to say the Mavericks were lucky to have stretched the series to six games.
To Johnson, the disheartening part was not losing that series, it was failing to get back to the finals.
“I wouldn’t have been any happier had we won the first round and lost to Utah,” Johnson said, referring to what the Warriors did in the second round.
Nowitzki says the best approach is to “keep it fresh in your mind, but try to focus on the future.”
“You don’t want to harp on what you’ve done wrong, you’ve got to find ways to move on,” he said. “But still, the frustration — I won’t forget.”
Neither have the league’s general managers.
In their annual survey, only 15 percent picked the Mavericks to win it all. That is a lot better than the chances they gave Nowitzki to repeat as the M.V.P. He got no votes.
Such low expectations are actually helping the Mavericks’ mind-set. With the division rival Spurs (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/sanantoniospurs/index.html?inline=nyt-org) once again the reigning champs and teams like the Suns (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/phoenixsuns/index.html?inline=nyt-org), the Celtics (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/bostonceltics/index.html?inline=nyt-org) and the Cavaliers (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/clevelandcavaliers/index.html?inline=nyt-org) drawing more attention this preseason, Nowitzki described Dallas as being in “the underdog role.”
Few know how to work that better than Johnson.
Only 5 feet 11 inches with an unreliable jump shot, Johnson started his pro career in the United States Basketball League, then changed N.B.A. teams six times in six years. Still, he managed to play more than 1,000 N.B.A. games over 16 seasons. He was not only a starter on San Antonio’s first title team, he made the series-winning shot. Spurs fans adore him so much that his jersey will be retired this season, even though he now coaches their division rival.
After more than two years running the Mavericks, he is 143-39 and was named coach of the year award. But success is defined by the postseason, and he is only 22-20, with losses in 8 of his past 10 games.
“Some champion teams have to experience the agony of defeat to move forward,” Johnson said.
( yep, and the Mavs have broke their bank paying the dues of their playoff blues http://spurstalk.com/forums/images/smilies/smilol.gif )
In hopes of joining the list of teams that had to pay their dues before savoring a title, Mavericks brass decided to keep the core of the team intact. That meant re-signing Stackhouse and giving Devin Harris a contract extension rather than asking him to prove himself during the final year of his rookie deal.
“Look, we’re not perfect, but we have done some pretty cool things the last two years,” said Donnie Nelson, the team’s president for basketball operations .
Referring to the series against Golden State, he added, “I don’t think you just take six games and throw everyone out.”
Probably the only way the front office would change its stance is if the Lakers (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/losangeleslakers/index.html?inline=nyt-org) were willing to trade Kobe Bryant (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/kobe_bryant/index.html?inline=nyt-per) to a Western Conference foe. Nowitzki is untouchable, but everyone else, including the All-Star swingman Josh Howard, could be packaged.
Otherwise, the Mavericks are going to take another crack with the same crew, hoping experience and a training program with more of an emphasis on working with weights will be enough to get them over the top.
“When you have a team that’s right there, it’s about being able to handle prosperity — winning 15 games in a row or getting to the finals — but it’s also about handling adversity,” Johnson said. “When you’re not playing as well — when you have a losing streak or you’re having a bad four or five games in a playoff series — how are you going to deal with it?”