We were down at least 7 games for the #1 overall seed most of that season, too. They started off 14-0 that year and were at one point hyped to challenge the Bulls' record, too. We started off 12-9 (and later 19-13) and were no longer seen as contenders, but rather a patchy team in transition with a second-round ceiling.
Nobody, absolutely no one, gave us or anyone a snowball's chance in to catch Dallas. Even in early-mid March, we were still down 4, 5 games... by early April, only down 2... and we finally overtook them and clinched during the last week of the season -- such that we were actually able to punt the last game of the season to the Mavs since we had the tiebreaker.
Bottom line: we go out there, just win every damn game we can, and see where the chips fall.
