Dirk Nowitski and the Mavericks should return to the Finals this season.
In the midst of a 16-game win streak, and boasting a league-best 50-9 record, the Mavs and Mark Cuban are dismantling the competition.
Not since the Bulls of "96 has the league seen a team continue to dominate regular season play.
The Mavs are so good of late that in the last 38 games they"ve beaten their opponents by an average of 10 points and outrebounded them by five, while going 37-2.
But can the Mavs stand up to the glare of hype that comes from an invincible regular season record?
And can Nowitski make good on recent comments between him and Heat guard Dwayne Wade - that the Finals came down to luck and that the Mavs could just as easily have won the crown?
Well for starters, Nowitski has been putting up mouth-shutting MVP-type numbers, scoring 25.4 a game while nailing a career best .508 from the floor, and nearly 91% on freebies. Dirk's also getting his 10 boards and 3-and-a-half assists-per-game, showing that the big-little man's game is in full swing.
All this is coming in only 36.7 minutes-per-contest, nearly two down from recent years, which could only mean that the Mavs have gotten strong enough to grab the W even with Dirk on the sidelines.
Of course the fourth is where Nowitski has and must shine for Dallas to finally push over the top. The strides he made in leadership and taking over last year were definitely on display in the tough Western Conference Finals match up with the Suns.
Countless times Nowitski lulled defenders into a comfort zone by making them defend his jump shot then he would display his jaw-dropping-for-a-7-footer driving ability and take it right to the cup. This sort of fearless play made many believers out of the German star who many thought to be in the mold of the skilled-but-soft Euro big men.
Of course, what separates Nowitski from the norm is his heart, which he has used wholly this season. Watch any of his regular season contests and you can see the killer that led his team to the Finals.
This day-in-day-out dedication rubs off on guards Jason Terry and Josh Howard, the latter having a career year that spells trouble for Western defenders like Ginobili and Diaw, who are likely to face Howard in a second or third-round battle.
Terry, who should be a perennial all-star, is the ying to Nowitski's yang, and more than capably handles the position that was in dire question when Nash was traded several years ago. JT's game is so confident and so clutch that he, like Nowitski, is able to win a
playoff battle by himself. On a potentially Finals-bound team, this could make all the difference.
As the number one seed the Mavs should blow by the first-round and face either the Lakers or Rockets, who they should handle rather easily as well.
The greatest thing about this Mavs unit is that they have all grown up, and last year's lessons have given them teaching prowess on the rest of the league.
Yes, the Mavs are showing NBA teams (excluding the Spurs and Suns) how to play, and are the first legitimate team - at this point in the season - in the last 10 years to vie for a shot at that seemingly untouchable 72-10 record.
Nowitski now stands as the headmaster, the professor emeritus of a squad which, if they do return to the championship round, will no doubt school the other team in a lesson of perserverence and proficiency.
No other team deserves the title more this season.
