Strategy 101 - Mavs 98

In NBA news the top seeded Dallas Mavericks who won a whopping 67 games and tied the league record for double digit win streaks with three find themselves down 3-1 in a best of seven against eighth (or last) seed Golden State Warriors who qualified for the big dance on the last day (and made the playoffs for the first time in 13, yes 13, years).

But here's what everyone is missing, and it really explains just about everything. In the second to last game of the season, the Mavs played the Warriors. By way of background, the Mavs had long since qualified as the top seed and the Warriors had to win to make the playoffs. Also, the Warriors had beat the Mavs in 5 of their last 6 match-ups including the first two matches this year. If the Mavs win they stop the Warriors from sweeping them and they knock the Warriors out of the tourney. What does Dallas Coach Avery Johnson do? He rests Dallas' best player and MVP candidate Dirk Nowitski, one of the leagues best sixth men Jerry Stackhouse, All-Star Josh Howard, and starting center Eric Dampier. He plays starting guard Jason Terry 18 minutes and starting point guard Devon Harris 16 minutes, starting neither. In fact, he didn't start a single regular season starter in the game, and the Mavs lost. Need to rest the big guys for the playoffs right?

Wrong. Now the Mavs have to go at least seven games to win, which is probably longer than their next opponent will go if, and its a very big "if" at this point, they win the next three. How's that for "rest." Plus the anxiety, doubt and stress that the team is handling now. had Dallas won that late regular season game, they probably would have played the LA Clippers, a team they own. Probably would have gone 4-1, rested, and created some momentum going into the next round. Now, well now they're in trouble.

Look, there's one rule in any competition anywhere. When you have a chance to take you're opponent out...take them out. Go for the jugular, put a steak in their heart, whatever metaphor you like, when you have a chance to defeat your opponent, defeat them. Taking Golden State out with two games to go sends a message to the rest of the league that you have a killer instinct. That you won't play games when it comes to winning, or hurting your opponent, and that you're for real. I'm not saying that the Mavs would have beat the Warriors in that game, but the game plan they went in with guaranteed that they would lose. Not only that, but a sweep, no matter how crafted, only gives a surging team even more confidence. If a team is giving you as much problems as Golden State gives the Mavs, then you have to try to take them out when it doesn't matter so you don't have to face them when it does. The whole episode shows that the Mavs don't understand what it take to be a champion. It also shows a shocking lack of understanding on one of the most basic strategies in sports.

The Mavs had one of the greatest collapses in NBA Finals history last year and they're on the verge of one of the greatest season collapses in NBA history this year. At some point its not a fluke.

I'm a Mavs fan, I hope they win, but I also acknowledge that its hard to root for any team that acts like this.

It's so simple, when you have a chance to win, take it. Don't hope, don't wait, don't get clever. Just take it.