Dallas Mavericks 2009 Playoffs
The Dallas Mavericks have gone through periods of futility and periods of playoff tickets. The first time around as a good NBA team the Mavericks peaked in the 1987-88 season. Guard Rolando Blackman, center James Donaldson, forward Mark Aguuirre, and sixth man Roy Tarpley led Dallas to a 53-29 record and took the team to new heights in the postseason. The Mavericks beat the Houston Rockets in the first round, the Denver Nuggets in the second, and met the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Finals. The Showtime Lakers beat the Mavericks in their first conference finals appearance, taking the series 4 games to 3.
The latest run by the Mavericks began as a three headed monster with guard Michael Finley, point guard Steve Nash, and forward Dirk Nowitzki. Mark Cuban took over the team and became famous for his annual blockbuster trades that were meant to improve the team. Each year fans with Mavs playoff tickets came to the American Airlines Center but ended short of a championship. It was not until the Dallas roster lost Steve Nash and Michael Finley that the team went to the NBA Finals. In 2006 the team was built around the German forwards Nowitzki with Jerry Stackhouse, Jason Terry, and Josh Howard as the main contributors. The team came in favorite against the Miami Heat, but ended up losing after failing again and again to close out games.
Dallas Mavericks Background
The Mavericks have felt the sting of the upset since, losing two straight first round match ups, including one as the number one seed. Last season Dallas mortgaged the future when the traded young point guard Devin Harris for Jason Kidd. The Kidd experiment failed. This season, with a half a year with the Mavs, a new coach in Rick Carlisle, and a summer spent bringing home the gold medal, Kidd may be more effective. The Western Conference is so deep that he must be much better for the Mavericks to even make playoff tickets available for their fans.
Dallas still has Dirk Nowitzki and the German is still one of the toughest match ups in the league. He is surrounded by Jason Terry, Jerry Stackhouse, and Josh Howard. Each of those players has the ability to score and defend. Howard has been a distraction though with his off the court antics. Eric Dampier and DeSagana Diop are purely defensive players with very little to offer on offense other than put backs. This season, in addition to vast improvement by Kidd, Howard will have to get his act together for the club to bring playoff tickets home.