Mavs loose series but win experience

So maybe Don Nelson was right all along.

Maybe it was too much to expect a team making only its second straight postseason appearance since the 1980s to go much further than this team has this year.

Nelson said before the 2002 NBA Playoffs ever began that this would be a learning experience, and boy has it ever been one for the Dallas Mavericks.

For Mavs fans everywhere, the two-game losing streak against the Sacramento Kings at home during the Western Conference semifinals was not just a swift “kick in the teeth” as Nelson described it.

Rather, it was a huge disappointment to see a budding superstar and his cohorts get carved up on the defensive end like a turkey on Thanksgiving Day.

Defense has never been the name of the game for the Mavericks. But timely defensive pressure is a must for any team. That attribute was certainly lacking in both games.

How else do you describe losing a game in which Kings guard Peja Stojakovic isn’t playing? How else do you lose a game when Chris Webber and Vlade Divac foul out?

The blame lies squarely on the shoulders of Dirk Nowitzki, Steve Nash and Michael Finley.

They are the team leaders and although the name of the Dallas game is offense, there is no excuse as to how a team plays such porous defense, especially down the stretch of the biggest game of the year on your own homecourt.

These are the franchise players, and they need to come up big when it counts. People chastised Minnesota’s Kevin Garnett for the same reason, and now these young Mavs are getting the same dose.

But these are the lessons every team goes through. These same Kings learned last year after getting swept by the Lakers in Round Two. The Lakers went through it before they won their championships.

The “School of Hard Knocks” known as the NBA Playoffs is simply taking its toll on its newest pupils, and the Dallas Maverick fans are suffering because of it.

The Mavericks lack inside defensive play and are unable to execute in the half-court.

But more than that, they are simply not contesting shots and grabbing rebounds, with the Kings’ point guard duo of Mike Bibby and Bobby Jackson simply outplaying and outhustling their counterparts.

There is hope to this story. With an owner who has shown that he will spend money to get a championship, the Mavericks will always have options to improve where they need it – on the defensive end and especially in the post area.

The team is also hitting a learning curve and getting valuable experience. That sort of play will undoubtedly serve them well in future years. The team is young, with its core players under contract.

All of this, for a team built to win now rather than later, may still be a hard pill to swallow for the die-hard Dallas fan, and even the fair-weather band wagon fan may have a hard time with these growing pains.

Dallas is good now, but to be great is has to go through these battles and lose some of them. If the team doesn’t it would be an aberration from the norm.

This team is built to win and it will soon. But in the meantime, fans and Dallas players alike will have a long summer to think about what could have been if defense was a bigger focus in Big D.

Mavs loose series but win experience