News Week
 Mavs Go 4-0 In 'Week That Was'
Mike Fisher -- DallasBasketball.com - Posted: 2004-01-21 00:00:00.000


By Mike Fisher -- DallasBasketball.com
The Mavs, channeling Tom Landry and copying Shaquille O’Neal, this week turned tumult into triumph.
To notice the significant change around here, you don’t have to be a Mavs “insider’’ - though from coast-to-coast, we wish the national media would pay better attention.
From Sunday’s Sacramento Bee: “The Mavericks are a swirl of negative conjecture and trade rumors and haven't come close to finding themselves.’’
From Sunday’s New York Times: “The Dallas Mavericks are going backward.’’
From Sunday’s column by Peter Vecsey: “I am a sad, bitter, bald old man who writes with hateful envy – and with crayons.’’
“Negative conjecture’’? “Backward’’? “Bitter and bald’’?
No, that was last week.
Coach Landry used to cut up his Cowboys seasons into fourths. It was a way of helping his team put a bad game or two behind it. Shaq says the Lakers cut up the season into a series of weeks, with the same effect.
Cut up the Mavs’ last seven days, and here’s what you get in The Week That Was:

  • Nellie Vs. Cubes: “Nellie’s not going anywhere,’’ Mavs owner Mark Cuban announces this week. “I’m not firing Nellie.’’
    The declaration splattered egg on the faces of critics who claimed to have “inside sources’’ who knew the Nellie-for-Pat Riley switch was an “all-but-done deal.’’
    Did Cuban ever mull over the possibility, at some point, of a head-coaching change? No doubt, and for the good of the franchise, it’s probably popped into the heads of Don and Donnie, too.
    Is there still some friction? No doubt, though it’s not substantially different from the friction that existed last year, when the club won 60 games and qualified for the West finals.
    But just how over is this bit of tumult? Check out this Cuban quote: “Let’s say I was looking for a coach right now and I could hire anyone for this team. I’d hire Nellie. Nellie’s the best coach for the job.’’
    This week came the end. Of the rumors, not of Nellie’s career.
  • Rasheed Wallace trade: By the time Donnie Nelson finished up with this one by visiting face-to-face on Saturday with Portland GM John Nash, is became clear that most of the preceding Wallace talk was in-house here and in-house there.
    “We just wanted to see if we were missing anything,’’ Donnie said after the visit, which, as near as we can tell, featured a few mentions of Tariq Abdul-Wahad’s name and not much else.
    “There is nothing there,’’ Donnie said.
    So this week came another end.
  • Dirk Nowitzki’s ankles: “Dirk got off to the worst start of anybody on my team,’’ says Nellie, “because of those ankles. He’s just now finally healthy.’’
    Boy, is he.
    Dirk’s four-game Week That Was numbers: 31, 25, 22 and 32 points, 38 rebounds, 13 assists, seven blocks.
    If The UberMan is healthy enough to throw around 28 points, nine rebounds, three assists and two blocks per game, the Mavs are going to be fine.
  • Injury acceptance: Frankly, the Mavs whine about this injury thing more than some of their elite brethren. Or at least they used to.
    How they handled the Denver/Portland swing without Steve Nash, though, marks what we hope is the dawning of a new and correct approach.
    There was a time before this week when Travis Best was tagged as the Mavs’ least productive active player, tucked so deep in Nellie’s doghouse that the coach was giving point-guard playing time to Marquis Daniels, who is not only a rookie but also has dubious credentials as a point guard!
    But on Wednesday against the Sixers, Best was a logical pick to get a few minutes chasing Allen Iverson, and Travis did so well that he had to be on the floor throughout the late going and the OT. When Nash had to exit the Denver game early on, Best jumped in and fit in. And against Portland, with Nash sitting out with the bum hip, Best got the start.
    And in this game of attrition, that’s how it’s done. There is no time to gripe about injuries – not when that time is better spent preparing for the inevitable loss of a player.
    This week came that preparation.
    You think it’s a coincidence that just as the Mavs figured out ways to deal with the above, they also went 4-0 for the week, with two OT wins, a 3-0 record on the road, all capped by defense-keyed wins in back-to-back trips to contending Denver and Portland?
    Oh, and that they suddenly appear to be “gelling’’?
    Four straight wins. A 24-16 record that, when we all woke up Sunday morning, placed the Mavs well within hot-breath distance of Minnesota and San Antonio in the all-winners-all-the-time Midwest.
    Who needs to be an “insider’’? Who needs what Vecsey calls in a Sunday column his “Dallas snoop’’? (Let me guess: The Dallas Snoop talks like Walter Winchell and wears a brown snap-brimmed fedora with a “PRESS’’ card tucked into the band.)
    Just because Vecsey’s no longer on TV doesn’t mean he can’t own one! Does Peter, the New York Times and the Sacramento Bee all not have cable?
    Undoubtedly, more trade gossip will ooze. So will more injuries, and more losses, and with those, maybe more discussion of Nellie’s future.
    And also ready to pop up: An even more challenging week, including visits to Dallas by the East’s most pedigreed team (New Jersey), the West’s most pedigreed team (the Lakers), a second-game-of-a-back-to-back at Chicago, and a Kings team that almost never loses coming here next Sunday afternoon.
    Get ready for another Week That Was. It appears the Mavs are.