By David Lord -- DallasBasketball.com
      Home against the Lakers, a visit to Chicago, and a Sunday finale at home: the Mavs face a 3 -game stretch to finish this week that will serve as a key litmus test of where this team is headed in '03-'04.
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      What? Is this a story pre-planned back in October? As the second half of the 82-game schedule begins, this week is easy, and by Sunday they should be looking at a nice 8-game winning streak, shouldn't they?
      Maybe. Maybe not. Here's how we see it:
      THE SITUATION: When the season began, it was easy to circle this LA-Chi-Sac set to open the season's second half as a nice little checkup. The Lakers have always been more than a handful for the Mavs, the Bulls have put together an up-and-coming team with two strong young big men, and the Kings have been an elite team to contend with. It looked to be a tough challenge.
      But now things have changed, haven't they? The Lakers are missing three-fourths of their stars. The Bulls have underachieved and already have gotten a coach fired. And although the Kings have played well this year, the Mavs have won the only meeting between the two (in Sacramento, no less), and the Kings' record is a bit suspect due to their easy schedule-to-date.
      Indeed, on Nellie's regular radio sitdown with Norm Hitzges on Wednesday, Norm voiced the prevailing view after previewing the road ahead: "Nellie, [after Sunday] shouldn't this be an 8-game win streak?" Nellie gave a mild objection, laughingly giving lip service to the idea that you still have to get past the games before you can add the W's.
      So what can be so scary here?
      THE PROBLEM:As we outlined here just prior to the current 5-game winning streak, the problems of the season were fueled by a lack of urgency, particularly when good things happened. Putting the season on "cruise control" is how we expressed it. "A lack of urgency" was the term used by Jamison. A willingness to "take it easy" might be how the The Eagles would sing it.
      Whatever the expression, the Mavs have started to do otherwise. The cruise control is off and the accelerator is down.
      The wins over the last 10 days haven't always been pretty, but they have been wins. When the Mavs aren't playing well, they are continuing to play hard til something good happens. When they get a bit of a lead, they continue to work. The coaches are coaching as hard in the first half as in the last 5 minutes, with demanding rotations and timeouts used to stop the opponent from creating momentum.
      Ugly wins. Signs of improvement. Progress. No looking ahead. Urgency.
      Now here comes a Lakers team, one so banged up that there will be a temptation for the Mavs to just relax and go through the motions and collect the W. Then follows a jaunt up to Chicago, to ease through a game and collect another easy W. Come back to Dallas, turn up the jets against a strong Kings bunch, and end the set with a final W.
      Expected wins. Time to relax. Set the cruise control again.
      Sly ole Phil JackZen is waiting to lure the Mavs right into that trap. No doubt he hopes his Lakers get overlooked by the Mavs due to injuries, and they sneak out of town with a stolen win. That forces the Mavs to go to Chicago on the rebound, nursing the wounds of an unexpected loss to LA, and opens the door to sleepwalking through one of those puzzling non-effort losses to a lower tier eastern team. Then they come home reeling, and have to face the Kings.
      THE SOLUTION: On the other hand, the Mavs could alternately choose to continue to play with a sense of urgency. They can emerge from this week with the fuel to have a good year. Three more consecutive games of max effort, of playing ugly when you have to, and of taking small steps forward would begin to create HABITS that can be built on. Confidence will be fueled. Work habits will be reinforced. Teamwork successes will be discovered that can be built upon.
      As we see it, this week will be a real crossroads for this Mavs team. Will they rest on their recent laurels, and let the injured Lakers and weak Bulls lull them into easing up? Will the coaches relax and stop coaching full-throttle? Or will this week show added urgency, as the goal of creating a good team out of this mix is starting to appear quite promising?
      Stay tuned - the returns will start to come in momentarily.