Only a few NBA teams have been as successful as the Dallas Mavericks during the past decade.
Yet the franchise has as much hardware to show for it as the Los Angeles Clippers, Milwaukee Bucks, Minnesota Timberwolves, and Washington Wizards, the league’s annual bottom feeders.
That’s because the Mavs, despite averaging 56 wins per season since 2000-01, have never translated their regular season dominance into postseason glory. Consider them the NBA’s Indianapolis Colts—without the one championship.
During the Peyton Manning era, Indianapolis has routinely been at the top of the standings during the NFL’s regular season, only to flame out early in the playoffs, with the lone exception being 2006, when Manning finally led the Colts to a championship.
Over the last 10 postseasons, Dallas has lost in the first round four times and in the conference semifinals four times. The Mavs’ best showings came in 2002-03, when they lost to interstate rival San Antonio in the Western Conference Finals and in 2005-06, when they lost to Dwayne Wade and the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals.
Even that was consid ...
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Article written by Daniel Bartemus
Playoff Failures Make Dallas Mavericks a Popular Draw for West Foes
April 9th, 2011 by Daniel Bartemus Leave a reply »
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