Adidas410s
02-19-2007, 04:07 PM
Thoughts from everybody's favorite at ESPN...Mark Stein.
LAS VEGAS -- It was a bigger draw for any one event that Vegas had ever seen, according to every cab driver who ferried me anywhere.
It had to be the wildest All-Star Weekend ever, in spite of the snoozy finale on the Thomas & Mack floor.
It left so many people so woozy that we must delay your favorite Monday tradition -- Power Rankings! -- until Tuesday while arenas are dark and immediately share our annual helping of 30 Games To Go, 13 Things To Know to help guide folks back to NBA normalcy.
1. The Dallas Mavericks, in case you'd forgotten, are 30-2 in their last 32 games.
But that's not all.
The Mavs also have the fourth-highest overall winning percentage, at .830, of any team at the All-Star break since 1980.
Why is that significant?
Besides establishing Dirk Nowitzki as the MVP favorite in a two-man race entering the stretch run -- ahead of two-time reigning MVP and good buddy Steve Nash -- it's worth noting that the only three teams in that span with a higher winning percentage at this juncture all went on to win the championship.
As did the team in fifth right behind Dallas.
The list:
• 1995-96 Bulls (42-5, .894)
• 1996-97 Bulls (42-6, .875)
• 1982-83 76ers (43-7, .860)
• 2006-07 Mavericks (44-9, .830)
• 1985-86 Celtics (38-8, .826)
2. You're wasting your time, though, if you think that the Mavs are going to start talking about finishing 26-3 to crack the 70-win club.
"Not at all," Nowitzki says, chuckling at the thought of even bringing it up to coach Avery Johnson.
"You know how intense Avery is. … We all know we really haven't done anything yet. Obviously our goal is still winning a championship, so we're not going to get carried away."
3. The Suns have essentially conceded the No. 1 seed to the Mavs. Maybe you don't want to believe, as several opposing coaches insist, that the Suns have indeed improved some defensively. Even if you (mistakenly) think that the Suns still play no D, there's nothing wrong with their math. They're well aware that Dallas has taken advantage of Nash's recent shoulder trouble to seize a 4½-game lead in the race for home-court advantage throughout the playoffs. They know they've played seven fewer games against West teams than their chief rivals. The Suns also can see the Mavs are deeper than anyone else in the league, which positions them best for regular-season success and which would force coach Mike D'Antoni to squeeze a lot out of the group known in Phoenix as the "seven starters" to overcome all those variables and secure the West's top seed.
No surprise, then, that the Suns have added it all up and quietly decided that a chase makes little sense. It's not something they plan to declare publicly, but D'Antoni gave a hint of his thinking Sunday in his pregame press address when he admitted that his No. 1 goal for the final 32 games is to "keep Steve healthy." Instead of bemoaning the distance Dallas has put between them over the past two weeks, Phoenix prefers to revel in the idea that Nash should feel unusually refreshed when he returns thanks to the two weeks he's taken to rehab. The Suns, don't forget, also have played without Boris Diaw and Kurt Thomas lately, reducing D'Antoni's seven starters -- the most formidable top seven in the league -- to a group of four. After spending much of the first half dueling with the Mavs over which team had the longest active win streak, all that matters to Phoenix now is getting back up to seven by the time the playoffs start.
4. The Eastern Conference isn't just bad. It's approaching historic depths.
Only one team in the East is on a 50-win pace … and it took an 11-3 surge into the break to put the Pistons on course for a 51-31 finish.
And that's the good news.
This is the first season in league history, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, that the top five records at the All-Star break belong to teams from the same conference. In order, it's Dallas (44-9), Phoenix (39-13), Utah (35-17), San Antonio (35-18) and Houston (33-19).
There had never even been a season, before this season, in which one conference had teams with the top four records.
That should tell you why you keep hearing that the defending champs from Miami, who presently rank as the East's No. 8 team, would be a consensus favorite to win the conference if the playoffs started today.
Only in the Leastern Conference could Shaquille O'Neal and Pat Riley go missing for months and weeks, respectively, and inflict no traceable damage to their title hopes.
5. But just to be safe, don't write off the Pistons.
Why?
Karma.
Jared from Livonia, Mich., wrote in recently to point out that the St. Louis Cardinals dominated baseball's 2005 regular season but won the World Series after a much rockier 2006. Knowing that I'm a little too busy with the NBA (and the Premiership) to keep track of these American sporting pursuits, Jared also reminded me that the Indianapolis Colts were a regular-season juggernaut in '05 but won the Super Bowl after looking more vulnerable in '06.
You can see where he's going with this.
The Pistons were 42-9 at the All-Star break a year ago, finished 64-18 and flamed out against Miami in the East playoffs. If they're anything like the Cards or Colts, this is actually their year.
LAS VEGAS -- It was a bigger draw for any one event that Vegas had ever seen, according to every cab driver who ferried me anywhere.
It had to be the wildest All-Star Weekend ever, in spite of the snoozy finale on the Thomas & Mack floor.
It left so many people so woozy that we must delay your favorite Monday tradition -- Power Rankings! -- until Tuesday while arenas are dark and immediately share our annual helping of 30 Games To Go, 13 Things To Know to help guide folks back to NBA normalcy.
1. The Dallas Mavericks, in case you'd forgotten, are 30-2 in their last 32 games.
But that's not all.
The Mavs also have the fourth-highest overall winning percentage, at .830, of any team at the All-Star break since 1980.
Why is that significant?
Besides establishing Dirk Nowitzki as the MVP favorite in a two-man race entering the stretch run -- ahead of two-time reigning MVP and good buddy Steve Nash -- it's worth noting that the only three teams in that span with a higher winning percentage at this juncture all went on to win the championship.
As did the team in fifth right behind Dallas.
The list:
• 1995-96 Bulls (42-5, .894)
• 1996-97 Bulls (42-6, .875)
• 1982-83 76ers (43-7, .860)
• 2006-07 Mavericks (44-9, .830)
• 1985-86 Celtics (38-8, .826)
2. You're wasting your time, though, if you think that the Mavs are going to start talking about finishing 26-3 to crack the 70-win club.
"Not at all," Nowitzki says, chuckling at the thought of even bringing it up to coach Avery Johnson.
"You know how intense Avery is. … We all know we really haven't done anything yet. Obviously our goal is still winning a championship, so we're not going to get carried away."
3. The Suns have essentially conceded the No. 1 seed to the Mavs. Maybe you don't want to believe, as several opposing coaches insist, that the Suns have indeed improved some defensively. Even if you (mistakenly) think that the Suns still play no D, there's nothing wrong with their math. They're well aware that Dallas has taken advantage of Nash's recent shoulder trouble to seize a 4½-game lead in the race for home-court advantage throughout the playoffs. They know they've played seven fewer games against West teams than their chief rivals. The Suns also can see the Mavs are deeper than anyone else in the league, which positions them best for regular-season success and which would force coach Mike D'Antoni to squeeze a lot out of the group known in Phoenix as the "seven starters" to overcome all those variables and secure the West's top seed.
No surprise, then, that the Suns have added it all up and quietly decided that a chase makes little sense. It's not something they plan to declare publicly, but D'Antoni gave a hint of his thinking Sunday in his pregame press address when he admitted that his No. 1 goal for the final 32 games is to "keep Steve healthy." Instead of bemoaning the distance Dallas has put between them over the past two weeks, Phoenix prefers to revel in the idea that Nash should feel unusually refreshed when he returns thanks to the two weeks he's taken to rehab. The Suns, don't forget, also have played without Boris Diaw and Kurt Thomas lately, reducing D'Antoni's seven starters -- the most formidable top seven in the league -- to a group of four. After spending much of the first half dueling with the Mavs over which team had the longest active win streak, all that matters to Phoenix now is getting back up to seven by the time the playoffs start.
4. The Eastern Conference isn't just bad. It's approaching historic depths.
Only one team in the East is on a 50-win pace … and it took an 11-3 surge into the break to put the Pistons on course for a 51-31 finish.
And that's the good news.
This is the first season in league history, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, that the top five records at the All-Star break belong to teams from the same conference. In order, it's Dallas (44-9), Phoenix (39-13), Utah (35-17), San Antonio (35-18) and Houston (33-19).
There had never even been a season, before this season, in which one conference had teams with the top four records.
That should tell you why you keep hearing that the defending champs from Miami, who presently rank as the East's No. 8 team, would be a consensus favorite to win the conference if the playoffs started today.
Only in the Leastern Conference could Shaquille O'Neal and Pat Riley go missing for months and weeks, respectively, and inflict no traceable damage to their title hopes.
5. But just to be safe, don't write off the Pistons.
Why?
Karma.
Jared from Livonia, Mich., wrote in recently to point out that the St. Louis Cardinals dominated baseball's 2005 regular season but won the World Series after a much rockier 2006. Knowing that I'm a little too busy with the NBA (and the Premiership) to keep track of these American sporting pursuits, Jared also reminded me that the Indianapolis Colts were a regular-season juggernaut in '05 but won the Super Bowl after looking more vulnerable in '06.
You can see where he's going with this.
The Pistons were 42-9 at the All-Star break a year ago, finished 64-18 and flamed out against Miami in the East playoffs. If they're anything like the Cards or Colts, this is actually their year.