The Dallas Mavericks may be the luckiest team in all of sports...says John Hollinger. He's an avid Mavs' hater and he thinks the Mavs are "lucky" because he has a super advanced flux capacitor system of ranking NBA teams...and according to his ultra inventive system the Mavs' have only won 13 straight because of "luck". Hollingers highbrow rankings are quite frankly irrelevant statistics that are useful for nothing more than giving commentators something to stuff dull moments in games with feckless information about the teams. The fact is...John Hollinger is lucky to have a job. I mean, if its that easy...all I have to do is invent some extraneous system for picking favorites and I can work for ESPN and be a big shot analyst!
I disagree with Hollingers assessment and I am firm in that. The Mavs' may have gotten "lucky" at times, but they are not "lucky" to be the number 2 team in the West, sitting only 2 1/2 games behind the Lakers, and currently on a 13 game winning streak. Hollingers impertinent appraisal of the Mavs' is typical of ESPN and their love affair with the "popular" franchises; they have never liked the Mavs' or the Stars for that matter. Even when the Stars were winning the Cup Berry Melrose was whimpering and sniveling about the Red Wings the whole time. ESPN only cares about the Bostons, Lakers, and the Yankees, and the big name teams with the Kobe Bryants, even though Dallas is a top 5 market. And that is why John Hollinger falls short of relevance.
This is an exact quote from Hollingers "explanation" of how his system works: "One of my goals was to create a system that told us more about a team's quality than the standings do. So instead of winning percentage, these rankings use points scored and points allowed, which are better indicators of a team's quality than wins and losses." ...Really? He just said that how much a team wins by is more important than wins and losses...that is so bogus. A win is a win is a win is a win...they are all wins! A W is a W. A L is a L. If you win by 50 thats nice...if you win by 1 thats the same thing on paper! You don't get bonus points for beating a team by 20 points. But since the Mavs' aren't blowing teams out by 20 or 30 points every night they are "lucky" to be winning at all. So here is his "rankings" for you to enjoy...or laugh at and dismiss as most do: http://espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/powerrankings
Anyhow, the Mavericks have now won 13 straight, they have some days off to rest and practice for once and they are at home for 13 days. Which means they should not only get things together and be able to put their pieces in place for the final run, but also keep their winning streak alive. They have New York on Saturday, the Bulls next Wednesday, and then Boston two Saturdays from now. All at home, all with plenty of rest between. After that they have 13 games before the playoffs, 8 of those are against teams above .500 and 5 of those are quality teams: @Portland twice, VS. Denver, Orlando, Oklahoma City, and San Antonio. So my expectations are high. The Mavs' have an opportunity to roll into the playoffs. They have six very challenging games and seven very winnable games. Therefore my assessment is after the next 13 days of being at home and getting rested, Dallas should be able to go 10 and 3 over the final 13 games. Maybe better. I expect better. But I'm trying really hard to be realistic. Rest assured, they will win 50 games for the 10th straight season...the only other team to do that is San Antonio, and they are on the brink of not being able to do that this year, leaving the Mavs' with the longest streak of 50 win seasons. We'll see how things fare...maybe they can keep getting really lucky!
Upcoming: Rangers update! Stars update! Plus...a BONUS topic! Stay Tuned...
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