No matter how well Dallas has played the past few years, you could always count on them to lose somewhere in the middle of the playoffs.

But something's going on down in Big D. They keep winning. They look dangerous and confident, not like a team that expects to lose somewhere in the middle of the playoffs.

No question Avery Johnson is proving to be an upgrade over silly Don Nelson. He holds players accoutable (ie. Dampier benching) and he emphasizes defense. They're deep - Stackhouse comes off the bench for godness sakes - and they have a premier player in Dirk.

So then, could they beat the Pistons in a seven game series? (Remember how they drubbed Detroit earlier this year).

I think they could.

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Yes they definately could.

I'll just say I'd much rather face the Spurs at this point than the Mavs. The Mavs have looked extremely impressive lately. They looked Detroit-esque in that comback win against the Grizzlies.

Might be just the dogfight SAS needs to get into Victory Mode.

But if the Mavs could pull through, you're looking at a PHX/Dallas WCF. Remember, SAS/Dallas is set to take place in the semis. But yeah, I can definitely picture Dallas running out of steam, mentally. Plus, Dirk has shown weakness before during the playoffs.

Still, I could see them giving our team trouble in a series.

Until San Antonio finds their stride, the Mavs are clearly the second best team in the NBA right now. That's my take.

Folks get fixated on Terry and Nowitski but overlook Josh Howard (what I wish Tayshaun will become), Harris, Daniels, Stackhouse, Van Horn.

The team is stacked by most standards and playing up to their billing.

Dirk is not a loser. He's been stuck in a losing system that Avery Johnson is bound and determined to reverse. AJ knows all of these guys can score, but if you won't defend, he'll park you on the bench because someone of similar capability is waiting to take your PT. He did it by benching Dampier for Diop a week or so ago.

Under appreciated in all of this is Del Harris who is a much better assistant than a Head Coach. He's the perfect communicator with the players while AJ focuses on making all of the tough decisions and demanding, demanding, demanding.

I say to the Western Conference, bring your Mavericks, your Spurs and your Suns. We'll meet you on the field of battle and the last team standing will be the one with the most heart. My money is on BEN and his crew of merciless killers aka the Pistons.

Defenders of the Faith. Church of Detroit Basketball.

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Nov 13 LW Milan Lucic had an active night. He scored his first goal in eight games since his Oct. 25 hat trick and also pounded Michael Komisarek in a third-period fight. Lucic cut his hand in a fight with Michael Komisarek. "I'll be fine," he said. "(X-rays are) negative, but there's so many broken bones in there from before you can't really tell."

Woah, careful there Microwave - - it's not quite time to pull out the "WE BELIEVE"

Dallas may be able to out duel the pistons but in a knock down drag out fight for all the marbles...I'll take detroit. The Pistons are rolling over everybody and we've only seen flashes of that team that pushed miami and indiana out in the waning minutes of each series.

Really, the only team that can beat the Pistons...is the Pistons. I'll go as far as to say that the pistons lost last year but they weren't necessarily beat by the spurs.

This team, when it wants to, can go all the way to 11.

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it's happened in all our losses the pistons did more bad than opponents did good. if that makes any sense.

spinal tap reference?