What a head coaching ride for Avery Johnson thus far in his career. A Coach of the Year award, a trip to the Finals, and turning in a 67 win season in just a little over two years.

Dirk Nowitzki, has been a regular on the All NBA Teams the past several years, not to mention among the favorites for League MVP a few times.

However, IMO this loss to the 8th seeded Warriors is a blow to both of them. Yes, the Warriors are indeed better than their record indicates and the midseason trade made them a playoff team, but dominating the Mav`s like they did is unacceptable if you are a fan, and Mark Cuban!

There is no way to erase the things of last year (going up 2-0 then losing the next 4 games in the Finals to the Heat) or make the dissapointment of this year go away (losing to the Warriors) unless, the Mav`s win it all.

What does Avery and Cuban do now? Do they go after a free agent? Go after a blockbuster trade?

For Dirk and Avery`s sake, I hope they make the right decision.

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"We are going to be really good offensively and definsively, we are going to be a team that can beat you 120-110, or beat you 80-70" Coach Michael Curry on the 2008-2009 Pistons.

My favorite part of this whole mess is how Cuban was commenting on Don Nelson and his fear of winning. A little too much psycho analysis from the LOSER.

"...Some people are afraid to lose. You can't be afraid to lose if you're going to be a winner. You see it in business all the time.... You've got to go for it. I don't think Nellie's got that attitude and that was a conflict between us."

Said Nelson: "You guys know Mark Cuban. He tries to crush everything in his path. And I'd really not get involved in discussing those situations."

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"Will was rolling, wasn't he? I roll with the guy that's hot." MC

I think Avery has to take some lumps here. Maybe throwing Nowitzki under the train in the press wasn't the best thing. Maybe he changed too much from what had been successful in the regular season (Dampier - 25 minutes to 8 minutes?). Maybe he tried to get too cute and adjusted his way right into Nellie's hands. After all, the team did pretty well in the regular season. Maybe trying to force Golden State to play the Dallas way would have worked better than diving headlong into the Warrior way.

The Mavs probably do need to make some moves in the off-season. Not to the extent of "blowing things up," since that would be pretty ridiculous with a 67-win team that almost won the 'ship the year before. But shifting some supporting guys for another big name or two to pair with Dirk, sure. They've probably got some pieces they can move, maybe for Jason Kidd, as one article I saw suggested. Not sure where they could go for help in the low post, though.

Next season's going to be tough for them in terms of pressure no matter what they do in the off-season. Even if they have another huge season with a win total of mid to high 60s, nobody's going to give them any credit for anything until they go deep in the playoffs again.

Yep, deep as in winning it all!

Well, if they make the conference finals and lose a hard-fought series to the Spurs in a re-match of their second round series that went to OT in Game 7 last year, I don't think people would write them off as the punching bags that they're going to be in the upcoming off-season. But yeah, for a team that was already carrying a "can they win the big one" burden around, anything short of a title is going to leave at least some lingering doubts and criticisms about how they're talented enough, but not mentally tough enough.

Oddly, when they won Game 5 over the Warriors, Kiki Vandeweghe on ESPN quoted Rudy T's "don't ever underestimate the heart of a champion" line to describe the Mavs. I must have missed the part where they actually became champions.

Couple of things. Mavs had problems with GS all season. And the Indy trade made them a lot better than their record.

One of those things. I would consider moving Nowitski though, out of all the 1st 2nd, 3rd seeds over the years they only made it to the Finals one time. Not a good record.

Amazing how they won 1 more game than the Pistons did last season and your all know how we felt about losing in the ECF. Imagine how Mavericks fan feels right now.

There were Champions of the Western Conference.

But there is a reason the saying doesn't go

"Never underestimate the heart of a Western Conference Champion."