The Defending Champs: Finals Contenders?

The old Mavericks were the only team in the league to solve the Miami Heat. By playing team basketball and with defensive stopper Tyson Chandler anchoring the defense, the Mavericks found an answer to Lebron's penetration, specifically the drive-in style of play that allows Lebron to score in crunchtime. Yeah, Lebron CAN actually score in crunchtime. Don't believe me? Look at this, this, and this. All playoff games, all drives, all game winners. As much as we all like to believe that Lebron just can't make an impact in fourth quarters, the Mavs' interior defense in the 2011 NBA Finals was a huge factor in slowing him down. Give the Mavs some credit, it wasn't just a mental collapse on Lebron's part.

Mark Cuban's pursuit of an enormous amount of cap space for the summer of 2012 (which was undoubtedly an effort to give the Mavericks the ability to sign Deron Williams, Dwight Howard, or both) resulted in the loss of Tyson Chandler and JJ Barea, two key cogs in the Mavs' 2011 playoff run (they also lost Caron Butler, but no one cares. The only impact he made in the playoffs was the high fives he gave to Dirk and Jet). Surprisingly enough, however, the Mavs picked up some defensively apt perimeter players for the 2011-12 season, which has allowed them to boast the 6th best defense in the league, allowing just 97.8 points per 100 possessions. Nevertheless, the Mavs' interior defense is now held down by Dirk and Brendan Haywood, who average a COMBINED 10 defensive rebounds per game. Peachy.

The larger problem, however, is the Mavericks offense, and how it's led by several golden oldies who can no longer go ten games without having to sit out one. The "Mavericks" (and I use quotes because the team name is simply a label; the team actually playing is basically a different group of players each game because of all the injuries that have struck this organization) have played 48 games this year, of which:

- Shawn Marion has missed 3

- Dirk Nowitzki has missed 4

- Vince Carter has missed 5

- Lamar Odom has missed 5

- Brendan Haywood has missed 8

- Rodrigue Beaubois has missed 10

- Jason Kidd has missed 11

- Delonte West has missed 19

In addition to the missed games, look at the statistical drops (in comparison to the 2011 playoffs) of the Mavs' key returning players for the 2011-12 season:

- Dirk Nowitzki: -6.8 ppg, -1.3 rpg

- Jason Terry: -2.5 ppg

- Jason Kidd: -3.5 ppg, -1.7 apg

- Shawn Marion: -0.7 ppg, +0.5 rpg (admittedly, not a huge difference here. Marion's been playing at an adequate level all season)

As a team, the Mavericks are averaging 5.2 ppg and an alarming 8.9 rpg (undeniably the area where the Mavs have suffered the most from the loss of Chandler) less than they did in the 2010-11 regular season. Tonight, they took a 109-93 beating from the Lakers in Dallas, where they were outrebounded 46 to 29. The Mavs' bigs were beaten to rebounds by smaller players such as Matt Barnes, who pulled down 9 boards. This offensive mediocrity and laziness has shown through in the Mavs' games against the western conference elite this season. The Mavs are:

- 1-3 vs. the OKC Thunder

- 2-1 vs. the San Antonio Spurs (both wins came as a result of rarely stellar games from players other than Dirk; in the first win, Jason Terry put up 34 points. In the second, Jason Kidd had a double-double with 14 points and 10 assists)

- 0-3 vs. the LA Lakers

- 1-1 vs. the LA Clippers

The question is: Will the Mavs, currently sitting with a 27-21 record, good for 6th in the West, be able to win 4 games of 7 against the teams above? Possibly, if West, Kidd, and Beaubois can get healthy, if Vince Carter (41.6 FG%) and Lamar Odom (34.5 FG%) can actually integrate themselves into the offense, and if Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry can revitalize their level of play to mirror that of the 2011 NBA Playoffs. If ALL of that happens, maybe the Mavs can reach the NBA Finals and have shot at returning to the Promised Land. But will all of this really occur at the right time? Let's be realistic - fat chance.