Go back to Oct. 23, when the Mavericks opened this season with a 108-100 win over Washington.
If somebody had told you then the Mavericks would go into the All-Star break with a 33-22 record, on pace to win 49 games and solidly in the playoff mix, everybody would have signed up for that deal in a heartbeat, right?
Remember, the Mavericks were basing their season on a 20-year-old second-year player, who admittedly was a flat-out phenom as a teenaged rookie last season. And they had a 7-3 newcomer who hadn’t played competitive basketball in 20 months.