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DALLAS -- Dirk Nowitzki is the leader of the Western Conference's best road team. He has no desire to go to Portland with the series all tied up.

"This win means nothing if you lose Game 2," Nowitzki said. "That's what we did last year here."

The Dallas Mavericks lost Game 2 at home to the Spurs after a Game 1 win and never recovered, losing in six.

Tuesday's Game 2 winner will seize the series momentum. If Dallas can assert a some muscle and defend the home court, it would require Portland to win four times in five games. A loss and the entirety of the series shifts with it to the Pacific Northwest and inside the raucous Rose Garden for Games 3 and 4.

"As we know, they’re very, very good at home," Nowitzki said. "They’re one of the best home teams we have in this league. Their fans are phenomenal, so we’d love to go up there leading 2-0."

The Trail Blazers went 30-11 at home, tied for third best in the West with the Los Angeles Lakers and Oklahoma City Thunder. The Mavs and Miami Heat led the NBA with 28 road wins. A sweep at home, a split on the road, a chance to win at home in 5 is the Mavs' mindset.

To get to there, it will take a victory here in Game 2.

"I really like our energy right now, the way we’re focused in practice, the way we’re executing, the way we’re paying attention to detail," Mavs center Tyson Chandler said. "I see something different. It’s the same way we were approaching training camp and that’s the mentality that you really have to have."

On the final night of the regular season, the Western Conference playoff race has just three of eight playoff seeds resolved.

A wild Tuesday night of basketball supplied plenty of twists with the Los Angeles Lakers topping the intrigue list. Center Andrew Bynum went down with a wincing knee injury in the second quarter and a San Antonio Light outfit that did not include resting starters Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, Tim Duncan or Antonio McDyess nearly pushed L.A.'s losing streak to a half-dozen.

More will be known on Bynum's knee after an MRI Wednesday, according to reports out of L.A.

How important is Bynum's health to the Western Conference playoff landscape? Here's Dirk Nowitzki's take from a few nights ago:

"I still think it’s all wide open, but you got to think that when the Lakers go for it and with Bynum being a factor, they’re still the heavy favorites. They’re just so long. They have so many options that no other team has."

The Lakers looked alarmingly dysfunctional, but they squeaked out the win to remain in the driver's seat for the No. 2 seed. They'll get it with a win tonight at the Sacramento Kings in what should be a surreal scene during Arco Arena's possible last stand as an NBA venue.

What it means for the Dallas Mavericks: They'll enter tonight's finale against the New Orleans Hornets back in the the No. 3 hole after spending Monday night at No. 2. They could still finish as high as 2 and as low as 4 and play either the Denver Nuggets, Portland Trail Blazers, Memphis Grizzlies or the Hornets.

They won't know their fate until after the late-starting Lakers-Kings game. Most improbable is the 2-seed, which requires a Mavs win and a Lakers loss. Dallas will slip to the No. 4 seed (and play Denver, locked in at No. 5) with a loss and an Oklahoma City Thunder home win over the Milwaukee Bucks.

Most probable for the Mavs is the three-seed, which would see them start the playoffs at home Saturday or Sunday against the No. 6 Portland Trail Blazers. Seagoville product LaMarcus Aldridge and company secured the sixth seed Tuesday with a home win over the Memphis Grizzlies, whose coach, Lionel Hollins, opted to rest Zach Randolph and Tony Allen.

The Mavs will get the No. 3 seed with a win and a Lakers win, or a loss to the Hornets and a Thunder loss.

The Grizzlies and Hornets will settle the seventh and eighth seeds tonight. Memphis plays at the Los Angeles Clippers, while the Hornets face a Mavs team that could opt to rest point guard Jason Kidd. New Orleans owns the tiebreaker with Memphis.

More from Dirk:

"Other than that [the Lakers with a healthy Bynum], everything is open. Even if Portland or Memphis or somebody down there [the 5-8 seeds] is going to beat somebody in the first round, I don’t even think that’s an upset. Teams are so good down there and playing so well. I mean Denver is a very tough five-seed."

DALLAS -- As the Carmelo Anthony trade advanced the NBA's trend toward super-alliances, the Dallas Mavericks, despite their long-stated desire to pair a superstar with Dirk Nowitzki, have settled, rather successfully, for a counter approach.

Among the league's top contenders -- the Boston Celtics, Miami Heat, San Antonio Spurs, the Los Angeles Lakers, even the young Oklahoma City Thunder and, go ahead, throw in the new New York Knicks -- the Mavs are the lone club to send just one player to last weekend's All-Star Game.

Dirk is the Mavs' Lone Ranger, just as he's been since Steve Nash walked and Michael Finley was shown the door; just as new contenders in the East load up with superstar power combos and the powers in the West are loaded with perennial All-Stars.

When Dallas resumes play tonight against Utah and then after Thursday's trade deadline passes at 2 p.m., Nowitzki will continue to stand alone in Big D. The Mavs have pressed on with the committee approach, surrounding Nowitzki with a collection of mostly veteran players, many with their All-Star days behind them and all lacking a championship ring.

"We know that for us to be the kind of team we need to be, we’ve got to have 12 guys ready each night to contribute in a meaningful way," coach Rick Carlisle said. "I think you’ve seen that in the last few games. we’re going 10 or 11 deep almost every game in some form and we’re going to continue to need guys ready...For us, depth is one of our calling cards."

The result to this point is a 40-16 record -- good for the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference -- that has been built on selfless play, a buy-in to defense, superb locker-room chemistry and most recently, tremendous offensive ball movement and spread-the-wealth scoring.

But, can that formula slay super powers in the postseason?

"We’ll see," Nowitzki said. "I think if we keep five, six guys in double figures, we’re tough to guard and tough to stop and tough to beat. That means we’re moving the ball, everybody’s playing well, with confidence and everybody is in their groove and we’re playing well off each other."

The Mavs have been on quite an offensive tear, a reversal from earlier this season when surprising and impressive late-game defense won games with the final score in the 90s and even 80s. Dallas has now scored at least 100 points in 12 of the last 13 games, and in all 13 at least five players scored in double figures. The Mavs are 25-4 when at least five players score 10 points or more. Remarkably, nearly half of that total has come during this last stretch of 13 games in which they're averaging 107.5 points.

"If we always have five guys in double figures then we don’t really need a second guy that produces 20 to 25 points," Nowitzki said of the lack of a second superstar player. "If two, three guys do that together for us on a nightly basis then we’ll be in good shape."

However, the last 13 games is a small sample size. For the first two months of the season, Dallas averaged around 93 points a game and more often than not were dependent on Dirk carrying a disproportionate load. That hasn't been the case lately and Nowitzki said the team has learned from the early portion of the season when his point totals were high, but the team's was low.

Before Nowitzki scored 35 points on 13-of-18 shooting in last week's win at Phoenix, in which four others also scored in double figures, the Mavs were just 4-3 in games Nowitzki scored 30 or more.

"Early in the season sometimes I had big scoring nights and we still lost and I think that showed us that that’s not what we want to do," Nowitzki said. "I think I had 38 [36] against Chicago here at home and we lost (88-83). We saw that that’s not how this team is built and that’s not how we want to win.

"There’ll be some nights where I have to have some bigger scoring nights, but me scoring right around 20, 22, 23 and everybody scoring well, as long as I score efficient, I think we’re in pretty good shape, and that’s when we’re at our best."

BOSTON -- Remember that six-game losing skid, the dread and the slippage from second to fifth in the Western Conference standings?

Ancient history.

The Dallas Mavericks' 101-97 win at Boston Celtics Friday night, combined with the San Antonio Spurs' win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday, vaulted Dallas back into second place in the West. The Mavs' seventh consecutive win moved them to 34-15 and a half-game ahead of the Lakers, seven games back of the Spurs.

The win over Boston, Dallas' second of the season -- once with Caron Butler and once without -- also gave the Mavs 19 wins against teams with winning record, tied for best in the league with Spurs. Dallas is now 4-0 against the East's top two teams, Boston and Miami Heat. They have a winning record against each division leader except the Chicago Bulls (0-2) and San Antonio, but their two losses in three games to the Spurs both came with Dirk Nowitzki sidelined by a sprained right knee.

"At this point we've been beaten the top of the top," center Tyson Chandler said. "The thing we have to do is continue to be consistent. I love the way we're playing right now. We're playing great basketball at both ends of the floor."

BOSTON -- Rick Carlisle didn't exactly enjoy selecting seven reserves for the Western Conference All-Star team.

"Hardest it’s ever been," Carlisle said. "By far."

Those seven reserves will be announced tonight. Dirk Nowitzki is considered a lock with center Tyson Chandler a long shot. If Chandler doesn't make his first All-Star squad he can't blame Carlisle. Coaches can't vote for their own players so it will be up to the other 14 West coaches to give Chandler the nod.

After the Dallas Mavericks' Thursday practice at Emerson College in Boston, Carlisle said he had no insight into how other coaches voted, but he said he thinks Chandler has a chance.

"No one ever knows [how the coaches vote] because we don’t know," Carlisle said. "We don’t see the tallies."

And Carlisle said he wasn't about to divulge his votes.

Each conference's coaches vote for that conference's reserves. They vote in order, one through seven, and then the player is assigned that number value. The points are added up and the top seven point totals are in. Coaches are allowed to change a player's position if it makes sense, such as voting Tim Duncan or Pau Gasol as a center to help alleviate the migraine-producing logjam at forward.

More than one deserving forward will be left off the team among a group that includes, but is not limited to, Nowitzki, Gasol, Duncan, LaMarcus Aldridge, David West, Kevin Love and Blake Griffin.

"I would be shocked if it wasn’t very, very close a lot of years," Carlisle said. "But, this year in particular."

As the Dallas Mavericks left the bitter cold of DFW behind Tuesday -- delayed several hours -- for the bitter cold of the Northeast, they can take heart in knowing they're one of the hotter teams going in the Western Conference and darn near the entire league.

Despite a month 0f injury, turmoil and ongoing transition, five consecutive wins -- tied with the Chicago Bulls as the longest current win streak in the league -- have moved the Mavs within one game of the Los Angeles Lakers for second in the West standings.

Now the club begins another grueling stretch in which they play six of their next seven games on the road, and, in the bigger picture, 20 of 30 away from home. Considering the events that started Dec. 27 when Dirk Nowitzki went down with a sprained knee, to New Year's Day when Caron Butler was lost for the season, Dallas hits the road feeling pretty good about itself.

"It wasn’t pretty there for a while, but I think what we talked about was that we’re too talented and just too good," Nowitzki said. "We just got to get healthy and do some of the stuff we were doing in November, December and we’d get back to our winning ways. That was good to see that we got our stuff back and now we've just got to keep going.

"We’re right in the pack of things. Besides San Antonio, they’re really way too far up for anybody, but other than that everything else is right there in the pack."

This three game roadie offers something for everyone. The first stop is tonight at Madison Square Garden to face the rejuvinated, although recently struggling, New York Knicks with Amare Stoudemire. The last time the Mavs played at MSG, they waltzed out with a 50-point win without the services of Jason Kidd. Of course, Stoudemire wasn't there either. And the first Stoudemire vs. Chandler matchup should be fun to watch.

Then it's off to Boston on Friday to face the title contending Celtics, who have gotten the better of this matchup since Kevin Garnett came to Beantown. However, the Mavs took the first game of the series in Dallas in early November, displaying that hustling fourth-quarter defense that defined their 24-5 starts.

On Saturday, the Mavs complete the road trip with a back-to-back at the Charlotte Bobcats. Dallas has won all 13 games against the Bobcats, including six in a row at Charlotte. But, that's not why this game has intrigue. Nor is it because the Bobcats have played better since Paul Silas took over for Larry Brown.

What makes this game interesting is a certain Charlotte swingman named Stephen Jackson. The Mavs have seemed to covet the boisterous Bobcat for several years, but have yet to pull the trigger to bring him to Big D.

Will this be the year? The Mavs have 22 days to make that call.

DALLAS -- The 2011 All-Star Game starters, as voted on by fans, will be announced Thursday. Then the real work comes for the league's head coaches, who will select the seven reserves for each squad. Those spots will be announced Feb. 3.

Perhaps the most intriguing position is forward for the Western Conference. Carmelo Anthony, assuming he isn't traded to an Eastern Conference team beforehand, and Kevin Durant, are leading the fans' vote to start the Feb. 20 All-Star Game held at Staples Center in Los Angeles. Then the coaches must choose, maybe as many as four reserves from the following pool of worthy candidates: Dirk Nowitzki, Tim Duncan, Pau Gasol, LaMarcus Aldridge, Blake Griffin and Kevin Love.

While some -- OK, one -- has made the suggestion that the coaches should bypass Nowitzki this year, that just isn't going to happen despite a knee injury that sidelined him for nine games and has taken a toll on his shooting percentage. Before his injury on Dec. 27, Nowitzki was averaging 24.1 points on a blistering 54.5-percent shooting.

"During that period of time, he was the MVP [of the league] in my opinion," Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said. "His value to us -- he’s priceless to us."

No MVP candidate will be left off the All-Star team. The coaches could catch a slight break if NBA commissioner David Stern selects Tim Duncan to replace the injured Yao Ming, the fans' nonsensical vote to start at center. Duncan is technically a power forward, but he's as close as it gets to a pure center and the most sensible candidate to replace Yao.

What if Stern doesn't select Duncan? Do you really think the coaches leave him off the team? Duncan has made every All-Star Game since he entered the league and according to Carlisle's standards for voting, he would seem a shoe-in even though his statistics, for various reasons, are not at his career levels.

"The thing that I’ll tell you and I’ll be very frank is that the coaches' vote is always tipped heavily toward winning," Carlisle said. 'I’m no different than the rest of the voters. I think that’s a major factor in who gets the votes. Those guys are 37-4 [38-7] or something. You got to take a strong look at that, that Duncan’s on a team that’s winning every game. That’s a big deal and it should be. As we get closer to it and I look at it, it’s going to be some difficult votes for sure."

The game is in Los Angeles, so how can coaches leave Gasol (18.6 ppg, 10.5 rpg, 1.9 bpg) off the team? And what about the Clips' rookie sensation and dunkmeister Griffin (22.9 ppg, 12.9 rpg), who has made the other L.A. team relevant in all of half a season?

But, if winning is such a significant factor, would the Clippers' 17-27 record hold Griffin back? If it does, what chance does rebounding machine Kevin Love, playing for the 10-34 Timberwolves, have of making his first All-Star squad? Love, a UCLA product, is averaging 21.4 points and 15.6 rebounds and became the first player to record a 30-30 game (30 points, 31 rebounds) since Moses Malone did it in 1982.

"There’s a few games until [selections are due] and you look at all that stuff," Carlisle said. "Kevin Love is having a great year, having a breakout year. And so he’s a guy that will get consideration for sure."

Good luck.

NEWARK, N.J. -- The body bumps and bear hugs were pure emotion, adulation and relief, a spontaneous and genuine reaction to Saturday's 87-86 squeaker against the woeful New Jersey Nets.

Perhaps a month ago, such a precarious victory over an inferior opponent might have elicited a head shake and a sense of dissatisfaction in the locker room.

These days nothing comes easy for the Dallas Mavericks, who are trying to rediscover their identity and rebuild their confidence after injuries and illness threw this season into a mighty tailspin. They are taking nothing for granted, simply trying to survive their most challenging stretch as the offense grinds and sputters, and their defense dips in and out of extended power outages.

"I felt like when I was out and Caron Butler was out we didn’t really have a pep in our step. That swagger we had got lost there," said Dirk Nowitzki, who shed an awful shooting night (7-of-24) by rolling in the game-winner with six seconds to play. "In this league you’ve got to work for everything now. Teams are too good, you can’t just show up and get wins, especially on the road. We have to fight to get this back on track. We’ve got to fight for every possession, play every possession hard on both ends of the floor and that’s how you get it back. That’s how you work yourself back in it."

Mavs owner Mark Cuban perhaps put the state of his team, now 28-15 after a grueling stretch of 10 losses in 14 games -- the optimist will say two wins in the last three games -- in proper perspective.

"This is kind of like a preseason for us," Cuban said. "We’re trying to regroup and get better, and that’s what we’ve got to do. Dirk’s obviously not full strength yet. His knee is fine, but whatever explosiveness he has left, he’s got to get some of that back and that’s just not there. That comes with time."

Considering the brutality of this stretch in which the Mavs have played of 11 of 17 games on the road, have not been able to muster as many as 90 points in six of the last seven games and have scored at least 100 points just twice since Nowitzki went down on Dec. 27, they are not in badshape when taking in the panoramic view of the Western Conference.

It isn't the bear it has been the past three or four seasons. Just about everyone other than the San Antonio Spurs are dealing with internal issues. The Mavs are in no jeopardy of falling out of playoff position, in fact, even through this skid, they've maintained a spot in the top four. As Dallas gets healthier, it is in a virtual tie with Oklahoma City and New Orleans for third place in the conference standings, three games behind the Los Angeles Lakers.

Against those three teams, the Mavs are 4-2.

They were a possession or two away from stealing a road win at much-improved Chicago in yet another ugly, grinding ballgame. But, earlier in the week, they showed that they can ramp up both sides of the ball in the impressive 109-100 win over the Lakers in their first meeting of the season.

"The fight has been there. We have been clawing out there," forward Shawn Marion said. "We've been really helping each other out, really buckling down, focusing and doing what we have to do. Some nights, it's going to be really hard to just get a bucket, but as long as you stay active, stay consistent and make it hard for them [the opponent] as well, you never know what could happen. You just got to stay with it."

That's not to say there aren't concerns. DeShawn Stevenson seems to have hit a wall after his minutes were drastically ramped up after Nowitzki and Caron Butler went down. Jason Kidd has flashed signs of regaining his shooting touch, but on this two-game road trip he was was just 4-of-13 from the floor on the heels of his horrid four-game road trip when the team dropped all four by double digits. Jason Terry was 1-of-10 from 3-point range in the last two games as his percentage from continues to hover at a career-low.

The Mavs expect to sign Peja Stojakovic on Monday. His ability to contribute immediately is uncertain due to health issues that have limited him to just eight games this season. When healthy, Stojokovic helps to spread the floor and can provide spurts of knock-down 3-point shooting.

Trade scenarios are also being explored as the Feb. 24 deadline looms. But, the Mavs prefer to remain patient, eager to see Nowitzki return to full strength and the eventual return of flashy guard Roddy Beaubois before pulling the trigger on a deal that could net a solid contributor, but also a hefty contract.

The pivotal piece to long-term success, of course, is Nowitzki and his right knee. Although he continues to feel as though he's on the cusp of regaining full strength, it hasn't happened through five games back. After Saturday's win, Nowitzki said he felt like he was "running in quicksand."

"The chemistry is there," Cuban said. "Dirk’s just got to get healthy and we’re trying to get him there. We want to stay healthy just like anybody else. Any player comes back after missing for a while, especially somebody who you depend on so much, it’s a challenge. He’ll get back. Like I say every year, you just want to be healthy and playing well at the end of the year."

The only one cringing as hard as Mark Cuban over the Dallas Mavericks' tumble is David Stern.

As if the commissioner didn't already know that NBA fans view the regular season as largely irrelevant, just take a look at the standings. At the season's mid-point four of the league's six divisions are yawn-fests. The Mavs' three-week slide has added the Southwest Division to that category, decisively altering what was shaping up to be a classic race to 82 between two fierce rivals potentially for the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference.

Dallas' 82-77 loss Thursday night at Chicago Bulls dropped it a season-high nine games behind the 36-6 San Antonio Spurs, who can extend the lead to 9 1/2 with a win tonight against the New York Knicks. That's a daunting number of games to make up with 42 remaining. Less than a month ago when Dirk Nowitzki went down with a sprained knee on Dec. 27, the Mavs were 2 1/2 games back of the Spurs and had already won in San Antonio.

Remarkably, the Mavs are the closest second-place team among the four division races that are essentially over -- barring injuy or other mishaps -- before the Los Angeles Lakers have even started to care.

L.A. in the Pacific, Chicago in the Central and Boston in the Atlantic all hold 10-game leads over their nearest divisional foe. Only the Southeast Division in the Eastern Conference and the Northwest Division in the Western Conference have compelling races going on. Each division has three teams packed within 2 1/2 games, yet only the Miami Heat among that group of six hold national appeal, even if polarizing.

The shame of the Mavs' freefall which stands at 10 losses in 13 games is that the division was shaping up to go down to the wire as it did in 2005-06, when both teams reached 60 wins with the Spurs nudging ahead to 63 wins to take the division by 3 1/2 games.

That race served as a prelude to a tremendous semifinal round playoff series in which the Mavs lost a 3-1 lead only to take down the then-defending champions in Game 7 on their home floor, paving the Mavs' path to their first NBA Finals.

Oh well, there's always the race for playoff seeding. Set your snooze for March.

ESPN.com asked its panel of experts who they thought would be the biggest threat to unseating the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference. While most went with the San Antonio Spurs, our own Marc Stein had the guts to stray from the pack.

Here's what Mr. Stein had to say:

I'm still gullible enough to say the Dallas Mavericks, mainly because I can't shake the suspicion that the Mavs will trade for, say, Stephen Jackson to replace Caron Butler if Roddy Beaubois can't come back with the big second-half comeback they're praying for. The reality that the survey commission doesn't want to hear, though, is that I could just as easily make a passionate case for the Spurs, who don't quite have Dallas' size with Tyson Chandler as an All-Star goalie but should have a fresh, spry Tim Duncan for the postseason. And Kobe Bryant would be the first to tell you, as he found out last week, that the Spurs can still smother elite scorers quite nicely no matter what you've heard about their supposed defensive decline.

For more, click here.

DALLAS -- Although coach Rick Carlisle is concerned about recent defensive slippage, he is hopeful the club will get back to the defensive structure it assumed during the bulk of the 12-game win streak.

Carlisle believes the team has realized that it won't contend in the Western Conference without a disciplined approach to defense, which the team says it has bought into since opening training camp.

"We’re in the third year and we’ve gotten to a point where we understand how important defense and rebounding is to our success," Carlisle said. "When I first got here, the talk was all about a change in offensive philosophy. And we did that, we scored a lot of points. We got beat in a lot of games. It wasn’t until we got better defensively and really honed in on it that we turned that season around. The key with any team is to find the right balance. This roster needs to have a flow approach offensively as much as possible, but we’ve got to maintain a possession mentality defensively, and those two things can be diametric opposites.

"The challenge is to sell defense and the importance of defense and rebounding on the one hand, but be able to still move the ball up and down the court and play free. The great teams can do it and the great teams win championships doing it and the teams that can’t do both don’t get as far."

That pretty much says it all. So as the Mavs regroup in preparation to face the Portland Trail Blazerstonight at American Airlines Center, the focus will shift back to defense. Are the Mavs truly committed? Or was the first quarter of the season no different than last season when defense lifted Dallas to a 19-7 start before fading into months of .500 basketball?

"Last year we got off to a great start defensively and we had slippage in December and late January and early February and that cost us and it affected our overall year," Carlisle said. "Then we made the trade and got on a big run. This year we have everybody from Day One, which really helps. Tyson Chandler has really helped us defensively. He’s helped our overall spirit, enthusiasm and energy, and to not state him being here as a major plus for us would be a mistake. It would be an inaccuracy.

"To this point, we’ve made great progress defensively, but we’ve got to stay steadfast about sustaining and continuing to improve. Otherwise, we’re going to lose momentum and when you lose momentum it’s not easy to get it back."

To a man after Tuesday's brisk practice, the Mavs say their defense, which has gone sluggish after building 20-point-plus leads in the last three games, won't falter.

"We have to be more consistent with what we’re trying to accomplish defensively because once we get teams down like that our defense is what’s going to be able to keep them down," Chandler said. "That’s been kind of a pattern, getting teams down and teams coming back, but there are going to be cases in this league where teams are going to come back. But, you want to be able to say, 'OK, we did things defensively correct out there and they just made some shots.'

"We have to be held accountable for what we’re doing out there defensively and we have to make sure it's for an entire game and not just for spurts here and there."

Jason Kidd has spent 16 seasons chasing an elusive NBA championship. He knows better than most that it takes the right mix of players, execution and a little luck to get it done.

"You see you can have the best player in the world and not be guaranteed to make it to the Eastern Conference finals or to the [NBA] Finals," Kidd said, referring to LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers losing in the second round to the Boston Celtics. "So, that's basketball and that's what you love and also sometimes as a player you hate -- you hate to be on the end of losing when you feel you have a good chance."

Kidd had thought the trade the Dallas Mavericks made during the All-Star break put them in position to challenge the Los Angeles Lakers for Western Conference supremacy. Instead, the Mavs were ousted in the first round.

"That was one of the best teams I've been on, on the court and also in the locker room. So, on paper we were pretty good," Kidd said. "But, you don't win championships on paper."

So it's back to the drawing board and like every other team with the means, the Mavs will make their pitch to acquire James, the game's most sought-after player.

Kidd knows James well from their summers training for and playing in the 2008 Olympic Games. He said Mavs owner Mark Cuban has not asked him to help recruit James. The Mavs would have to work out a sign-and-trade for James, a scenario that could happen if James forced Cleveland's hand and demanded a trade to Dallas.

Kidd said he spoke to James to wish him luck during the Boston series, but he has not talked to him since the Cavs lost. James has failed to get the Cavs back to the NBA Finals since being swept by San Antonio in 2007.

"I know he'll probably be under the radar for a while because he's probably upset," Kidd said. "And then the media will be chasing him wherever he goes because this is a once-in-a-lifetime deal for him to be a free agent and kind of dictate of where he wants to play or if he wants to stay in Cleveland. It's going to be exciting with him, D-Wade, Chris Bosh and all these free agents.

"All the teams would love to have LeBron, but there's only one team that gets him. ... Even if he stays in Cleveland, there's probably going to be a lot of movement, especially with all those teams that are under the cap. So, there's probably going to be players that are maybe overpaid and players that go to teams that are good and they're going to make them better."

Jason Kidd wasn't thrilled with the way things were going as this season progressed, but he still believed the Dallas Mavericks, as constructed prior to the All-Star break trade, had a chance to do big things.

But, he said, "It was going to be tough. I thought we still had the pieces before the trade, but we just couldn’t get it going on a consistent basis, and on top of that we were always fighting from behind."

Kidd's individual game, particularly his scoring, has soared since the trade that sent Josh Howard to Washington and brought in Caron Butler, Brendan Haywood and DeShawn Stevenson. The team has done pretty well, too, going 23-7 since the trade heading into playoffs as the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference.

"With the trade everybody got to maybe relax for a minute and we didn’t have time to really ask, 'Where would you like the ball?'" Kidd said. "We just had to play, so it was just play basketball and I think everybody got to do what they love to do and that was just play...We’re playing. We start the game off just playing basketball, everybody gets to touch it, run and try to explore and try to get an easy basket off the bat."

Kidd's two-plus years back in Dallas have been a wild ride. He joined a team coming off consecutive monumental disappointments in the 2006 NBA Finals debacle and the 2007 first-round implosion after a 67-win regular season. When Kidd arrived with championship hopes, the season spiraled down the stretch and the Mavs were wiped out of the first round in five games by the New Orleans Hornets. The day after, Johnson was fired.

"At the trade I thought it was going to be a great opportunity with Avery and Dirk [Nowitzki] and the rest of the guys," Kidd said. "But, it was a different situation. They were fresh off coming out of that Finals where they felt they should have won, there was a lot of expectations right after that trade and it just didn’t work out the way it was supposed to and I think we all got a chance to learn something and understand that you might have to just be patient, and we put ourselves right back in that situation this year."

Having just completed his second full season with the Mavs, Kidd never could have fathomed that he'd be playing for his second head coach and with just four players who were on the roster when he arrived: Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Terry, Erick Dampier and J.J Barea.

Since his return to Dallas, Kidd has preferred to assume a low profile, saying he's just one piece to the puzzle, but with the new roster, it is clear he has assumed a significant leadership role.

"He’s our motor every night. He always plays hard at both ends of the floor," Nowitzki said. "Sometimes we can stick him on their best offensive player, that’s the kind of competitor he is. He’s a warrior, you can’t say enough about him. He does it all for us. He pushes the tempo, he rebounds, he obviously sets an unselfish tone every night by passing the ball. We knew what we were going to get and that’s leadership on the court."

San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said he has no interest in trying to dictate Western Conference playoff seedings by resting starters during Wednesday night's regular-season finale against the Dallas Mavericks.

A Spurs loss would guarantee that the Interstate 35 rivals would meet in the first round for the second consecutive season. The Mavs would be the second seed and the Spurs the seventh.

"If it's Dallas, it's Dallas," Popovich said. "If it's somebody else, it's somebody else. You really can't control everything, so there's no sense trying. Just do your best. That's what you can control."

For more of what Popovich had to say, click here.

If the Dallas Mavericks want to keep the No. 2 seed they'll have to lock it down tonight against the San Antonio Spurs.

Any thoughts of the Mavs resting their regulars in the regular-season finale went out the window with wins Tuesday night by Utah and Phoenix. The No. 2 seed remains in play for a possible Jazz takeover on the final night of the season.

Spurs-Mavs tip off at 7 p.m., more than two hours before the Suns-Jazz get going, so Dallas has to play it full tilt, assuming the Jazz will win on their home court. If the Mavs (54-27) win, whatever the Jazz (53-28) does later in the night is moot, Dallas will clinch the No. 2 seed. However, a Mavs loss and a Utah win awards the Jazz -- who holds the tiebreak over the Mavs -- the No. 2 seed and Dallas settles for the No. 3 seed.

Rest assured, the Mavs have no interest in sliding behind the Jazz and setting up a second-round scenario with four games slated in hostile Salt Lake City. Also be certain that the Jazz want that 2-seed. Otherwise, they tumble to fifth, start the first round on the road at Denver (1-3 vs. Nuggets this season) and would have to go through the Lakers in the second round.

San Antonio has an interesting situation in front of it. Would the Spurs rather open the playoffs against their in-state rival or against a Jazz team that snookered them, 4-0 (although their last meeting was back on Jan. 20 before the Spurs got hot, and Jazz forward Carlos Boozer left Tuesday's game with a rib injury)?

The Spurs (50-31), currently No. 7, have to assume that Portland (50-31), currently No. 6, will win its late game at home against Golden State. Portland owns the head-to-head tiebreak against the Spurs.

So, if San Antonio and Portland both win (and assuming the Jazz win to take the No. 2 seed), then the Blazers take the No. 6 seed and a first-round matchup against No. 3 Dallas, while the No. 7 Spurs would face the No. 2 Jazz.

If Phoenix beats Utah, the Suns would move up to No. 3, Denver would finish at No. 4 and Utah would slide to No. 5. In that case, even a Spurs win over the Mavs would pit the two rivals in a first-round showdown (assuming, of course, Portland wins its game).

Does your head hurt, yet?

Mine, too.

Here's tonight's final games for seeds 2-7:

2 Dallas (54-27): vs. San Antonio
3 Utah: (53-28) vs. Phoenix
4 Phoenix (53-28): @Utah
5 Denver (53-29): End of season
6 Portland (50-31): vs. Golden State
7 San Antonio (50-31): @Dallas