Warriors’ visit brings Mavericks flashback to 2007 shocker

It was the type of inglorious history the Dallas Mavericks would rather not be a part of.

The year was 2007, and the Mavericks bowled over almost everyone and rolled into the playoffs after manufacturing a tie for the sixth-best regular-season record in NBA history.

Surely, an NBA championship was on the horizon this time after the Mavericks posted a 67-15 record.

But a year after the Mavericks blew a 2-0 lead and lost to the Miami Heat in six games in the 2006 NBA Finals, they managed to let their fans down again by getting upset in the first round of the playoffs by the Golden State Warriors.

It marked the first time in NBA history that a No. 1-seeded team had dropped a best-of-seven series to a No. 8-seeded team.

“They were a bad matchup for us,” forward Dirk Nowitzki said. “They had a bunch of small guys, they switched everything. They were hot that series, too. They had to win five games in a row to get in the playoffs, so they were on a roll.”

The Warriors’ improbable victory over the Mavericks was even more difficult to swallow because former Mavericks coach Don Nelson was then the head coach of the Warriors. Nelson stepped down as the Mavericks’ coach on March 19, 2005 — and was succeeded by Avery Johnson — and became the Warriors’ coach on Aug. 29, 2006.

If anyone knew how to design the perfect defense for the Mavericks, it was Nelson. But he said his familiarity with Nowitzki and the other Mavericks played no role in that infamous series.

“I don’t think it was anything, personally,” Nelson said. “I think I could have seen the same scouting report by just what I usually do, which is watch film.”

Nelson acknowledged his team was in a win-win situation when facing the Mavericks because this was the Warriors’ first playoff experience in 13 years.

“We just barely made the playoffs and we had nothing to lose,” Nelson said. “We just went in there and figured we had a good team and we could beat anybody, or anybody could beat us.”

The Mavericks (17-7) and Warriors (19-2) renew their rivalry at 1 p.m. Saturday at American Airlines Center.

In the 2007 playoff series against the Mavericks, Nelson utilized a small lineup by starting guards Baron Davis, Jason Richardson and Monta Ellis and forwards Stephen Jackson and Al Harrington.

The Warriors’ lineup befuddled the Mavericks so much that Johnson went against the starting lineup, which helped set the franchise single-season record for wins and decided to replace center Erick Dampier with forward Devean George in for Game 1 of that series.

The Mavericks promptly lost that game at home 97-85, and the Warriors won their three games on their home court to close out the series in six games.

“We didn’t finish out the season strong,” owner Mark Cuban said. “And if there was one guy who knew how to defend Dirk, it was the guy coaching the other team.”

Nowitzki averaged 24.6 points and shot 50.2 percent from the field during the 2006-’07 regular season while winning the league’s Most Valuable Player award. But in the series against the Warriors he averaged 19.7 points and shot 38.3 percent.

“I think Nellie had obviously the exact blueprint on how to play us,” Nowitzki said. “They were a bad matchup for us with all the smalls driving and shooting, so, yeah, that was a tough matchup for us.”

Ironically, the Mavericks were in position to keep the Warriors totally out of the playoffs. But with the No. 1 seed throughout the playoffs already locked up, in the next-to-last game of the regular season against the Warriors, the Mavericks didn’t dress starters Josh Howard, Nowitzki and Dampier and key reserve Jerry Stackhouse.

The Warriors responded by blowing out the Mavericks (111-82), and then clinched a playoff berth by blowing out Portland in the final regular season game 120-98. It was the fifth consecutive win for the Warriors, who finished the regular season 42-40.

“We could have kept them out of the playoffs, but we didn’t know if it was going to work out that way,” Nowitzki said. “We weren’t really worried about it that much, we tried to focus on our own team and just be ready for the playoffs.

“We happen to run into them, but we were so confident going into the series that we could win. We were the 1 seed, but Baron Davis was unbelievable in that series.”

The Warriors clinched the series at home by walloping the Mavericks 111-86 in Game 6. Then they went on their history-making journey at the Mavericks’ expense.

“It doesn’t happen very often that a No. 8 seed beats a No. 1 seed, but it happened,” Nelson said. “We were good, but yet we felt lucky to beat the No. 1 seed.”

This story was originally published December 12, 2014 at 7:55 PM with the headline "Warriors’ visit brings Mavericks flashback to 2007 shocker."