The Apache Pow Wow

Media Credit: Trevor Bethea

After a tumultuous season filled with near misses, injuries, trades and general second guessing, the Dallas Mavericks finally seem to be locked into the wild western playoffs.

The rough and tumble Western conference has never had a shortage of gutsy teams ready , at the drop of a hat, to battle it out over the hardcourt, but the 2008 Western teams have been some of the wiliest in history. Every team a mere handful of games apart, have found themselves in a scratch-and-claw, trial-by-fire, pre-playoff battle royale.

In the midst of this standings scramble, after arguably the most questioned trade all year and with Howard, Stackhouse and Nowitzki plagued by injury, the Mavs find themselves exactly where they wanted to be - underdogs hidden in the obscurity of number seven within the playoffs. Don't mind us Kobe, we'll just lay in wait until everyone relaxes, then pounce.

Dallas, currently has it's best roster of players in franchise history (on paper). The stats, the experience, the scars. The question inevitably becomes- Can these players gel into a winning team? Yes.

This team has found itself within reach of the crown many times in recent memory and with the likes of Jason Kidd conducting this Mav train of top talent, the winners circle is an assured destination.

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