Mavs Don't Prove Anything with Win

It was as clear and as bright as Josh Howard's grin to the Heat bench, or as loud as Avery Johnson's voice. Or as unexpected as Stackhouse's offensive outburst. The Mavericks needed to beat the Heat to help cope with their Final's experience. The mental trauma is evident, as they demonstrate themselves to be unbalanced as a result of seeing the Heat snatch the trophy out from under their hasty hands - as after 2 games both they and their fans were all too ready to call that series.

It was like an intervention for them, and everyone echoed the sentiments:

"It's like going someplace and seeing your old girlfriend you broke up with, the one you thought you were going to marry but it fell apart," Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said. "You get that queasy feeling, then you get past it."

No Mark, it is more like she broke up with you and you just couldn't ever move on while she married, had 4 kids and got the vacation home in Malibu. While you eat canned beans.

The fragile psyche of the Mavericks was evident. They instituted a 10pm curfew for the players so they could have a better chance of beating the Heat - the first time for a regular season game, according to Anthony Johnson. "It wasn't a big deal, due to the fact that we wanted to beat this team."

Stackhouse continued to rant about how his team was better, eventhough the Heat were sporting the hardware that was blinding them all. Even Jason Terry, perhaps with his headband on a little too tight, asked Gary Payton before the game "You know you have something that belongs to me, right? You keeping my ring polished?"

As the game wore on, Terry's skirt seemed a little out of place, "We've got to close 'em out. We ain't gonna do what we did last time."

The Mavs won the game, 99-93. Yet, they proved very little other than that they are still the same team from last season - they rely on their outside shooting, and will whine and flex and cry throughout a game to fake their advantage. In fact, some of the classy Dallas media and fans continue to question Wade's injuries. Stay classy, Dallas. Then again, this is Big D, the place that shot JR.

What really killed the Heat was poor shooting in the first half and giving up way too many rebounds and second chance opportunities. Something that when Shaq returns, likely won't happen. Even Stackhouse, with his big mouth, admits as much. "It's a regular-season game. You cannot avenge what happened to us in the Finals in a regular-season game. Maybe the fans can sit back and say, 'We told you they were better.' But in our hearts, we just can't do it."

"With (Shaquille O'Neal) coming back, they're going to be the team to beat in the East."

Celebrate all you want, Dallas, but like the Finals, it takes 4 games to win a series and a trophy, not two. Regular season games don't matter - as Heat fans may remember the Mavericks blew out the Heat last season during the regular season.

So, once again, nothing is proven. And that may be the hardest thing for the Mavericks to deal with.