By Mike Fisher
FOXSportsSouthwest.com and DallasBasketball.com
San Antonio and Boston are attempting to run away with the best records in the West and the East, largely on the strength of their stellar home records. It is the sincere hope of every other team that the regular-season crowns are nothing more than the basketball version of winning "Miss Congeniality."
"We've won the regular season a couple times, and that hasn't done us any good," Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban says. "So I'm not so worried about that."
Indeed, the Mavericks are the poster boys for being No. 1 in the regular season and not so much in the postseason. The 2006-07 Mavs won 67 games -- tied for the third-best total in NBA history -- and then became the only No. 1 seed to lose to a No. 8 seed when they flopped in the first round against upstart Golden State.
And there is plenty more proof in the past decade that regular-season success is not an automatic springboard to a championship. Take the 2000-01 Philadelphia 76ers, who did it all in the regular season: No. 1 seed in the East, MVP and scoring champ in Allen Iverson, Coach of the Year in Larry Brown, Sixth Man of the Year in Aaron McKie and Defensive Player of the Year in Dikembe Mutombo.
The mighty Sixers opened the Finals by handing the Lakers their first loss of the postseason ... and then proceeded to lose the next four games.
