Sports Nerd of the Day

Every good sports bully needs a sport nerd.

Today's sports nerd is Bill Plaschke of the LA Times.

On ESPN's Around the Horn Plaschke was discussing the Mavericks chances to win it all. He said, "Regular season success doesn't mean anything. It's all about success in April and March, and the team built to win in April and March is the Phoenix Suns."

Apparently Plaschke doesn't think that defense wins championships. Phoenix is a below average defensive team, when everyone is healthy. Dallas is one of the top 3 defensive teams in the league no matter who's playing.

Apparently Plaschke thinks that depth doesn't help you win in the playoffs. Phoenix has six players that get all their playing time. The Mavs are a legit 9 deep. See what the Suns do in the playoffs when Nash is completely run into the ground.

Apparently Plaschke doesn't think that head-to-head matchups mean anything. The Mavericks beat the Suns 119-112 on November 9th IN PHOENIX and again at the AAC 101-99 on 12/28.

Plaschke was probably thinking about all the post season success this Suns team has had... like last year when the MAVS BEAT Phoenix in 6 to advance to the Finals.

It boggles my sports bully mind how people nationally aren't catching onto the fact that this Mavericks team is HISTORICALLY GOOD. The first team ever to have three 12 game winning streaks in the same season (that's 3 more than these teams have had in their NBA franchise histories Charlotte, Cleveland, Golden State, Indiana, L.A. Clippers, Minnesota, New Orleans/Oklahoma City, Orlando, Toronto, Memphis and Washington) , 2nd best record over a 50 game span in NBA history (45-5) only the Sixers were one game better (46-4) during their title run in the Moses Malone fo-fo-fo year. They have the MVP (Dirk) another all star (J-Ho) the best defensive point guard in the league (Devin Harris) and a host of glue guys who play hard, play defense, and can hit big shots (Jet Terry, Stackhouse, Devean George, Greg Buckner) not to mention the fact that this is a young team, that has consistently found steals late in the draft (Howard) and undrafted free agents (Marquis Daniels, Pops Mensa-Bonsu, JJ Barea -- you may not know those names, but you will)

Bill Plaschke, your sports nerd of the day.