Why the regular season matters.

The Dallas mavericks have accumulated the 8th best record in history after 50 games. And with a record of 41-9, the Mavericks can't possibly be in any better position with less than a week before the all-star break.

lets analyze this for a second:

• They have a whopping 8.5 game lead over the Spurs in the race for the Southwest division. In retrospect, the last time the spurs trailed a division opponent by that large a margin, it was back in the 1996-1997 season when San Antonio finished with one of the worse records in the league and won the lottery to get Tim Duncan on board and being their current run of eliteness in this league.
• The team has a spectacular record of 10-1 when Dirk scores 20 or less points. more proof that it hasn't been relying on Dirk for their wins.
  
• The team has yet to lose in the second night of back to backs!!! with an astonishing record of 10-0, this is unprecedented in NBA history. the second night of back-to-back is important because the team is usually at a disadvantage because of fatigue, and travel.
• The team now has a two game lead over the Phoenix Suns for the best record in the nba.
• Josh Howard just joined Dirk Nowitzki as the second maverick at the All Star game next weekend in Vegas. Albeit, after injuries to Carlos Boozer and Yao Ming allowed the commish to select Howard along with Carmelo Anthony to both players' first all star game.
  
• This team is proving that it has grown leaps and bounds over last season's finals loser to Miami. Recently in the news, Dwyane Wade responded to a comment made by Dirk over 3 months ago about Dirk's opinion that the mavs lost the finals, and the heat didn't win it. Wade responds by questioning Dirks' leadership when the series was on the line last June. Dirk refused to trade banter back and forth, rendering Wade as the "dumber" of the two players.
• Dallas also now owns the best home record in the nba, 24-3, including a 17 game win streak which is a new team record.
  

Entering this season, the mavs were facing a tough situation, the front office had chosen to stick with the core of the team that lost last season's finals, and instead give them a chance to try again for a championship. This team was a question mark, would they rebound from a tough finals loss? or would they be disinterested in the season and fail to recover.

In reality, the regular season would seem to mean very little to a team which knows that they won't shed the ghosts until the playoffs where they can repent for their horrible showing in the finals. But the mavs made it a mission, they always find mistakes in their play, and are never satisfied with what they accomplished.

now all they have to do is not go in a slump when the playoffs start. Here's to hoping.