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Mavericks, Cavaliers hope to wipe slate clean

Oct 31, 2007 - 1:30 PM Dallas (0-0) at Cleveland (0-0) 8:00 pm EDT

CLEVELAND (Ticker) - Dirk Nowitzki and LeBron James are two of the NBA's brightest and most talented stars. Both have questions to answer after their teams fell short of their teams' ultimate goal last season.

Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks travel to the Quicken Loans Arena on Wednesday to meet the Cleveland Cavaliers - a game that pairs the last two teams to lose in the NBA Finals.

The Mavericks rolled to a 67-15 record - the fifth-best regular season mark in league history - but became the first top seed to lose to an eighth-seeded club in the current best-of-seven first-round format, losing in six games to the Golden State Warriors.

That came one season after dropping four straight games in the 2006 Finals after jumping out to a 2-0 lead over the Miami Heat.

Most of the blame for the collapse has fallen on the shoulders of last season's regular season MVP, Nowitzki, who shot just 38 percent from the field and averaged 19.7 points per game during their series loss to the Warriors after shooting 50 percent and scoring 25 points per game during the regular season.

While the Cavaliers made the NBA Finals for the first time in team history, they were swept in convincing fashion by the San Antonio Spurs in four games.

Much like Nowitzki, James was kept under control against the Spurs, shooting 36 percent and averaging 22 points from the field after shooting 48 percent and scoring over 27 points per game during the regular season.

Despite disappointing ends to each of their seasons, neither the Mavericks or the Cavaliers made major changes to their roster, instead choosing to believe that their respective regular season successes were more indicative of their play than their playoff failures.