In all, 22 coaches have guided teams to the NBA's conference finals since a feisty young Don Nelson made his third and final visit with Milwaukee in 1986. This suggests that the man running the Mavericks has lost the road map ... or that he's due and that the Sacramento Kings will be the ones who pay.

"We're confident, but we're not the favorites in this series," Nelson said Tuesday. "We're going to have to play at a very high level. But I think we will."

Nelson established his coaching reputation by taking Milwaukee to the Eastern finals three times from 1983 to 1986, where the Bucks had the misfortune of running into Dr. J's Sixers or Larry Bird's Celtics.

Upon leaving Milwaukee, Nelson developed good but never really great teams in Golden State that had no business going beyond the second round.