Perhaps no 60-win team has been more maligned, perceived as more flawed than the Dallas Mavericks -- a team that acknowledges its struggles on defense, and preferences to play run-and-gun basketball and avoid toe-to-toe traditional battles with the league's heavyweights. Yet, those same Mavericks won their second Game 7 of the playoffs tonight, eliminating the Chris Webber-less Sacramento Kings, 112-99.

Coached by one of Red Auerbach's old-school Celtics, Don Nelson, the Mavericks might be best-served, ironically, if they could play with one of the ABA's old red-white-and-blue basketballs. Playing in an elimination game didn't make the Mavericks one bit conservative. They used an increasingly familiar and successful formula of playing pedal-to-the-metal, with Dirk Nowitzki and Nick Van Exel leading the way. The Kings certainly needed Webber, or somebody, to counter Nowitzki's game-high 30 points and 19 rebounds. Mike Bibby, who scored a team-high 25 points and reserve guard Jim Jackson, who scored 24 on 10-for-12 shooting, played very well for Sacramento, but nobody else in a Kings uniform came up with performances worthy of Game 7, especially on defense.