(My Sportsbook) - Despite having the best record in the NBA from wire-to-wire this season, the Dallas Mavericks still have plenty of doubters in tow.

The Mavericks have an formidable task at hand. The way things look now, it's more than likely that the Los Lakers will pass the Utah Jazz and finish in the sixth spot. That makes the race for the Midwest Division title that much more critical. Dallas Mavericks has led not only the Midwest Division, but also the Western Conference, from wire-to-wire. The San Antonio Spurs have won six straight games and are now just two games off the pace. The loser of that horse race finishes in the third spot. It's conceivable that the Mavericks can have the best record in the NBA for most of the season, and be "rewarded" with a first-round matchup with the Lakers. So much for regular-season NBA games being meaningless.

Whether its the first round or later in the tournament, the Mavericks will probably have to face the Lakers in a playoff series if they want to win an NBA title. Thursday night, Dallas welcomes LA to AmericanAirlines Center for what is not only an important game in terms of the standings, but also as a litmus test for the postseason.

"It's a good time for us to play an important game against a big team, a team that we've struggled against at times and had some real disappointments against," Steve Nash told the Dallas Star-Telegram.

"The strategy against us is to try to beat us up on the boards and get some easy buckets that way, and we have to combat that every game," "We have to go out every night and not take for granted our rebounding, and not take for granted the fact that we have to go out there and actually do it."

It is this type of grit that many feel the Mavericks lack, and subsequently this absence of toughness will cost them in the postseason.

APRIL FOOL'S

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has certainly been a colorful character since buying the franchise. Cuban stayed true to form when he pulled an April Fools' prank during a timeout in the second quarter of Tuesday night's game against the New Orleans Hornets.

Cuban ran onto the court during a timeout and got into a shoving match with a phony game official. The butt of the joke seemed to be assistant coach Del Harris, who appeared to be the only member of the Mavs' staff that was not in on the joke.

The eccentric owner began shoving the imposter and was restrained by one of the team's equipment managers before it became obvious that the incident was staged.