Minutes ago, the San Antonio Spurs made history.

The team that is often regarded as the team of the decade became the first #7 seed to win a best-of-seven playoff series.

Their opponent, the Dallas Mavericks, also made a bit of history themselves.  By absorbing a 4 games to 2 loss in this series, Dallas became the first team to lose an opening round playoff series to both a #7 and a #8 seed (remember the Golden State Warriors a few years back).

And while there may be some debate as to whether the Mavericks should have been ashamed of coming up short against Golden State, they definitely have nothing to be embarrassed about in this series.  Now, while the Mavs may have held the 3-1 edge in its regular season matchups with San Antonio, the Spurs are a team whose main cast members each have at least three championship rings in their jewelry boxes.

Once again, Dirk and his boys have exited the postseason earlier than expected.

By earning the home court advantage, the Mavericks worked hard to put themselves in position to advance to the second round.  But there had to be immediate concern when they realized that they would be facing their Texan counterparts.  The veteran Spurs knew that if they wanted to have a shot at winning this series, they’d have to steal a road game early – and they did just that by coming out the victors of Game 2 in the American Airlines Arena.

And on the heels of that win came the most important part of stealing a road game – - and that is following up with two wins to defend your newly gained home court advantage.  Dallas did all it could to come back strong in Game 4 to tie the series at 2 games, but the Spurs had a little more down stretch and held serve.  That set S.A. up nicely for a chance to close out the Mavs in Game 6, and tonight they didn’t let that chance get away from them.

With the Spurs’ first round victory, they’ve answered a lot of questions about themselves.  Yes, they are healthy.  Yes, they are hungry.  And yes, they still have some gas left in their tanks.

And yes, they are still a team with a championship pedigree.

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