NBA: Mavs prepare for familiar foe: Nellie

Watching from a tunnel as the Dallas Mavericks played in the NBA finals last season, Don Nelson had to feel like a proud father.

In many ways, he was – with his son running the front office, close friends he’d hired coaching the team and players he’d molded such as Dirk Nowitzki and Josh Howard.

Nellie will have an even closer look at the Mavs at the start of this postseason. He’ll be coaching against them.

Now guiding the Golden State Warriors, Nelson’s club snagged the final spot in the Western Conference playoffs on the final day of the season. As luck would have it, their first-round foe is the Mavericks, who are coming off a 67-win season that tied for the sixth-most wins in league history.

Mavericks coach Avery Johnson’s relationship with Don Nelson dates to the 1993-94 season, when they were together in Golden State. Nelson made Johnson a full-time starting point guard for the first time in his career that season and was rewarded with a trip to the playoffs. This is the Warriors’ first time back since then.

Reunited as player and coach in Dallas a few years ago, they later hatched a succession plan. Johnson was to eventually replace Nelson as coach of the Mavericks. Eventually came much sooner than expected, with Johnson taking over in March 2005 after 64 games. He got Dallas into the NBA finals last year, his first full season in charge.

Because Nelson was around last season as a consultant, he’s still familiar with the Mavericks. Because he’s still a heck of a coach, Golden State went 3-0 against Dallas this season.

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