By LEE HILLER, Journal Sports

Shreveport Mavericks’ veteran coach Steve Tucker was set to relax and watch Game One of the NBA finals Thursday after he put his Mavericks team through a light workout at LSUS.

It is all in preparation for another run at a championship Tucker hopes is his fifth in pro basketball. The veteran coach also feels good entering The Basketball League playoffs for the second consecutive year,

“First of all we are healthy and I also think we are playing our best basketball coming off the Enid game,” Tucker told The Journal. “We’ve won nine of our last 11 games to finish the season. After a slow start, we have won 16 of the last 19 games.

The Mavericks enter the playoffs as the No. 2 seed after finishing the regular season 19-5. Enid is the top seed, posting a 20-4 mark. Both teams have a first-round bye in the playoffs.

Potawatomi is the No. 3 seed and started the playoffs Thursday night by hosting the No. 6 seed Rockwall (Texas). Sugar Land (Texas), the fifth seed, will play at Dallas Skyline (No. 4 seed) beginning Friday.

Enid will face the lowest seed remaining from the first round while Shreveport plays the highest seed still alive.

The Mavericks finished the regular season with a bus ride up to Oklahoma to play Potawatomi last Friday and then faced Enid Saturday. Coach Tucker feels like the trip was overall a very good one despite losing to Potawatomi. His team bounced back and defeated Enid to secure the No. 2 seed.

“I thought the Potawatomi game really woke us up,” Tucker said. “I thought we had got into a real comfort zone because we had gone on seven- and eight-game win streaks. We had to get our edge back. We got to start beating people again.”

The following night the Mavericks knocked off Enid for a big psychological lift.

“It gave us what we really, really needed against a high-quality opponent. It was a huge confidence builder. I kind of saw our team come of age on Saturday against Enid,” said Tucker.

Final Standings TBL Central Division

Enid Outlaws 20-4

Shreveport Mavericks 19-5

Potawatomi Fire 18-6

Dallas Skyline 18-6

Sugar Lang Imperials 13-11

Rockwall 76ers 8-16

Beaumont Panthers 8-16

Little Rock Lightning 3-21

Waco Royals 1-22

Playoffs First round (Best-of-three series)

No. 6 Rockwall vs. No. 3 Potawatomi

No. 5 Sugar Land Imperials vs. No. 4 Dallas Skyline

Photo by LEE HILLER