The second half of the NBA regular season is underway and the possible playoff teams and title contenders are starting to separate themselves from the rest of the as teams like the Dallas Mavericks continue to prove that they are force to be reckoned with in the Western Conference.

Before the All-Star break, the Dallas Mavericks were really struggling as they had lost five of their last seven games and were in danger of giving up the Southwest division lead. As a result, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban started to become very active in trade talks using small forward Josh Howard as he biggest bargaining chip.

Unfortunately, once Howard was said to be on the block, the Dallas Mavericks weren’t getting many calls from other teams interested in the struggling forward. The first team that started to get mentioned in possible trade talks with the Dallas Mavericks was the Sacramento Kings who were looking to unload their injury prone leading scorer Kevin Martin.

Despite what looked like a done deal at one point time, Kevin Martin ended up heading the Houston Rockets instead in the three team deal which sent Tracy McGrady to the New York Knicks.

Even though the Mavs weren’t able to land Martin, they may have gotten a better deal by trading Josh Howard and Drew Gooden to the Washington Wizards in exchange for Caron Butler, DeShawn Stevenson and Brendan Haywood.

Once the trade went down, the Dallas Mavericks were thought to be much improved and a possible title contender instead of just a playoff team that would eventually fall to the defending NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers or the Denver Nuggets.

The first game after making the trade ended in a loss to Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder, but since then the Mavs have been red hot winning their last nine games, including last night’s win over the lowly Minnesota Timberwolves.

Sometimes winning streaks like the Mavs current nine game stretch can be misleading as it could come against some of the worst teams in the league, but seven of the nine wins have come against playoff bound teams like the Phoenix Suns, Orlando Magic, Miami Heat, Los Angeles Lakers, Atlanta Hawks, New Orleans Hornets and the Charlotte Bobcats.

With that being said, the Mavs are peaking at just the right time and will be one of the teams in the Western Conference to keep your eye on as we get closer to playoff time as they might be able to give the Lakers and Nuggets a run for their money.