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| Dirk Nowitzki has no plans to give up on the Dallas Mavericks. Do you? Photo credit NBA |
Last week my article came on the heels of the epic meltdown at the Los Angeles Clippers. This week I was provided with multiple meltdowns to keep us on topic.
After the national embarrassment the Clipper game became, Dallas tallied a big win on the road against the similarly standings placed Phoenix Suns. The Mavs were up to their end of game shenanigans when, with seconds to go and Phoenix preparing to intentionally foul, Vince Carter halfway inbounded to Shane Larkin, who touched the ball as Vince pulled it back and thus in his inbounding position was out of bounds.
The Suns, even without Eric Bledsoe, are armed to the teeth with shooters. Yet they ran the game's final play for career 38% 3-point shooter (and former Texas Longhorn; Hook 'Em!) P.J. Tucker. Well executed and wide open, he still missed the jumper and Dallas escaped with a 'bounceback' win.
If this game provided progress then the Mavs crapped on it the following evening at home against the powerful Portland Trail Blazers.
No Mavs starter played more than half the game and only a huge recreational 4th quarter run made the score respectable. It was a miserably disturbing step backward for a team already reeling.
The NBA included the Mavericks in their festive 10 game Martin Luther King, Jr. Day marathon. Dallas played at Cleveland, their 5th game in 8 days and 4 time zones.
They looked energetic in the first half, jumping out to a 22 point lead. Unfortunately that has been a turrible turrible turrible omen for this ball club of late.
Gradually the lead shrank and shrank some more and it came down to the final moments once more. Up 100-97, Monta Ellis' "free" throw woes continued as he missed both, needing just one to ice the game up 3 points with 3 seconds left.
Once again, the Mavericks laid out a "Please Come In" mat antecedent to an unlocked door.
Thankfully the Cleveland Cavaliers are awful in their own way and committed their second 5-second inbound violation of the game, this one sealing their fate for the day.
A win, yes, but these mistakes at the end of games are frustrating, nerve-wracking, hard to watch but sincerely above all else, this cannot be good for the 'ol ticker. And i'm honestly not sure how much faithful play by play man Mark Followill can take.
Surely it will eventually be sorted out. The team will either improve in holding leads or inversely stop taking them...
If it's going to take place, it wasn't after the Cleveland game.
Next up on the road trip were the Toronto Raptors, entering the game 3rd in the Eastern Conference with a record that would sit outside of the Western Conference playoffs.
Just before tip-off the Mavericks announced that Dirk Nowitzki was a healthy scratch to rest.
Almost humorously, the Mavericks started out on fire, outscoring the Raptors 34-15 in the opening frame. Like in Cleveland the lead would not hold. However, as it evaporated in Cleveland it was blown to ashes in Toronto.
The Raptors defense tightened up in the second quarter, disabling the Mavericks ball movement that they had shown like, 4 minutes ago, and exposing a Dirk-less offense.
Impressively outscoring Toronto by 19 in the first quarter, the Mavs were dominated in the second to a score of 31-17. At least the lead went away so fast we could hardly worry about the lead going away. Did I just say at least to that?
After a 34 point first quarter, the Mavericks mustered a horrific 51 points over the remainder of the game.
DeMar Derozan scored a career-high 40 points, because everyone has their career night vs. Dallas.
The Mavs had 21 turnovers, including an outrageous 9 in the final period that they entered with a 5 point lead. Yet again, the Mavericks played themselves into and out of a lead, continuing a very, very frustrating trend.
"This the year of no lead too big, no deficit too great," head coach Rick Carlisle said after the game.
Let's not keep it that way.
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