This Team Will Be The Death Of Me

I can just feel it--the aneurysm that is forming in my head every time I watch this team play.

So, I'm over at a friend's house watching the Mavs play Minnesota (led by the team-killing cancer that is Kevin Garnett) and they calmly open up a second half lead of 20 points. Actually, the lead had been around 20 for most of the game. At the end of the third quarter the lead was 15. Pretty comfortable, huh?

Not So Fast...

But this is the Dallas Mavericks. Didn't you see the NBA Finals last year? My buddies watching the Minnesota game with me could not understand my frustration at being up by nearly 20 points. "We're killing them," they said. "Not to worry," they said. I responded that they simply don't know this team. My prediction: Dallas will crater and give up the lead as Minnesota will cut it to about 5 points by the middle of the 4th quarter.

Well, I was wrong. Minnesota did not cut it to 5. They erased the lead entirely. Maybe you saw our Mavs go on about an 0 for 100 stretch in the 4th? The lead was completely gone. Gone. Now all of a sudden Dallas had let a team that just a few minutes earlier looked totally defeated start feeling like they were in this game--like they could get a big conference win on that brutal road trip through Texas dreaded by so many teams. All of a sudden, Minnesota felt they were going to win.

Fortunately, they didn't.

But the aneurysm had already formed. My disgust was already in full force. It is plain and simple: This team has no killer instinct, and has no idea how to keep a lead.

I know if Mark Cuban is reading this it hacks him off that I would say this. Sorry Mark, but I have loved this team longer than you, and that gives me some room to talk. I suffered through the drafting of Bill Garnett and the streaky shooting of Abdul Jeelani, so I have paid my dues.

This Mavericks team has a chronic disease, and that is a total and complete change in mentality and play when they take a big lead. They do not seem to value possessions. They do not take care of the ball. They do not work for good shots. They do not use the shot clock. They do not take the ball to the freaking hole. They do not, they do not, they do not. It's as if once they cross the threshold of about a 13 point lead, they simply quit. They begin going through the motions. There is no more intensity, no more urgency, and NO DESIRE WHATSOEVER to extend the lead any further. None. It is perhaps the most aggravating thing about this team.

It is absolutely guaranteed that they will blow the lead, give it all back, and make a game of it in the 4th. Oh, don't give me that garbage about how this is the NBA and everyone makes a run. If that's what you think happened with Minnesota, or with Miami in the Finals, then you just didn't watch. That AIN'T the problem. Dallas could have beaten the Hornets the other night by 70 if they had put forth any effort at all. They didn't. They are a team content to just win. The problem with that is that if a few calls or bounces go against you, you can lose, especially when you shouldn't.

So tonight we play Toronto. We are on quite a roll of wins.

Let's see what happens if we get up by more than 10 points. Let's just see.