Tonight, Tonight, Tonight

Yes, despite my better judgment, I'll be there. I am a glutton for punishment. (did anyone catch the Genesis reference in the title?) All that work in the regular season, all that effort, all the records set, all the hope, all the disappointment from giving away a title last season, it all comes to a head tonight: "elimination Tuesday."

"Come back, Dirk. We love you."

(thinly veiled reference to "Shane," or "Pale Rider" for you younger folks.)

CRITICAL MASS

For those who have read the blog before, you know I have been on blog-vacation for a long time. This may have had something to do with the fact that the Mavs have kept my blood pressure down since about week three of the season by winning at a record setting pace. No, the Mavs still weren't getting the respect league-wide and in the national media that they deserve, but they were winning.

And that begs a question: do they deserve that respect?

Let The Playoffs Begin

That's what we've been saying around here for the last month or more. We watched our team torch through the league and clinch the division and a playoff spot not with days to go, with weeks to go! Earlier in the year you heard a lot of different things from national media types; some said this was the best team in the NBA, while others never believed, though they thought Dallas was "very good."

But as the season wore on, and now that we are facing a disaster in the first round, I wonder: was this season the result of Dallas being so much better than everyone else, or was this season what any good NBA team could do if their coach and players just put out quality effort every night? In other words, if San Antonio just never lost focus, could they have done what Dallas did? Is this past season the result of superior talent, or just a full effort every night?

"Let the Playoffs begin," we all said. Then we will see the real Mavericks come to life. THAT'S where we belong: in the Playoffs!

Here We Go Again

But now we have reached critical mass. The Mavs have demonstrated that something's wrong...something has gone amiss on our way to our coronation that should have taken place last year. A mere three games into this series and we have to ask it: are we really that good? Right now, how do you like our chances against Phoenix? Right now, how are you going to feel about that MVP award if Dirk gets it? You gonna agree with that? You gonna feel good about it?

Here we are at a "character moment," which is territory Dallas fans know all too well. Just like in the NBA Finals a mere year ago, we have dropped two games to an inferior opponent. Perhaps the word "inferior" should be in quotes. We have watched a team with fewer wins and less talent take the Mavericks and humiliate them. Yes, humiliate them. We seem to have no answer for a team that every other team in the league handled quite well, and we are trying to catch up to them.

Our players are playing scared, timid, and, again, relying on jump shots far too often. Critical mass, again. But why? By now we have all heard about all of the records we have set, what teams with this many wins have done -- win it all. No team that has ever had a regular season like this has not won it all, much less, gone out in the first round. Now, it seems we are going to spend a huge amount of effort and energy just getting out of this series, if we can do it at all. How is that going to affect us in the next round, if we even get there? What has this already done to our team mentally?

I have said it before: the greatest players rise to the occasion in the biggest games. Well, our MVP has a chance to demonstrate where he belongs.

And our chances are slipping away.

I Hate It When I'm Right

Well, not really. Did you watch the Toronto game? Did you see the 20 point lead drop to 5 points? Yes, it went back up and the Mavs won by 19, but in the words of Led Zeppelin, "The Song Remains the Same."

Okay, so they lost Dirk in the first quarter and there was probably an effect.

Nah, probably not. Considering the fact that this is the pattern, it probably would have happened anyway (since it always does).

Onward.

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.

Who Knew?

Oooohhhh, So THAT'S How You Do It...

Well, it took until the fifth game of the season, but the aliens who took the Dallas Mavericks have returned them and have replaced the panty-waists that have been playing in Dallas uniforms. The two wins our heroes have put together seem to have the team in better spirits. Eddie Sefko of the Morning News referred to it as an "identity crisis." That's putting it kindly. It is hard to consider the Phoenix win a "quality win" with the way they have been playing. Apparently Steve Nash has a Sampsonesque situation on his hands, what with the shorn locks and the losing record. But, it is still Phoenix, and it was still an NBA road win over a team that took the Spurs to overtime in a game the Suns should have won just a night or two before.

But, the win over Portland was pretty good: a road win over an opponent who is playing well, and who has some very good young talent. Anyone who watched the game probably saw the incredible play near the end when Portland had gone into desperation mode, and was trying to get a steal or foul and stop the clock; Devin Harris had the ball up very high on the right side and jumped up toward the center of the court as if he were going to make a pass to the left side, but made a sterling no-look pass to the lane where Stackhouse caught it alone and passed to Dampier alone for the throw-dunk. It took the air out of the chubby Zach Randolph and the Blazers.

Ahhh...so nice for things to be returning to normal. But, the Mavs have four losses already, and will need to win 12 straight to match last year's record when we got our fourth loss.

That's The Problem....Normal...

This is what gets me about this team. They will give up a lead faster than a Democrat turns off Fox News. In both wins Dallas had double digit leads that they completely gave up. They seem to have this default setting where they shut down and coast anytime they get up by 10 or more points on a team. There is just no killer instinct. In Portland, they gave up a big lead in the second half, and had to work to finish the game. In Phoenix, they went up by 11, then went down by a basket or two, before coming back, and again in the second half.

This has been a chronic problem, with this team, going all the way back to the debacle against the Lakers a few years back (sorry to bring that up). But none of us has to think back very far to remember being up two games to none, and up 13 points with 6 minutes left in game three before the wheels came off. And they came off. The bottom line is that something's got to change. Avery's got to inject something in these players; not just a desire to win, but to win big--a desire to beat teams badly, and finish them off when they're down.

Scattershooting

Anyone watching Tim Duncan? He is clearly in midseason form with his crying at officials. His bug-eyed fish face and pleading hands are honed to playoff-perfection. It humors me that they call the new "no-crying" rule the "Rasheed Rule" and not the "Spurs Statute." Little Timmy has brought whining to an All-Star level.

I can't help but wonder: does Chris Kaman get offended by those Geico commercials with the Cavemen?

So How Long Do We Wait Before We Push The Panic Button?

Oh and Three

Let's all admit it: we all thought we had the better team in the Finals last year, but we had doubts. Okay, right now you're thinking I haven't gotten over The Collapse...and you're right. It still hurts. But there is no question we had the better team, and that's why it hurts.

Here's the rub: when The Collapse was fully underway after Game 4, the doubts began to sink in--not just to the fans, but the players. You know they did. And guess what:

...the doubts are still there.

There is really no way to explain it otherwise. How else could a team show such fortitude in the waning minutes of the San Antonio series, the toughest series that this franchise has ever endured, only to show weak knees and doubt against a substantially weaker team in Miami?

So What Does This Mean For This Year?

Well, that's a good question. You would hope Dallas would come out, and in the word of Jules Winnfield (Pulp Fiction reference), show some "fuuuurious anger" to start this season. You would think they spent the summer reliving The Collapse, and quietly jacking themselves up mentally. You would have expected the team to come out kicking butt when they hit the floor in the home opener in a "message game" against a San Antonio team that they dispatched with such intensity only a few months ago.

They didn't.

Tonight Dallas fell to 0-3 after losing at home to Golden State...Golden State. Congrats to Don Nelson on another win to add to his list of wins that will never include an NBA title. Whoop de freakin' do. Don't get me wrong: I appreciate all Nelson did for this team. But, it was clear in his last full season here that he had been here too long, that the drunken sailor routine on the sideline was tired, that what was actually holding the team back was him. As soon as he left, we went further than ever before. Now he can get Golden State to the second round of the playoffs and no further.

But I Digress...

Back to reality. 0-3. I had the pleasure of going to Houston to see the game Saturday night in the Toyota Center. I did my best to get the team fired up...I offered to let each of the players sign my wife's pants before the game. My wife is hot, so it should have worked. Maybe it messed things up. Nah, she's hot.

We left the Houston debacle with a sinking feeling: something's wrong here. We sat by Donnie Nelson during the game, and afterwards I sat with him for a minute to discuss. He looked like I felt...like 40 miles of bad road. He said something interesting: "We've been through tougher times before." I didn't think about it at that moment, but I did later. It was just one loss, right? But it wasn't. It was two very bad losses to start the year--the year immediately after The Collapse. It clearly seemed to Maverick fans like a hangover from last year...because it is. Donnie knows it too. Everyone in the organization is telling themselves everything is okay. But it's not.

The day after the debacle at Houston, the team knew it was not just an ordinary 0-2 to start the season. It was worse. They knew it so clearly that they called a players-only team meeting to hash things out. It didn't work. They hit the floor against Golden State--Golden State--and laid another egg.

I just don't see the emotion, no fire, no swagger. There is only uncertainty and timidity. You see it. I see it. It looks like...like...

...well, like the last three games of The Collapse.

Enough Knee-Jerk Reactions

Okay, so perhaps I'm knee jerking a bit. But, it took the Mavericks 12 games to get to three losses last year. This year it took 3. Their first three games last year included wins at Phoenix and at home against San Antonio.

Yeah, maybe it's knee jerking. But if we are having this conversation about 10 games from now, it won't be.

Quick Blog note:

I got the pleasure of meeting Mark Cuban in person (finally) in Houston, and told him I was the author of this blog. I know he'll read this, and I know he won't be real happy with me for being the sports-pessimist. Mark, I'm sorry for being a downer. Trust me, I still have my season tickets, and I'm still your guy.

Thanks for signing my wife's pants. Isn't she hot?

Another Day, Another Opportunity

We're baaaack...

Man, are they already playing preseason games? It's true, the NBA season is upon us, and our beloved Dallas Mavericks are primed to make up for last year's collapse.

And it was a collapse.

Up two games to none, and up 13 points with 6 minutes to go in Game 3 of the NBA finals, and we found a way to give it all away. Don't give me that crap about Miami picking it up and getting it done. Miami had one guy--Dwyane Wade. That's it.

But it was enough.

Dallas was overcome with the moment, unable to find the character and will to put Miami away. They found themselves struggling against an unseen demon, unable to find their normal game. Honestly, aside from their Game 4 non-showing, did Dallas just get beat in any game? No.

Certainly the officials helped the issue, and lent support to the conspiracy theorists nationwide. The comments from the national media and many news organizations and websites were hilarious, and sad at the same time. Dallas got screwed.

But it shouldn't have mattered.

Opportunity

Yes, a fresh chance is here. Business has been taken care of. Every Dallas player arrived in training camp and immediately took the stress test to determine physical conditioning. Every one passed.

Josh has his new deal. Dirk has his new deal. Jet has his new deal. The Little General has his as well. Marquis is gone, as is the disappointing Keith Van Horn, who played more like Keith Van Halen much of the playoffs. Maurice Ager is a promising draft pick, and Austin Croshere is an upgrade from Daniels.

The core has stayed together, and is a year older, and presumably much wiser. Unfortunately, the Spurs made some good moves, as did the Rockets, and the Clippers and Grizzlies are not far behind. Minnesota is a joke, so no threat there. My bet is that this year everyone finally figures out that Kevin Garnett is a team-killing cancer who will never be a franchise cornerstone, a fact I have known for years. Remember, he and Stephon Marbury were best friends, and Marbury metastasized a long time ago.

As for Dirk, this year is his opportunity to show the rest of the league that last year was the standard, not the exception, inasmuch as Dallas should be contending for the West title annually, not only on occasion. He has some work to do to restore the reputation and legend that he had begun to establish, only to see it break down with his Finals disappearance.

Opportunites.

I moved my season tickets closer this year.