Time for The Mavs to Stand Up and Be Counted

Here is the good news…Dallas is 5-1 in their last six games and sits 2.5 games back of the top spot in the Western Conference. Here the bad news…Dallas is currently 7th in the West and is 1.5 games from the 8th spot which makes tonight’s game against Boston monumentally important. Dallas played the Lakers on Tuesday, plays Boston tonight and plays San Antonio on Sunday. I thought Dallas really needed to win all 3 games, at least 2 of the 3. Dallas won the 5 games they played before Tuesday night but they were all against the weaker sisters of the eastern conference.

The Mavs need to prove, not only to everyone else, but to themselves that they can win big games against Western conference teams. That being said, Tuesday’s loss to the Lakers was discouraging for many reasons. The Lakers were short handed (no Gasol or Bynum), they had just gotten their bells rung by Houston, they were on the road against a Dallas team who had only lost 4 times all season at home and they were playing a team who, seemingly, had revenge on it’s mind from the last time they played each other. And with all that on their side, the Mavs came out flatter than a pancake for the first 2 ½ quarters. At one point in the 3rd quarter, Dallas was down by 25 points.

To the Mavs credit, they fought back and pulled to within 1 point. For the final 4 seconds of the game, the Mavs had the ball at half court and ran Dirk off a triple screen but the inbounds pass by Josh Howard was low and Dirk had to scramble to get his hands on it. Once Dirk finally got a hold of the ball, there was only time to put up a last second heave from beyond the 3 point arc. The shot was off the mark and the Mavs lost. The loss was a kick to the kick to the mid section, no doubt about it. It’s nice that Dallas fought back (even though they shouldn’t have let it get to that point where they had to fight back) but the end result was a loss, no matter how you cut it.

In the last 44 days, the Mavs have beat only 1 team with over a .500 record and that was Portland who is not in the playoff hunt in the West currently. So, in that span, Dallas has yet to beat a playoff team from the West. That is concerning news. The last two good teams that have come into Dallas (Houston and LA), the Mavs have cowered against. If Dallas is going to make any noise in the playoffs, they need to figure out what is wrong with the team. They’ve got 5 weeks until the playoffs start though. so time is of the essence. The Mavs sense of urgency has got to be higher!

I still think Avery is a solid coach but I’m starting to get a little worried that he is losing, if not lost, the team. Even though these are professional players, they still need to be motivated. And coming out with no energy on Tuesday night vs. the Lakers doesn’t instill me with a lot of confidence that they will do anything different in the playoffs. Tuesday night was a BIG game…it really was. Throwing out the kind of effort they did the first half of that game is nothing but unacceptable, period. So either Avery is not punching the correct buttons or, if he is, the team isn’t listening to him. Either way, it doesn’t bode well for Avery or the team.

This is the most pivotal time in the season for the Mavs. We need to see what kind of team they really are. Are they an elite team, as they have been the past couple of years, or are they currently ranked where they should be…6th or 7th in the West? Are they just a nice little team but not a championship caliber team? I’m tired of saying “that’s ok, the Mavs lost a close game to LA, San Antonio, etc…they played real hard and will get it pulled together before the playoffs.” At this point, there should be no more moral victories…absolutely none. The Mavs need to stand up and be counted…now!! Otherwise, the season will be over before the start of May.