Oops. Rock bottom for the Mavs just got deeper.
Just when we were attempting to dissect the worst loss of the season (Thursday night’s lethargic home defeat to the Kings), along came an even more painful kick to the crotch in Sunday’s unfathomable choke job in Denver.
Against Sacramento we can blame the effort and intensity. But against the Nuggets, it was execution.
I’m still not sure how Dallas lost this one. The Mavs were up 106-102 with 21 seconds remaining. Then, in overtime, they led 114-111 with :35 left. You can go a whole NBA season and not lose two of those leads. But they did it in the same game.
Leading by two with 7.9 seconds on the clock, the Mavs were inbounding the ball in the front court. No problem, right? Head coach Rick Carlisle is one of the NBA’s best coaches at diagramming in-bounds plays to get his team clean looks in crunch time, so surely he can draw up a play simply to get the ball in play. Nope.
Harassed on the sideline and with no open teammate, a panicked Chandler Parsons attempted to throw the ball off a Nuggets’ possession in order to retain possession. But the ploy failed as the ball simply caromed to a Denver player, setting up a fast break that ended with Kenneth Faried’s dunk that forced overtime.
In their 11th overtime game of the season, the Mavs jumped to another lead on Dirk Nowitzki’s 3-pointer and led by three in the final half-minute after three free throws by Wesley Matthews. But after a 3-pointer by D.J. Augustin and a missed 4-footer by Deron Williams, Augustin then drove and induced a foul by Raymond Felton. The resulting free throws with 0.9 seconds remaining made the Mavs lose a game they simply should’ve won.
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Said Nowitzki, “We could have won this game a million ways. It's a tough one.”
In a favorable stretch I said the Mavs needed to go – at worst – 8-2, they are suddenly 4-3 and hosting the Clippers tonight. If they wind up facing the Spurs or Warriors in the first round of the playoffs, we’ll look back at these consecutive losses to 24-win Lottery-bound teams and have no sympathy.
A native Texan who was born in Duncanville and graduated from UT-Arlington, Richie Whitt has been a mainstay in the Metroplex media since 1986. He’s held prominent roles on all media platforms including newspaper (Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Dallas Observer), radio (105.3 The Fan) and TV (co-host on TXA 21 and numerous guest appearances, including NBC 5). He lives in McKinney with his wife, Sybil, and two very spoiled dogs.
