They say it’s not a series until the home team loses.
And that’s about all the Dallas Mavericks have going for them, heading home for a Game 3 match-up with Denver.
After a Game 2 loss, Dallas is 0-6 against the Nuggets this season.
Josh Howard is playing on two wobbly ankles.
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Jason Kidd, were he a football player, would be diagnosed with a nasty case of fumble-itis. He now has 10 turnovers in the first two games.
That is, things don’t look so promising for the Mavericks at this juncture. As in Game 1, Game 2 saw the Mavericks take a close game into the fourth quarter only to give it away with reckless passing and slipshod ball handling.
Chris “Birdman” Andersen has, basically, had his way with Dallas in the paint; Nene has scored with impunity throughout the first 96 minutes of the series.
The white lining, if there is one, is that the Mavs are headed home. Dallas was 15-1 at home after the all-star break, tying Cleveland for the best mark in the NBA in that category.
However, it would be irrational to think that home court will mean anything for the team unless they address the aforementioned troubles, which have, to this point, been absolutely debilitating.
As clichéd as it has become over the years, it seems that Dallas would do well to go back to the basics. Far from being beaten honorably, Dallas has simply crumbled in the first two games. To be sure, this is partly due to the fact that Denver is looking increasingly like a team we might see in the finals next month.
Being beaten by Denver, if they are, will not be shameful, in and of itself; how they lose to Denver, and how they have lost to Denver could be categorically embarrassing for the franchise; this is particularly true considering that Dallas isn’t exactly a wet-behind-the-ears team.
It’s up to Head Coach Rick Carlisle and the veterans on the team, Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd, Jet Terry, etc, to change not only the team’s approach in the series, but their mindset as well.
The series is not yet over.
But Dallas’ performance on Saturday should be an apt harbinger of what the rest of the season, however long or short it may be, holds in store.
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