What is happening to the Mavericks?

The Dallas Mavericks are off to their worst start in the club’s 27-year storied history. They have lost their fourth straight game last night, losing to the Clippers 85-103. Maverick fans are getting restless. NBA journalists and so-called experts are still perplexed over the team’s sluggish start. Worse, you don’t have Shawn Bradley or Keith van Horn to blame for the skid. For the record, Dallas is the first team since the 2001-02 Philadelphia 76ers to start out with four straight losses after a trip to the NBA finals.

Even worse, if you count the Mavericks last four games in the NBA finals, the losing streak extends to 0-8. To date, the Dallas Mavericks and the Denver Nuggets (0-3) remain the only winless teams in the NBA after the Boston Celtics recently won its first game last Wednesday.

So, what is ailing the Mavs?

The things that made coach Avery Johnson and the Dallas Mavericks so successful last season are the same things that have abandoned them at the start of this season – defensive intensity and perimeter shooting.

The Mavericks have allowed opponents to score a league-high 107 points per game on 50.7% shooting from the field. They have not shot the ball well, either. Dirk Nowitzki, their star gunner and superstar, is struggling, and so is the rest of the team.

"We are disappointed. It is a tough start for us,'' Avery Johnson said. "We aren't playing good defense for long stretches of the game and we aren't playing good offense. We are just playing in waves. We are playing 26 minutes of a 48-minute game, and that is not very good basketball.''

This is the first time Dallas has lost four straight games since Avery Johnson succeeded Don Nelson as coach on March 19, 2005. Johnson, the reigning NBA coach of the year, has a 76-24 entering the season.

While the losing skid is a cause of concern for Johnson and Mark Cuban, it is not enough to throw the towel and call it a season. Not yet. Four is less than 5 percent of 82. Make it 20 and we’ll decide. "I evaluate the team in 20-game increments," Johnson said. "We haven't got to that evaluation point yet. But does that mean we want to continue where we are? We've got to get better. When you play really good basketball, you can identify one or two areas. We're not there yet. I want to get it down to one or two areas."

Fast fact: Only four teams in NBA history have lost its first three games and made it to NBA finals, and only one – the 1990-91 Chicago Bulls – has won the championship.

Some Maverick fans are even speculating that Dallas will tank the season so they could draft Ohio super freshman Greg Oden next year. The 7-0 Oden is one of the most reveled high school players in recent memory and is said to be the best center to come down the pike since Shaquille O’ Neal and Tim Duncan. He is what Lebron James was three years ago, but with a benefit of a year of college experience, no thanks to the recent NBA ruling prohibiting high school players aged 18 and below from joining the NBA Draft. The Mavericks do not have a first round pick next year, having traded it to the Denver Nuggets in a three-team trade that also included Golden State to acquire center Erick Dampier. That pick is, however, lottery-protected. If the Mavericks get the first overall pick, that pick will go back to the Mavericks.

Honestly, I don’t think Mark Cuban, Avery Johnson, Dirk Nowitzki and the rest of the Maverick crew will allow that to happen. They have too much pride in themselves to allow the team to slump to their worst ever season after getting a taste of what it was like to play in the NBA finals. They feel they just needed time to develop the team’s chemistry.

Although the Mavericks didn’t touch anyone of their top seven players, they engineered some nifty trades and free-agent maneuverings to land 7 new faces to last season’s 60-win team: veteran Devean George, rookies Pops Mensah-Bonsu and Jose Juan Barea who were signed up from the free agency market, Maurice Ager who was drafted the last pick of the first round of the 2006 NBA draft, and Austin Croshere, Greg Buckner and Anthony Johnson who were all acquired from various trades.

They lost two role players who were a good locker room presence - Darrell Armstrong and Adrian Griffin. They also ditched Siberian giant Pavel Podkolzine and traded away two talented young players with great upsides: Rawle Marshall and Josh Powell. Of course, you know Keith van Horn was not re-signed by the team last offseason after his contract expired.

Are the Mavericks victim of bad chemistry? Everyone was harping the Mavericks as one of the NBA’s strongest teams coming into this season, but it has not happened. The Mavericks, though, are optimistic that once they get their motors running, they’ll be fine and will be ready to challenge the big boys of the league again. "Once we piece it together, we really do have a chance to be a good basketball team," Johnson said. "It's just not happening now. We're just trying to get a win."

No one’s pushing the panic button yet. But if the Mavericks continue their losing ways, you bet some heads are gonna roll. In Mark Cuban’s organization, no one’s really spared even if you are the best player or the best coach of the team.

Below is a short recap of the Maverick’s first four games:

November 8, 2006 – Lost to the Clippers 85-103 @ Los Angeles
Guard Cuttino Mobley exploded for 28 points and Sam Cassell added 21 points and 9 assists to help the Clippers overcome a 14-point Mavericks lead. The Clippers have now won four straight after losing to Phoenix in their opener. Los Angeles has won six of its last 12 games against Dallas after losing 17 of the previous 19 meetings. Two of their three losses to the Mavericks last season were decided by two-point margins.

November 6, 2006 – Lost to the Warriors 104-107, Mavs @ Dallas
Don Nelson returned to the Dallas arena as the Golden State Warriors head coach. Baron Davis scored 26 points and Troy Murphy added 20 as the Warriors crashed the party of the Western Conference Champs Dallas Mavericks, winning for the four straight time and fourth in a row in the Dallas homecourt. The Warriors are the only team who managed to beat the Mavs three times last season (except the Heat in the finals, of course)

November 4, 2006 – Lost to the Rockets 76-107, Mavs 76 @ Houston
Yao Ming scored 36 points to lead the Rockets to a rout of the Mavs. Guard Rafer Alston added 14 points, 12 assists and 8 rebounds while Luther Head and Kirk Snyder chipped in 17 and 12 points respectively for the Rockets who bucked an off-night from Tracy McGrady (who had only eight points and four assists) to pull off the win.

November 2, 2006 – Lost to the Spurs 91-97 @ Dallas
Tim Duncan scored only 13 points but had a key rebound and a putback in the final minute to lead the Spurs to a come from behind win. San Antonio trailed for most of the first three quarters but charged ahead over a 6:13 span in which they held the Mavericks without a point. The Mavs’ errant shooting did them in. Tony Parker shook off a sprained ankle to score 19 points.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 9th, 2006 at 10:42 pm, categorized as NBA. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.