Apr 10, 2013; Dallas, TX, USA; Dallas Mavericks shooting guard Vince Carter (25) reacts after getting hit in the face by Phoenix Suns center Jermaine O

The Dallas Mavericks dealt themselves the playoff death blow by losing to the bottom feeder of the Western Conference, the Phoenix Suns. With all due respect, the Suns would been better off losing the rest of their games to get more balls in the lottery. Combine the fact that their on the second game of a back-to-back and carrying a 10 game losing streak and anyone that ever watched a basketball game would pick the Dallas Mavericks to win.

” I don’t know”, says Vince Carter, “The fact is we are trying to win games. I don’t care about the stakes right now. [This] was the next game we needed to win.”

The stakes before the game seemed clear. Beat a bad team. Get the .500. Omar the barber cuts off a few beards. Stay in the playoff hunt. After the game, the true stakes set in as players realized that this loss summed up a bad season.

“Yeah, it’s been up and down. It’s unfortunate”, continue Carter. “This is a game we felt we should win and we gave a team that was playing for nothing life. ”

Shawn Marion was a little more candid. “They were on a ten game losing streak and on a second night of a back-to-back”, he said before letting out a long sigh of disgust. “When you are a professional athlete you set standards for yourself and your team. When you go out here and try to leave it on the floor…You can’t control whether the ball goes in the hole, but you can control your effort. If your not able to go out there and give it your all, 110%, then somethings wrong. Maybe you need to sit down.”

Marion is right. For what should have been an easy win, the Mavericks only had three players in double digits. Shawn Marion had 22 to lead the team in scoring. Vince Carter had 18 off the bench and Dirk Nowitzki had 21. Nobody else did much of anything.

Chris Kaman, after putting up a season high in Portland with 26 points, played 20 minutes and contributed 2 points. O.J. Mayo played 37 minutes and put up 6 points. Darren Collison, Brandan Wright, and Jae Crowder combined for 51 minutes and 11 points.

Marion however chose to point the finger at the entire team. “We win and lose as a team, it’s not individual”, he said. “We are all at fault here”.

Head coach Rick Carlisle decided to fall on the sword rather than point it. “It’s disappointing…We are not good enough from start to finish.” He went on to say, “The truth is we are a team of parts that fit a certain way. The collective disposition, the collective will, the collective understanding has to be there for us to play our best…We all came up short tonight and I’m at the top of the list.”

The Los Angeles Lakers’ win over the Portland Trailblazers mathematically put the Mavericks out of playoffs.

Only Shawn Marion, Dirk Nowitzki, Vince Carter, and veteran Mike James made themselves available after the loss for interviews which is another telling sign. All three said they will continue to fight the rest of the season one game at a time. The question is: Is everyone?

Jan 18, 2013; Dallas, TX, USA; Dallas Mavericks shooting guard Vince Carter (25) fires up the crowd during the second half against the Oklahoma City Thunder at the American Airlines Center. Carter leads the Mavericks in scoring with 29 points. The Thunder defeated the Mavericks in overtime 117-114. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

Thrilling, frustrating, heartbreaking…there are many adjectives to describe another Dallas Mavericks overtime loss, in this case a second one to the league-leading Oklahoma City Thunder, to whom they fell in similar fashion on December 27^th.  But as Mavs fans have become accustomed to this season, we’re trying to focus on the positive.

In a game where Kevin Durant scored a career-high 52 points and Russell Westbrook added 30, while Dirk Nowitzki and O. J. Mayo shot a combined 11-35 and the Mavs only lose by 3 points in overtime to the team with the NBA’s best record, clearly there is plenty that went right even if the end result was not optimum.

The Good:

The trend of competing without a great game from O. J. Mayo continued and in this case, almost knocking off the Thunder sans Mayo or Dirk as well.

The Mavericks fought back from a 15-point deficit and were trailing by as many as 9 in the 3^rd quarter but fought back to take the lead before eventually falling short.

Vince Carter had perhaps his finest game as a Maverick, putting up 29 points on 10-of-17 shooting.

Elton Brand struggled early but started hitting late and snagged 13 rebounds.

Darren Collison hit 5-of-8 for 15 points and added 6 assists and 3 steals.

Even though Durant and Westbrook came up big time, they had to work for it.  Durant shot 13-of-31 and hot 21 of his points at the line.  Westbrook was also only 12-of 26.  Overall the Thunder only shot 41%.

Mike James, who played 22 minutes, hit 4-of-7 for 10 points including a three-pointer in overtime.

The Meh:

Dirk and Mayo both struggled from the field but eventually amassed 18 points apiece, largely at the line.  Even though combined they shot less than 30%, they hit 13 of 15 at the line.

Shawn Marion and Chris Kaman had decent games but weren’t involved enough to make a difference.  Kaman in particular only played for 16 minutes, scoring 6 points on 3-of5-shooting…a season low if I’m not mistaken.

The Ugly:

If it hadn’t been for Vince Carter, the Mavs might not have been in this game. Without him the team shot 31-of-74 (41%) and that wouldn’t have been enough to stay close because they were outrebounded (as usual) and were about even on turnovers.   Since the Thunder also hit 91% at the line, that would have been hard to overcome.

Mike James took an inexplicable last shot, considering how long he has been playing basketball.  The deep 3-point attempt near the end of the game was the wrong shot at the wrong time and helped ensure the Thunder’s victory.

It has become clear that despite a myriad of offensive skills Chris Kaman possesses, handling a bullet pass in the post in traffic is not of them.  I have lost count of the number of times he has fumbled those and I wish his teammates would figure that out because they usually lead to turnovers.

Takeaways:

The Mavericks have definitely shown they can play and while victories are sorely needed and this kind of loss is hard to take, there is definitely something good going on.  For the team to come so close despite poor night from both Dirk and Mayo is encouraging, especially after trailing by a large margin earlier in the game and repeatedly fighting back.  It didn’t work out in the end and some of that may be on Mike James but it’s still clear the Mavericks are playing much better basketball.

Box Score

Next Up:

The Orlando Magic will provide another opportunity for the Mavericks to show they can succeed convincingly, having a record worse than the Mavericks and going 2-8 in their last 2 games.  Preview coming up on The Smoking Cuban.