[Dr.Zoidberg]

Posted on Sat, Mar. 08, 2008
If Mavs can't start streak, they'll slide to oblivion

By JIM REEVES
Star-Telegram staff writer


If Avery Johnson is the coach we think he is, the Mavericks turn everything around tonight at the AAC.

If Dirk Nowitzki is truly an MVP-caliber player, he puts his foot down right now. Hard.

If Jason Kidd is the point guard and gritty winner the Mavs thought they were trading for, he immediately starts giving his new team a personality transplant.

If Josh Howard wants to ever make another All-Star team, he remembers how to play like one.

If Jason Terry wants to keep being called "Jet," he quits disappearing when the Mavericks need him most.

If, if, if...

What if all the ifs have no answers? What if the Mavericks simply aren't the team we thought they were? What if their window of opportunity just came smashing down on their fingers?

Then, folks, we're in for a lot more disappointment before this gets any better.

Tonight could be a turning point that determines where this franchise goes over the next decade.

Win tonight against New Jersey and old friends Devin Harris and DeSagana Diop, and maybe the Mavericks can regain some of that confidence they seem to have lost.

Win and maybe they kick off a nice little five-game winning streak to take into their rematch at home with the Lakers on March 18.

Win and try to remember how good it feels.

How tough can that be?

Lose, though, lose to a team that just lost to Memphis, lose to Harris and Diop in their return to Dallas, lose with Dirk back in the lineup after his one-game suspension... lose and there's no telling how deep the bottom might be.

I know what you're thinking. All this over one little game with the hapless New Jersey Nets?

That, friends, is where this team is at.

With 20 games to go in the wild, wild West, there are no layups any more.

There was so much the Mavericks could have done with a win over Houston on Thursday night. They could have snapped their own two-game losing streak and the Rockets' 16-game streak. They could have proved that they could win without their superstar, just as Houston has done without Yao Ming. They could have started this stretch of nine games out of 10 at home with a victory over a key West rival.

But that opportunity is gone, wiped away in a lackluster 113-98 loss in which none of the Mavs' supporting players stepped up to fill Dirk's massive shoes.

Complaining that his team isn't penetrating enough or playing defense in the paint, as Avery did after the loss, is almost laughable after the Mavericks just traded away their best penetrator and one of their key inside defenders.

But who feels like laughing?

Avery spent Friday's practice session emphasizing fundamentals, such as post defense and pick-and-roll defense, hoping to stop the bleeding inside. If a player committed a turnover in practice, his team had to stop and run a suicide drill.

"We have to be more persistent -- that's a big word -- be more persistent about driving," Avery said afterward. "When you drive and you get cut off, don't give up. Keep trying to drive."

I can hear the trade critics now: He never had to tell Harris that twice.

But this situation is beyond fundamental drills now. This is about this team's guts and its future. The Mavericks either grow up and get mentally tougher, which is something Kidd was supposed to bring, or they risk not making the playoffs at all. It's that dicey, and teams in the West are playing that well right now.

The opportunity is there. Their next five games, the first four at home, are against the Nets, the Knicks, the Bobcats, the Pacers and the Heat. None is better than 10 games under .500. If the Mavs don't kick off a five-game winning streak tonight, things are even worse than we imagined.

Then come the Lakers, Celtics, Spurs and Clippers at home. The Mavs must win at least three of those games, if not all four.

This is the stretch that will determine whether the Mavs are going to pull this together and make a serious run in the playoffs, or whether they've just become another tawdry tease.

If it's the latter, heaven forbid, let me give you a peek at the dreary future.

The Mavs will decide, with Kidd having one more year on his contract at age 35-36, to try and tweak this team in the off-season, to see if they can get lucky. When that doesn't work -- and it probably won't because it won't change what's fundamentally wrong with a team that left its heart in Miami two summers ago -- then we'll see a serious restructuring, and who knows who'll survive that?

Dirk, maybe.

Everything else, including the coach, would be a toss-up.

It doesn't have to be that way. The Mavs can write a different script, but it has to start tonight with what should be an easy win over a far lesser team.

One small step for Mavs. One giant leap for all Mavs-kind.

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GO MAVS!