[Bayliss]

The Mavs may get back to the 4th seed. But they **blew** a chance to get the 4th seed the other night. You cannot deny that. Had they beaten Utah, they would be in 5th place only a half game behind Portland (which they hold the tie breaker and winning tonight.)

Those chances don't come along very often, especially with Chris Paul out of the lineup for the Hornets. The Mavs blew that opportunity.

Hopefully it will come back around. But that isn't a basketballgirlesque post. That was stating a fact. Hard fact to swallow but a fact nonetheless. The Mavs had a chance to surpass New Orleans, Houston, Portland, etc, and they blew it by getting blown out against Utah.

And the 30+ games left is a meaningless stat because if they can't leapfrog New Orleans with Paul out they damn sure won't leapfrog them when he will play after the all-star break. The same goes for Houston and their injury situation, etc.