The final chapter came Wednesday night with a championship
ring ceremony that was emotionally moving…and the precursor to an
unceremonious defeat.
"This is an embarrassing loss,'' Shawn
Marion said of Dallas' 105-99 collapse at home against upstart
Minnesota. "We've all got to sit and look at ourselves. We should be
pissed off. We shouldn't have lost this game. This is a game we should
have come out and won regardless of the ceremony.''
Really,
conventional wisdom suggests they should've won because of the ring
ceremony and the motivation that figured to come with it. Unfortunately
for Dallas, the positive vibes didn't carry over to the game, mirroring
what happened in the season opener when the Mavericks lost to Miami
after raising their championship banner.
"This has been a
wonderful trilogy of experiences: the banner, (visiting) the White
House, and then the ring ceremony,'' Carlisle said. "But we've got to be
able to go from that feel-good moment to getting ready to be a bunch of
ass-kickers against this team coming in here, because these guys beat
us pretty convincingly the last game.''
"This team'' is the
Timberwolves, and Carlisle proved prescient. Minnesota had downed Dallas
99-82 on New Year's Day with the Timberwolves scoring the final 15
points. This time the Mavericks led by 14 in the second period, but
Minnesota rattled off eight straight points before intermission and then
manufactured a 13-4 run in the first five minutes of the third quarter
en route to the win.
"We lost some concentration,'' Carlisle said. "We were inconsistent. Look, we didn't deserve to win.''
The
result stands as another notable blemish on the Mavs' 11-8 record.
Another is that 105-94 opening-night drubbing. The loss to Miami,
though, came with numerous justifications...namely LeBron James, Dwyane
Wade and Chris Bosh. This celebration-night loss — albeit without
sidelined Dirk Nowitzki (knee) and Vince Carter (foot) — isn't as easy
to explain away.
The ceremony was crisp, so that wasn't a problem.
The
championship rings, designed by Jostens with input from Jason Kidd,
Nowitzki and Jason Terry, are as large and gaudy as they come. The
rings, reportedly worth $40,000 each, feature 14K white gold with 250
diamonds and weigh 91.7 grams. The Mavs logo is on top and set against a
custom blue stone encircled by 31 princess-cut diamonds, one for each
year of the organization. The words "World Champions" are flanked by 10
round-cut diamonds, and each person’s ring features their name, diamonds
that replicate the banner and the Larry O'Brien Trophy, and the team
motto, "The Time is Now.''
Mavs owner Mark Cuban joined Carlisle
as the pregame emcees, and both smartly detailed the contributions of
players and staffers who'd earned the jewelry for contributions to the
franchise's first title.
Carlisle introduced Nowitzki by referring
to him thusly: "10-time All-Star, 2007 league MVP, 2011 Finals MVP, and
one day soon we'll have a statue outside the AAC, without question, the
greatest player in Mavericks history — Dirk Nowitzki."
And
Nowitzki, wearing a light-colored three-piece suit, got the last word,
with high praise for Cuban ("the best owner in sports'') and a question
for the audience of more than 20,000.
"How's it look?'' he asked, flashing the huge ring on his finger.
The
ring, of course, looks ridiculously magnificent. The defending champs,
however, keep turning a corner only to find themselves faced with
another corner.
Minnesota ended the team's seven-game home winning
streak and franchise-record 15 consecutive games holding foes under 100
points. Yes, Dirk was sidelined (watching the game, as did the retired
Peja Stojakovic and injured ex-Mav J.J. Barea). But the Mavs offered few
answers for Timberwolves like Kevin Love, who contributed 31 points and
10 rebounds just hours after signing his four-year contract extension
worth between $60 million and $62 million.
But Love wasn't alone.
Ricky Rubio was good for 17 points and 12 assists, and guys like Wayne
Ellington (16 points) and Nikola Pekovic (13 points) also were better
than what the Mavs were throwing on the floor.
"I know everybody
is making a big thing about the ring tonight,'' said Marion, who had 15
points. "It's a great thing to receive the ring. But tonight, we still
needed to win this game. We're trying to focus on what's at hand right
now and the current season and focus on trying to take our baby steps to
get to where we want to be. Tonight we just took a hop back.''
Added Kidd: "I think we're all happy that we don't have any more ceremonies for our championship."
