A thorough search for reasons that this Dallas Mavericks team isn't that Dallas Mavericks team causes pause for some. "It's not fair to compare this bunch to a club that won the NBA title!'' one might say.
Ah, but that's the beauty and the curse of the fact that Banners Fly Forever: The 2010-11 edition of the Mavs will always serve as the gold standard, and ensuing editions will be right to give chase.
The sixth-seed Mavs search, on an immediate basis, includes some harsh self-evaluation from Los Angeles, where the Mavs lost a 112-108 overtime match to the Kobe-less Lakers.
Should Dallas dump its usual philosophy and start doubling-down on dominant centers (and Andrew Bynum surely is that)? Did the Mavs use The Due Theory to excess and allow too many iso chances for Dirk Nowitzki, who devolved into what he derisively called a "volume shooter'' while needing 28 launches (with just nine makes) for his 24 points? Was this loss all about a Lakers goaltend on a huge 3-pointer in overtime that was missed by the refs? Is Metta World Peace a wildcard who can really control waterbug guard Delonte West? Oh, and what happens if it's No. 3 Lakers vs. No. 6 Mavs once the playoffs begin and Bryant's shin is healed?
"We're going day-to-day here and we're trying to earn our way in to the playoffs,'' Mavs coach Rick Carlisle says. "We'll worry about matchups later. If we get in, then whoever we play, we play.''
"Getting in'' seems fairly certain for the Mavs now. It's unlikely that Dallas will rise, though. Still nobody in the West is quite locked in to anything just yet.
Entering Monday …
* The Mavs have four of their last five games against winning teams with three of the four on the road – and the Mavs' foes have a combined winning percentage of .553.
* The Lakers play the Spurs two more times and the Thunder once, with three of those coming in the final five games. Lakers foes have a combined winning percentage of .574, the toughest go of West contenders.
Other clubs bunched in the middle of the West race?
* The No. 4 Clippers play five of their final six against winning teams.
* The No. 5 Grizzlies play only one winning team and have by far the easiest schedule, with foes' winning percentage at .369.
How about the teams chasing Dallas for sixth?
* No. 7 Denver has three back-to-back sets remaining.
* No. 8 Houston has three of those sets left, too – and Denver and Houston play the next two games against each other.
All involved will be scoreboard-watching, of course. But there is more wisdom in being self-concerned and self-reflective.
"Right now,'' says NBA Defensive Player of the Year candidate Shawn Marion of Dallas, "we're just trying to close the season out. We're not going to worry about the postseason until it gets here.''
Dallas is at Utah Monday night, has two home games this week, and then in the final two outings of the year is at Chicago and at Atlanta. Those two are contenders in the East and constitute challenges. But there is a substantial amount of rest and practice time available between those Saturday and Thursday games, a chance for the Mavs to develop a playoff rhythm at just the right time.
"The good thing is before the playoffs we only have one game and we have four days off where I can work on my game and hopefully be right when the playoffs start,'' says Dirk, who in three of the last five games has converted less than 33 percent of his shot attempts.
And in this Mavs season of "Minutes Limits,'' maybe that points to another brand of "fatigue.''
The Mavs are committing an inordinate number of late-game goofs; Dallas is now 10-11 in games decided by five points or less this season. They were 17-11 in these games a season ago. Is proper rest a cure for that? In the case of the Mavs, is there a mental exhaustion that comes with being a defending titlist in a weird condensed season while having to deal with the all-time weirdness of deposed teammate Lamar Odom?
Yes, if we're going to conduct a thorough search for reasons that this Dallas Mavericks team isn't that Dallas Mavericks team, we have to include the presence of the passive-aggressive cancer that was Odom. That's part of a harsh self-evaluation, too, and it's led to team officials actually having to address whether the player's insipid "Khloe & Lamar'' television show proved to be a burdensome distraction for Odom and the organization.
In truth, though, the defending champ's concerns and opportunities are not about "reality TV.''
They're just about "reality,'' a reality that is to be revealed in their final five games.
