Make-or-break time

Mavs must overcome team friction and the Lakers -- now

As I write this the Dallas Mavericks are preparing to once again prostrate themselves ... I mean, the Dallas Mavericks are preparing to once again take on the Los Angeles Lakers. The game is Tuesday night in Dallas and follows hard upon the Mavs' 105-103 loss to the Lakers in L.A. on Sunday night. It's only the slightest bit of an exaggeration to say that the Mavericks' season hangs in the balance.

Not literally, of course. Cuban's Crusaders will enter the playoffs as one of the top four seeds in the West. But this team was constructed with the thought of, if not winning a championship this season, then at least getting to the conference finals and giving the Lakers (presumably) a battle. Unless the Mavericks beat the Lakers in Part 2 of this home-and-home, they might as well forget it.

"It's time for us to beat them," said Dallas coach Don Nelson before Sunday's game. "We need to do it to establish ourselves as a credible team.''

No, Nellie, it's way past time, with the Mavs losing 41 of their last 44 games to L.A. That's about as deep a psychological hole as a team can dig for itself. The Lakers aren't the Mavs' only obstacle. Dallas hosts suddenly red-hot San Antonio on Thursday night. As of Tuesday, the Spurs had crept to within one game of first-place Dallas in the Midwest Division, and playoff positioning is, to say the least, key in the West. Finish first or second and the Mavs would probably get Seattle, Utah or the Los Angeles Clippers in the first round; finish third or fourth and they would face a much tougher assignment in Portland or Minnesota. The former, in particular, would not be pleasant, Portland's nasty aggressiveness making for a bad match against a Dallas team that likes to run-and-gun, shoot from the outside and stay away from mixing it up inside. Then, too, if the Mavs draw the Blazers, they will have to forget about the 132-106 blowout Portland laid on them last Thursday.

The major reason Dallas pulled its mega-trade in February (landing Nick Van Exel, Raef LaFrentz and locker room leader Avery Johnson) was to give it two big men -- Dirk Nowitzki and LaFrentz -- to pull Shaquille O'Neal away from the basket. Sure enough, the two centers fired away from three-point range against the Lakers Sunday. The pair made 6-of-14 treys, an acceptable percentage. But any corollary to beating the Lakers involves playing respectable defense on any member of the purple and gold not named O'Neal or Bryant. Dallas didn't do that. Forwards Robert Horry and Rick Fox combined for 35 points, and Derek Fisher (who is flourishing off the bench) added 16.

It's no revelation that the trade in Big D wasn't done to augment the Mavs' defense, which frequently isn't big at all. But it's a bad sign that Dallas has increasingly relied on zones in recent weeks, playing, at times, a 1-3-1 trap, a 1-2-2, and a matchup. Nelson claims that the zone "has probably won 10 games for us this year and hasn't cost us any, because if it isn't working I just get out of it." Well, maybe. But in playoff basketball, the zone just isn't going to get it done. The team that can put the clamps on a hot scorer is frequently the team that wins it all. The Mavs, to this point, are not that type of team.

Then there is the Cuban question. (Isn't there always a Cuban question?) Reports have surfaced that Mavs' players are growing weary of the owner's yelling at them during practices and games. I've sat with Cuban during games and not all of his bellowing is directed at the referees. "Come on, Fin, hustle!" he might shout to swingman Michael Finley. There are also reports that Cuban sometimes yells "instructions" that go against coaching directives. Cuban doesn't deny yelling, but says it has no deleterious effect. "If my approach to the Mavs was frivolous or irresponsible, I could understand the criticism," said Cuban. "But nobody who is being fair and paying attention would accuse me of not taking my role with the Mavs seriously.''

Actually, Mark, I don't know of anyone who thinks you don't take your role seriously. The problem is taking it too seriously. None of the Mavericks will go on record as saying the hollering bothers them, and both Nelson and point guard Steve Nash laugh it off the same way -- that their perk-providing Punjab is "just a fan." But Cuban doesn't think of himself that way. If the team falters before reaching the Western Conference finals -- or even if the Mavs get there only to be embarrassed by the Lakers -- we'll see how much Cuban thinks of himself as just another fan.

Permit me one personal note: Longtime Atlanta Hawks beat writer Jeff Denberg of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution came home from the hospital recently after surgery for a brain tumor. Jeff and I have shared many an experience over the years, none more memorable than our journey to the Soviet Union in the summer of 1988 to chronicle a goodwill tour by the Hawks. It was one of those so-bad-it-was-good trips -- bad food, bad travel arrangements, bad intestinal disorders, bad sleeping arrangements. During the three weeks that seemed like three months, Jeff and I developed a pair of horrible Russian accents that sounded like something out of a Yakov Smirnoff movie, and so I'd like to send out this message: Get better, Comrade Jeff.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Jack McCallum covers the NBA beat for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com. Click here to send a question to his NBA Mailbag.

 

Related information
Stories
Jack McCallum's Insider Archive
Multimedia
Visit Video Plus for the latest audio and video
Search our site	Watch CNN/SI 24 hours a day
	Sports Illustrated and CNN have combined to form a 24 hour sports news and information channel. To receive CNN/SI at your home call your cable operator or DirecTV.