And now the Mavs lose to the Sonics

April 13th, 2008 Posted in Avery Johnson, Game Recap

Maybe the Mavs just wanted to let the Sonics say a nice goodbye to Seattle tonight. That’s the only thing I can think of to explain the collapse in the fourth quarter. I didn’t see too much of the game, just the last couple of minutes. But how can a team that gives up a 7-0 run late in a close game to a team like the Sonics be considered a playoff threat? And when you have three timeouts called in the last 40 seconds shouldn’t you be able to draw up some kind of play that will work?

Coming out of the first time out I knew it was going to be a Dirk isolation. Of course it was and Dirk got doubled in the corner and couldn’t get the pass out, ruining a two-for-one chance. I don’t blame that on Dirk. He had been getting double teamed all night long and Avery should have been able to tell that a double was going to come again. But he still called the iso.

And what the hell was he doing calling a timeout after the Sonics missed free-throw with 1.1 seconds left? There was no reason for that, the Mavs were down four and the Sonics would have let anybody have a wide-open look before they even thought about getting close enough to foul. Instead it partially killed the great vibe that was going on in the Key Arena as the fans said goodbye to their Sonics.

After these last two games I don’t see any way the Mavs can win their first round series, no matter who it is against. All these games have shown is that this isn’t a good road team and they can’t close out games. If you can’t close out a game against Portland or Seattle, does anybody really think they can against the Hornets, Spurs, Lakers or Rockets? Well, maybe the Rockets. But any of those other three teams and the Mavs are going down in 6, at the most. And that’s just really disappointing.


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  1. 11 Responses to “And now the Mavs lose to the Sonics”

  2. By Kirk on Apr 14, 2008 at 12:21:24 am

    They had some momentum last week and let up on the reins again. It will be fascinating to see how the game against the Hornets plays out because of the ramifications it will have for the Mavs and all the other teams that are playoff bound.

    We do know one thing for certain though, Avery will manage to screw the pooch for whatever option is best for the Mavs playof success!

  3. By blah on Apr 14, 2008 at 12:48:23 am

    Mavs will never succeed with that idiot Avery coaching. Whenever he draws up a play in a close and late game, the Mavs are doomed. His plays always fail. Moreover, his substitutions over the past two games have been especiall bizarre, as if he does not want to win. Time to face reality: Avery is not a smart coach. The only thing Mavs fans have to look forward to in this year’s playoffs is the possibility that Avery wil find some new and unique way to embarrass the team.

  4. By greg on Apr 14, 2008 at 2:18:56 am

    This has got to be the funniest site ever. When the Mavs win they are the team to beat in the NBA. When they lose the coach should be fired.
    HA HA HA This just goes to prove the MAVS organization is a joke! Thanks Mark Cuban for turning the Mavs into a side show.

  5. By mike on Apr 14, 2008 at 3:42:19 am

    Earl Watson has back-to-back 20 point games against the Mavs… seriously, WTF?

    Rick Carlisle, where are you?!?

  6. By Kirk on Apr 14, 2008 at 9:53:51 am

    Greg, the simple fact is we are spoiled fans. Everyone forgets that the Mavs were considered the worst professional sports franchise of the 90’s.

    So, if the Mavs are a side show, MAN what a sideshow. I have so many Mavs memories from the past decade I can’t begin to count. Some are aweful, others are why we watch sports. Sometimes we get too spoiled, as we are now. Granted, I hate the way Avery is a controlling freak and I hate his staff of assistants (Paul Westphal, you waste of a coach you). But I love the players, and I’ll continue to do so.

    MFFL

  7. By Cliff on Apr 14, 2008 at 11:03:01 am

    How are u spoiled fans when you haven’t won a championship?

    MHFL

  8. By Ronald on Apr 14, 2008 at 11:27:44 am

    Haven’t written anything in about a week or so, but I can’t keep quiet any longer… This stretch we just went through, of 2 hope building wins against the Suns and the Jazz (2 really good teams) and then 2 stupid losses, emphasizes what we’ve been saying all along… Thank God we have incredible talent on the team because if we had just a fraction of the talent we have, we would be a lottery team right now…
    Talent won those games (i.e. Dirk’s talent mostly)… you can’t tell me that Avery called a play for Dirk to stumble, recover and make an incredible shot against the Suns… or see what happened against the Jazz when he wasn’t given a chance to call a timeout to throw us out of sync and make one of his stupid substitution… My point is that all our recent success, the trip to the finals, the 67 wins, the MVP for Dirk etc… was achieved BECAUSE of incredible talent that we have on our roster plus 10+ years of smart team-building by Don Nelson and Cuban, and DESPITE Avery’s bad coaching…

    So we should consider ourselves lucky that we’ve been talented enough to survive and stay in contention all this time… But we’ve reached a point where almost all the teams in the West are extremely good and Avery’s coaching mistakes are outweighing our talent… like some of us have already said, we could still manage to get by when we had some above average basketball sense on that bench (Del Harris), but this year Avery’s inabilities as a head coach are blatant with that clueless coaching staff…

    So until Cuban brings back Del Harris to that bench, or even better replaces Avery by someone like Rick Carlisle who’s a very talented coach currently sitting at home… don’t be fooled when the Mavs get quality wins, it will be because one of our stars, mostly Dirk, decided to take over the game, not because of some smart strategy coming from our bench…

  9. By Kirk on Apr 14, 2008 at 11:42:43 am

    To Cliff: clearly you have too much free time if you are perusing a website for a team you hate.

    That aside, Mavs fans are spoiled because we’ve had 7 straight seasons of 50 wins or more. That’s ridiculous. Yes, we haven’t won a championship, but we have been able to see some enormously entertaining teams and games over the years. When one considers just how bad the team was 10 years ago, to how stable it is now, its nothing short of amazing.

    Granted, we don’t have the championships of the Spurs or the pedigree of the Lakers, but when stacked up against the rest of the NBA over the last decade, the Mavericks are in the top 5-6 teams. As a result, spoiled fans.

  10. By sigh on Apr 15, 2008 at 10:37:02 am

    Sooo, another tough game coming on Wednesday, which I’m sure Hornets will want to win also…I’m sure they don’t want to slide to number 3, but maybe they do, afterall they are 4-0 against the Suns this season. Keep you fingers crossed. The Mavs are definitely entertaining, but until Avery decides to take some responsibility that’s all they will be, entertaining. He mentioned the crowed being a factor in the loss against the Sonics - REALLY?????? - wow! Forget losing, ALL the starters should have been resting the entire fourth quarter. On the top of my head, some of his excuses summerized - we haven’t been the same since Jazz game, the bldg was alive as i’ve never seen it before, the game was very important to them because it could be the last one in Seattle..blah, blah, blah
    Bottom line Avery - You didn’t prepare your players well, your subs sucked, so ALL the blame is on YOU!
    And as long as Cuban keeps taking his side, we’ll keep losing. We’ll see how great he thinks of Avery when we get eliminated by the Lakers!

  11. By PininFarina456 on Apr 15, 2008 at 11:11:45 am

    All I know today is, the WARRIORS are out, can we make a new thread about that please. Its time to celebrate, the warriors are going FISHING.

    hahahaha

  12. By To Cliff on Apr 16, 2008 at 11:29:46 am

    Good point Cliff. I’ll always be a MFFL but I’d rather have one great season and a ring like Miami than 7 meaningless 50 win seasons with no ring like the Mavs. And we need to stop calling Jason Terry “The Jet” cuz he moves more like a toy plane now.

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