<font size="-1">By EDDIE SEFKO / The Dallas Morning News </font> BOSTON ? Last season, the Mavericks won 58 games, and 32 of those victories came against teams that were under .500 when they played the Mavs. They lost only seven times to losing teams. Two years ago, they had a 22-13 record against teams under .500, and their overall record was a less-gaudy 52-30. Go back three seasons, when they won 60 games, and the Mavs were 32-5 against the riff-raff. Catching a trend here? The key to great regular-season success is taking care of business against the weak and the meek. So far this season, that's been one of the Mavericks' best assets. They are 12-1 against teams that were below the break-even mark when they played the Mavericks. Avery Johnson, for one, does not take such victories for granted. "It's hard to win a game ? any game ? in the NBA," he says. "And it's especially hard on the road. It doesn't matter what a team's record is." That philosophy would serve the Mavericks well on this road trip. Boston and New York are a combined 23-41. Never satisfied: The Mavericks went 3-1 on a four-game, five-night stretch that started and ended in Dallas and took them to Minnesota and Denver in between. "We're spoiled," Jerry Stackhouse said. "We're at a point now where we expect to win them all. We're among the top teams in the Western Conference, if not the top team. We expect to win all the time." They've done a good job of doing so since Dec. 1. After starting the season 10-5, they've gone 15-4. Getting tough: Jason Terry believes the Mavericks are getting conditioned to believe they are going to prevail, no matter how dire things might look. With 3:38 left in Saturday's 83-79 win over Minnesota, the Mavs were in a timeout and talked about faith. "Everybody was saying we've been here before, let's just get it done," he said. "Conditioning is on our side. We've been in a lot of tough situations. We know how to hang tough. We have character and heart."
Yeah but I'm hoping for more blowouts. Every game seems to be tough for Dallas. I want to see Mbenga more.
It's not so much that VeN, it's we're playing **** for 2 and a half quarters then catching up in the 4th. Normally we win, but we can't sustain that style
exactly, we cant do that in the playoffs and expect to win. Dallas has to start owning the 4th quarter by giving teams no chance to get back into it. And how do they do that? By playing tougher in the 4th, getting rebounds, making those free throws and easy buckets.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting VeNMaN:</div><div class="quote_post">Im tired of Dallas giving up 4th quarter leads every goddamn time.</div> totally agree...just flat put the game away. thats one thing that burns me up about the mavs.
Mavs have had a really tough schedule the past few games. The Knicks game was their 6th in 9 nights I believe. No wonder there wasn't any energy in the game, yet they managed to get a lead in the final minute. I was really impressed by the way the Mavs played in the 2nd half of that game. Look for the Mavs to play better with a much favorable schedule coming up. I expect the Mavs to win 6 or 7 out of their next 9 games. Sat 14 New Jersey Mon 16 Milwaukee Wed 18 at Houston Fri 20 at LA Clippers Sun 22 at Portland Wed 25 at Golden State Thu 26 at Seattle Sat 28 Utah Tue 31 Chicago
Dirk is the #4 in the league in fourth quarter points, and Jason Terry hits more than his share of clutch shots, so it's not like they're unaware of the need to close out games that they have in hand.. I believe When you're not a really great defensive team - this year the only teams who are great defensively are SA, Detroit and Memphis from what i've seen, you're going to allow teams to make a run in the fourth a lot. Phoenix also has a tendency to get in trouble in 4th quarters when they can't get a couple of stops.
