<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"> CLEVELAND ? Healthy or not ? and the Mavericks will be closer to full strength Friday night at Orlando ? coach Avery Johnson is none too pleased with the way his team is treating the most important time of the season. He equated it Wednesday to a long-distance race ? one the Mavericks aren't handling well at the end. "You're in the New York Marathon, how many miles is that, 26.2 miles?" Johnson said. "After the 20th mile, your body doesn't feel like it felt when you started, right? It requires even more toughness, fight and perseverance, because those last six miles are going to be tougher than the first 20." Point made. The Mavericks are not running their best race as the season strides into the final 10 games. Tuesday night's loss at Detroit drove home several issues that the Mavericks must address as they continue to get injured players back. Mainly, they must pay closer attention to details at the defensive end of the court. "There were one or two things that really disturbed me about that game that I won't get into," Johnson said. "I'm just trying to figure out if they really understand this next level that we need to go to." The Mavericks were outscored 11-2 in the final four-plus minutes against Detroit, fumbling away a game that was there for the taking. </div> Source
Amazing that the Mavericks have come close to winning these games. I think the difference has been ball-handling in the 4th quarter. Not so many turnovers until the last 7 or 8 minutes, and each one could have been avoided with cooler, calmer play or with more healthy ball-handlers. When you're playing the Pistons on the road and winning or tied with 5 minutes to go and you turn the ball over you may as well have told your wife that her jeans look too tight in the hips; there's no way out.
I don`t think this is the right time for criticizm or blames on one or two or three players. The injuries are the crucial fact we lost these games recently. Once the missing guys are back Mavs will continue to roll.
