Mavs Call Home Loss To Short-Handed Pacers “Embarrassing,” “Horrific”

Dirk Nowitzki (Jerome Miron, USATODAY)

 

No win in the NBA can be assumed – all 30 teams employ professional basketball players. And considering that logic, no loss should be overly disappointing, either. The Dallas Mavericks don’t subscribe to the latter line of thinking. After falling to the Roy Hibbert-less Indiana Pacers 111-100 at American Airlines Center on Monday, Chandler Parsons and Dirk Nowitzki offered pointed words to describe the game’s outcome.

Via Tim MacMahon of ESPN Dallas:

“A horrible loss. Horrific. Awful,” power forward Dirk Nowitzki said after the 10-5 Mavs’ second straight loss. “I can’t find any more words…”

“There’s no way around it — this is an embarrassing loss,” Mavs small forward Chandler Parsons said. “There is no excuse for this. We have to come out and play harder…”

But how do you really feel, guys?

Tyson Chandler echoed the overall sentiments of his sweet-shooting teammates, including Nowitzki’s more specific critique that Dallas needs to improve on defense. Rick Carlisle said as much, too, and it’s not hard to see why.

Scoring will never be a problem for the Mavericks – their 115.2 offensive rating leads the league by a wide margin, and stacks up exceptionally well against the most efficient outfits in league history. It’s the other end that could keep Dallas from emerging as one of basketball’s real championship favorites, and that reality was on full display against Donald Sloan and the Pacers.

Indy’s journeyman lead guard lit up Jameer Nelson and company to the tune of 29 points on 10-of-14 shooting, exploiting Dallas’ leaky help defense in pick-and-roll situations. Rebounding was as big a problem, and speaks best to the effort issues of which the Mavericks speak. The Pacers grabbed an astounding 85.7 percent of defensive rebounds on Monday despite Hibbert’s absence, a number that would lead the league by a considerable margin when extrapolated over a full season.

At least Dallas knows its weaknesses, though. Nowitzki summed them up perfectly and says they’re unsurprising:

“I said it before the season: This team is going to be challenged defensive-wise and rebounding-wise,” Nowitzki said. “If we don’t bring it every night, we’re going to get lit up.

“We were just a step slow. When you start the game off slow and let guys get their confidence, then all of a sudden, they’re throwing in shots that they probably wouldn’t make if you play from the beginning. You know, it’s another reminder that we’re not good enough to coast against anybody.”

He’s right.

The Mavs don’t have the personnel to be a great defensive team, but could certainly be an above-average group on that end due to Carlisle’s scheming brilliance and the all-encompassing, if diminishing, influence of Chandler. They’ve been mediocre on the whole so far in 2014-2015, ranking 16th in the league with a 103.5 defensive rating. That’s not an awful number for this team, but it also lacks crucial context – it’s helped immensely by Dallas feasting on vastly inferior opponents like the Philadelphia 76ers and Charlotte Hornets.

Nowitzki and company have lost two consecutive games to opponents they should beat. Maybe this will be the (brief) low point that propels them to greater heights as the season continues.

What do you think?

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