The Mavericks "lack of focus" led to Marcus Thornton (5) scoring a game-high 28 points and the Hornets dominating the final three quarters of the game. (AP Photo/Bill Haber)Oh how the tide turns.
After getting up by as much as 16 points (32-16) in the first quarter, the Dallas Mavericks (46-24) played uninterested, sloppy basketball in the final 36 minutes of regulation.
"We got up [16] points and then basically called it quits," said Shawn Marion, who had 14 points and eight rebounds. "We just took it on the chin. We stopped everything we we doing. We got relaxed and they got aggressive and started getting comfortable and making shots."
That would be an understatement.
The New Orleans Hornets (34-38) responded to the Mavericks first quarter bonanza by utterly dominating the second quarter. New Orleans held Dallas to only 13 points in the second as the Mavericks committed eight of their 11 first half turnovers including three in the first four possessions of the quarter. The Hornets capitalized on this by scoring 14 points off those turnovers in the first half alone. When you couple the turnovers with the fact that Dallas did score a point from 4:25 left in the second until 9:57 left in the third (roughly a six-and-a-half minute drought) and you see where the Hornets took over the game.
While the Mavericks could not get the ball into the basket, New Orleans was having no problem scoring points. The Hornets made 15 of 23 shots for 33 points in the second and went on a 23-0 run during the Mavs scoreless half-quarter. Dallas tried to play catch-up the rest of the way but the closest they got was eight (68-76) in the second half and couldn't get the deficit below double-digits in the fourth quarter.
Despite shooting 52 percent from the field and 50 percent on three's, Dallas' 20 turnovers (and the Hornets 35 points off those miscues) was their downfall. Not to mention...
The Mavericks Defense Has Sucked
Over the past four games, during which Dallas is 1-3, their defense has been atrocious. Over this time-span the lowest field goal percentage allowed by the Mavs was Boston's 52 percent. The Knicks shot 56 percent, New Orleans 54, and the Bulls 52.4 percent. Each team scored at least 42 points in the paint and Dallas has allowed an average of 113 points per game during this pathetic stretch.
This is not the way Rick Carlisle wants his team to be playing this close to the playoffs. Dallas has 12 games in the last three weeks of the season to correct some of these deficiencies, but as of right now it isn't looking good.
Rebound Game For Haywood
After struggling both scoring and rebounding since returning from injury, Brendan Haywood put together a pretty good game Monday night. The big man had 10 points, nine rebounds and two blocks in 26 minutes for Dallas.
One of the few bright spots (along with Jason Terry's 24 mask-less points off the bench) for the Mavs.
Whats Next
Not much time to sulk after this loss and Dallas travels back home to take on the Los Angeles Clippers on the second night of a back-to-back.
The Clipps have lost 11 of their last 13 games and have the second-worst record in the Western Conference at 26-44 behind only the Minnesota Timberwolves. The "other" L.A. basketball team is not very good on the road either at 7-28 so it should be tough going for the Clippers.
Dallas won the only other meeting between the two teams this season, 93-84 in L.A. on Oct. 31, 2009.
Tip-off is at 7:30 p.m. and can be seen locally on Fox Sports Southwest.
News and Notes:
- Dallas has not won in New Orleans since the team moved there in 2006, including the playoffs, a span of nine games.
- David West dished out a career high 10 assists to go along with his 25 points and six rebounds. The sixth-year power-forward did it all against the Mavs on Monday night.
- Chris Paul returned and got off to a rocky start, playing only eight minutes in the first half and missing his first three shots from the floor. CP3 rebounded in the second half, however, scoring 11 points on 4-7 shooting including 3-5 from deep.
(Portions of this article were taken from The Associated Press)
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