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Wow, I feel like I've seen that game before. Multiple times last season actually.  Dirk Nowitzki and JJ Barea  forced to carry the scoring load., poor defense, flat offense, and bad perimeter shooting.  In no way did I feel like this was a new season -- it was actually really strange watching it at times.   The offseason went by quick, but it did actually happen right?

James Singleton was a DNP which I thought was a little surprising and maybe a little weird too.

You could tell Dirk really wanted to try and take over in the fourth quarter, but the defense was terrible late and he wasn't getting any help.

Dallas only lost nine home games last season, but don't forget that also included an opening night loss against Houston.

The Mavs had as many turnovers, nine, as they did blocked shots.  So that was good.

Twice Shawn Marion didn't have the legs to finish a dunk -- hopefully that's a first game after a truncated preseason issue...

Postgame Quotes Rick Carlisle

Within our system you want to take good threes because it's one of the most potent weapons in the game.  And on nights when you're not shooting well you want to get into the paint and make other things happen.  Plan B would be to get to the paint and get to the line some.  We did that during certain stretches of the game, but when you get behind and it's late you have to start putting up some more three's.  It can turn into a negative feedback process. 

The missed three's weren't the problem.  The problem was the second quarter defense.  When they got 35 points in that quarter we had probably 5 or 6 six situations where we gambled for steals and missed.  It gave them easy buckets or and1's.  That gives a team confidence.  It deflated us to a certain degree.  We were fortunate to get into halftime only down 6.  We needed to make a stand in the second half, and we were never able to really sustain anything long term.  Washington played a very intelligent game.  They played well, and we weren't shooting it well -- you have to hang in the game with your defense, and we just weren't able to do it.

I thought our start was good.  I think they were 2-7 to start the game.  After that, their percentage went way up until it drifted under 50 somewhere in the fourth.  It's going to be whether we can defend or not.  It's as simple as that. So, you know.  Tough night.

Postgame Quotes Jason Terry

Very disappointed.  It looked like we were still in training camp the way we were moving out there.  That's not the way you can do it at home.  You have to come out running, come out playing our all.  We gave them some confidence by giving them easy baskets, and we paid for it.  You can't do that against any team, but especially a team that is relying on one man to take control of ballgames.  First game of the season, tough road ahead but we are up the task.

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