Dallas Scores 76 - Loses: Notes and Quotes

Wow, that was really sad.  In terms of offensive efficiency, that was the Mavs worst game of the season (85.5 points per 100 possessions).  It was their worst game in eFG% (36% -- 13% below season average).  Really no surprise, but it was also season lows in FG%, TS%, and points.

If you're wondering when Dallas last had a game worse than this on offense, then you've already forgotten their 67 point debacle against Detroit last season.  Hopefully we can forget about this game too, and hopefully the players can't.  I'd like them to at least remember for a week until we play San Antonio again.

Bob Ortegel said early in the first quarter that when Tony Parker goes to the basket he "literally explodes".  Man I wish that were true.  With Duncan and Ginobili out and Parker spontaneously combusting the Mavs might have had a chance.

One bit of comedy on the night happened in the pregame.  When Mark Followill was talking about Tim Duncan being a late scratch he said "Duncan complained about his knee during warmups which is noteworthy because Tim Duncan does not complain about things."  I don't think he meant it as a joke, but it was a pretty good one.

Postgame Quotes

Dirk Nowitzki

Well, not good enough obviously.  They had a lot of energy with Duncan out.  They were all over us.  They were tougher.  They wanted it more. We really let one guy kill us.  just went at our pick and rolls, and just watched Parker drill us for 26 in the first half.  It was just an embarrassing effort. 

Disappointed you didn't take advantage with Duncan out?

It was definitely a gift that Duncan didn't play and we didn't take it so it's a very disappointing loss.  That's all you can say about it.  We didn't score enough.  They double teamed me hard pretty much all night long.  We didn't move the ball as we usually do.  We didn't make shots.  We didn't drive.  Just offensively we looked terrible.

Something about Parker getting off to a hot start...

Well you know with Duncan and Ginobili out that Parker is going to be aggressive.  I just didn't think we were aggressive enough with him -- getting the ball out of his hands, he got wherever he wanted, he got to the cup, he got to the pain.  He had wide open elbow shots off the screen.  He had a field night tonight.

Rick Carlisle

I can only shutter to think what would have happened had they played, based on tonight.

You guys seemed to lose your identity in that first half in terms of you've been doing offensively and defensively in the first half.

I agree.  Yeah.

Look, they really took the game to us early. Besides about a five minute stretch in the second quarter they were dominant.  We just weren't tough enough during that 42 minute period they were tougher.  simple as that.

Talk about Parker.

He was great.  We tried a lot of different things.  Threw the kitchen sink at him basically but he was still able to be extremely effective.  He's a great player.

Dirk had nine points through three quarters.  What did they do that stopped him from getting going?

They did a great job of taking away his easy touches by double teaming him all night.  We weren't able to take advantage of opportunities on the weak side enough.  We had quite a few good looks.  There were probably times where we shot it too quick and probably should have driven it, etc, etc.  They did a good job and we needed to do a lot better.

Josh Howard

Yep, just like the Houston game.

Anything you could pinpoint?

Nope. They came out on fire in the first quarter.  We fought our way back and couldn't finish it.