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Spurs 116, Mavericks 90: Dallas falls on its face in humiliating loss

There wasn't enough alcohol in the world to make this game worth watching.

By Bailey Grey
Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

Is there really anything to say about this game? If you watched it, I'm sorry. If you didn't, I really don't want to bum you out by forcing you to read this. Just go watch Parks and Recreation on Netflix okay?

No but really, I think my angry tweet from earlier really sums this entire game up.

But you want me to say more? Okay, here we go.

The Mavs need the All-Star break badly

This looks like a tired, older team in complete disarray. I'll address the drama later, but even aside from that, this team just looks tired. And unfocused. And bad, if we're being brutally honest.

Look. The Spurs are far superior to the Mavs. That doesn't make the Mavs a bad team. But the past three games have been beyond frustrating. This team is limping into the All-Star break, and it just feels like there's something wrong. Parsons has been the Mavs' best player the past month, yet he's openly feuding with his coach and coming off two of his worst games in recent memory. Dirk hasn't been that great. Wes Matthews is a ghost. Deron Williams and Devin Harris are struggling with injury.

Things aren't great. But the sky isn't falling either. I hope. Dallas just really needs a break, to rest, refocus, and get healthy.

Okay but this was really bad

At the same time, I don't want to undersell how awful this was. This was the lowest scoring half of the season for Dallas. Also, THE MAVS WORST HALFTIME DEFICIT EVER.

Just for fun, here are a selection of tweets from halftime, of people who apparently didn't watch the catastrophe that was the first half, then noticed the score once halftime rolled around:

And just for good measure, here's Matt Moore again:

But basketball is fun, right?

Parsons-Carlisle drama?

This game did nothing to settle the rumors stirred up by Parsons's lack of 4th quarter minutes against the Heat. While Parsons played as many minutes tonight as any of the other starters, it felt like his minutes were really herky jerky. He got pulled early in the first, and came back only briefly in the second quarter before Rick Carlisle gave up and completely changed the entire lineup.

There were a number of points in the half when it felt like Parsons was the only one doing anything good. I remember in particular an awesome Parsons to Javale alley oop. But the dude finished with only 6 points, an assist, and two steals. And a plus/minus of -25. (Dirk was a -34 in case you're wondering--this was just a godawful game.)

Whatever you think of Parsons, he has been an insanely productive offensive player, and it feels like tonight would've been a good time to lean on him, with everything else completely falling apart. That's not what happened, and while I can't say it would've been any better had Carlisle run everything through Parsons, it didn't exactly do anything to assuage the unease a lot of us are feeling with the situation.

Did anything good happen tonight?

Simba

Justin Anderson was pretty good tonight. The rookie had his highest scoring night of the season, and was sadly Dallas's highest scoring player with 13 points. He also played some pretty quality defense, albeit it long after his efforts would make any sort of difference.

Ultimately, this was a really bad loss against an historically great team. The Mavs are an older team struggling to stay healthy, so this shouldn't hurt too much. But it kinda does. Still.... try to stay calm. The Spurs annihilate almost everyone. It happens.

Let's all try to move on and enjoy the coming of spring I guess. Yeah?

Oh god there's another game tomorrow. Is it too much to hope that we see a rested yet super pissed of Mavs team go hard against the Memphis Grizzlies? You should all tune in tomorrow to find out.

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