3 things as Mavs stumble out of gate against Wolves, lose 97-84

The Dallas Mavericks looked a little rusty Friday night in their first game back from the All Star break. After falling behind by double digits in Minnesota, the Mavs did manage to climb back in and tie things up in the fourth quarter, but couldn’t pull out the “W”. They lose 97-84, attempting just 9 free throws and making only 8 of 33 attempts from long range.

CAREER NIGHT FOR CURRY NOT ENOUGH

With D-Will gone and J.J. Barea still out, a lot of the playmaking duties fell to Seth Curry. He held the team afloat early(when starter Yogi Ferrell went to the bench with foul trouble), and did his best to lead a comeback late, finishing with 31 points on a scorching 13-17 from the floor. Curry’s 1-4 assist to turnover ratio won’t impress, but he showed off the full repertoire in bucket-getting Friday, with floaters, step backs, and a couple of pull up threes that made you squint to make sure you weren’t watching his older brother.

BENCH M.I.A IN MINNY

Salah Mejri’s five points accounted for all of the Mavs’ bench points in the first half. Devin Harris’ eight points accounted for all of the Mavs’ bench points in the second half. The rest combined to go 0-8 and demonstrate just how desperate this team is to get J.J. Barea back. Also noteworthy: according to reports, Quinn Cook and Ben Bentil are going to fill out the last two roster spots on the team, so maybe the Mavs will get some extra scoring punch from the D-League bargain bin.

DIRK COLD AS 30K POINTS LOOMS

Dirk Nowitzki continues to close in on 30,000 points in his spectacular career, but this will likely be left off the highlight reel. Dirk finished just 4-14(and 0-4 from downtown), including several wide open threes that he missed badly on. Is Holger in town yet? A locked-in Dirk would be one of the few things that can make this team worth watching down the stretch. It will be interesting to see what happens with the starting lineup when Nerlens finally makes his debut. Will they continue to roll with the 38 year old or try to gracefully move him to the bench(see above for the need for firepower in the 2nd unit) and make way for the tantalizing frontcourt of the future in Barnes and Noel(I get all my books there)?