Mavericks: The Six-Loss Brigade

By Archer Berryman
for HOOPSWORLD.com
Dec 9, 2006, 10:30


Dallas suffered their sixth loss of the season Thursday night, and it wasn't pretty. The loss knocked them down a peg in the Western Conference, and in that next peg they have plenty of company.

There are four other teams besides Dallas in the Western Conference who currently have six losses: Houston, Denver, Phoenix, and the Lakers. Add that to the two teams with only five losses, Utah and San Antonio, and we have quite a logjam in the West.

In fact, after the first five weeks of the season, the top seven teams in the West are basically on an even playing field. Contrast that with the East, where there are three teams, maybe four if you count Chicago, that have separated themselves from the pack after five weeks. This shows that the West is going to be an absolute dogfight, not just for the top record, but for homecourt advantage in the first round. The West is so deep, that it's almost guaranteed that nobody will win 60 games like Dallas did last season, and nobody will certainly win 63 like the Spurs did. 58 wins could grab the top seed in the West.

If you're the Mavs at this point, you have to be ecstatic, though. After starting the season with four straight losses, they are one loss away from the best record in the West. Things could be much worse. Any more big hiccups like that four game losing streak, though, and they may find themselves left in the dust by the cutthroat Western competitors.

D-League matters

The team announced recently that Pops Mensah-Bonsu will be assigned to the NBA Developmental League. Pops had played three minutes in the first 19 games of the season, so this move was obviously made to get him some playoff time. With D.J. Mbenga back from injury, there simply wasn't much reason to keep a fourth big around, even for practice purposes. Pops would probably welcome the minutes at this point.

What's more interesting is that we received indications from the team that they expect to send first round pick Maurice Ager to the D-League as well at some point this year. When Ager was drafted, there were rumbles that he could contribute immediately, seeing as he was a four year player coming into the NBA with a lot of polish on his game. I heard the name Josh Howard more than a few times. But on this Mavs team, Ager simply can't make it on the court. And when he has, he has looked like a scorer and not much else.

When you're a scorer, you need minutes to get acclimated to your teammates and to a new league, and Ager simply can't get those minutes on this team. This says something about the evolution of the Mavericks, though. Josh Howard was taken around the same place in the draft three years ago, and he got an immediate opportunity to contribute. Dallas had some good teams a few years ago, but only recently have they acquired the depth that prevents promising players like Ager from getting a chance to play. On that team three years ago, Ager would be seeing solid minutes. On this team, he has to hope for a D-League assignment. The Mavericks have been a good team for six years now, but the building of depth has been a gradual process that has peaked in the last two years.

A Test in Melo

The Mavericks get a hot Nuggets team at home tonight and will try to avoid losing their third game in four tries after a twelve game winning streak. The game is important simply for that reason, but there is a greater test involved. If you'll remember, in this space a few weeks ago, I lamented the Mavericks' complete inability to defend athletic big guards this season. Dallas did a good job on a couple of players of that type since then (although I don't count Vince Carter sleepwalking through a game as a good job), but they have not faced a test like they will tonight with Carmelo Anthony.

Anthony has turned into the best pure scorer in the league in his fourth season, and he has to be chomping at the bit knowing that Dallas has had problems with players of his type. The Mavericks need to prove that players like Anthony can't sink their hopes at getting over the hump this season.

Key Newslines

Dallas Morning News: "The effort wasn't there," Jerry Stackhouse said. "There's not too many nights we're going to come in here and talk about effort. But tonight's one of them."

Dallas Morning News: "Dampier is having one of the best runs of his three-year Mavericks career. He had 12 points and six rebounds against the Pistons on Thursday."