BROOKLYN – As he stood in front of his locker inside the Barclays Center, forward Dorian Finney-Smith acknowledged that it’s time for the Dallas Mavericks to draw a proverbial line in the sand.
Especially after the Mavs suffered their worst loss of the season on Monday, losing to the Brooklyn Nets, 127-88. And especially after that devastating loss came on the heels of Saturday’s 30-point loss at home to the Memphis Grizzlies.
These two head-scratchers had Finney-Smith scratching his head.
“I feel like we just got to draw the line and say that’s enough and just start competing a little bit harder,” Finney-Smith said. “We just got to draw the line and play defense first and then worry about making shots later.”
This was the seventh loss in the last eight games for the Mavs, who fell to 27-36 entering Wednesday’s game at Washington. The setback also dropped Dallas to just 6-25 on the road.
“It was ugly from start to finish,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “When you lose every quarter of an NBA game, you certainly haven’t done what you need to do, so it’s a very disappointing night.
“They played with a level of defensive force to start the game that helped them gain leverage initially and throughout. The credit goes to them and it’s a night where we needed to do a lot better.”
The Nets outscored the Mavs in the paint (56-22), outrebounded them by 12 (48-36), and led by as many as 44 points in the fourth quarter. It was an uncharacteristic performance by the Mavs.
“We’re not shooting the ball well, unfortunately, at all,” forward Dirk Nowitzki said. “Even wide-open shots and layups. And I think that deflated us a little bit, and then our defense is not great.
“They went at us today and drove, they got layups, they hit all the three’s. It should be the other way around. Our defense should be solid, and sometimes you make shots and sometimes you don’t. But unfortunately, it’s the other way around for us and we’ve got to correct that and be (good) on the defensive end and hopefully make some shots.”
The Mavs shot just 35.6 percent from the field and misfired on 33 of their 45 attempts from beyond the 3-point arc. Meanwhile, the Nets made 56.5 percent of their baskets and also were 17-of-41 from 3-point range.
“We’ve got to fight our way out of it,” Carlisle said. “I thought Brooklyn’s effort was phenomenally great and I know ours wasn’t up to it.
“Listen, the effort can’t be good if you lose by this number of points. We just simply got to do better.”
With baseball legend Alex Rodriguez sitting courtside, the Mavs trailed 31-21 after the first quarter and 65-47 at the half. Besides gaining an early three-point lead, the only highlight the Mavs recorded in the opening half occurred when Luka Doncic launched a 52-footer that landed in the nets and wowed the crowd of 17,064 with 0.4 seconds remaining before intermission.
But Doncic finished the night with just 16 points, six rebounds and a season-low tying one assist. In the meantime, Dwight Powell led the Mavs with 20 points, six rebounds and six assists, and Jalen Brunson scored 10 points.
Also, with the Nets’ fans wildly cheering for him all night long, Dirk Nowitzki scored four points on 2-of-13 shooting. Nowitzki was scoreless until finally scoring for the first time with 3:51 remaining in the game.
“It’s a continuation of an emotional time here for me, obviously, the last couple of weeks,” Nowitzki said. “The receptions on the road have been phenomenal here on all these East Coast stops.
“I really appreciate it and enjoy it, but I enjoy winning a little better.”
Nowitzki said he could hear the crowd roaring and trying to will the basketball through the nets whenever he shot it.
“I was just fighting out there and didn’t really have a good shooting game, obviously,” he said. “I was just going up and down and trying to get one in and get off of zero points.
“The first half I had some great looks. It was a frustrating night for me, but I kept on playing and kept shooting.”
The closest the Mavs got to the Nets in the second half was 16 points after Powell drilled back-to-back 3-pointers and then fed Finney-Smith for a dunk to make it 79-63 Brooklyn with 6:09 left in the third quarter. However, the Nets outscored the Mavs, 48-25, the rest of the game.
“Our shot-making kind of affected us defensively,” Finney-Smith said. “They did a good job of attacking our paint. I feel like they were in the lane every possession.
“Even when we collapsed two (defenders), they kicked it out and got three’s, wide open three’s. They were just playing with a little more bounce in their step.”
It’s the type of “bounce” the Mavs hope to have when they play the Wizards on Wednesday at 6 p.m.
“We just got to find the next game and start the game off better with a little more energy,” Nowitzki said, “and a little more pop and see what happens.”
NOTES: Before the game Mavs coach Rick Carlisle talked about the impact superstar forward Dirk Nowitzki has had on the NBA during his 21-year career. “Points scored are obvious,” Carlisle said. “That’s never going to go away. But for those of us that have had the great privilege to be in the trenches with him for a long time, the competitive integrity, the way he prepares on a daily basis, the way he gives of himself to his teammates, to the franchise, to the community in such a humble way, those are things that for me are really big-time things about who he is.”. .Asked why didn’t Dennis Smith Jr. work out with the Mavs, Carlisle said: “He did. He had a triple-double in his last game. But you’ve got to trade good players to get good players, and so that’s sort of the beginning and end of that.” The Mavs traded DeAndre Jordan, Wesley Matthews, Smith and a pair of first-round draft picks to the New York Knicks on Jan. 31 for Kristaps Porzingis, Tim Hardaway Jr., Trey Burke and Courtney Lee. Smith collected 13 points, 10 rebounds and 15 assists for the Mavs against the Knicks on Jan. 30. . .Rookie forward Kostas Antetokounmpo traveled with the Mavs on this three-game road trip. However, he was inactive for Monday’s game. “We like him,” Carlisle said. “Look, he’s working with an assistant coach privately every day with film work and court work. He’s recovering from a hip flexor injury. But every day, every minute that you’re traveling with an NBA team and around guys like Dirk and guys that are experienced players in this league, you’re going to learn a lot.” Antetokounmpo, who has a two-way contract with the Mavs, averaged 10.4 points and 6.1 rebounds in 37 games this season for the Texas Legends of the G-League. . .On the close relationship between Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis, Carlisle said: “They get along great and they know each other from international competition. I see that as another real positive situation. They listen to a lot of the same music in Spanish. There’s familiarity there.”. .After Monday’s 39-point loss to the Nets, a New York reporter asked Carlisle if he got goosebumps listening to the crowd cheer for Dirk Nowitzki during the game, which turned out to be the worst game of the season for the Mavs. “It’s a little hard when you’re down 40,” Carlisle said. “I understand their sentiment, and they’re on-point with it.”
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