Mavericks' fever not exactly gripping the populace

In the never-ceasing pursuit of bringing top-shelf Mavericks
information to you, your faithful correspondent skipped Tuesday’s game
against Chicago.
That’s because I needed to take in a game on the radio/television
to check out how those guys are doing.
OK, that’s a lie. I had to catch a plane up to
Oklahoma City for tonight’s game and that required me to miss
Tuesday’s game.
But that doesn’t mean I wasn’t working.
As a public service, I watched the game at a couple of
sports bars. The first half, I saw at what will be called the Orange Beacon. It
has some people dressed in orange, so that’s why we call it that.
The second half was spent at a place named after flying
bison.
Anyway, here’s what I learned after a couple of hours
in local sports emporiums.
First, you realize how much Dallas sports fans don’t
care about the Mavericks. That is, not very much. I didn’t hear one whoop
or holler at either spot when the Mavericks did something good.
Then again, they didn’t do much that was all that
good, so maybe the lack of enthusiasm was predictable.
Which brings us to what I saw on the television screen. To
wit:
You can’t miss how bad the Mavericks’ offense is
right now. If Dirk doesn’t do it, it doesn’t get done.
J.J. Barea can’t buy a basket. His open 3-pointer from
the corner rattled halfway down the hoop before bouncing out.
Caron Butler works hard. He just doesn’t always get
good results. If I could say one word to him, it would be
“relax.’’
The play where Jason Terry touches the ball briefly before
giving it right back to the point guard doesn’t look like much on
television. Somehow, though, when he loops around the defense after giving up
the rock, something positive usually results.
And finally, the Mavericks defense really is better than it
has been. Not sure if this is going to last, but they are stifling opponents
right now. Either that, or everybody else’s offense is just as poor as
the Mavericks’.