Some closing thoughts on Mavericks 106, Heat 95

The Mavericks got some great play from two guys who have
been fighting through some struggles. First it was Caron Butler who sparked the
third-quarter getaway with 12 points. Then J.J. Barea kept it going. He
finished with 13 points and two assists in just 15 minutes. He left skid marks
on the Heat defense in the final six seconds of the third quarter when he went
coast to coast for a layup.
 
The Heat were distraught with their performance. They had a
players-only meeting after the game that lasted at least 30 minutes. The NBA
calls for a maximum 10-minute cooling off period before the locker room is
opened to media members, but it was closer to 45 minutes Saturday night. The
Heat, widely expected to be a dominant team this season, has lost four of five
and is 9-8 this season. They were 10-7 after 17 games last season.
 
The Mavericks are winning without strong contributions from
Jason Terry, who has gone four consecutive games shooting under 50 percent,
including Saturday’s 3-of-12. He’s 18-of-53 (34 percent) over the
last four games. That is the way the Jet flies, however. He is supersonic in
some stretches and can’t get out of the hangar in others.
 
The Mavericks held the Heat to 0-of-10 shooting to start the
second half when they blew out to a 64-49 lead.
 
Brendan Haywood played only eight minutes and Ian Mahinmi
got almost half that. “I liked the way Ian was playing and Brendan had
four fouls,’’ Rick Carlisle said when asked for an explanation.
Haywood, of course, was suspended for Friday’s game at San Antonio.
 
The Mavericks still don’t have much time to rest.
After a day off Sunday, they have four games in six days starting Monday at
home against Houston.
 
Here’s what Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said after the
game:
 
“Well,
it’s a disappointing loss here. Regardless of any circumstances the
bottom line right now is it’s got to be painful enough. The pain we felt
there in the 4th quarter, we have to have that pain and we have to
carry that with us and do something about it in other parts of the game and
sustain it to make a change. Until we feel that pain and accept it enough to
make a change these will be the results.”
 
Asked
about Dallas native Chris Bosh taking charge in the huddles in the third
quarter, Spoelstra said: “Good. Yeah, I think we all were in the timeouts
and that’s the way it should be. This shouldn’t be fun out here and
it was painful to go through a 3rd quarter like that, and if guys
feel that pain, good, I want them to. Again, the guys in the huddles in the 4th
quarter I don’t have a problem with that, there was fight, the guys
wanted to get back into the game. But, we dug ourselves too big of a hole at
that point.’’