MINNESOTA -- Part of the Dallas Mavericks’ concerns is that they don’t have much practice time to fix their problems.
All of the other 29 NBA teams are in the same boat, so, unfortunately for the Mavs, it’s an “it is what it is’’ situation for the Mavs. Thus, after Sunday’s 99-82 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves that dropped their record to 1-4, the Mavs don’t have much time to fix their problems.
Especially with a home game Monday night at 7:30 against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
“We’ve got to get sharper on the fly and get everybody in better shape as we go, get the legs stronger and just play better as a team,’’ forward Dirk Nowitzki said. “We don’t really have much time to practice, so we’ve got to get better from the games.
“We’ve got a little more sense of urgency and play well from the start and get everybody playing off each other better. So hopefully with time and the games, it’s going to get better and better.’’
The Mavs shot only 37.7 percent from the field against Minnesota, including just 29.2 percent from three-point range (7-of-24).
“We can’t worry about his one -- it’s gone,’’ said Jason Terry, who scored 10 points on 4-of-11 shooting and also had five turnovers. “We didn’t primarily play well -- nobody -- tonight.
“I know myself, personally, I pride myself in taking care of the ball and making shots. And that didn’t happen tonight.’’
It didn’t happen because the T-Wolves made the majority of the big plays, including ending the game on a 15-0 run. That left Nowitzki to say: “We knew that coming in, even if we would have won today or even if we would have won in OKC by one point (last Thursday), we would have had a lot of work to do.’’
That work continues against the Thunder when the Mavs must roll up their sleeves and try to hammer out a victory.
“We’ve got to keep grinding,’’ Terry said. It’s a grind every night.
“The games come quick. We’ll be right back at it tomorrow.’’
-- Dwain Price
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