GAME 3: DAL (1-2) @ NOP (3-1) | 111-113 loss

[mvossman]

The loss last night would be the equivalent of the Mavs winning a game against a fully healthy Pelicans team without Luka, Wood, and DFS. It’s unfathomable.  I don’t even see how such a team could score 80 points.  That would be the worst team in the league.  That’s how far the Mavs have to go to upgrade this roster into a truly competitive team. It’s a depressing gulf. This looks like at best another nice 50 win team with some entertaining Luka highlights in store for us that may win a playoff series. Whoop de do.  It’s like Cuban gravy training at the end of Dirk’s prime with Monte and guys like that. It’s an interesting team for Sacramento, but I barely watched in those years. I don’t know that Cuban really has it in him anymore to steward the career of a full blown international superstar like Luka. You have to give more than you get when you have that responsibility.

Good teams lose to terrible teams all the time in the NBA.  It's a long season, and teams sometimes struggle to get up for bad teams (or teams missing their best players).  I'm fairly sure if you go back and look at any of the contenders last year you will find losses like this.  This single game early in the season that we obviously did not get up for says nothing about how far this team needs to go.