GAME 35: CHA (15-23) @ DAL (22-13) | 120-123 OT loss

[j0Shi]

Bullets:

• What a bad loss. Vegas had Mavs as 12-pt favorite and ESPN forecast gave us 95% to win the game. So much for that lol. For some weird reason the team especially seems to struggle at home and it further confirms that Dallas is trending down. There's is no "great to come back from down 20" and whatever. Just a very annoying loss that's a great reminder that we should hype, but not overhype the group.
  
• The once "historic" offense is no longer working for a full 48 minutes and as we've seen tonight we can't even reliably contain a very mediocre offensive team in Charlotte. Maxi did what he could to help Luka but otherwise we ran out of weapons. Wright, Brunson, Jackson, and Powell were not contributing enough.
  
• We need to get back to full strength asap. THJ's scoring and KP's rebounding are missing. Biyombo and Zeller had some sequences where they got like five shots in a row because Powell was completely outmatched. More than that, Luka has to shoulder too much weight. We have 3 in 4 upcoming against Denver, Philadelphia, and Lakers. I hoped that Dallas would be able to regroup during the home stand, but this loss is not a great sign.
  
• Mavs definitely have a late-game execution issue. They were up double digits already in the 4th and blew it again. This can't happen.
  
• I would however challenge that this particular game was lost earlier. You can't give a bad team hope by not showing up in the first quarters. That applies to the team, but also fans. The AAC was a complete ghost town until Maxi hit that buzzer beater going into the halftime. Pathetic.
  
• Give the Hornets credit for fouling up three. Mavs never got a chance tying this thing in overtime.
  
• Gotta say that these type of games really suck the fun out of an otherwise nice season. Of course Clippers and Denver also lost vs. weak opponents, which makes this even more annoying or less of a pain, depending on whether you prefer a glass half full or half empty approach.