By Mike Fisher -- DallasBasketball.com
The Big Three is dead.
Once upon a time, there was The Big Three. And there was colleague Bob Ortegel noting that when The Big Three combined for 60 points in a game, the Mavs were unbeatable.
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Suddenly, the Mavs are at least a little bit beatable. And maybe only coincidentally, guess how many times The Big Three – Michael Finley, Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash – have been the three top scorers and combined for 60 points in a game this season?
Try ‘zero.’
Saturday at American Airlines Center marked a slightly different flavor for Dallas. Not only was it a second straight victory, this time over the Grizzlies, 104-98. And not only did Nellie once again keep the rotation tighter than my Grandpa Fisher, a Depression-Era product who once gave to all us little grandkids as Christmas gifts some paperweights he’d pilfered from the office storage closet.
No, the biggest deal for me was that it felt like old times: The Big Three were the top three Mavs scorers – FOR THE FIRST TIME ALL SEASON!
And they still didn’t get to 60!
Now, I don’t want to Uncle Norm you to death with meaningless stats here. There are logical explanations. You’ve got your injuries, for instance. Michael Finley missed games when he might’ve pitched in his 20-plus and helped The Big Three combine for 60. Dirk Nowitzki has missed games, and played hurt in most of the others. And you’ve got your newcomers; The Big Three isn’t going to get enough shots to combine for 60 if the AnTwins, just to name two guys, are going to get enough shots for them to contribute what they are capable of.
Still, to an observer and fan of The Big Three, it’s a bit alarming to learn that after 29 games, they have never accomplished what was once a trademark hat trick of theirs.
It should be noted that The Magical 60 has been accomplished 16 times in the 29 outings. And, proving the new availability of weaponry, it should be noted that Nash, Walker, Dirk, Delk, Finley, Jamison and even Fortson have all shared the combine-for-60 wealth. (For the record, Dirk and Jamison have been there 10 times each, Walker nine times Nash eight times, Finley six times, Delk and Fortson once each.)
A more important number (and one that will have Coach O’s custom-made Lombardo suit all in a knot): In those 15 times when The Magical 60 has been achieved, Dallas is just 9-6.
Where once their was high scoring and infallibility, now there is high scoring and 9-6.
Does any of this mean the Mavs were better off when Finley/Nash/Nowitzki were the clear-cut go-to guys, best pals who took turns leading the other two to combining for 60? Does this mean the Mavs are somehow worse off despite supplementing those three with four guys (Jamison, Walker, Delk and Josh Howard) capable of doing their one-third part on the way to a three-man 60?
Have too many cooks spoiled the broth?
Or, will it eventually prove out that if any three guys top 60 (Dirk, Jamison and Walker went for 76 combined at Sacto), the Mavs have the fuel to win? After all, against Memphis, Nellie went with his ‘six-guys-and-change’ rotation. Finley went for 24, Dirk for 18, Nash for 16. (That’s 58, but it’s not 60.) Then came Antoine Walker and Antawn Jamison and Josh Howard, for 13, 14 and 15, respectively.
Those six guys combined for 100. So who cares how they got there, right?
A disturbing issue for me: It’s not which three guys score the 20, 20 and 20. It’s that the Mavs themselves may not be certain who those guys are on a given night, and that the likeliest candidates haven’t stepped to the fore and staked their claim.
It may surprise you to learn that of The Big Three, Finley has, in a way, been the most consistent. Averaging 17 points per, he has a high of 38 and a low of seven points, but that low is the only time all year he’s failed to reach double figures in scoring.
It’s not much, but it’s something.
Meanwhile, Nash is averaging 14.8 points per, but has games in which he’s scored 2 points, 2 points, 6 points, 9 points, and most recently, the Portland game in which he didn’t make a field goal. Cripes.
And Dirk? It hasn’t been so much the scoring totals (he’s had just two full games in which he scored under double-figures). But there are 10 games in which he’s made six shots or fewer, again underscoring that ‘too-many-cooks’ theory.
I know I’m just being nostalgic here. But I’d feel better about things if once, just once in 29 games, The Big Three would – thanks to good health, good shot selection, good positions on the offensive totem pole – get to be The Big Three again.
Or at least tease me by doing what they did Saturday, in which case Coach O and I will drop the magic number to 58.