By Mike Fisher -- DallasBasketball.com
      People inside the Mavs were calling Saturday’s decision over Minny “the biggest win of the season.’’
      Using the same rationale, Monday’s visit to Utah marks “the biggest loss of the season.’’
      Dallas is experiencing a bit of a roller-coaster season. But with a road record now at a dismal 4-12, the away-from-home Mavs’ roller-coaster only goes down.
      And in this 108-94 defeat, “coasting’’ may be an operative word.
      “We were terrible and they were terrific,’’ coach Don Nelson said. “We didn’t have any player that I thought played worth a darn.’’
      We’re not too much for hyperbole around here. So when everyone from TV play-by-play voice Matt Pinto to Nellie himself tagged the victory over the T’Wolves as a monumental one (maybe because it prevented two straight losses? Or because Minny is a contender on Dallas’ level? Or because Nellie is a huge admirer of Kevin Garnett?), we still pooh-pooh it.
      We would attempt to do the same pooh-poohing with the results from Utah – except we are flat stunned by the Mavs’ inability to swallow up another silver-platter offering.
      Utah is searching for an identity following the departures of legends Karl Malone and John Stockton. Utah was on Monday missing its leading scorer, Matt Harpring, and its coach, Jerry Sloan. Utah was coming off two straight losses. Utah was in a position to be overly reliant on its kiddie corps, so much so that ex-Dallas defensive ace Raja Bell was called on to provide some offense.
      Old friend Raja Bell scored 25 points. That’s eight times his average as a Mavs last year. And it’s more than any present Mav scored on Monday.
      And while Raja did his thing, the Mavs did. …NOTHING.
      Dallas played poorly enough early to face a rebounding deficit of 20-6, but somehow pieced enough effort together to finally take a 61-60 lead in the third quarter.
      And then, a lack of focus, a lack of energy, a lack of effort, something, caused this club to cave.
      A Utah team that intentionally slows things down and didn’t want to get in a track meet with the Mavs and has no ambition of scoring 100 reached 108!
      Bell did his damage with hustle and effort and little else.
      The Mavs, meanwhile, performed with a lack of passion that is beginning to seem like an on-the-road pattern.
      Is there a trend of underperforming, and of doing so with a lack of effort, in certain road games?
      Let’s say we excuse the losses at the Lakers, at the Nuggets and at the T’Wolves. Those three teams, at least, have records – 21-9, 20-14 and 21-11, respectively, going into Monday – that give them the feel of contenders.
      That leaves nine more road losses. They’ve come against the likes of the 14-16 Clippers, the 12-22 Suns and the 9-22 Wizards. The combined records of those nine teams: 138 wins, 158 losses.
      A wild guess at what might be a problem: The Mavs think their spit don’t stink. Get it? They have gotten caught up in visions of championships dancing in their heads, caught up in reading their press clippings, and as a result, they view the Clippers and Suns and Wizards as being unworthy opponents.
      And then, they lose to them.
      It’s enough to make us re-think our position on Nellie’s habit of poor-mouthing his club. You know, the way he’s constantly talking about how the Mavs are “just another good team’’ and “not an elite team’’ and “not on the same level with the big boys.’’
      Heck, the other day, Nellie said, “Those playoff spots are totally up for grabs, unless you are one of those elite teams at the top – which we're not. … You can call all (the Western teams) playoff teams. Unless we start to distance ourselves, it's going to be a dogfight."
      In other words, Dallas might find itself on the outside of the playoffs looking in?!
      No, we don’t agree with his evaluation. And, if such a disaster occurred, we wouldn’t praise the coach for being prescient; we’d trash him for being the leader of such an underachieving bunch of gomers.
      Anyway, we’ve always thought Nellie’s approach was a little bit C.Y.A., a way to keep the pressure off (himself and others). But now we wonder if maybe his harping on that issue is his way of deflating the inflated heads of his players, a way of reminding them that they’re not that much better than, say, the Utah Jazz.
      Our next concern: That Nellie is saying it for that reason, but not enough of the fellas are trying very hard at listening, or, sometimes, trying hard at much of anything.