By Mike Fisher -- DallasBasketball.com
      Coaches believe there are only so many times when you can blow up at your team, only so many times when you can throw chairs, only so many times when you can pull the old ‘primal scream’ out of your bag of tricks.
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      The Mavs coaching staff believes it has used up its going-berserk quota on these players.
      The DallasBasketball.com staff, reeling from watching yet another undermanned team out-do Dallas – this time by a 107-98 score on Monday in Philadelphia – has one more scream in it.
      Arrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaggggh!
      "It certainly isn't a step forward,’’ said assistant coach Donnie Nelson. “This was one that we were really hoping to get. I think sometimes, in the absence of a great player it has a way of galvanizing a team. (The Sixers) were playing like they had nothing to lose out there, and we just didn't have the same aggressiveness."
      It’s happened against the Jazz without Harpring, against the Spurs without Duncan, against the Hawks without. … anybody. And now against the Sixers without Iverson, who was nursing a bruised ego.
      Said Dirk Nowitzki: “We've been losing games like this all year long, games against teams we should beat. …It's our fault that we don't set the tone from the beginning and we let them hang in there. At the end, we end up losing. It was the same thing with Atlanta last week, it's been the same with a lot of other teams we should have beaten all year long."
      That ‘galvanizing’ thing,’ that ‘in the absence of the great player’ thing, works so well for opponents that maybe the Mavs should try it.
      Hey fellas, which one of you stars would like to volunteer to start being absent so we can galvanize?
      Or is it that a whole bunch of you are already deciding to not show up?
      Dirk Nowitzki scored 30 points, so it wasn’t on him this time (at least not on one end of the floor). But the play of Steve Nash and Michael Finley was so subpar that Donnie actually mentioned them by name in the postgame.
      When Stevie and Mike struggle like they did tonight, it makes it tough for us to win," said Donnie is a statement that is a change of pace for him – and why not?
      Why not start calling people out?
      Why not make a huge deal of the fact that Nash, Finley and Antoine Walker combined for 29 points on 11-of-33 shooting? And that they were even more inept on defense?
     "I don't think we've scored like that all year," said the Sixers’ Kenny Thomas. "At halftime we had 61 points. I don't think we've shot like that in a long time.’’
      Right. But, Kenny, you haven’t played Dallas in a long time. This marks the eighth game in 12 outings that the Mavs have allowed 50-percent shooting or better. In a league where nobody can shoot, there is one outpost where everybody can shoot: on Dallas’ defensive end.
      "There's no excuse for our defense,’’ said Nash. “You can at least guard somebody a little bit when things aren't going well for you. I want to give (the Sixers) credit because they made some great shots and played well. I think part of the reason they made so many shots, and guys got on fire was because we gave them so much confidence. … You've got to play some sort of defense if you want to compete.’’
      Nash’s analysis begs the question: Do they want to compete?
      And the fact we even need to ask it makes us want to scream again.
      Arrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaggggh!