By Mike Fisher -- DallasBasketball.com
      “Blow it up!’’
      I couldn’t believe the phrase came out of the mouth of the usual serene Mike Tirico.
      “Blow it up!’’
      I couldn’t believe Byron Scott said it, too.
      “Blow it up!’’
      And I couldn’t believe Tom Tolbert, passing on at least creating debate, said it, too.
      Not one dissenting vote from the three studio personalities on ABC’s Sunday coverage of the NBA, who picked the pregame of Mavs-at-Orlando to preach to the nation that the situation is so hopeless in Dallas that the Mavs must completely disassemble every component, must fire every suit, must trade every player and. …
      “Blow it up!’’
      They were kidding, right? Or just trying to follow up last week’s ridiculous-but-headline-grabbing Spike Lee minute on the pregame show (in which he trashed Larry Bird for, essentially, being white)? When Tolbert grabbed an imaginary pump handle connected by an imaginary wire to an imaginary pile of dynamite and shoved the handle down, he was trying to be comical, right, like Wile E. Coyote, right?
      They must’ve been joking. Dallas’ “struggles,’’ somebody should remind them, are relative. This was a 60-game winner last season and a Western Conference Finals qualifier, all with a pretty young team, all using the same philosophy that is in place this season, where the 45-28 Mavs are on pace to exceed the 50-win mark.
      Don’t misunderstand. Even with Sunday’s 118-88 win at Orlando, the Mavs end the trip 2-3 for the week, missing golden opportunities to capitalize on a weak portion of the schedule while West rival San Antonio slipped up. Dallas is 7-8 in the month of March, its worst month in four years. Meanwhile, other powerhouses, most notable the Lakers, seem to have themselves in prime shape.
      ESPN’s “SportsCenter’’ this weekend ran a “Race For The West’’ graphic, including all the teams the network viewed as regular-season title contenders. The list went deep. … Sacto, Minny, SA, LA, Memphis. … but no deeper.
      Memphis?
      During this week, coach Don Nelson suggested a poor week’s work would lead him to conclude that the Mavs don’t have what it takes, supposed leader Antoine Walker suggested that next year might have to be THE year, supposed leader Dirk Nowitzki questioned his organization’s unity, and supposed leader Michael Finley did not play while nursing a calf problem.
      In Orlando, Finley announced he might play Tuesday against Cleveland. Dirk’s bunch did look unified. Walker performed with a bit of urgency. And Nelson braced himself for a final stretch of nine games, six of them at American Airlines Center, where Dallas is 30-5.
      Do you really blow up a team that might run off a five- or six-game winning streak right here? Do you really blow up a team that is in only its third season as a big winner? Do you really blow up a team just because it ought to be better than the sixth seed?
      Maybe Tirico doesn’t know better. Maybe Tolbert just thinks he’s funny. But Byron Scott? He really thinks it’s a sound idea to “blow it up’’ when a team is damn good but not quite great for two or three seasons? Because if he does, he should have resigned from coaching the Nets after New Jersey’s two failed appearances in the NBA Finals!
      What blows? Not the dynamite in Dallas.
      On Sunday, it was the ABC pregame show that blows.