By Mike Fisher -- DallasBasketball.com
      The moment Josh Howard spit the F-word into Mike Bibby’s mug, you hoped it meant the Kings would have more to worry about than a satirical cartoon.
      But there was no added inspiration needed here, no fraudulent bulletin-board push needed here. Charles Barkley’s post-game analysis on TNT – “Dallas didn’t come out like it was a must-win,’’ Barkley told his national audience. “I was surprised at their (low) energy level from the get-go’’ – was just flat wrong.
      Dallas was motivated, motivated by the knowledge of what being down 3-1 would mean. J-Ho’s imitation of Nick Van Exel (who uttered his infamous “F ‘Em!’’ last postseason in regard to the Kings) spoke to that urgency. It came with four minutes left in the first half, Bibby reacting to an innocuous foul, the rookie Howard finally shutting Bibby down by scowling, “F’ you, man!’’
      Sacramento was motivated, but not by a Game 3 Jumbotron animated feature lampooning Doug Christie’s p-whipped marriage. (Bibby was vocal in his protest of the cartoon, but we wonder why he and other Kings were laughing about it while watching it, and why, if they wanted it to fuel their fire, they didn’t use it as motivation to avoid a 25-point blowout loss moments after watching it air.) The Kings’ motivation? The knowledge of what would be lost by returning to NoCal with nothing more than a 2-2 tie.
     
      Really, this thing came down to three offensive breakdowns on the Mavs’ part, and breakdowns in three areas that are usually sure bets for Dallas.
      How the Mavs' offense lost this game, in three easy steps:
      Offensive Breakdown No. 1: Who would have ever thought the Mavs would be on the verge of a playoff ouster because they can’t shoot free throws?
      No one – not when this NBA’s best in that department collapsed at the line, totaling 20-of-33 (60.6 percent). The 13 misses? That’s one fewer than Dallas missed in Games 1, 2 and 3 combined.
      Said coach Don Nelson: “Several factors in the game just killed us, including the free throw. That hurt us probably as much as anything. … I can’t believe we couldn’t make our free throws.’’
      Said Marquis Daniels: "It's a two-point game and we missed 13 free throws. That's the game right there. It just boils down to free throws."
      Offensive Breakdown No. 2: Dirk Nowitzki in the paint is a recent addition to his offensive weaponry, and absolutely the right approach to take on a night when his usually reliable jumper wasn’t perfect. Yet Nowitzki managed just a 5-of-22 shooting night, missing an assortment of interior shots late, and missing eight shots in a row down the stretch. During that same time, rookie Marquis Daniels was missing seven straight shots, stripping Dallas of its two hottest playoff hands.
      The Mavs as a team shot 34.7, an uncommon occurrence in the regular season but the sort of number we’ve seen before in this series. The UberMan is capable of rescuing the Mavs from that number – unless he shoots just 23 percent.
      "It's definitely one of the toughest losses in my life," said Nowitzki, whose 21 points we so tough to come by. "We had enough chances to win. We just didn't have enough bounces tonight. … So many times our offense hasn't really been there."
      But very rarely has Dirk’s offense been this much not there.
      Offensive Breakdown No. 3: Dallas failed in Game 2 because they went with a final-possession play that demanded Michael Finley create his own shot. The decision kept the ball from Dirk and resulted in a loss. This time, it was Steve Nash who took the final shot, an off-balance fadeaway from 18 against defender Peja Stojakovic, seven inches taller than Nash.
      “I told Peja to stay in front of (Nash) in defending the pick-and-roll,’’ said Kings coach Rick Adelman. You don’t want to let Nash beat you off the first dribble. Peja, when he’s really locked in, does a great job on defense. He made him take a tough shot.’’
     If any of this sounds familiar, yes, it was the underrated defender Peja who also handled Finley on that Game 4 possession.
      At least this time, the Mavs called the right play, even if they didn’t run it well. Dirk set the pick at above the free-throw line, but did not immediately roll to the hole while matched up against the smallish Bibby. That left Nash to take things in his own hands; with just 8.4 seconds available at the start of the play, there probably wasn’t time to locate Antoine Walker or Finley, both of whom were left unguarded at the arc.
      Part of Nash’s problem throughout the game was the result of a Sacto scheme: Doug Christie frequently floated into the play against the pick-and-roll, leaving his man (often Finley) to effectively put three defenders against the two Dallas pick-and-rollers. Christie helping whomever ended with Nash on the pick-and-roll resulted in a double-team on Nash, who couldn’t shake free.
      But that wasn’t the case on the final play, which was all about a 6-2 point guard being unable to shake a 6-9 Peja.
      "We planned it to go in the bucket, but they played it pretty well,’’ said Nash, who then summarized the team’s three-pronged offensive woes. “We're talking about one play. But we didn't shoot the ball well enough from the floor, from the 3-point line or from the free throw line.’’