Dallas 96, Jazz 85: When Bad Shooting Happens To Good Mavericks ... (With 40 Points Of Help From Dirk)

   My last-year thesis: The Mavs under coach Rick Carlisle never win when they shoot poorly.

   My this-year thesis: The Mavs are discovering a way to plow through that bad-shooting muck thanks to a personality transplant.

   My last-year fact: When the Mavs shot worse than 42 percent, they were 3-20.

   My this-year fact: After Dallas’ 96-85 victory on Tuesday over the visiting Jazz – a game in which Dirk Nowitzki single-handedly carried his team to a 27-point turnaround – the Mavs have now matched last season’s sub-42-percent total of victories in a year with this year’s three victories in a week. … and are living through their own reality-thriller: When Bad Shooting Happens To Good Mavericks.

    What happens? This year, Good Mavericks win.

    Yes. Just a little spark.

   This was otherworldly stuff for Dirk on an individual level, obviously. He finished 12-of-22 from the floor and 15-of-16 from the line for the 40. Somewhere in there he had time for 11 rebounds, five assists, five blocks and two steals. His fourth quarter was its own mini-game: 29 points on 7-of-8 shooting, and 14-of-14 from the line). While leading a miracle turnaround and topping Mark Aguirre’s franchise record for points in a quarter (24, set in 1984) Dirk at one point scored 23 of Dallas’ 25 points.

   Said Carlisle: “I put it up there with a lot of the stuff Bird pulled off, and (what) some of the all-time greats (did). It was just phenomenal.’’

  But it was also off-the-charts stuff for a Carlisle-coached Mavs team, usually overly reliant on its shooting success. Consider:

   The three times when the Mavs won in the 2008-09 season while shooting under 42 percent?

   *They beat the Grizzlies on 11/21 while shooting 40 percent from the field (but 44 percent from the arc). The Grizzlies, meanwhile, shot 37 percent.
   *They beat the Clippers on 12/28 while shooting 41.7 percent from the field (and 40.9 percent from the arc). The Clippers, meanwhile, shot 38 percent and were 1-of-11 on 3’s.
   *They beat the Hornets on 4/10 while shooting 40 percent from the field (and only 20.8 percent from the arc). They got 20 offensive rebounds (six for J-Ho, six for Bass). The Hornets, meanwhile, shot 42 percent from the field.

   And in the other 20 games in which the Mavs shot less than 42 percent?

   They lost.

   The evidence is clear: Last year’s team shot well enough to win 50. … but used its shooting ability as a crutch, and when its shot failed it, Dallas lost.

   Now to Team Carlisle 2.0, and the early evidence that the Mavs can push, shove, grind, grit, run, hustle and plow their way to wins even while clanging their shots.

   *On Saturday in Game 3, the Mavs shot a lousy 41.7 percent but beat the Clippers 93-84.

   *On Friday in Game 2, the Mavs shot a lousy 41.6 percent.but beat the Lakers 94-80.

   *Last Tuesday in Game 1, the Mavs shot a lousy 39.5 percent but maybe because they didn’t really push, shove, grind, grit, run, hustle and plow, they didn’t beat the Wizards. (Final, Wiz 102-91.)

   And what of Tuesday night.

   Dallas did “lousy’’ – and victory -- again.

   "The last three games, we’ve been the team to continue to be persistent and make something happen,’’ Carlisle said. “At some point, the ball is going to start going in the basket for us. But until then, we’ll find a way to win. I give the team credit for that because this wasn’t our personality last year.”

  Overall, the Mavs ended with 39.5-percent shooting. … awful, as usual. … but somehow good enough, as usual.

    A different personality, indeed.

    A closer look at the ineptitude in one area that was, somehow, superseded by competence elsewhere: Up until 11:12 of the final quarter when JJ Barea drove for a layup, the Mavs had made just 20 of their 72 shots. Not coincidentally, Dallas was down 67-52. Even after JJB’s make, the Mavs would give up three more uncontested points to trail 70-54 with 10:10 left.

   At some point, the comeback had to be fueled with some makes – you can’t survive When Bad Shooting Happens To Good Mavericks forever – and so the comeback was launched. The Mavs held Utah to 20 points in the quarter, for one thing.

    Said Jason Terry: We're making a point that, when the shot ain't falling – which it ain't – we got to get it done some way. Tonight was a great example."

    Added Dirk: We have been shooting in the low 40’s every game and that’s a concern. But defensively we look pretty good.”

    Along with that keep-‘em-afloat defensive work, in the fourth the Mavs scored 44 points themselves, went to the line 16 times and made them all, and starting with JJB’s puppy, closed the game making 12 of their 14 shots.

   (The official play-by-play, suitable for framing. And the boxscore. Buy two frames.)

   While we’ve seen in 2.75 straight games is what can happen When Bad Shooting Happens To Good Mavericks – something unprecedented in the Carlisle Era. And what we saw Tuesday in the fourth quarter of what somehow became Dallas’ third straight win was something different, and something better:

    What can happen When Good Shooting Finally Happens To Good Mavericks.