Premature Evacuation

Caution: Knee jerks hopping off Mavs' bandwagon

Comments (0) By Richie Whitt Thursday, Nov 16 2006

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Consider it shook.

The Mavs won in Phoenix and Portland and, by the time you read this, will have beaten the Chicago Bulls Tuesday night for their first home win in 126 days, since Game 2 of the NBA Finals last June 11. Four-month home winless streaks aren't to be dismissed. Nor is a troubling, tiresome trend of—when push comes to shove—settling for long jumpers.

Avery said it best: "There are no shortcuts. You can't skip steps."

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But, fortunately, you don't coach the Mavericks. Johnson won't freak out, and neither will his team. Soon as you left them for dead, Dirk started driving, George started rebounding, Terry started scoring, Howard started healing and 0-4 improved to 3-4. Enjoy your Thanksgiving and your Valentine's and your Income Tax Day and, for your sake, pray the Mavs still have room on the bandwagon when you realize it's time again to start fretting about the Finals.

Because eventually we'll panic not about these four losses in early November, but about those four wins in late June.