Mavericks Make an Angry Lot

Bringing it all back home ...

Of course, if the Dallas Mavericks knew what they know now, they never would have left. They flew east leading the NBA Finals, 2-0, and took a 13-point lead in the fourth quarter of Game 3, but that was the night the lights went out in Florida.

Sunday’s Game 5 was the Finals’ second shootout, but when the smoke cleared the Miami Heat had won it too, coming back in the closing seconds of regulation and overtime to prevail, 101-100, and take 3-2 series lead while leaving the Mavericks to fume as only they can.

Returning to form, owner Mark Cuban went on the court, barked at referee Joe DeRosa and even exchanged glares with Commissioner David Stern. In light of their history -- Stern has fined Cuban more than $1 million, including $200,000 for similar behavior in the recent San Antonio series -- Cuban might as well have given Stern his credit card too.

Presumably to keep the focus on the Finals and off Cuban, Stern took no punitive action Monday.

In the Dallas dressing room, Cuban made himself available to the media for the first time since the series started. He didn’t dispute the referees’ decision to grant Josh Howard’s request and burn the Mavericks’ last timeout. However, Cuban insisted Dwyane Wade should have been called for going into the backcourt to catch the inbounds pass before drawing a foul and making the game-winning free throws.

“That’s a backcourt violation, at least to most high school refs,” Cuban said.

To NBA referees, it’s not, said a league official, citing Rule 4, Section VI, paragraph g, which says the ball can be inbounded in the frontcourt or the backcourt in the last two minutes.

Cuban angrily shunted aside other questions, including one about whether this was his most bitter defeat. “No, when I was 3 years old and I was playing on the peewee team and we lost,” he said sarcastically, cutting off the session. “Ask me a real ... question, will you?”

Actually, the Mavericks have sucked it up all season, at least below the ownership level. Fearing the players will use Cuban’s obsession with the referees as a cop-out, Coach Avery Johnson has a strict rule against complaining to officials.

Now, however, with the stakes so high and emotions running hot, Johnson is being sucked in too.

“We’ve had more players suspended in the playoffs than any team, right?” Johnson mused before Game 5. “Anybody else had three guys suspended? Who else? Who else?

“So we have made a concerted effort from the day I took this job, never to complain. But I think people have taken that for a weakness.”

Johnson has been making up for lost time. After Game 5 he had a long, contentious dialogue with a Dallas Morning News reporter, refusing to give his opinion of the foul call against Dirk Nowitzki that put Wade on the free-throw line, instead demanding to know the reporter’s.

Even the amiable Nowitzki showed his frustration, kicking the ball into the stands ... for which the league fined him $5,000.

The Mavericks may not have found the enemy, but it’s them. Nothing that has happened to them has been outrageous.

* The timeout they burned, forcing them to go the length of the court instead of inbounding at half court with 1.9 seconds left in overtime, was Howard’s mistake, after he misunderstood Johnson.

As Johnson noted in a steely explanation after the game, “One of our players was saying, ‘Timeout?’ I said, ‘Yeah, after the second one.’ ”

* The suspension of Jerry Stackhouse for Game 5, which the Mavericks bitterly protested, was extreme but routine.

Six players have been suspended this season, including two from the Heat. Udonis Haslem was suspended after having been ejected for throwing his mouthpiece in the general direction of referee Joe Crawford.

The league is, indeed, overreacting (how about fining teams $100,000 per incident instead, a real deterrent that would still let everyone be at their best in the league’s marquee games?). However, the league is not being inconsistent.

* Nowitzki’s foul on Wade could have been a no-call, according to the referees’ practice of swallowing their whistles at the end to let the players decide the outcome.

Of course, so could the little bump by San Antonio’s Bruce Bowen that put Nowitzki on the line to win Game 4 of their series.

* The Mavericks should not have been astonished at the 49-25 free-throw disparity, with Wade shooting as many as the Dallas team.

With Johnson promising to use “18 fouls” -- six each for centers DeSagana Diop, Erick Dampier and DJ Mbenga -- the Mavericks hacked away at Shaquille O’Neal and spent most of the game in the penalty. Wade, who’s aggressive enough anyway, kept attacking the basket, knowing he would shoot free throws.

If the Mavericks want to know how the series did turn around ... why they did!

They started with a defensive scheme that looked as if it was left over from 2002, double-teaming the 34-year-old O’Neal, who had averaged only 20.4 points in the playoffs against single coverage.

Nevertheless, with Wade looking weak from flu, the Mavericks led the series, 2-0 ... before blowing that 13-point lead in the last 6:34 of Game 3.

It wasn’t until Wade had scored 78 points in Games 3 and 4 that Johnson came up with a scheme that afforded as much help on him as O’Neal.

Nowitzki, who averaged 26.6 points this season, is averaging 21.6 in the series and shooting 37%. Howard, their rising star, is at 14.8 points. Worse, he’s averaging 0.4 in the fourth quarter.

“I tell you, boy, it was great landing here in Dallas,” Johnson said, “even when you could see out the plane when we were entering Texas.”

Nevertheless, the Mavericks still have a thing or two to attend to, other than kissing the tarmac.

*

GAME 6 TONIGHT

Miami at Dallas, 6 PDT, Ch. 7

Heat leads series, 3-2.