DENVER _ This wasn't a tap of the brakes.
This was the Mavericks' playoff express coming to a flat-out screeching halt.
Yes, they went 1-1 on this trip against their prime competition for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference, but the way they got sledge-hammered by the Denver Nuggets Monday night made it feel a lot worse.
The eighth-place Nuggets moved three games up on the Mavericks with a 110-87 bashing of the Mavericks, who saw their four-game win streak go up in flames.
They were down 66-39 early in the third quarter and nobody short of Tom Brady was leading back this group in this game, which was far less than super, at least from the Mavericks' point of view.
They couldn't stop the Nuggets at any point in the second quarter and much of the third. With a game against Portland awaiting them in Dallas on Tuesday, they could have elected to rest the heavy lifters in the fourth quarter. But all of the starters saw considerable time in the fourth, with the exception of Dirk Nowitzki, who played just 24 minutes and was held out of the fourth. He had nine points and six rebounds.
They had trailed by 27 early in the third, cut it to 15 on three occasions and finally got it within 82-71 after Dwight Powell scored the first two buckets of a the fourth quarter. But Gary Harris hit a 3-pointer and the Mavericks never got it under double figures as the Nuggets pulled away down the stretch.
Coach Rick Carlisle had said going into the game that his team had to beware of the human nature that typically can afflict teams when they experience a little success after long stretches of failure.
For the longest time, it looked like it had caught up with the Mavericks.
They stopped moving the ball and allowed the Nuggets to shoot 55 percent through the midpoint of the third quarter.
By the time they got serious about throwing up some resistance, it was too late.
It was the first bump in the road for new sensation Yogi Ferrell, who didn't have a bad night with 15 points and four assists, but hit just 3-of-10 shots. He had plenty of company in the bricklayer's line as the Mavericks were icy from long range all night, shooting just 30.8 percent.
And the rebounding was atrocious, 49-29 in the Nuggets' favor.
Ferrell was coming off the 32-point monster game in Portland on Friday and it was clear that the Nuggets had brushed up on the film of that outing.
"It gets harder, no matter what," Carlisle said of Ferrell's fifth game as teams begin to game-plan for him more. "But that's OK. If they're going to start going over screens, it's going to open other opportunities and reads. He'll just have to see those things and make the right plays.
"But a 32-point game is otherworldly for a guy like that. The important thing is, we need him to keep attacking the same way."
Other than Wesley Matthews, the Mavericks didn't get overachieving efforts from anybody. Matthews had 10 points, eight assists and seven rebounds. The assists were two off his career best.
The Mavericks never could figure out Will Barton, who had 31 points.
That the Nuggets were missing three of their best players _ Danilo Gallinari, Emmanuel Mudiay and Kenneth Faried simply added to the Mavericks' disappointment.
