HOUSTON_Mama used to tell us that if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.
But that was a kinder, gentler and simpler time.
The Dallas Mavericks are 0-3 and there is no way to sugarcoat anything after Saturday's 107-91 humiliation that the Houston Rockets put on them in a game where the Mavericks trailed by as much as 36.
Try as they might, nobody could find a pulse on this team after three games.
Two home losses to teams not expected to make the playoffs and a blowout loss to a legitimate contender on the road suggests one of two things.
Either the Mavericks' injured starting backcourt of Dennis Smith Jr. and Seth Curry is going to have to come back soon and save this thing before the season is a goner faster than it was last season.
Or, they should devote more money to college scouting because the draft pick is going to be even higher than last year's.
After three games, that's a snap judgment of course. But even Mark Cuban could do nothing more than shake his head during the second half at Toyota Center with the Rockets running up a 30-point lead.
The talent differential was obvious to anybody who wasn't watching Astros-Yankees down the street in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series.
The Mavericks were outgunned and out-everything else, too.
And their job doesn't get any easier with defending NBA champion Golden State coming to town on Monday.
Where did the Mavericks go wrong against the Rockets? Point to any facet of the game and you'd be right.
For the third game in a row they were manhandled on the glass.
Worse, they couldn't score as they were shooting just 32.8 percent after three quarters, when the Mavericks were down by 34 points.
Not even garbage time could help make this any better.
Mostly because they could not stop the Rockets, who didn't even have a particularly sharp game from 3-point land _ their bread and butter _ yet still cruised to an easy win in their home opener.
Dirk Nowitzki likes to say that sometimes, it seems like you can never lose in the NBA and other times, it seems like you'll never win again.
This would be one of the latter times for the Mavericks.
And Nowitzki, by the way, struggled mightily in his second game in two nights, going 1-for-8 from the field with 2 points in 19 minutes.
