Rick Carlisle tried to warn everyone before tip-off.
“This thing is far from over,” he cautioned of the Mavericks’ apparent inside track to a top-six finish in the West. “A lot of people are making assumptions.”
Including, apparently, Carlisle’s team, judging from the listless manner in which the Mavericks took the court and justly got thrashed by Memphis, 133-104, Tuesday night in FedEx Forum.
Instead of solidifying their hold on fifth place in the West and trimming their magic number to clinch a top-six seed to one, the Mavericks slipped to sixth place and for the moment saw their lead over the seventh-place Lakers whittled to 1 1/2 games, pending Los Angeles’ late game against the Knicks.
This was a dismal Dallas dud, and no one night was worse than that of star Luka Doncic, who scored a season-low tying 12 points, shot 4 of 16 and had as many turnovers (five) as assists.
“That game is on me,” Doncic said. “I wasn’t here. I wasn’t myself. We’ve got to bounce back, but that game was obviously one of the worst games I’ve ever played and I’ve got to be better than that.”
The bounce-back opportunity comes quickly, perhaps too quickly. Dallas hosts New Orleans on Wednesday. If there’s any good news on the Doncic front it’s that he only played 26 minutes Tuesday, none in the fourth quarter.
The potential bad news is that in the final seconds of the first half Doncic took a tumble over a table and landed on concrete, and appeared to favor his back the rest of the game.
“We’ll see how it is tomorrow,” he said. “It’s always the worst when you get cold.”
The Mavericks on Tuesday got Maxi Kleber back from a four-game absence due to a sore right Achilles, and on Wednesday they expect the return of Kristaps Porzingis (right knee soreness) from a seven-game absence.
But against Memphis veteran guard and trade acquisition JJ Redick hobbled off the court after aggravating a heel injury that has kept him out for 21 games and has continued to plague him on-and-off since his return to game.
On Tuesday night it was Memphis playing the second night of a back-to-back and the Mavericks riding in with a season-high-tying four straight wins and an NBA-best 10 wins in their last 12 games, which made the result all the more shocking.
Asked what he thought of his team’s effort, and whether he believed some of his players might have been among those making assumptions about the playoff race, Carlisle wasn’t sure.
“It wasn’t good enough,” he said of the effort. “We had stretches where we played well, but it didn’t feel like there was a collective will for 48 minutes. And, look, that’s what you’ve got to have.
“Look, we’re all disappointed. We know we’ve got to do better. To the extent that guys on the team are feeling like we’ve got things made or whatever, I don’t know that. I certainly hope that’s not the case.”
Though Dallas’ 40-29 record is identical to Portland’s, the Blazers currently own the fifth seed by virtue of their 2-1 season-series win over the Mavericks, the first tie-breaker in a head-to-head tie.
With three games remaining, and owning the tie-breaker over the Lakers, the Mavericks still have the inside track to the all-important No. 6 seed, which would enable them to avoid the play-in tournament between the No. 7-through-10th-place teams.
After hosting 31-38 New Orleans, the Mavericks host 27-42 Toronto on Friday and then finish the season at 22-47 Minnesota, but given Dallas’ clunkers this season against lower-rung teams, nothing is a given.
