DALLAS _ The Mavericks have a poor record on the road and, at best, they have been lukewarm at home.
Things got even chillier on Monday.
The Mavericks blew a 13-point lead in the final minutes and absorbed a 92-91 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. It dropped their home record to 21-18 with two games left at American Airlines Center.
The Mavericks were up 91-78 and spit up the entire lead, getting outscored 14-0 down the stretch.
Russell Westbrook, who had his 37th triple-double of the season, knocked in a 16-foot jump shot with 7.2 seconds left for the game winner.
The Mavericks simply fell apart in the game's last three minutes.
It ended a 1-3 home stand for the Mavericks, which pretty much summed up their year at home. They also were assured their first losing season since 1999-2000.
The Mavericks simply haven't been good enough at home to make up for a miserable 10-24 road record.
"Bad teams generally play better at home _ I think," coach Rick Carlisle said. "If you look at the teams that are really struggling this year that are in our range, they're winning a hell of a lot more home games than road games, I'm pretty sure."
The Mavericks got beat by the Thunder despite clamping down on them defensively. Oklahoma City had scored 125 on Sunday at Houston. But they had to work hard to score just 10 in the second quarter and needed a late push to get into the 90s for the game.
It was the kind of game that makes you wonder why the Mavericks aren't better at home.
"Our situation is a little different," Carlisle said of the home record. "Once we got to January, things were different because we got healthier and got our unhealthy guys in rhythm. From Jan. 15, on is more of an indicator of what kind of team we have.
"But that's not how the NBA is. It's the whole season. And the first two months were crap. So here we are."
For the record, the Mavericks are 15-6 at home since Seth Curry was inserted to the lineup in mid-January, and 21-14 overall.
Of course, as Carlisle said, the first two months of the season can't be washed away.
Also, it was a game Monday that Curry missed, scratched because of a lingering shoulder problem.
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