DALLAS — By all indications, this was going to be the night on which a lot of what has been wrong in Mavs Land would begin to be right again.
Kyrie Irving was back. Twenty-one-win Charlotte was in town. If not a cure-all, surely this Friday night in American Airlines Center would bring symptom relief.
Wrong. The Hornets pummeled the listless Mavericks so badly that when Dallas fell behind by 21 points in the third quarter, fans rained boos on the home team. That disapproval ignited a furious rally, but one that fell short in another playoff-race-crippling defeat, 117-109.
Put this defeat alongside those at Orlando and at Detroit and vs. Houston as the season’s most embarrassing for Dallas, except the timing of this one made it worse.
With eight games remaining, Dallas (36-38) is in danger of falling out of the playoff race as it embarks on a five-game road trip beginning Sunday against (gulp) Charlotte.
With Irving having missed four of the last six games and Doncic six of the last seven, this was their first game together since March 8. Coach Jason Kidd said he was hopeful that Friday would be the start of the duo regaining continuity.
Instead, Dallas fell to 3-7 in games Doncic and Irving have played together.
Injury-ravaged Charlotte was coming off a 19-point Thursday loss at New Orleans in which it finished the game with seven healthy players. Although the Hornets got some reinforcements and suited up 11 players, Friday had the makings of a walkover for Dallas.
Except these are the Mavericks. They have made nothing easy on themselves this season.
Trailing 69-55 at halftime, the Mavericks left the court to a smattering of boos.
But when the deficit swelled to 85-67 with 5:32 left in the third quarter, forcing an exasperated Kidd to call timeout, boos filled the arena.
That seemed to trigger something — embarrassment? — in the home team. Trailing 90-69 with 4:26 left in the third quarter, Dallas scored 10 straight points and continued charging, pulling to within 97-96 with 8:28 left in the game.
The Hornets, though, scored the next 10 points and Dallas never was able to muster its second lead of the night. The other one was when it scored the game’s first basket.
Considering that his team already had lost a handful of games to injury-riddled opponents, Kidd shouldn’t have needed to warn his players about not taking Charlotte lightly.
But given the way this season has gone, Kidd knew not to leave anything unsaid.
“We will talk about short-handed teams,” he said before game. “They have nothing to lose. If the ball goes in, great, if it doesn’t, they’re going to play free.
“We’ve got to respect our opponent, but we have to focus on ourselves. We’ve got to get better tonight.”
