Trying to put a positive spin on a bad Mavs night

Here's the way I'm approaching it. By winning the first game of this series, the Mavs took home court advantage. That's all they needed to do. So if the home team wins all the rest of the games in this series, the Mavs advance to the second round after the sixth game against the Spurs.

So they didn't really need to work too hard last night. And if it's one thing that Mavs didn't do last night, it was work hard. Look at the numbers for Dallas' three primary offensive weapons: Jason Terry had 16 points, Dirk Nowitzki had 14 points and Josh Howard had 7. Combined, the big three didn't outscore Tony Parker who had 38.

Now here's the negative side. I don't think the Mavericks approached Game 2 with that mindset. I think they began the game thinking they had as good a chance of winning it as they did Game 1 and thery intended to leave San Antonio up two games to zip. If that is the case, then the Mavs are in deep doo-doo.

Gregg Popovich out coached Rick Carlisle this time around. In Game 1, Carlisle started J.J. Barea at the point in the second half and he ran Parker ragged. The Spurs go-to guy didn't have enough gas in the tank to be as much of an offensive demon as he is usually is against us (although he still managed to score 24). Last night, Popovich figured Carlisle would try the same move again so he started Bruce Bowen in the second half and attached him to Barea. Now Bowen is no longer the defender that he used to be, but when Barea got around Bowen to make his moves to the basket last night, Tim Duncan and and Matt Bonner were there waiting for him. San Antonio had a brilliant defensive game plan last night while the Mavericks, as they are wont to do on occasion, just decided not to play that much defense when they saw their shots weren't going in at the other end. As a result, Spurs 105-Mavericks 84.

Now it's up to Carlisle to figure out a way to penetrate that Spurs defense with his Big 3 (the bench, which bailed the Mavericks out in Game 1, can't be expected to do that every night or even most nights) while slicing at least 33 percent off Parker's point production.

The next two games at American Airlines Center are crucial. If the Spurs win either of them, I don't like the Mavs' chances.