Six signs the good guys are in trouble

1.  When J.J. Barea gets more court time than the two major players you traded to get -- Shawn Marion and Caron Butler -- combined.

2. When two players off the bench -- Barea and Jason Terry -- outscore 80 percent of your starting lineup 31-16.

3. When your team plays well for only two quarters -- the second and the third -- and begin to act like who they are -- the oldest team in the NBA -- the other two quarters.

4. When the bad guys' starting team outscores your starting team, 69-51.

5. When you're known as an outstanding free-throw team yet let the bad guys go to the line 11 more times than you do.

6. When you ask one player -- in this case, Dirk Nowitzki -- to carry the entire team. (Nowitzki accounted for 69 percent of the points scored by the Mavericks starting five Friday night.)