I just expect more out of the champions, out of a veteran team like this.
After another Dallas lost on Monday night where they ran some terrible execution on plays in the final couple of minutes, Jason Kidd pulled out the card most used by struggling teams without a good answer — it’s the referees’ fault.
Every time I hear a player say this, I flash back to a coach from my youth when we complained the referees cost our school the game — “if you guys hadn’t played like s--- in the third quarter it wouldn’t have come down to a referees call. You left it in his hands.”
Come on Mavs, you are better than this. Dallas isn’t losing games because of the referees. They lost this one because after Nowitzki knocked down a few threes in the final quarter Oklahoma City focused their defense on denying him the ball and making someone else beat them, and the result was a Nowitzki turnover followed by two sloppy possessions that netted no points. OKC finished the game on an 8-0 run and that was not the referees — they played better.
Dallas settles for jump shots a lot and those teams do not get the calls like a team that attacks the rim — such as a team with Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant. If Dallas wants to get more calls, they have to earn them, not expect them because they won a ring.
