The Worst 30 Seconds of the Year

Hopefully you Mavericks' fans have had time to wipe away the tears. The missed foul call will continue to garner the most attention around the Dallas area (the league has announced that the game officials did "miss" the foul call), but that isn't the story - at least not to me. I hate to twist the knife, but let's look at the last 31 seconds of Saturday's game:

* Terry 3pt Shot - [DAL 105-101] - 00:31.1
* Denver Timout - 00:31.1
* Anthony Driving Dunk Shot - [DEN 103-105] - 00:28.5
* Dallas Timeout - 00:21.1
* Nowitzki Jump Shot - Billups Rebound - 00:06.5
* Anthony 3pt Shot - [DEN 106-105] - 00:01.0
* Dallas Timeout - 00:01.0
* Nowitzki 3pt Shot - [DEN 106-105] - Final

Take a look:

Dallas took a 4-point lead with 31.1 seconds remaining in the game. Denver proceeded to take a timeout. Dallas simply needed to play good, solid defense and, if nothing else, force the Nuggets to use some clock. That didn't happen.

Denver inbounded the ball and Carmelo Anthony scored in 2.6 seconds. Seriously? 2.6 seconds of defense? In the biggest game of the season - coming out of a timeout - that's all the Mavs had to offer? If they would have played - I don't know - seven seconds of defense, that would have probably been enough. If the Mavericks could have held Denver scoreless for seven freaking seconds, even if they scored, the Nuggets would have then faced the uphill battle of fouling Dallas in an attempt to get the ball back.

Allowing Denver to score in 2.6 seconds left 28.5 seconds on the game-clock, resulting in a 4.5-second difference between the game-clock and the shot-clock. instead of having to foul, Denver just needed a defensive stand. This leads us to the next Dallas miscue...

As mentioned above, there was a 4.5-second difference between the game-clock and shot-clock (28.5 to 24). If Dallas could have simply run clock and gotten a shot off with 1-2 seconds left on the shot-clock, Denver - at best - would have gotten the ball back with 2-3 seconds remaining. That didn't happen.

With 10 seconds remaining on the shot-clock, Dirk began his offensive approach. After spinning and adding a pump-fake, Dirk implausibly took a shot with 5 seconds remaining on the shot-clock. Denver rebounded the miss with 6.5 seconds left in the game.

I love Dirk, but that is simply unacceptable. Think about it: Dirk shot with 5 seconds remaining on the shot-clock and Denver rebounded with 6.5 seconds. Had Dirk used the remaining 5 seconds before shooting, Denver maybe gets the ball back with 2 seconds left. Two seconds on the clock limits the offensive team to a catch-and-shoot situation. Six seconds provides an offense with all kinds of options...as we had the pleasure of seeing.

All that matters now is that Dallas trails 3-0. Was a foul-call missed? Sure...it sucks, but let's not pretend that the missed-call cost the Mavericks the game. When you have a 4-point lead...at home...with 31 seconds remaining...you don't lose without making significant mistakes. The Mavericks need only look in the mirror should they want to see the Game 3 culprits.