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DALLAS -- Nets guard Courtney Lee had that WTF look in his eyes. People who have played sports or fans who can't-believe-what-they-just-saw know that look. It's a glazed, tired stare that focuses on nothing in front of you (in Lee's case, the soft exoskeletons of ankle tape laying in a heap before him) but going over in your mind everything you just left behind, including an 18-point, second-quarter lead against the hottest team in the NBA.
That's right, the Nets led 41-23 against the Mavs, who had won 12 straight entering Wednesday night's game against New Jersey. But in the end, it turned out to be loss No. 57 for the Nets and the 13th straight win for the Mavs, 96-87. As Art Garcia of NBA.com noted, the Mavs' streak is now almost double New Jersey's win total for the season.
Such is life for the Nets these days as each game seems to be a Sisyphean task: every time they seem to have pushed the rock up the hill, something happens to make the rock roll back down again. In this case, that something was the Mavs' depth.
When Dallas can pull out a win when Dirk Nowitzki goes 3-for-16 from the field and their third-leading scorer for the night, Rodrigue Beaubois with 16, fouls out with 5:35 to go in the game, that's a team with options.
ShareThere's Jason Kidd and his five three-pointers, or Caron Butler hitting big shots in the fourth, or Brendan Haywood with a double-double, or Shawn Marion playing like his old Matrix self (and not the lousy sequels) with a quiet, but efficient, 14 points, 13 boards and three blocks.
The Nets, meanwhile, had a fired-up Devin Harris lead everyone with 21 points ... and six turnovers. And too often during their disastrous second and third quarters where they combined to score 29 points in 24 minutes, the Nets couldn't hit shots and they couldn't stop the Mavs from piling up 18 fastbreak points.
Still, the Nets were only down two with a little more than three minutes to go before the Mavs stepped on the gas and pulled away late in the fourth to avoid the ignominious distinction of becoming victim No. 8.
Nets coach Kiki Vandeweghe knew the score, and not just the one on the scoreboard.
"You've got to play the perfect game to beat them here," he said. "We played very hard. I'm not sure we could have played a lot harder than tonight."
And as we're finding out, the Nets, while improving and throwing big scares into big-time teams, are still very far from perfect.
Rob Peterson is following the Nets as they hit the road trying to avoid finishing with the worst record in league history. You can follow Rob following the Nets on Twitter.
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