The Dallas Mavericks have become accustomed to getting off to hot starts in games during the 2013-14 NBA season.
However, as Saturday night's closer-than-it-should-have-been 103-100 home victory over the usually hapless Sacramento Kings can attest to, the Mavericks have a penchant for turning easy victories into nail-biters.
The Dallas Mavericks led by as much as 17 in the first half, before watching the Sacramento Kings stifle them offensively in the third quarter. The Mavericks were held to just 18 points in the third, and had to withstand an up and down fourth quarter which saw them fall behind by five -- before Dirk Nowitzki finally gave Dallas the lead to stay, scoring eight of his 19 points to finally shut down the pesky Kings.
After the game, Dallas Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle was asked about the Mavericks' bad habit of squandering double-digit leads early in games:
Carlisle said losing big leads has “been a part of our DNA." That said, he knows they have to snap out it. He believes that they will.
— Bryan Gutierrez (@BallinWithBryan) March 30, 2014
Despite pulling into a virtual tie with the Memphis Grizzlies for eighth in the Western Conference with the victory, the Dallas Mavericks are the outside looking in due to having one more loss (and one more win) than the Grizzlies. The five teams seeded fifth through ninth in the Western Conference are all separated by a mere three games going into the season's final stretch.
This all means that the Dallas Mavericks will have limited room for error with just eight games left on their schedule. If there ever was a time for Carlisle's team to "snap out of" giving up big leads, now would be it.