A young team that believes it is on the road to greatness never gets to the final destination without some detours, breakdowns or flat tires.
That’s why the Mavericks are consulting the atlas right now, if not pulling out the jack to fix a blowout.
They’ve lost their way when it comes to closing out games that are there for the taking. They’ve had five-point leads in the final three minutes in each of their last three losses, yet found a way to cough up the leads and the games.
Execution at crunch time of games that are hanging in the balance has been problematic, to say the least, which is why the Mavericks spent a lot of time on that very issue at Thursday’s practice.