Chapter 1220: Chapter 387: The Bosses’ Sorrow
Shaquille O’Neal will never forget the atmosphere in the locker room at this moment, he felt like he was sitting in a freezer, even the air turned cold.
Vince Carter sat silently in the locker room.
Not just him, the entire Mavericks team was in a low mood.
The locker room seemed to have reached absolute zero.
This loss truly hurt because the Mavericks were only 2.1 seconds away from victory, it was within reach.
Now they understand Avery Johnson’s words: "The next moment might be the most important defense of your life."
These words were not in vain.
People often only learn to cherish after they’ve missed something.
If Shaq had known that Roger would directly go for the alley-oop, he surely wouldn’t have eaten so many burgers or drunk so much cola every day. If he had been lighter, perhaps he could have jumped higher just now.
If Carter had known that Roger would go for the alley-oop, he would have rather risked breaking his jaw to dive out without hesitation to intercept that alley-oop pass.
But understanding the value now is already useless, everything is already settled.
You cannot change anything after the moment of reflection comes.
Even though this is just G1, the Dallas Cowboys haven’t lost everything yet, but everyone knows how tough it is to play against the Warriors.
You cannot afford to let any victory slip away from your fingertips.
The experience of the Detroit Pistons in last season’s finals already taught everyone, when fighting against Roger’s team, even a 2-0 lead is not safe.
Let alone when you are behind.
This chill has spread from the visiting locker room of the Oracle Arena to Texas, freezing the hearts of the Dallas people.
In fact, Mavericks fans have already gotten used to Roger scoring high points, after all, the Warriors’ strategy against the Mavericks has always been to fight fire with fire. As long as they play against the Mavericks, Roger’s stats are always staggering.
On this season’s opening night, when Roger posted a terrifying 72 points against the Mavericks, Dallas fans thought nothing worse could happen.
But tonight’s alley-oop buzzer-beater was quite bad.
In the regular season, the otherwise invincible Mavericks had finally built up some confidence for the Dallas people, and this game made everyone realize that the Mavericks weren’t so invincible after all.
In fact, the performances of the Mavericks’ three stars tonight weren’t bad, Carter scored 33 points, Nowitzki 24, and Shaq 20.
None of them seemed like an appropriate scapegoat.
So ESPN writer Lawrence May aimed his gun at Mavericks owner Mark Cuban in his column with a striking headline — "The worst owner in the league, worse than James Dolan."
"The foolish Mark Cuban’s current approach to team-building is to lounge on the sofa with a cup of coffee, then take out the league’s scoring list or the 2K game skill ratings chart, and check off those with high scores or high game ability ratings, then hand the list to Donnie Nelson: I want these people.
I bet he definitely does that!
He can put together a dazzling and expensive roster, but he can’t build a team that can win.
The Lakers and Knicks’ enhancements succeeded because they addressed the team’s weaknesses. Even the foolish James Dolan knows this principle, yet Mark Cuban is clueless about it.
The Mavericks essentially didn’t change much after getting Carter as compared to before the trade.
Their offense might have increased from 90 to 95 points, but the defense remains at 50 points. The team’s overall rating only went from 70 to 72.5 points, the improvement isn’t huge.
In crucial moments, the Dallas Mavericks still have to rely on their feel.
In crucial moments, the Dallas Mavericks still don’t have a defensive player who can stand up and turn the tide.
This team is like a fake debutante renting cars and luxury goods for $99 in Los Angeles, looking strong outside but weak inside.
Once their feel becomes an issue in key moments, the expensive Mavericks will collapse like a sky castle without foundation.
Lawrence May’s comments infuriated Cuban, Shaquille O’Neal is earning 27.7 million this season, Dirk Nowitzki and Vince Carter 12.58 million each, making it the most expensive starting lineup in the league, hands down.
By comparison, the Lakers, Knicks, Warriors, and Spurs have only one max contract player in their starting lineups.
And just the salaries of the Mavericks’ three stars cost more than the entire team salaries of half the league’s teams combined.
The Mavericks Kingdom is a money empire through and through.
Mark Cuban has paid so much, yet he was criticized by some damned writer as a fool, no wonder his mood is terrible.
But the harsh truth is Lawrence May is right.
The Mavericks have spent a lot of money, but the team-building hasn’t really been successful.
Before Carter transferred over, the Mavericks relied on Nowitzki and Terry’s feel in crucial moments — you can’t rely on Shaq in crucial moments because once he has the ball, he will definitely be fouled, and his free throws always send the team to hell.
Now, the Mavericks just have one more player to rely on for feel.
Yes, Vince Carter made that two-pointer that broke the curse today, but don’t forget that before that, he didn’t score for nearly half a quarter. Even if he could have made one shot in that half quarter, the outcome might have been very different.
The dribbling high balance center Carter has always relied on his first step speed to break through, so after a major injury, his breakthrough ability has degraded the most severely, even the No HandCheck rule in the league couldn’t save him.
Furthermore, in the last half quarter tonight, he was exhausted by both defending Roger and attacking, his speed slowed, so he could hardly break through any of the Warriors’ players.