3 Mavs FishTips For Tonight At Warriors

By Mike Fisher | @fishsports

A trio of FishTips to bridge us from Thursday night's 94-75 loss at Portland (a bridge that needs to be burned) to tonight against the tops-in-the-West Warriors:

1. Rick Carlisle likes to call this a 'strength-in-numbers' team and a group that relies on balance, and in a terrible sense, they got that last night in Portland.

Dirk made five shots. Rondo made five shots. Monta made five shots.

That's a combined 15-of-46 for the trio.

You can be one of the top four scoring teams in the NBA but you aren't going to stay that way for long if three of your four heavy-lifters aren't lifting.

Now you wonder about tired shooting legs for tonight …

2. Ah, tonight. Against a Warriors team going for its 24th home win in 25 outings...and a sixth straight over Dallas. Second night of a back-to-back, and no way to get healthy — which the Mavs are not. Chandler Parsons (ankle) will miss a seventh game and Monta Ellis will play with a bad hip that is obviously affecting him.

3. "Catastrophic turnovers.'' That's what Rick calls them, and while Dallas didn't commit a million of 'em last night -- 13, actually -- it was the manner and style of those turnovers that is a concern.

Devin Haris was guilty of allowing old pal Chris Kaman to make two of the greatest defensive plays of his life with some mindless Dallas passing. And Rondo tried to thread the needle in traffic and pass the ball behind his back and this kooky stuff that doesn't fit the basketball bylaw of "movement with purpose.''

Don't just move, pass and shoot just to move, pass and shoot.

Do so with purpose.

We'll see if the Mavs — to their credit, 40-23 and in sixth in the West, ticks away from the No. 3 spot — approach tonight with purpose.

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