FanPost

Mavs show their softness - make excuses

Dirk didn't hesitate when asked whether the off-court drama took a toll on the Mavs during this series.

"Yeah," Dirk said. "Obviously, very disappointing what happened in the playoffs -- bad timing. I think in the playoffs it's really time to focus on basketball and not let distractions come up. So I'm very, very disappointed with the timing of the whole thing, but I still try to keep them all together, try to make everybody play as hard as they can. But it wasn't good enough."

Dirk didn't name names, but it was pretty clear he was talking about Josh Howard's strange decision to discuss his tendency to "partake in smoking weed in the off-season sometimes" on the radio the afternoon of Game 3.

At least one teammate thinks Howard's pot confession might have made the Mavs off-season come a little earlier.

So they're already making really bad excuses that have nothing to do with basketball. That's the talk of losers, plain and simple. They have to blow this thing up now. There's not a leader on the whole team. Dirk's great and all, but he's not a leader, and he needs to stop someone on defense sometime. I personally don't want to see any returnees except Wright and Bass.