No way around it: Mavs choke away Game 4

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I’ve been a sportswriter for 29 years. (It was either that or be a plumber).

I’ve spent most of those 29 years arguing, among other things, against the concept of "choking."

"(Team A) didn’t choke against (Team B)," I’ve argued with take-it-all-the-way-to-The-Supreme-Court devotion. "(Team A) lost because it was inferior to (Team B)."

Saturday in Portland, the Dallas Mavericks served as Team A — and Exhibit A — for how wrong-headed my life-long position has been.

Dallas choked.

"I think we let up a little bit," Dallas coach Rick Carlisle said after the improbable 84-82 loss. "I don't think there's any question."

Sorry, but "let up" is too polite. A "choke." In less refined circles, that’s what this is called.

Jason Kidd? "We went to sleep."

Shawn Marion? "We let our guard down."

Dirk Nowitzki? "Bleep."

Me? "Choke."

The Mavs entered Game 4 with a 2-1 series lead, a privately-held feeling of superiority, and late in the third quarter, a 64-41 lead. Logically, there is simply no way a Dirk Nowitzki/Jason Kidd-led team is going to lose a 23-point lead with a quarter-and-change to go in a gotta-win game.

But it happened.

Brandon Roy's incredible fourth quarter (18 of his 24 points) was capped by an improbable go-ahead bank shot with 39 seconds left. Dallas failed to find Nowitzki late, instead relying on Jason Kidd, who, in the final moments, allowed himself to get pickpocketed for a steal and then followed that up with a way-off three-point miss.

The first-round playoff series is now tied at two games apiece, and Monday’s Game 5 is in Dallas. Again, using logic, Dallas has reason to feel justification in being favored — to win that game and this series. However, Dallas is perpetually a high postseason seed, and in three of the last four springs has been ousted by an underdog in the first round. Include the 2006 NBA Finals collapse at Miami, and while Mavs players can talk around it, Mavs fans cannot.

Choke.

There are precious few other explanations for why Roy, driven to near tears by the frustration Dallas caused him earlier this week, is able to dominate despite having undergone arthroscopic surgery on both knees in January. Shawn Marion guarding him? It oughta work . . .  except for a four-point play that tied the game.

Similarly, there are no other explanations for how Dallas could lose a game in which LaMarcus Aldridge was a non-factor and non-scorer for the first 22 minutes of the game. Limit L.A. to 6 of 16 for 18 points? That oughta work.

How does a team gag up a game in which Portland shot a pathetic 25 percent in the first quarter (4 of 16) and bottomed out further in the third when it missed its first 15 field goal tries?

How could Dallas go away from Nowitzki, who was held to a modest 20 points to lead the Mavericks?

"We had everything going there," Nowitzki said.

And then they had nothing.

We saw some record-setting futility here. Portland opened the game by matching the lowest-scoring quarter in franchise playoff history. The 37-35 halftime score was the stuff of 1960s girls high-school basketball.

Then, after Dallas built a 67-49 lead afer three quarters, came 35 fourth-quarter points from Portland. Yeah, as many points in the last quarter as it’d scored in the first two. It was the biggest comeback in Portland playoff history. Oh, and the Blazers' comeback from 18 points down going into the fourth ties the second-largest such deficit overcome in NBA playoff history.

"Sometimes these things happen, and when they do we've got to stay the course, keep playing and move on to the next game," Carlisle said. "That's all we can do at this point."

I know some people predicted Portland would win this series. I know some people predicted Dallas would win this series. But right now, the only correct prediction came from those who foresaw it’d be 2-2 because the Mavs got a basketball-sized obstacle lodged in their throats.