Mavericks’ Shawn Marion: ‘No excuse’ for loss
By Mike Dyce
The Dallas Mavericks pissed away a 17-point lead against the Atlanta Hawks. The Mavs lost point guard Jose Calderon to an ankle injury in the third quarter and things went down hill from there, still small forward Shawn Marion isn’t making any excuses.
“We should have won this game,” Marion said, via The Dallas Morning News. “There’s no excuse for it. It’s that simple.”
Mavs superstar Dirk Nowitzki wasn’t necessarily making excuses, but he did suggest that Calderon’s absence hurt the team.
“Yeah, it’s a terrible loss,” Nowitzki said. “We got to find a way to win this game, especially on a back-to-back situation with a good Minnesota team coming in [Saturday at American Airlines Center]. It’s as bad a loss as it gets in this league.”
“They obviously saw Jose wasn’t out there and they started jumping the pick and rolls and we turned the ball over,” Nowitzki said. “We just didn’t get enough baskets. You shoot 37 percent on the road, it’s tough to win. But we had chances. If we have a decent-scoring fourth quarter, we win this game.”
Head coach Rick Carlisle suggests that there is only one thing you can do going forward, use the loss as motivation.
“We got to get over it,” Carlisle said. “You got to get angry about it and channel it toward the next game. Very disappointing, without question. It’s a tough lesson.”