With Lamar Odor's Stench Removed, Mavs Instantly Smell - And Play - Better
Okay, let's not get carried away. The Sacramento Kings suck. Five road wins all year. Beating them isn't any indication that the Dallas Mavericks have suddenly flipped the switch into playoff mode.
But, considering how crappy this season has been, hey, it's progress. Small steps.
And one giant leap forward without Lamar Odom.
Or, as owner Mark Cuban called it before Tuesday night's must-win, "Addition by subtraction."
2012 isn't all Odom's fault. There's been a championship hangover. Dirk Nowitzki needed a personal training camp to get into shape. Injuries to Jason Kidd and Delonte West and Brendan Haywood. Jason Terry has alternated pathetic with pouting. And we all remember the night the Mavs watch indifferently as Randy Foye destroyed their chances at a No. 4 seed and home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
Good news: Odom is gone. Bad news: The Mavs have to get better, immediately, or the defending champs will miss the playoffs, something that hasn't happened since Jerry Reinsdorf and Jerry Krause infamously blew up the Chicago Bulls in 1999.
After a 110-100 win over the Kings there's optimism on both fronts. With Kidd back from a strained groin the Mavs were more energized and even more balanced, with production from Brandan Wright and Yi at Odom's old backup power forward position. Dirk is still in a shooting funk, having gone only 9 of 30 the last two games. That's got to get fixed as the Mavs embark on a West Coast road trip of four-games-in-five-nights to Golden State, Portland, the Lakers and Utah.
We knew this would be a tricky season, what with the mountain being already summited and the next attempt having to be made without sherpas named Tyson Chandler and DeShawn Stevenson and J.J. Barea. And, sure enough, with eight games remaining and the Mavs clinging to 7th in the West, nothing is guaranteed.
The best sight at American Airlines Center Tuesday night was the empty locker – sans nameplate – previously polluted by Odom. And now we know the tipping point. After being habitually late all season, he arrived for last Friday's game against Portland at 5:59, hours after his teammates. And after a lethargic four minutes in Memphis Saturday night, Cuban confronted him in the halftime locker room.
"I just asked him if he was ready to go for it or not, whether he was in or out," Cuban says. "I didn't get the commitment, and that was the end."
After the game Dirk and Odom exchanged heated words and less than 48 hours Lamar was essentially fired, put on the inactive list and paid just to stay away from his team. Odom joins Keyshawn Johnson as players who were banished from their teams, and is now atop the list of Mavericks' disappointments along with Roy Tarpley, Doug Christie, Oliver Miller, Chris Anstey and Antoine Rigaudeau.
The Mavs likely won't float to the surface and repeat as champs. But no longer dragging around Odom's anchor of sulking, selfish depression, at least they're more buoyant.
