OKLAHOMA CITY -- It's not a two-team race to the top of the Western Conference any more. At least the Mavericks are praying that it isn't.
Because what if Oklahoma City really isn't on the same level with the Golden State Warriors and the San Antonio Spurs? What does it mean when you trail by 42 points after the third quarter to someone other than the very best?
We know San Antonio won more games than any Spurs team ever -- quite an achievement when your franchise has captured five championships since 1999. And the Warriors, of course, won more games than anyone ever. That group may include the 1927 Yankees, I'm not sure, but it definitely includes every team in NBA history.
Oklahoma City won 18 fewer games than the Warriors. You think about injuries to key people, but Kevin Durant missed 10 games, Russell Westbrook missed two and Serge Ibaka missed four. That's not much. Is there really someone more dangerous out there than a team that buried the Mavs, 59-33, in the first half?
Dang. What would that look like?
It doesn't bode well for the Mavericks' future either way, and by future I mean not only tonight at the Chesapeake Energy Arena but that other future -- the one that includes no first-round pick this summer, no building-block young talent to speak of and a desire to lock up a player who finished the last two years in need of knee surgery for about $96 million over four years.
Yes, that dismal future.
The Mavericks are in a bad place. Coach Rick Carlisle talked valiantly after Game 1 and against Sunday about "next man up," but most of us know this team ran out of next men long ago. With point guard Deron Williams listed as doubtful for tonight and J.J. Barea out, this will now be portrayed as a Dallas team fighting incredible odds due to a rash of untimely injuries.
Well, that's only true for Game 2.
Most of the time this season -- and this was valid as recently as Game 1 -- the Mavericks had 80 percent of their starters available.
Missing a couple of backups (Barea and David Lee) along with Chandler Parsons doesn't qualify as a catastrophic run of injuries. As Dirk Nowitzki said after Sunday's practice, "Nobody's gonna feel sorry for you in this league. Whoever's gonna play has to play well."
Carlisle indicated that Williams wants to play through the recent flare-up of his sports hernia injury, but with the next game not until Thursday in Dallas, I look for the Mavs to essentially punt this game in hopes of gaining a burst of energy at home for Game 3.
Who guards Westbrook tonight? The Mavs will see how healthy Devin Harris is and maybe even give rookie Justin Anderson a look at slowing down the most unstoppable point guard in the league.
Beyond this next difficult game, the question is whether the Mavs can continue at their "One Playoff Win Per Spring" pace that they have adopted since the 2011 championship, largely due to Owner Mark Cuban's swing-for-the-fences approach to team building.
Four wins the last four years after collecting 16 in 2011 -- now that can fairly be described as catastrophe.
You want to know how to build a team? This Oklahoma City franchise did it by being terrible long enough to land Durant and Westbrook in the top five of consecutive drafts, but that's the hard way. You've got to be really bad, and then great players have to be available in the draft. So forget Game 1, go back to Wednesday night when the Spurs beat Dallas at the AAC with four starters plus David West and Manu Ginobili never leaving San Antonio.
The Spurs had second-round picks, they had other teams' cast offs, they had undrafted free agents. And they outscored Dallas' regulars by 23 in the second half.
The Mavericks don't build that way. What Cuban and Donnie Nelson have constructed around Dirk Nowitzki shot a whopping 26 percent (18-for-69) in Game One.
Injuries may keep Game Two from being much better. The current situation is enough to make you eager to see who the Mavericks add this summer ... in the second round.
Sports on 04/18/2016