Without Nowitzki Dallas still shoots 60 percent as they blow out Washington, dropping the Wizards to 7-12 and handing them their fifth loss in a row; Jordan fumes in post-game interview.

Michael Finley and Steve Nash enjoy some down time in the fourth quarter after scoring 25 points each.

by Fred Schiebel, Head Writer

DALLAS -- This is starting to look a whole lot like the beginning of the season.

The Dallas Mavericks steamrolled over the Wizards 124-106, despite being without their main offensive weapon, Dirk Nowitzki, due to a sore ankle. Their much ballyhooed offense didn't miss a beat, as they still hit a whopping sixty percent of their shots.

"I was amazed when I would do the color [commentary] for their games," Washington coach Doug Collins said. "But trying to compete against them takes your appreciation to a whole other level. There were stretches where I though we were playing great defense, and they just shredded it."

Michael Jordan (16 points) didn't see things the same way, his mood setting an omnious tone in the Wizards' locker room afterwards. "We got too cocky when we got back to .500, a little too proud of ourselves... we relaxed, and now we've lost almost as many games as we did starting out. We waltz into this game thinking it'll be easy because they have a guy out, then when they start killing us it's like we stop competing because they're a team we're not expected to beat. It's being lazy both ways.

"I know I'm not playing my best, I'm missing a lot of easy shots that I usually make. But that shouldn't completely sink our boat. It's like people are expecting me to cover their back, and nobody's covering mine, and I don't think I'm going to live with that much longer."

Washington opened up with one of its best offensive quarters of the season, shooting 56 percent from the field. They still found themselves down nine after twelve minutes, 34-25. Michael Finley (25 points) did most of the damage, scoring eleven as the substitute first option, although Steve Nash (25 points, 8 assists) chipped in seven.

The Wizards' bench came in and once again provided a boost, mostly from Hubert Davis's three three-pointers that narrowed the gap to three, 40-37. Around that point the Mavericks began subbing back in their starters, which turned back on the jet engines, giving Dallas a 67-56 cushion at the half. Jordan had 14 points at the break, but was only 4 of 11 from the field.

They couldn't shoot any better than they did in the first half, right? Apparently Dallas had only been warming up, as they hit a jaw dropping 80 percent of their shots  in the third period. As in the first quarter, the Wizards again hit 56 percent of their own, but found themselves down this time by 25, 102-78. Nowitzki's replacement in the starting lineup and former Wizard Juwan Howard (22 points, 10 rebounds) took over, scoring ten points in the third, missing only one of his six field goal attempts.

"No, I don't have any animosity about being traded. I'm in a great situation now," Howard said. "Our team just needed me to score more than usual tonight, so that's what I did. "

The lead got up to 26 early in the fourth, but suddenly after an Etan Thomas dunk and free throw the deficit was sliced to fifteen, 114-99, with 5:07 still to go in regulation.

Should Collins have put Jordan back in the game?

"I thought about it," he said. "I had Hube [Hubert Davis] go back in. If he hit a three or two then I might've pulled the trigger. Our chance to win was too much of a longshot, we got another game coming up before this road trip is over."

The run never happened, and Washington ended up losing big once more.

"Hopefully our pride kicks in at some point and we refuse to lose in this kind of nature again," Jordan said. "Other teams aren't embarrassing us, we are."

Juwan, Juwan, wish you were still here.