Mavericks hands slumping Boston 4th straight loss

01:00 AM EST on Thursday, March 31, 2005

BY CAROLYN THORNTON
Journal Sports Writer

BOSTON -- Coach Doc Rivers insists it's not time to start pushing the panic button, but there's no question his Boston Celtics have their fans squirming in their seats.

After getting the month of March off to such a promising start by winning 9 of their first 10, the Celts closed it out yesterday with their fourth straight loss, falling to the Dallas Mavericks, 112-110, before a sold-out FleetCenter.

Swept by the Mavs for the fifth time in six years, Boston had no answers for Dirk Nowitzki, who pumped in 36 points and had 9 rebounds and 5 assists in helping Dallas secure its seventh win in eight games.

In fact, the Celts had difficulty stopping just about everyone, as Keith Van Horn came off the bench to score 21 points and Michael Finley contributed to Dallas' 51.3-percent shooting effort with 18 points.

The Celtics retreated to their locker room for a lengthy team meeting following the loss.

"I didn't read them the riot act, but we had a little talk," said Rivers.

One of the prime messages he hopes the players took away from the discussion is the need to stick to the game plan.

Having multiple All-Stars on the roster is only a luxury when those All-Stars are playing together, and right now, Boston is falling into the trap that Rivers feared it would.

"You're going to win eight in a row during the season, and you're going to

lose four in a row," he said. "The key is when you win them, you stay together, and when you lose them, you stay together. And I thought we pulled apart -- not as far as dislike -- we pulled apart as far as trying to do it ourselves. There is a good quality in that because the guys who do that want to win. But that's not winning basketball. Every time they made a three or made a run, we decided (as individuals), 'OK, I'm going to win this game for us.' That's great. I love all of them for doing that, but we will never win that way."

The Celts are also starting to revert to old habits -- letting offensive struggles affect their execution at the defensive end.

"If we miss a guy or if we don't get the ball two times in a row, it carries down to the other end," he said. "And we've got to stop all the talking and play. We're crying and begging on every play. Let me do that."

The Celtics gave Rivers plenty to howl about in the first quarter, as they shot a horrendous 19.2 percent from the field, with their starters going a combined 5-for-24, and quickly fell behind by 12 points.

Still, they managed to climb back into the game and even led briefly in the second quarter, thanks to a 52.2-percent shooting effort from the floor, before falling behind by three again, 46-43, at the break.

After trading 31 points apiece in the third quarter, Ricky Davis sank an 18-footer that got Boston within one, 77-76, in the opening minute of the fourth quarter.

But Josh Howard answered with a 3-pointer, sparking a 23-5 Dallas run over the next several minutes.

The fans started heading for the exits with 4:34 left after the Mavs ran off five unanswered points to take their biggest lead, 99-82.

The Celts followed with a 10-2 run, but they never got closer than nine the rest of the way.

"They made all the hustle plays," said Paul Pierce, who led the Celts with 21 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists. "I gave up an offensive rebound that was pretty critical. I turned the ball over a lot (three times) and you can't have those critical mistakes in a game like this. Coming down the stretch, it's all about focusing on the little things. I'm going to keep saying this for the rest of the year until we go into the playoffs. It's going to be the little things that carry you through if we're going to be successful in the playoffs."

Boston, which now has 11 games remaining on the schedule, will try to get things back on track tomorrow when they head to Atlanta.

"This was a big loss on our home floor," said Antoine Walker, who scored his 18 points against his former team on 8-for-20 shooting from the field, and grabbed a team-high 9 rebounds. "Now we have to go on the road and try to win. It's going to be probably the hardest game of the season come (tomorrow) night.

"We have to get better defensively. When I first got here, we were getting out and scoring in transition a lot more. That's where we are at our best. We need to get back to doing that."