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In case you've missed it -- which is perfectly understandable considering there is no compelling reason to pay any attention whatsoever to a team that is 16 games under .500 and headed to the draft lottery for a sixth consecutive year -- the Mavericks are shooting 3-point shots at a pace heretofore deemed impossible in the NBA.
(By the way, we'll explain the Dennis Murphy reference at the end of the column)
Forty 3-pointers vs. the 76ers ... 37 against the Nuggets ... 44 against the Grizzlies.
Has Dick Motta lost his mind?
No, but he has lost all his big people, which helps explain why the Mavericks seem intent on becoming the first team in NBA history to attempt more triples than ordinary, two-point shots. With Popeye Jones and Terry Davis out with knee injuries and Cherokee Parks nursing a strained back, Motta and the Mavericks limped into Denver and Vancouver with nine healthy players, only one of them, rough-edged rookie Loren Meyer, taller than 6-foot-9.
So Motta started a lineup comprised of 6-4 Jason Kidd and 6-6 Tony Dumas in the back court, 6-9 Lorenzo Williams in the pivot, and 6-6 Jimmy Jackson and 6-8 George McCloud on the wings, up front.
Motta's orders: Fire away from beyond the arc ... and have fun. His timing was perfect in Denver. He caught the Nuggets in transition, Denver coach Bernie Bickerstaff finally changing his starting lineup to go with a front line of 7-2 Dikembe Mutombo, 6-9 Antonio McDyess and 6-8 LaPhonso Ellis. Motta knew the Mavericks probably weren't going to get many rebounds, but he also knew Denver's big people probably weren't going to be able to get out to contest all the 3-pointers he planned to have his players lofting.
The result was a new page in the NBA record books. The Mavericks made 12 triples in the first half, a new league record, and by game's end had broken the league mark for trifectas in a game, with 18.
Oh, by the way, they scored a 137-120 win, and along the way they scored more points in one quarter (46) and one half (81) than any team in the league this season.
The very next night, in Vancouver, they broke the league record for 3-pointers attempted, hefting 44 in a 119-111 win over the expansion Grizzlies. Had then been as accurate in Vancouver as they were in Denver, when they made 18 of 37, they would have smashed their own record for 3-pointers made. As it was, they had to settle for making only 16 of the 44, still a very respectable 36.4 percent.
Much of Motta's motivation (don't you just love alliteration?) stemmed from his desire to give Dumas, the gifted, second-year scoring sensation from Missouri-Kansas City, a real chance to demonstrate his talents.
"Tony came to me and said, 'I know I'm never going to start ahead of Jimmy (Jackson),' '' Motta said, " 'but I know I can play in this league.' He's right, and all he wanted was a chance to show what he could do. So for the rest of the season, we're going to go with this lineup and I've told them just go out and have fun.''
Fun, to Dallas' crew, means lofting triples. McCloud, especially, has resurrected a once-moribund career by firing with regularity, and accuracy, from beyond the arc. He made eight of 14 in the Mavericks' record-breaking game against Denver, seven of 14 in the record-breaking game against Vancouver. He has made 175 of 415 for the season, and his 42.2 percent from long range is better than Denver's Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf is shooting overall.
"They're loose, relaxed, and they're working hard to get it done,'' said Denver's Dale Ellis, who knows a thing or two about 3-point shooting, since he has made more triples than any player in league history.
There will be games, of course, when the Mavericks can't hit the side of a 3-point barn, and when that happens, they will have little chance of rebounding their own misses. But they will continue to have fun bombing away, their former team record of 3-point attempts in a season -- 386, set just last season -- already obliterated, since they went into Sunday's NBC-TV game against the Suns having already attempted 531.
And finally, who is Dennis Murphy?
He was the man who started the American Basketball Association, in 1967. It was the ABA that brought the 3-point shot to the world of basketball, and it remains that league's lasting legacy, though such ABA long-range marksmen as Warren Jabali, James Silas, John Roche and Larry Brown no doubt object to the NBA's new, shorter 3-point distance.
Not so special delivery
The Mavericks may be having more fun these days, but Utah's Karl Malone isn't.
It's not the game that is losing its appeal to the Mailman, still the league's most dominant power forward. It's the extraneous stuff, like stupid comments from a meddlesome owner.
After Malone had what he readily acknowledged was one of the worst games of his career -- he missed 18 of 25 shots, five of six free throws in a 99-90 loss at Denver a week ago -- Jazz owner Larry Miller, who attended the game, ripped his team. While he named no names, it was clear he was angry with Malone.
"We had about five guys out there who looked like they either didn't care or got selfish on us,'' Miller said. "It was an embarrassment to the franchise. I've never seen us play worse ... I can't believe we came over here and played a game like this. It's ridiculous.''
Malone didn't know he was being criticized by his old pal Larry until he got home and read the Salt Lake Tribune. His first response to Miller came after a 110-87 win over Phoenix on Monday.
"When I saw in the paper what he said it bothered me,'' Malone said. "And it still bothers me. It's still in my mind. It's the kind of thing that's going to run me away from basketball. I'll tell you that. I'm not happy about it.''
Miller was slightly more diplomatic after Mailman's 28 points and nine rebounds vs. the Suns: "I need to catch myself,'' the portly owner said. "I need to try and be a positive fixture, instead of being a guy who rails on them for a bad night at the ball park.''
Malone and Charles Barkley both got hit with technicals after a brief shoving match in the third quarter of that Monday game, despite the fact they appeared to be joking with one another, not getting nasty with one another. Malone couldn't understand why the techs were called.
"We're laughing, and they call technicals,'' Malone said. "That's amazing. As a professional athlete, that right there is something that makes you lose your desire. Charles and I always do stuff like that. We're having fun. When they do stuff like that, they're just taking the fun out of the game. It was stupid. Who are the fans paying to see, anyway?''
Ask yourself: Does The Mailman sound like a guy who might be considering retirement?
Back from the depths
The year of the comeback continues.
Houston's Kenny Smith, who wasn't gone nearly as long as Magic or Michael, but had sunk pretty low after going from the starting lineup to 12th man, came off the bench at the start of the fourth quarter last Saturday vs. the Lakers and hit all four of his 3-pointers.
The first one, from the right wing, banked in. (His story afterward was: "I had to bank it or it would have been in the 12th row because I had so much adrenaline.'') He followed that 12-point performance, in which the Rockets outscored the Lakers 31-20 in the fourth period for a 96-94 victory, with a 21-point effort (8-of-13 shooting) Tuesday against Toronto. He came into that game with just over three minutes left in the first quarter and never left.
Smith said the reaction he got from the sellout crowd at The Summit helped him in his first meaningful action since Jan. 21. He'd sat out 11 of 12 games since then.
"The reception of the crowd really helped,'' Smith said. "If they didn't give me that ovation, I probably would have been a lot more nervous. You're never sure how the reception is going to be. But the fans made things a lot easier on me.''
Smith had asked the Rockets to do whatever they could to trade him, and the Rockets thought they had a deal done on trade deadline day, only to have it fall through when Sacramento made a late deal with Miami.
How intent was Smith about a trade? He wore a wrist watch out to pre-game warmups before the Rockets' Feb. 22 (trade deadline) game at Cleveland, so he would know how close the deadline was.
Mike Monroe, who covers the NBA for the Denver Post, writes a weekly Midwest Division notebook for ESPNET SportsZone.