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Mavs appear to have left country during NBA Final

Try to picture this: Dirk Nowitzki, wearing sandals, headphones and slathered from head-to-toe in suntan lotion, strolling along a tropical beach whistling along to his favorite David Hasselhoff tune.

Some sight, huh?

Well, that's the way Dallas coach Avery Johnson sees his Mavericks at this point, tied with the Miami Heat at 2-2 in the NBA finals.

"We're on vacation right now," a playful-yet-stern Johnson said. "We've got a vacation mentality, so I'm going to fix that."

He'd better do something fast, and Johnson will have to make plans for Sunday's Game 5 without forward Jerry Stackhouse, who was suspended on Friday for one game without pay for his flagrant foul on Shaquille O'Neal in Game 4.

During much of their short stay in hazy and humid South Florida, the Mavericks have looked like tourists -- lost ones.

Once barely six minutes from taking a 3-0 lead, Dallas is now in danger of falling behind in a series it seemed to own. Unable to stop or slow Miami guard Dwyane Wade, the Mavericks have allowed the Heat to pull even in this best-of-seven series, now on hold until Sunday.

After Game 2, the Mavericks departed Texas brimming with confidence following another easy win in their inaugural visit to the finals. Dallas officials even had the audacity to plan the championship parade, going so far as to announce the route through the downtown streets.

That party's been put on hold.

As if blowing a 13-point lead in the fourth quarter of Game 3 wasn't bad enough, the Mavericks bottomed out late Thursday. Down by 11 entering the fourth, they scored just seven points -- the fewest in a quarter in finals history -- on 2-for-18 (11 percent) shooting.

"We're very disappointed with the way we've played," Johnson said during a lively 30-minute interview session that at times seemed to be aimed directly at his sluggish squad. "We've been distracted."

Asked what was distracting his team, Johnson said, "We just don't have the same focus that we've had throughout the playoffs. I'll take care of it."

On Friday, the Mavericks changed hotels, moving from Miami to Fort Lauderdale, a 45-minute trip.

"This just gives us an opportunity to get back to a little bit more of a training-camp-type of regimen, refocus and completely cut out the distractions," said Donnie Nelson, the club's president of basketball operations. "It's not like our guys were dancing in the streets until 3 o'clock in the morning. We're a very family-oriented team."

For Dallas to reverse its sudden slide, Nowitzki needs to find his jump shot following a 2-for-14 performance. It would be nice if Josh Howard, too, could find his range after a 1-for-8 night.

And now the Mavericks will have to play without Stackhouse, their versatile sixth man, penalized by the NBA for "making unnecessary and excessive contact" with O'Neal, who was sent sprawling to the floor by Stackhouse's head-high forearm shiver.

Losing Stackhouse will be damaging, though not devastating to the Mavericks, whose bench is among the league's deepest. Stackhouse, however, gives Dallas an intensity that Johnson feels has been missing for two games.

Of all of Dallas' problems, Wade is at the top of the list.

Doing almost anything he's pleased with the ball in his hands, Wade has blistered the Mavericks for 78 points in the past two games, getting 36 in Game 4 on a sore left knee which will be closer to 100 percent by today.

Riley has been impressed by the way Wade has adapted to the various defenses the Mavericks have thrown at him.

"He had two difficult games in Dallas," Riley said of Wade, a combined 17-of-44 in Games 1 and 2. "He was driving incessantly to the rim, getting a lot of layups and I thought he was going at 100 miles per hour or faster.

"He had to slow down, relax and see the game better and I think he's done that," he said. "I think he's just taken a good look at the game and not rushing things."
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