'I Failed'
Sorry, AJ: No Blame After Another Comeback
By Mike Fisher -- DallasBasketball.com
Following the Mavs' 115-113 OT win over Toronto on Saturday -- a noon-time home game in which Dallas fell behind by 24 before recording its franchise-record 14th home victory -- coach Avery Johnson emphatically placed the blame on whatever negatives there were by. ...
Blaming himself.
"I failed this team because my practices aren’t good enough, my film sessions aren’t good enough. ... So I failed in that area,'' Johnson said sincerely, somehow able to ignore the fact that he is 44-11 this year as he learns the ropes as a first-time head coach with the Mavs. "(Bad starts to games) are on me. I don’t think I’m doing a good enough job in our pregame meeting. I don’t think I’m doing a good enough job emphasizing how important it is to get off to better starts. I think there’s been some confusion in regards to the game plan and that’s my fault. ... Teams are coming in here and dropping like 31 points a game on us in the first quarter and we're digging ourselves a hole. ... I’ll continue to work on finding the right formula to help get us off to better starts. ... We’ll have to do something. ...
And the AJ punctuation mark: "I take full responsibility,'' he said.
And this was after a WIN!
You can play "good-news/bad-news'' with the two games since the West-leading Mavs returned from the All-Star Break. They fell behind by 19 against the Clippers before winning, and they fell behind by 24 against the Raptors before winning. (It is good news that AJ engineered the second biggest comeback in franchise history, is it not?
But the biggest news of the game, to me, isn't the brilliant comeback. The biggest news is that in this sporting era of finger-pointing, this era of "telling it like it is'' and "keeping it real'' to the detriment of one's team, this era of entitlement for me and back-stabbing of you, here's Avery Johnson accepting blame when most men would be expecting accolades.
Blame? Coach, we oughta be throwing you a parade!
Long-time readers of this space know that I grew up as a beat writer covering the Denver Broncos and coach Dan Reeves. Watching Tom Landry disciple Reeves on a daily basis, I learned how it should be done: Reeves NEVER blamed a player. NEVER. It was always Coach Reeves' fault. Missed blocked, missed kicks, missed tackles, all Coach Reeves' fault.
Since then, we've gotten to be a keen observer of Cowboys coach Bill Parcells.
He has yet to do anything wrong at Valley Ranch.
And now, just up the highway from Bully Bill, is the General -- behaving as a general should, willing to be the first guy charging up the hill.
"I failed,'' Avery said.
Really though, how badly did AJ do? He got the ball to Dirk late. He positioned DeSagana Diop to deflect the inbounds pass on Toronto's final possession. He finally found a way to pull the Raptors out of their effective zone defense. He pushed just the right button with little-used subs Marquis Daniels and Darrell Armstrong. He got a terrific night out of Jason Terry, who, AJ himself conceded, scored on every play the coach called for him.
Oh, and the "we-always-fall-behind'' thing? Dallas has been outscored in the first quarter in each of the past two games. ... after going 17 consecutive home games without being outscored in the first. So it ain't exactly an epidemic.
And, don't you ask the head coach to really step it up in OT? Isn't that a measure of coaching attention to detail and Chess-piece-moving ability? AJ is 5-2 in OT this year.
AJ's never-satisfied approach is well-chronicled here. The Mavs wouldn't be able to come back from double-digits deficits as they do (a notable 9-9 record this year in games when they've trailed by 10 or more) without having allowed themselves to be re-made in Johnson's image. From No. 1 man Dirk Nowitzki doing more than just scoring 32 points by collecting eight of them in the OT and making a couple of critical defensive plays down the stretch, to 12th man Darrell Armstrong providing inspirational energy on the floor and a possible brawl-stopping tackle of irate teammate Jason Terry, Avery Johnson's imprint is everywhere on this team.
Said Johnson: "I love this team. How many teams in our league can do what we’ve done in the last two games? There’s something really unique about this team.''
Indeed there is. And at the core of that unique quality is ... Avery Johnson.