There’s an emergency situation brewing in Dallas, and the Mavericks have to act fast. They’ve got to put out an APB . . .buy advertising space on every milk carton in Texas . . .make a hard-target search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse in the area. If the Dallas Mavericks are going to get back into their NBA Finals series against the Miami HEAT, someone has got to find Peja Stojakovic’s jumper.

At the beginning of the season, before Caron Butler was lost for the season, the Dallas Mavericks were the best team in basketball. They were the proverbial hot knife cutting through their schedule like butter. They were 24-5 in mid-December, having already swept the Miami HEAT while also winning impressively in San Antonio, Oklahoma City, Utah, Chicago, Atlanta and Orlando. In other words, that early dominance was not thanks to a soft early schedule or a heavy home schedule; the Mavericks were beating the best teams in the NBA in their own buildings . . .right up until they lost Butler.

The Mavs struggled through a stretch of games without Dirk Nowitzki as well as Butler, but even after Nowitzki returned they struggled to replace what Butler was giving them on both ends of the floor. Sasha Pavlovic had a successful run on two ten-day contracts, but the Mavericks ultimately chose to let him go in favor of signing Peja Stojakovic. That turned out to be a brilliant move, as Stojakovic was a huge part of the Mavericks’ success in the first two rounds of the playoffs. He averaged 9.5 points off the bench against Portland in the first round, shooting 42% from the field and from three, and then torched the Lakers in the second round to the tune of 12.5 points per game on 51% from the field and 52% from three.

Unfortunately, that seemed to be all Peja had left. In the Western Conference Finals he averaged 5.0 points per game on 31% shooting and 24% from three, and he’s completely disappeared in the NBA Finals. In three games he’s averaged 0.7 points and shooting 20% while failing to connect on a single three despite being wide open much of the time. The HEAT attack him relentlessly on their offensive end, scoring easily.

One way or the other, the Mavericks have got to find some offense, and it seems Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle found his solution in practice today. In preparing for tonight’s Game 4, Carlisle seems to have settled on inserting JJ Barea into the starting lineup in place of DeShawn Stevenson, while replacing Stojakovic in the rotation with Brian Cardinal. Aside from wondering what the ever-energetic Corey Brewer has to do to get into the lineup, these adjustments do make some sense. Barea adds some offensive firepower and quickness where Stevenson is basically just a spot-up shooter. Cardinal, on the other hand, can knock down the open three, but is a better defender than Stojakovic. You lose some defense when Stevenson isn’t on the floor, but the Mavericks have had so much trouble scoring the ball that it seems Carlisle considers that an acceptable loss.

One way or the other, the Mavericks have to find a way to get Dirk Nowitzki some help on the offensive end. If they don’t get Game 4 tonight they might as well pack it in. The odds of winning both games in Miami after dropping at least two of three at home are extremely remote.

Hollywood HEAT?

Oklahoma City Thunder guard James Harden took a savage hit from Dallas Mavericks center Tyson Chandler on an inbounds play, immediately hitting the floor and drawing a flagrant foul for his trouble.

The only problem was that Harden himself created the contact and his dramatic swoon was nothing more than B-movie acting. The NBA would rescind the flagrant foul upon review and the Mavericks won the game and the series despite that play, so it was largely forgotten.

But should it have been?

{AUTHOR_BOX}Thanks in no small part to Bill Laimbeer and Karl Malone, flopping has become a way of life in the NBA. Outside of professional wrestling there are few places where so many big, tough men are knocked over so easily. If we didn’t know better we might think someone had smeared vaseline on the court prior to the start of an NBA game . . .it’s gotten that stupid at times. Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah called the ever-flopping Miami HEAT duo of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade “Hollywood as hell,” a sentiment echoed by Dallas Mavericks guard DeShawn Stevenson, who said: “They’re great, great actors and they sell it.”

Not that the HEAT have a monopoly on flopping. Mavericks guard JJ Barea rarely misses an opportunity to flail backwards as if he’d been hit by a freight train.

This is the modern NBA, and since it looks like we’re going to have a few months of down time to contemplate the world, it would be great if the NBA would instruct their referees to stop rewarding these grotesque acting jobs. In fact, why not take it a step forward and fine players for flopping?

In the case of Harden and Chandler, the NBA should not only have rescinded Chandler’s technical, but also charged one to Harden for the flop. If players knew there was a penalty for their actions, do you think they might think twice before diving to the ground at the slightest provocation?

The Miami HEAT are certainly Hollywood, but they’re not alone. They are simply recognizing one way in which they can gain an advantage over their opponent using a move that is legal and often rewarded. It’s just unfortunate that as the league has sought out so many ways to improve the game and make it more interesting for fans they have still managed to skip over this loophole.

It’s high time the NBA took steps to clean it up.

Surgery For Redick

It’s interesting how little NBA franchises seem to know about what’s going on with their players during the offseason. Last week the Houston Rockets learned that center Brad Miller had undergone arthroscopic knee surgery because he showed up at an event in Sacramento and happened to mention it. This week the Orlando Magic found out that guard JJ Redick had sports hernia surgery because a local sportscaster gleaned the information from an unnamed NBA source.

Local 6 sports director David Pingalore said sources told him Orlando Magic shooting guard JJ Redick recently underwent successful surgery for a sports hernia injury.

Pingalore said sources within the NBA confirmed the surgery took place before the Memorial Day weekend in Philadelphia. His doctors did not want Redick to wait for the surgery, so it was immediate.

Redick, of course, missed 17 straight games at the end of the regular season didn’t look particularly good in the playoffs, averaging just 6.7 points per game while struggling through 36%shooting. The news that he has had sports hernia surgery is actually good news, but it’s amusing that the Magic found out about it through what amounts to back channels.

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