|  | | Steve Nash's Mavs couldn't believe their eyes Friday. |
One loss can't completely tarnish the good feelings of a 17-1 start, can it? We'll find out from the Mavericks, whose record-setting, fourth-quarter collapse to the Lakers on Friday hurt but did not destroy their air of confidence, writes Marc Stein in his weekly NBA report.Chat wrap: Senior writer Marc SteinEast depth charged | Texas' Big Three
| COAST TO COAST |
 After blowing leads in five straight fourth-quarter losses, San Antonio was blown out at home Sunday night by short-handed Sacramento. Manu Ginobili's bad ankle from the World Championships is still twisted, Tony Parker can't shake his sophomore inconsistency no matter how hard he works on his shot in practice, and Malik Rose's big start is a memory. Tim Duncan is also off to an uneven start, by Duncan's MVP standards, and the rotation around TD is unsettled because -- just like last season -- Duncan doesn't have a single teammate averaging more than 12 points per game. Worst of all, the Spurs have christened their new arena with the worst team free-throw percentage in the league at .670. Trouble? Let's just say the only thing still adhering to the script in San Antonio is David Robinson's intent to retire at season's end. Robinson is typically the slowest of all the starters in Alamo Country, but an early burst of double-doubles (five in the first seven games) had some locals wondering if Robinson might elect to keep playing ... which could have trifled with the Spurs' plans to make a splash in free agency next summer. ... Click for more on Boston's best big man, the drug testing of Rasheed Wallace and Damon Stoudamire and Baron Davis' aching back.
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| STAT OF THE WEEK |
38-22 That's the record of the top eight teams in the East in head-to-head play against the West, through Sunday. The West, though, has reclaimed the overall lead on the interconference scoreboard at 56-50, largely because the East still boasts four of the league's five worst records. Those four stragglers -- New York, Miami, Chicago and Cleveland -- are a combined 7-20 against the West.
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| STAT OF THE WEAK | 0 Hard to believe, but that's how many sellouts the Indiana Pacers' best-ever start generated until Nov. 29, when Michael Jordan and the Wizards came to Conseco Fieldhouse. That means the Pacers' celebrated Thanksgiving Night victory over then-unbeaten Dallas did not attract a sellout. Which puzzles us as much as that loss to Denver on Saturday night.
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| SPEAK OF THE WEEK |
 "I'm just really glad we won the lottery."
—Houston general manager Carroll Dawson, bidding for Understatement O' The Year as well with some -- one guess -- Yao Ming talk.
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Marc Stein, the senior NBA writer for ESPN.com, writes "The Stein Line" every Monday during the season. To e-mail him, click here.
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| STEIN SIDELINES |
SLAMS AND DUNKS
 If you are anything like us, you would love to hear Paul Allen sit in front of cameras and microphones and for once explain why his general manager in Portland has the sanction to keep spending (and losing) zillions on a roster with multiple players with multiple arrests in their pasts. If you are anything like us, you are not surprised to hear that, at a time when some Portlanders are calling for a boycott of the local basketball team, Allen is reportedly in New Zealand with the America's Cup entry he's co-funding. If you are anything like us, it will elicit at least one chuckle when you hear that OneWorld Challenge -- backed by Allen and fellow billionaire Craig McCaw -- has been accused of stealing and using design information from three America's Cup rivals. Perhaps Bob Whitsitt put together that team, too.
More Slams and Dunks
WHAT A SCOUT SAYS
 About the New Jersey Nets, who play twice on ESPN this week: "Last year, everything Rod Thorn touched turned to gold. This year, you've got the [Dikembe] Mutombo trade not working out -- but also Rodney Rogers and Chris Childs. Rogers isn't a self-starter and he's really more of a late-season performer. He isn't giving them anything right now; he's not the player they saw in Boston at the end of last season. And Childs, I think they wished they never signed him. So now they've got to rely on a smaller core of guys, without two guys (Keith Van Horn and Todd MacCulloch) who helped them get to the Finals. I think Kerry Kittles and Lucious Harris are two big keys to that team. Jason Kidd is a north-south player. He goes right at the rim, not east or west -- not right or left. Everybody [playing defese] runs back to the paint, so at the first sign of resistance, Kidd pitches it out to Kittles or Lucious on the wings. Those guys are spotting up and they can catch-and-shoot from anywhere. [Jason] Collins is probably better suited for that offense than Mutombo, so they'll probably flow better without him. He didn't look very mobile on defense, either. My question is, don't you expect more from Kenyon Martin? He's averaging only 13 and 7 and, whenever I see him, he can't stay away from silly fouls. They've still got a lot of the pieces there -- everyone on our staff loves Richard Jefferson -- but they haven't been shooting the ball as well as they can as a team."
MAILBAG
 Is Gary Payton widely considered a Hall of Famer?
GP's tantrums get old, and that has hurt him over the years. But I don't think you'd find anybody who would exclude Gary from the upper crust of a Top Point Guards list. ... He'll get in.
More Mailbag responses
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