Ok, so I had to watch the end of the Redskins game with friends instead of the first half. I flipped some to check on the Wizards, but obviously could not get a good idea of what was happening. From what I can tell by khrabb's comments on the game thread (straight from Poland no less), the Wizards looked okay, showing some energy, and Dallas looked to be a lottery team. So, I now present the half game blog....

Q3

Butler takes the first two offensive chances....

• Dribbles around, drives, loses ball, gets bumped, no call.
  
• Next time, Caron misses a jumper with minimal offensive passing.

9:53: Dirk has bricked two shots so far....he's not looking on his A game.

Mike James has had a couple nice drives to the left on Kidd. Contact no foul the first time; contact, foul, FTs the 2nd time. 49-46 Wizards.

9:00: Blatche is having a tough time with the physique of Erick Dampier....lob dunk from Kidd on one possession, and on another Damp is somehow allowed to catch a short desperation airball and put it in just before the shot clock expires.

8:00: Stevenson steals a cross court pass, recovers before it goes out of bounds, but then he tries to fire it at a streaking Blatche from close range. Blatche, of course, bobbles the ball and the Mavs recover for an easy Dirk short jumper. 52-50 Wizards.

6:05: Caron Butler makes a jumper to put the Wizards at 3-7 FG for the quarter while the Mavs are 6-11. Butler is 2-10 from the field. 56 tie.

Dallas is more active in trying to get second chances/loose balls....the Wizards need to pick up their intensity. 60-58 Mavs.

3:45: Jamison hits a one handed floater and Dirk answers with a one foot fader. Mavs up 62-60.

3:00: Dom McGuire is getting physical with Dirk who is trying to get off-ball position. A foul is called, it was only a matter of time until the ref blew the whistle on D-Mac.....Dirk kept using the swim move and butt shove on McGuire, who wasn't going to back down.

1:45: Mike James...misses a jacked three, but picks off a Mavs transition pass, brings it up the court, and hits Jamison with a sweet no look for two. 66-64 Wizards.

Tapscott gets McGee and Crittenton in for Songaila and James with just under a minute left in the 3rd.

0:32: Jason Terry hits a three....18 points for him. I know they guy is small, but how do the Wizards keep losing track of him? 68-67 Mavericks.

0:00: Aaand another Terry trey as he was prowling around in the corner. That's the end of the 3rd, Mavericks up 70-68.

Q4

Pandemonium...ball flying everywhere...a Nick Young dunk miss, Buckhantz is rambling about something, Crittenton gets it, misses, McGuire boards, Jamison three miss, Buckhantz calls the Wizards coach "Tapsquat" again, Dallas scores. 72-68 Mavs.

10:15: Nick Young misses a baseline jumper....good look, gotta nail it.

Wiz timeout after Dirk scores four straight against porous defense....it amounts to a 10-0 run and it's 74-68 Dallas.

9:40: Butler is now 2-12 from the field....another cold night for the all-star.

9:18: And yet another sign of the times......Devean George snatches an offensive board right out of Butler's hands.....candy from a baby style....ends in 2nd chance points, 76-68 Mavs.

8:22: What is going on here? Blatche picks up back to back fouls (5 total) trying to guard Dirk.

7:26: Nothing easy for Caron....he drives, almost too much dribbling....spins, fades, shoots, gets fouled, scores. 3-point play. 79-73 Mavericks.

6:39: Singleton picks Butler's pocket as Caron tries to use a Songaila ball screen at the top of the arc....Singleton dunk.....all this as Chris Miller is reporting on the negative "here we go again" body language from the Wizards. 81-73 Dallas.

6:20: Caron does come back to hit a three....but you can clearly tell that he's putting a lot on his shoulders and trying to do a ton -- not exactly the way you win ball games.

5:37: McGuire has his shot blocked....gets it back....tries to make a bad pass.....turnover....taps chest to say "my bad" right before he realizes that he should be sprinting his ass off to get back on D......Jason Terry goes on to score points 24 and 25. 85-76 Mavs.

Sigh.

Mike James can get in the lane, but the tear drop just isn't too kind to him. I think you have to log a lot of time on the court to perfect the tear drop....according to Outliers, around 10,000 hours -- and I don't think James has spent this much time on the court.

5:09: D-Mac is having a terrible run...gets his shot blocked again and then lets Devin George slip right by him to receive the pass for the open dunk. 87-76 Dallas.

4:22: Butler gets the loose ball.....drive in transition, no numbers...2 Wiz on maybe 3, 4 Mavs....Terry comes from behind, steals it from Caron.

Down 10 with 4 minutes left......I don't think the Wiz have a push in them.

3:43: AJ misses a tough, heavily contested mini baseline hook....and then allows Devean George to slip and receive the Kidd lob for the dunk. 91-79 Mavs.

2:56: AGAIN!! AJ lets his man, Devean George, cut to the hoop for a layup (Kidd assist). What on earth is Antawn doing? 93-81 Dallas.

2:42: Butler stops the bleeding with a three. 93-84 Dallas.

But nope, Jason Kidd is picking apart the Wizards' D...The small Dallas lineup of Barrea, Terry and Kidd is killing. Looks like James is trying to guard Barea and Stevenson with Terry.....but Caron Butler against Jason Kidd is a complete joke.

Tapsquat is getting out coached....bad.

0:50: The Mavs also keep getting mis-matches with Blatche trying to guard Terry or Barea, the latter hits a rainbow jumper on 'Dray. 97-86 Mavs.

0:08: Timeout...and that will about do it. Wow, that was a really, really fast 3:52.....I don't think play stopped once. The Mavs won the 4th quarter 27-18.

Basically it was Jason Kidd's passing (6 4th quarter assists) plus the continuance of ragged Washington team cohesiveness, and the Wizards are now 4 and 21, the day after.

Final: Mavericks 97, Wizards 86. ESPN.com Box

Steve Buckhantz says "back to the drawing board" -- methinks the Wizards need a new drawing board by now.

No ifs, ands, or buts about it......the Washington Wizards are persistent at Rising Down.