The Mavericks are mired in the worst losing streak of the Mark Cuban era

The good news for the Dallas Mavericks? They got Dirk Nowitzki back on the floor on Wednesday after the longtime franchise centerpiece had missed the last eight games resting a strained right Achilles tendon.

This concludes the good news.

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Even with their German legend back in the fold, the Mavericks were all but drawing dead on Wednesday when they welcomed the Los Angeles Clippers — owners of the NBA’s best record, No. 2-ranked offense and defense, and three All-NBA stars in Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan — to American Airlines Center. Rick Carlisle’s club played hard, and even held their own for the bulk of the first quarter. After a personal 6-0 run by Austin Rivers gave the Clippers a 32-26 edge after 12 minutes, though, things completely fell apart.

The L.A. bench — one of the biggest and brightest stories of the season thus far — extended the advantage to 15 midway through the second quarter, and the Clips never looked back. Griffin, Paul and Jordan kickstarted a pair of monster runs spanning the end of the second and the start of the third that pushed the lead as high as 31 before Doc Rivers’ team eventually settled for a 124-104 blowout.

Austin Rivers (22 points on 7-for-11 shooting, 6-for-7 from 3-point range) led seven Clippers in double figures as L.A. improved to 14-2 on the season. Restricted to 20 minutes in his first game back, Nowitzki managed 10 points on 3-for-10 shooting with six rebounds, while Harrison Barnes (22 points on 10-for-19 shooting, four rebounds, two assists) paced the Mavs, who fell to an NBA-worst 2-12, and made an ignominious bit of recent franchise history in the process:

This is as bad as it’s been for Dallas since Dirk’s rookie season, the year before Mark Cuban bought the team. Under Cuban’s stewardship, the Mavericks have become a first-class organization, a perennial power that has made the playoffs in 15 of the last 17 years, ran off 11 straight 50-win seasons, made two NBA Finals and beat the first iteration of the Big Three Miami Heat to win the 2011 NBA championship.

The best of those teams, though, had top-flight talent to pair with Nowitzki — Steve Nash, Michael Finley, Jason Kidd, Tyson Chandler — and a healthier version of Dirk with far less wear on his frame and far more wonder in his game. These days, with guards Deron Williams, J.J. Barea and Devin Harris all sidelined with injuries, Carlisle and company are trying to get by with an island of misfit toys.

Yes, Barnes is doing what he can to step into the void, feasting on a steady diet of shots, working on becoming a more effective creator of offense and embracing the chance to become a No. 1 option after coming of age on a star-studded Golden State Warriors club where he was often an afterthought. Beyond him, though, and occasional sparks from young guns like Seth Curry, there have been precious few bright spots for a Mavs team that ranks among the NBA’s three worst teams in points scored per possession, effective field goal percentage (which accounts for 3-pointers being worth more than regular buckets), True Shooting percentage (which factors in 2-point, 3-point and free-throw averages), second-chance points, fast-break points, points in the paint and free-throw rate, all while playing at the NBA’s second-slowest pace.

Mavericks games have become punchless slogs, a far cry from the high-octane spectacles of years gone by, where slashing drive-and-kick penetration punctured defenses, leading to the ball swinging around the perimeter until it found an open marksman who could bomb away from deep or dart past a too-late closeout for something juicier inside. Due to age, injury and a general lack of creative talent, that’s been all but absent in the early going. What has remained, with all due respect to hard workers like Barnes and Wesley Matthews, has been underwhelming and woefully inadequate to compete against teams with aspirations of playing for anything more than ping-pong-ball combinations in the 2017 draft lottery.

With Nowitzki back, and Williams possibly joining him soon, it’s possible that the offense could start to click, that the Mavs’ mix of vets and young players could find some rhythm and balance, and that Dallas’ fortunes could begin to turn. Take one look at the upcoming schedule, though, and you start to get the sense that things might get even worse before they get better; over the next week and a half, the Mavs must face:

• The defending NBA champion Cleveland Cavaliers, who lead the Eastern Conference at 11-2 and just hung 137 points on the Portland Trail Blazers;

• The New Orleans Pelicans, who are led by the league’s second-leading scorer, Anthony Davis, and who have looked awfully good since getting point guard Jrue Holiday back into the fold, winning four straight games and outscoring opponents by a whopping 16.2 points per 100 possessions since his return to the lineup;

• The San Antonio Spurs, winners of seven straight and a sparkling 12-3 to start the season;

• The Charlotte Hornets, who just gave the Spurs everything they could handle and have a star point guard in Kemba Walker who could absolutely roast Dallas’ dilapidated backcourt; and

• The Chicago Bulls, who have a fringe MVP candidate in Jimmy Butler, a still-capable closer in Dwyane Wade and a physical brand of basketball that could take a toll on an ailing, aging and often ineffective Mavericks lineup.

Dallas already has two wins, so things won’t get as bad as they did during the historically awful 1-23 start to the Mavericks’ 1993-94 campaign. But it could get close, and quickly.

“This is obviously as tough a week as you can get in the NBA,” Nowitzki said after the game, according to Schuyler Dixon of The Associated Press. “So hopefully we’ll fight through this and grind out a win here and there. And when the schedule turns in our favor hopefully get more healthy and run off some wins. That’s the only way to do it.”

While Mavericks fans have responded to their dismal start by looking toward the future, Cuban has been reluctant to entertain the idea of just punting the season — something he has discussed in hypothetical conversations in the past — if and when it becomes clear that Dallas just can’t compete on a nightly basis against younger, faster, stronger, deeper, more skilled and better constructed teams. You can understand that reluctance just 14 games into a season in which several key members of the rotation have barely played; barring a meteoric rise up the offensive charts precipitated by the presence of the 38-year-old Nowitzki, though, you wonder how many more games it will take until the front office does come to grips with a likelihood that seems awful close to a certainty.

For the time being, Carlisle and his crew will do all they can do to weather the storm and right the ship.

“We are going to keep working hard and coaching the guys hard,” he said after the game, according to Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “As our health gets better we are going to have a chance to get better, but we are going to have to make it better. It is not just going to happen.’’

Until they prove they can make it better, the Mavericks will remain in a dark, dark place. There’s no longer any question whether this is the most miserable stretch of the Mark Cuban era; the question now is: how much worse can it get?

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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!

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