Mavericks vow to get hunger back

DALLAS — Arrogance is an evil, traitorous character flaw that can undermine even the most humble folks when things are going well.

And let's face it, they don't go much better in an NBA regular season than 67-15.

So now that Golden State has the Mavericks' attention, they must accept the notion that there is a threat from the Warriors in their first-round series. Fear can be quite the motivator.

Even Avery Johnson, who preaches to his team continually that they need to have the utmost outward respect and humility for all opponents, saw arrogance creep into the way the Mavericks played in the Game 1 meltdown.

"When we're humble and hungry, we're pretty good," Johnson said. "But when we're overconfident and not hungry, then we're not as good. But when we zone in and really have a good, healthy sense of fear and a healthy sense of respect for our opponent, then ... "

Good things usually happen.

The Mavericks must reconfigure their mental approach for Game 2 Wednesday night. They must admit now, if they didn't want to before, that Golden State is a threat to them. Six wins in a row, including four in a row at American Airlines Center, don't lie.

And they must certainly not believe anything they hear from Don Nelson or the Warriors, who are pulling out all the tricks, physical and mental.

On Tuesday, Nelson used one of his favorite straight lines early and often in the media scrum: "We got a better chance of getting struck by lightning than winning this game."

The violent weather that moved through notwithstanding, it was more Nellie posturing, trying to take every ounce of pressure off his team and stick it on the Mavs.

Tonight's contest is no more a must-win game for the Mavericks than the opener was. But there is a requirement that their attitude change.

"Anytime a loss happens, it wakes you up," Devean George said. "It gets you refocused and points out the things you're doing wrong as opposed to winning covering up a lot of things.

"I wouldn't say we are overconfident. We have confidence because of the amount of games we won. But at the same time, we still stay in the moment."

Was that point re-emphasized in the two off-days?

"Very much so," George said.