Mavericks keep Celtics at a loss

Just play.

Burdened by a four-game losing streak that equals the Celtics' largest of the season, Rivers has not reached panic mode. Odds are he never will. It's not his style. But Rivers clearly feels frustrated with the Celtics playing below their talent level, letting offense dictate defense, and jawing with opponents and officials. He thought they played well in stretches last night, summoning the necessary energy and cohesiveness all too briefly. Naturally, he would prefer the Celtics place sustained focus on moving the ball and keeping an All-Star such as Dirk Nowitzki (36 points, 9 rebounds) from the kind of virtuoso performance he gave last night.

"As a coach, what do you do?" said Rivers. "Do you push an alarm button or something? You just keep doing what you do. You stay consistent. If you believe that your team is a good team, you keep doing what you're doing. If you don't, then you panic and you push that proverbial button that people push. I just don't know where the button is at. You just keep playing. Right now, we're just not playing, honestly. We're not playing together.

"Our defense was bad because guys were [ticked] off about the offense. That's something we did earlier in the year, that I don't like right now with our team. That's not a concern. It's what I don't like about how we're playing.

"And then, I think we've got to stop all the talking and play. We're crying and begging on every play. Let me do that. We've just got to play basketball. And we've got to be a better basketball team."

The Celtics allowed the Mavericks to shoot 51 percent from the floor, including 68 percent (13 for 19) in the decisive fourth quarter. Boston was fortunate in the first half, as Dallas missed a number of open looks and led only 46-43 at the break. The Celtics' deficit remained 3 points (77-74) entering the fourth quarter. But after pulling within 1 on an 18-footer by Ricky Davis, the Celtics' inconsistent play finally cost them the game.