The Dallas Mavericks (33-24) never found anything close to their best basketball and their season-best win streak ended at seven games on Sunday with a 133-111 loss to the Indiana Pacers (33-25) at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. The NBA’s best offense set the pace for Indiana, while the Mavericks turned in one of their most frustrating recent offensive performances in the loss.

Dallas fell behind in the second quarter, but the Mavericks always felt like they were on the verge of a game-changing run. A quick 8-0 spurt keyed by Luka Dončić early in the second quarter erased a five-point deficit after 3-pointers from Kleber and the man himself and put the Mavericks in front 43-40 with eight minutes to play before halftime. Dončić had 25 points at the break to lead all scorers.

But even with a roster replenished with offensive options, Dončić just couldn’t get enough help from his friends in the first half. New addition P.J. Washington in particular was a black hole on offense, shooting just 1-for-4 from the field and missing both his first-half 3-point attempts. Tim Hardaway Jr. wasn’t much better, going 2-of-7 in 13 first-half minutes.

Indiana went back in front and built a lead as big as eight points before halftime. Tyrese Haliburton instinctively knew when to seek out his own shot and when to find the open man as the Dallas defense tried to run him and his cohort of Pacers shooters off the 3-point line. Haliburton had 12 points and seven assists at the half, while Euless, Texas native Myles Turner (Editor’s note: he went to my high school!) led the Pacers with 15 points and five boards on 5-of-7 shooting.

Here are five bad omens from the game we’re still waiting for the Mavs to show up to:

Missed bunnies

Both Kyrie Irving and Daniel Gafford missed layups in the first quarter. Then they both blew bunny attempts again midway through the third. Maxi Kleber missed a lay-in he should have dunked home on a runout in the second quarter as well. The Mavericks just missed too many makeable shots inside to ever take control of the game.

Shooting 47% from the field as the Mavs did in the first half is usually a solid effort on the offensive end, but it’s not good enough when you’re facing the league’s best shooting offense — an Indiana offense that shot 56% from the field at the same time.

Without Dončić’s timely shooting from 3-point range, it could have been even uglier than the 67-60 deficit the Mavs were staring in the face at halftime. Dončić was 8-of-13 from the field and 3-of-5 from distance in the first half.

Rotation questions

Mavericks coach Jason Kidd should get a little time to sort out his rotations just four games after the trade deadline, but why he continues to go to Hardaway and Kleber over Josh Green and Dereck Lively II at times is becoming a point of frustration.

But in Kidd’s defense, Sunday’s streak-snapping loss was a pitiful performance from no fewer than six Dallas Mavericks, so there wasn’t any Dallas lineup that looked especially fluid out there. It’s just something to keep an eye on in the next few games. Green and Lively bring a level of juice right now that Kleber and Hardaway just don’t, and losing sight of them among the necessary adjustments to Kidd’s rotations would be a mistake.

Myles and Myles of Turner

Turner reached a season-high scoring mark of 30 points with five minutes left in the third quarter. It’s safe to say the new and improved Mavs defense had trouble keeping up with the league’s best offense. It’s not that Turner was specifically dominating the Mavs’ bigs inside — he just happened to often be the beneficiary of exceptional ball movement from the Pacers. He was the open man on the weak side on ball reversals all afternoon. The next time a Mavs defender gets a hand in Turner’s face will be the first.

Turner shot 10-of-15 against the Mavs and even knocked in a couple of 3-pointers. He scored just three over the game’s final 20 minutes and ended the night with 33 points and eight rebounds to lead the Pacers. It was Turner’s highest scoring output since he scored 40 in a game in February 2023.

Someone named Ben Sheppard

Someone named Ben Sheppard torched the Mavs for 15 points on 5-of-5 shooting from 3-point land. The Mavs Moneyball staff needs to apologize to Mr. Sheppard, as no one in our Slack channel was familiar with his game before he stepped right up and canned all of his 3-point looks in 11 efficient minutes against the Mavericks.

It was just the latest example of the Dallas defense turning someone at the end of the opposing bench into Larry Bird for a day.

No life late

There were moments in the second half that felt like the Mavs still might conjure up that game-changing run, but it just wasn’t happening on Sunday. Haliburton and Andrew Nembhard each hit 3-pointers to put the Pacers in front 120-102 with less than six minutes to play and effectively sink the Mavs’ hopes of a comeback.

Dončić finished with 33 points, six rebounds and six assists, and Irving added 29 in the loss. No one else was really much help for Dallas.