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- Remember that window, that window of opportunity the Dallas Mavericks geared their championship hopes around?

Closed.

Slammed shut by Chris Paul and the New Orleans Hornets, who won Game 5 Tuesday, 99-94.

Pending further developments -- and we expect there to be many -- the Mavericks will have to use the dog's door. Which only seems appropriate.

Two short years after they were two victories from the NBA championship, the Mavericks were overwhelmingly exposed as disorganized, inconsistent, air ball-firing pretenders in this opening-round playoff series.

Their descent from the NBA penthouse to that other house is complete. They're not an elite team anymore, and please correct any fool that tries to argue otherwise.

The Mavericks stumbled into the playoffs this season and here, against a fresh new team and in a rejuvenated city where triumphs like this truly mean something, the Mavs were deservingly chased out.

They barely had time to... ahem... practice.

This time, they couldn't blame their sudden exit on Don Nelson and the luck of the NBA postseason draw. This time, they couldn't blame it on Dwyane Wade parading to the free-throw line.

No, this time, the defeat came with no footnotes attached.

"They're a good team," Mavericks coach Avery Johnson said of the Hornets. "They're a better team. They took it to us. They came on our home floor and won Game 4.

"We just didn't have enough of our men playing well at the same time."

Johnson's brief epitaph was correct. But the reasons behind it are likely to brew storm clouds in the days and weeks ahead.

"We haven't been able in the latter part of the season to keep up with the better teams," Johnson assessed.

"And we paid the price for it."

Lots of teams stumble. They right themselves, the coach blows a whistle, and they carry on.

But Johnson's team has plunged so far, so quickly, and seemingly shattered into so many pieces, the prospects of starting fresh simply by convening a training camp seem plainly naïve.

Window of opportunity? Against the Hornets, the Mavericks couldn't even find the doorbell.

Fingerprints were everywhere. But when it comes time to assign the blame for one of the franchise's most bitter seasons, Johnson will be given plenty and Josh Howard has stepped forward and accepted the title of team fool.

Tell me, what sort of player ignores his coach's instructions and schedules a birthday party in the middle of the playoffs, as Howard did Sunday?

No wonder Avery was livid and canceled Monday's practice.

Howard's common sense and shooting percentage both ended the season at new lows. His radio comments about illegal drug use were ill-advised, at best -- and career-altering, perhaps, at worst.

But the birthday party thing was just selfish.

When he was asked after Tuesday's game about the melodrama that dogged the Mavericks in this series, Dirk Nowitzki admitted that it became a distraction.

"Yeah," Nowitzki said, "obviously it was very disappointing what happened here in the playoffs with everything. It was bad timing.

"In the playoffs, it's time to just really concentrate about basketball and focus on it, and not let any distractions come up."

Howard was not disciplined by Johnson. But after hitting his first four shots, Howard reverted into previous scattershot form, missing eight of his next 10.

Down the stretch, he was where he deserved to be -- on the bench. Johnson went with Nowitzki, Jason Kidd, Jason Terry, Brandon Bass and Devean George (Jerry Stackhouse had been ejected), and the Mavs -- running on all heart, just when we wondered if they had any -- managed to fight enough to keep the ending close.

"Our men that we had in there in that fourth quarter, they poured it out for us," Johnson said. "They laid it on the line."

Five players, maybe six. A coach whose message wavered in and out throughout the second half of the season.

Johnson didn't sound as if he had coached his last game with the Mavericks, but as the guys down the street at Harrah's Casino might say, the odds aren't with him.

"I'm sure there are going to be some changes," Nowitzki said. "Right now you're disappointed, and you don't want to say stuff when you're emotional and disappointed.

"So we'll just let this one sit for awhile. I'm sure we've got to look at it again over the summer, but it's not the time right now."

Owner Mark Cuban, however, might not be so patient.

Cuban agreed to roll the dice in February and OK the mega-trade for Kidd, and then saw his once-NBA Finals team dissolve into disarray.

"We went for it," Nowitzki said. "I mean, honestly, things didn't look great before the trade."

With the franchise's wrists tied by existing contracts, notably Kidd's, Cuban's most impactful move almost seems obvious.

Teams don't fall from the NBA penthouse to that other house. Windows of opportunity don't slam so emphatically shut.

Not without the head coach being fired -- a move that, in light of these past three months, makes abundant sense.
Gil LeBreton, 817-390-7760
glebreton@star-telegram.com

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Stan Van Gundy celebrated the Orlando Magic’s defeat of the Toronto Raptors by taking his wife to a late-night dinner and then rising before dawn to get one of his daughters ready for school.And then I started to panic,” Van Gundy said in all seriousness, referring to his mind immediately shifting to the preparation ahead for the eventual Detroit-Philadelphia winner in the second round of the playoffs.

Well, at least the Magic’s relentlessly driving coach took a few hours off to enjoy the franchise’s biggest accomplishment in more than a decade. Then, predictably, it was back to the grind of studying game tapes and preparing game plans for not one, but two possible opponents in the second round of the playoffs.

Long-suffering Magic fans, allow that phrase — the second round of the playoffs — to wash over your bodies today for some of you had to wonder if Monday’s moment would ever come what with the struggles the franchise has endured the past few years.

When Orlando won Game 5 102-92 Monday to dispatch pesky Toronto 4-1, it was Orlando’s first series victory of any kind since 1996. Since that time, the Magic had seen 108 players come and go and seven playoff series go down the drain without any semblance of success.

Van Gundy said his lasting memory from Monday night for him won’t be the clutch 3-pointers that Jameer Nelson and Keith Bogans made or the third 20-point, 20-rebound effort from dominating center Dwight Howard. Instead it will be the looks on the faces of Magic team executives, players and even some fans that Van Gundy said he will remember most.

“I was excited for our players, my staff and myself, but really it’s great for the people who have been here for this 12-year drought who have worked so hard every day to get the organization back on top,” Van Gundy said. “Seeing their smiles was a great feeling. And I felt great for our fans. They have waited a long time for that feeling again. There was great energy in the building.”

Van Gundy and his staff were back at work Tuesday, but he gave his Magic players two days off to rest and recover from a taxing first-round series. Hedo Turkoglu, who struggled with 41 percent shooting and missed 16 of 18 3-pointers, is hoping to rest a nagging calf muscle strain. Nelson still has an aching back after a bout of spasms last week in Toronto. And Rashard Lewis is still recovering from a grueling five-game grind covering Toronto all-star forward Chris Bosh.

David West stumbled toward the sideline after hitting a fadeaway as he was fouled, then turned toward the bench and slapped the extended hand of Hornets coach Byron Scott.

It was an impromptu but fitting exchange between a player and coach who had plenty to celebrate on Tuesday night.

On the day Scott was named NBA coach of the year for the first time, he gave fans in New Orleans another first: an NBA playoff series victory.

Chris Paul had 24 points, 15 assists and 11 rebounds, and the Hornets held on for a 99-94 victory over the Dallas Mavericks to win their first-round series in five games.

"That coach of the year award ... it wasn't a fluke," Paul said. "It's the frame of mind he puts us in. He gives us that ultimate confidence and he lets us play."

West scored 25 points for New Orleans and Jannero Pargo had 17, while Tyson Chandler had 10 points and 14 rebounds.

"A lot of people may be surprised with how this thing turned out, but we're not too surprised," West said.

"Coach has a lot to do with that, his mentality. It's a trickle-down effect. We go out and we pride ourselves on competing."

Dirk Nowitzki led Dallas with 22 points and 13 rebounds, and Devean George added 11 points in the fourth quarter as Dallas nearly pulled off an improbable comeback. The Mavs cut a 17-point deficit to three in the final seven minutes before Peja Stojakovic hit a pair of free throws to seal it with 5.7 seconds left.

Tempers flared near the end, and Jerry Stackhouse was ejected for a second technical foul with 1:47 left after slapping the ball out of Paul's hands during a stoppage in play, then getting in a face-to-face standoff with West.

Dallas never led and was hurt badly by an 11-1 Hornets run after Nowitzki's free throw had pulled the Mavs to 73-66 early in the fourth quarter.

Dallas played solid defense on New Orleans' next possession, keeping the ball on the perimeter, but Pargo hit a deflating 3 at the shot clock buzzer.

Pargo added a fast-break layup after rookie Julian Wright's steal on the other end. Paul then salvaged a botched alley-oop lob when he grabbed a loose ball and drained a baseline fade, and after West found Pargo cutting across the lane for a layup, New Orleans led 84-67 with seven minutes left.

While the crowd was celebrating, Dallas regrouped and stormed back. The Mavs got as close as 97-94 after Brandon Bass, who had 11 points, hit two free throws with 33 seconds left.

The Hornets ran down the shot clock before Paul missed a jumper. Chandler got a hand on the rebound and tapped it to the perimeter, where Paul corralled it and smartly got the ball quickly to Stojakovic, the Hornets' best free-throw shooter, who finished with 11 points.

Dallas was unable to score again, and the Hornets raised their arms as the buzzer sounded, the crowd went wild and streamers shot down from the rafters.

Dallas must now decide what to do after its blockbuster trade for Jason Kidd yielded only a noncompetitive first-round playoff exit. That could include deciding whether to retain coach Avery Johnson, who's never won fewer than 51 games in any of his three full regular seasons but whose squads have had two straight first-round playoff losses since losing to Miami in the finals three seasons ago.

Kidd finished with 14 points and nine assists, while Jason Terry had 13 points and Josh Howard 12 for the Mavericks. Stackhouse had 11 points.

"We're better than what we showed this series," Nowitzki said. "The summer is going to be long. ... You don't want to say stuff when you're emotional and disappointed. ... You've got to look at what you can do to make the team better. We've got to look at it this summer again, but it's not the time now."

Nowitzki gave mixed reviews to the Kidd trade, which cost the Mavericks young point guard Devin Harris, a former first-round draft choice.

"Honestly, things didn't look great before the trade. It would have been a struggle to get into the playoffs either way, so we just went for it," Nowitzki said. "Sometimes you have to take some risks in this business. We went for one of the best point guards ever to play this game. ... For some reason, we never got clicking the way we wanted to."

Johnson didn't say anything about his future with the team, other than to say he expects to be in meetings soon concerning how to improve the squad.

The Hornets shot nearly 54 percent in the first half and took their first double-digit lead in the first quarter at 24-13.

Dallas battled back to tie it at 32 when Stackhouse hit an acrobatic fast-break layup as he was being pulled to the floor on a hard foul by Pargo, but the Mavs never took the lead and the Hornets began to pull away again when Pargo hit a 3.

Pargo's jumper several possessions later ignited a 17-3 run to close the second quarter and the Hornets led 54-39 at halftime.

The Hornets' victory closed the latest happy chapter for a team that won only 18 games in the last full season it played in New Orleans before a two-year displacement to Oklahoma City because of Hurricane Katrina.

Yet, shortly after the game ended, so did the brief celebrations by Hornets players, who said they expected to get at least past the first round after a 56-26 regular season than earned them a Southwest Division crown and the second seed in the tough Western Conference.

"We're not going to pop champagne bottles anything like that," Paul said. "We're trying to set a new standard here with our organization. This isn't like a fairy tail for us. This is something that we're trying to keep going."

Notes: Shortly before tip-off, the Hornets presented Scott with the Red Auerbach trophy so fans could honor the first-time NBA coach of the year. The voting totals were released earlier in the day. ... Saints running back Reggie Bush was in a courtside seat and persuaded by the Hornets' mascot into signing a football and throwing it into the crowd. ... Paul had on triple double and three double-doubles in this series. ... Attendance was 18,260. The Hornets sold out all three home playoff games in the series. ... Bass hit his first 21 free throws of the series before missing one with 8:56 left in the game. ... The Mavs are 8-6 all time in first-round playoff series.

The Detroit Pistons might have won Game 5 more than an hour before it started.

Music wasn't rattling the locker room. Eyes were locked on the big-screen TV showing the previous matchup with the Philadelphia 76ers.

Chauncey Billups scored 21 points, Richard Hamilton had 20 and Rasheed Wallace added 19 to lift Detroit to a 98-81 victory over Philadelphia on Tuesday night and a 3-2 lead in the first-round series.

"We knew Game 6 was going to be an elimination game either way it went," Billups said. "We wanted to be on the upper hand of that."

The Pistons lead in the series for the first time after being the first team to win consecutive games.

"We didn't want to let an opportunity slip away," Detroit coach Flip Saunders said.

If the Pistons win Game 6 on Thursday night in Philadelphia or Game 7 at home, they will advance in the playoffs for the seventh year in a row.

"I'll be back," Philadelphia coach Maurice Cheeks said to hecklers as the final seconds ticked off the clock. "I know you don't believe me."

The third-seeded Orlando Magic, who eliminated Toronto on Monday night, await the winner in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

The Pistons insist they're not looking ahead because they expect to see the Sixers' best.

"I don't think they're going to lay down at all," Wallace said. "It's do or die for them. It's not going to be a cake walk."

Andre Iguodala scored a career playoff-high 21 points, finally putting together a night that resembled his play in the regular season.

"We hope that can propel him into the next game," Cheeks said. "He's been struggling all series."

Iguodala didn't have much help.

None of his teammates reached double figures until Andre Miller in the third quarter, but that was after the point guard missed nine shots in a row in the first half when the game was relatively close.

"We tried to pressure up on him and Rasheed had some blocks," Saunders said.

Billups, Wallace and Hamilton combined for 58 points through three quarters, outscoring the Sixers until Rodney Carney made a 3 to end the quarter, cutting their deficit to 20 points.

Billups had a series high in points (21) and assists (12). Wallace had six blocks, one short of the playoff franchise record he matched in Game 1.

Jason Maxiell had a career playoff-high 11 rebounds, starting for the second time for Antonio McDyess, who is playing with a broken nose.

Detroit's Tayshaun Prince finished with 17 points, giving the balanced team a fourth option offensively.

Miller finished with 13 points and reserve Louis Williams scored 16.

Billups seized control from the start, scoring 14 points and adding five assists as Detroit took a 35-21 lead after the first quarter.

"Chauncey, in the beginning of the game, took over the game," Cheeks said.

The game was essentially over at that point. Detroit led 54-42 at halftime and 79-59 after three quarters.

"We all got to see the Detroit Pistons at their best," Philadelphia's Willie Green said. "That's why they are one of the toughest teams in the Eastern Conference."

Notes: Philadelphia's Maurice Cheeks finished fourth in coach of the year voting, receiving five first-place votes to trail New Orleans' Byron Scott, Boston's Doc Rivers and Houston's Rick Adelman. "It's great," Cheeks said. "Who would've thought it? To go from where we were to where we are, it's an honor to be mentioned." Saunders received one third-place vote, tying Phoenix coach Mike D'Antoni. ... Saunders downplayed comments made by ex-Piston Chris Webber on TNT as an analyst Sunday night. "No (dis)respect to Flip, but it doesn't matter what Flip says," Webber said at halftime of Game 4. "They come from a coach like Larry Brown, they look at him like he's the epitome of basketball, and they feel like they can wait until the last game or the championship, and they won't lose. They are really nonchalant, and that's why I felt we lost last year." Saunders responded before Game 4: "I talked at halftime, no one else talked at halftime, and I was happy with the way the team responded." ... Philadelphia's Samuel Dalembert, sporting a mohawk of sorts, said Willie Green's barber in Detroit gave him the unique hairdo, complete with "LJ" and "SD" shaved into both sides of his head. "The SD is for strong defense," he said. "The LJ is for a loved one." Reggie Evans seemed to pity his teammate. "Willie, that's your fault," Evans said. "He's going to be on the bloopers."