(AP)
Yes, there was a confrontation between Avery Johnson and his team at practice Monday. At the team's shoot-around today, Johnson said he intended to have practice, something changed, and the players ended up conducting the practice without any coaches present. I asked Johnson about it directly, and he said flatly, "I don't want to get into that."

Sources inside the practice tell me Johnson did let his team have it, but not neccesarily because they're not listening to him, as you may have heard elsewhere. I'm hearing there was a disciplinary issue with one of the Maverick players, possibly Josh Howard, and Johnson apparently went off because of it. Maverick players are downplaying the incident, making it sound as if they decided as a group to conduct the practice themselves. I'd bet they're simply trying to cover for Howard, and not let on that it was his issue and not neccessarily the entire team.

However it went down, Johnson got the desired effect. I look at it like this, Avery knew he had to light a fire under his team, and Howard gave him the perfect vehicle. We saw in game 3 that when this team plays with passion and sense of urgency, they can handle the Hornets.

Then I was shocked in game 4 to see a complete and utter lack of any urgency. The Mavericks lost the chance to re-take the momentum and control of the series, and if we see more of the same pathetic play tonight, the season could be over. Johnson took his shot to try and get the most of his players, we'll see if it works tonight.

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