PHILADELPHIA – The Dallas Mavericks have been given a lot of rope by their coach this season. He's been calmer much of the time, preferring to allow the players to deal with bad times themselves.

But on Monday night, animated Avery had to show up.

Mavericks coach Avery Johnson wasn't irate. But he was definitely irritated during a post-game gathering with his team after it was whipped, 84-76, by the Philadelphia 76ers at Wachovia Center.

The Mavericks could muster just 23 second-half points, a franchise-record low for a half. Hard to believe they eclipsed some of those forgettable Maverick teams of the '90s, who always managed to reach 24 points in a half.

So Johnson was peeved. And he was justified.

"Of course, he should be," said Eddie Jones. "We're playing terrible basketball, and he's our coach, and he has to get on us."

Several players agreed that Johnson's point got across. The Mavericks cannot feel sorry for themselves as a spate of injuries has reduced their manpower. They can't allow themselves to be taken out of their offense when the opponent loads up its defense to stop Dirk Nowitzki and Josh Howard.

And they can't settle for mediocrity.

Mediocrity would have been an upgrade on a miserable two-game trip through the Northeast. When you visit two Eastern Conference lightweights that are a combined 15 games below .500 and come away with two embarrassing losses, there's plenty of reason to get agitated.

"We've had two nights in a row where we had a 10-point lead and we kind of kicked the game away from there," Johnson said. "That's very disappointing. We had another awful third quarter, bad second half."

The Mavericks were pathetic after halftime. They actually had a 53-50 lead at the break, but it was a 3-point shot by Andre Miller just before the halftime buzzer that drew the Sixers close and set up their second-half runaway.

For the second game in 24 hours, the Mavs were 10 points up in the second quarter. Both times, they squandered the lead.

"I didn't think we had much going," said Dirk Nowitzki, who was 1-of-10 after halftime and just 4-of-15 for the game. On the trip, he was 8-of-31.

"In the third quarter, we only had 13 points. It's been back to back when we couldn't get anything going. We haven't been shooting the ball well. Teams have been loading up on the strong side and not letting us post up. They're really getting the ball out of some players' hands. So you've got to make them pay."

That hasn't happened. The Mavericks are doing their best not to fall back on the excuse of injuries. But they were missing Devin Harris, Jerry Stackhouse, Erick Dampier and, at the end, Josh Howard, who left in the fourth quarter with a lower back contusion.

"You never want to make excuses in this league," Nowitzki said. "We still have enough weapons to compete and to win games. We just shot the ball poorly.

"It's not easy, but a lot of teams have injury problems. The good teams at least find a way to hold the fort down and stay in games on the road and find a way to win those ugly games. These couple games we just couldn't do it."

AP

Dallas Mavericks forward Josh Howard (right), fighting for a loose ball, left with an injury in the fourth quarter.

Philadelphia, which won its fourth consecutive game, got 21 points, eight rebounds and seven assists from Miller and benefited from the Mavericks taking 23 3-pointers, making only six.

"Nobody's going to feel sorry for you," Jason Terry said of the injuries. "We've just got to do a better job, each individual. It starts with me. I'm one of the guys on this team that's capable of having a big night to help us win. You've got to bring it, though."

Terry, who was just 3-of-10 from the field, was asked if the Mavericks are bringing it.

"In stretches," he said. "Not consistently. There's one or two stretches each game when they make a run, and we can't get it back."