Game 5 of the Mavericks' first-round playoff series is Tuesday night in New Orleans, and has there ever been a bigger waste of jet fuel?

They knew going in that Game 4 was when their season would swing, and did it ever. It U-turned to the brink of elimination with the New Orleans Hornets rolling to a 97-84 victory and a commanding 3-1 lead in the best-of-7 series.

The Hornets barged into American Airlines Center and treated the hosts like riff-raff. The Mavericks must win three in a row to avoid a second consecutive first-round exit from the NBA playoffs. They have lost all four of their trips to New Orleans this season, including the first two games of this series.

"You've got to make shots to win in this league," said Dirk Nowitzki, who had 22 points and 13 rebounds and very little help. "We just didn't have a great offensive series."

He was speaking in the past tense, which probably was an accurate description of things, even though at least one game remains. The Mavericks again got nothing from Josh Howard (3-of-16 shooting) or Jason Kidd, even before he was ejected for a flagrant foul in the fourth quarter.

They heaved 25 3-point tries, settling for jump shots and one-on-one plays when they needed crisp ball movement. They shot 36 percent and couldn't stop the Hornets when they needed to.

It added up to a deplorable loss.

"It's single elimination right now," coach Avery Johnson said. "We just got stuck in that second quarter."

The Mavericks scored 14 points in the period and only 54 in the final three quarters.

They also lost their composure late, when Kidd horse-collared Jannero Pargo on a fast break. Kidd was given a flagrant-2, which carries an automatic ejection. The league will review the incident, and a suspension is possible for Game 5, although Kidd may only be fined.

"By no means was he trying to injure Pargo," Johnson said. "I thought he was going for the ball. He just happened to come down on that neck area."

That was a mere footnote to the Sunday plotline: A superior team came into the Mavericks' house and made them look overmatched.

They lost grip of the game in an awful second-quarter stretch when coach Avery Johnson took a chance on J.J. Barea and Jerry Stackhouse – with calamitous results. A nine-point lead became a tie game in two minutes. It may go down as one of the worst two minutes in franchise playoff history.

The Mavericks went on to shoot 7-of-24 in the second quarter and did not get to the free throw line once.

The Hornets then took the lead and stretched it to 13 in the third quarter, finally coasting to the finish behind 24 points by David West.

"West just took over in that third quarter," Johnson said. "We went back to our old habits of really not going to the basket, and we paid the price."