NEW ORLEANS – A season of atonement buckled under the weight of unfulfilled promise in the Big Easy.

Now, a Mavericks franchise that was on the brink of a championship less than two years ago is faced with some painful decisions.

The end wasn't pretty. New Orleans clearly was the better team in this first-round series, winning three games by 12 or more points. Tuesday's 99-94 loss at New Orleans Arena sent the Mavericks into the playoff night, four games to one, and intensified speculation about the future of head coach Avery Johnson.

Mark Cuban, one of the first members of the team's traveling party to leave the court, walked alone and showed no emotion on his way to the locker room. The Mavericks owner didn't speak with reporters afterward and has consistently refused to address his coach's status in recent weeks.

Johnson fielded no questions on the subject in the wake of the loss. But Tuesday morning, less than 24 hours after players ignored Johnson's decision not to practice and conducted a session on their own, he was asked if he felt his job was in jeopardy.

"I would hope not," Johnson said. "I love what I'm doing. I love the team.

"Right now, I'm just focusing on coming out and trying to get this team ready to play as best as we can. Whatever happens tomorrow, then we'll have to manage that part of it."

The Mavericks rolled the dice in February when they traded starting point guard Devin Harris, backup center DeSagana Diop and two first-round draft picks to New Jersey for Jason Kidd. The team mortgaged a big part of its future to win now in acquiring the 35-year-old point guard.

The move has not paid the immediate dividends Cuban and the basketball staff envisioned as the team failed to advance past the first round for the second consecutive season.

"Honestly, things didn't look great before the trade," forward Dirk Nowitzki said. "As a franchise, we went for it, and it didn't pan out the way we wanted.

"But sometimes you have to take risks in this business."

The decline predated the trade for Kidd. The Mavericks have lost 12 of their last 15 playoff games since taking a 2-0 lead on Miami in the NBA Finals 22 months ago. The team's last eight playoff losses have been by an average of 14.8 points.

Where do the Mavericks go from here? Nowitzki said it's too early for that question. Jason Terry said he hoped the team would not be broken up, but acknowledged that going out in the first round the last two years was "not good."

Sixth man Jerry Stackhouse said it's hard not to think the window is closing on this group.

"No matter what happens or what changes are made, it's been a great situation for me the last four years and a great situation for Avery the last four years and Jet [Terry] coming out of Atlanta," Stackhouse said. "For the last four years, it's been a great situation for everybody involved.

"If this is the end, you can't do anything but say we had our chance. We had our opportunity."