Mavs Podcast: Carlisle's 'Dire Situation'

'The situation feels pretty dire right now,' Mavs coach Rick Carlisle tells me in our exclusive interview. ''We're gonna stay the course with this thing. It's not easy after games like (Monday's loss to Atlanta).' DB.com is going to stay the course as well. We promise you an award-winning weekly DB.com Mavs Podcast, and by gosh, here it is!

The Dallas Mavericks are going into the All-Star Break without an All-Star. They are plowing toward the trade deadline without a definitive path to take on or before Feb. 21. They remain hopeful that there is still time this year for Dirk Nowitzki to "be Dirk.'' They simply must ignore things like Tyson Chandler's far-away success while focusing themselves on beating teams like the Kings, the Wednesday opponent against whom Dallas has won 17 straight home games.

They must focus. And we must talk about it. We do so with DB.com's Roy White, Kevin Brolan and Mike "The Machine'' Marshall kicking it on this week's "stay-the-course'' DB.com Mavs Podcast: