The Dallas Mavericks suffered their fourth straight loss in an embarrassing 115-113 loss to the Utah Jazz on Thursday night. They faced a huge deficit of 16 points but still took a late lead before falling apart and losing once again in the final minute.

It was a frustrating game that is all too familiar to Mavs fans. The same problems that have been bothering the team all season started to bother them in this match as well. They need to solve some problems quickly as the Western Conference has turned into a complete bloodbath.

Here are three takeaways from Thursday night’s disappointment.

READ MORE: Mavericks Drop Embarrassing Game To Utah Jazz, 115-113

It’s a bit repetitive to talk about what it cost the Mavericks in these games because it’s the exact same thing: lack of energy, bad fouls, getting killed by offensive rebounds, struggling in the clutch, and particularly disappointing three-point shooting by Luka Doncic. It’s one thing to lose to good teams in the clutch, but this was the Utah Jazz, who hadn’t won a home game all year. Dallas allowed the Jazz to grab 18 offensive rebounds, while the Mavs shot just 30.9% from three and scored 17 times. Dallas is better than this.

All Dallas had to do to win this game was keep Dereck Lively II out of foul trouble. At the 17th minute, plus/minus was +11 and Daniel Gafford was -19. Lively picked up her fourth foul at 1:15 of the second half, but Jason Kidd left her there for a few minutes and she picked up her fifth foul a few minutes later. He made an immediate impact when he was introduced back into the game in the fourth quarter and Dallas began to get back into the game. Had he been able to keep himself out of foul trouble, Dallas would have won this game despite his big mistake in the final seconds.

Jason Kidd was experimenting with formations early in this game, including the inclusion of Dwight Powell at power forward. Even though he had three assists and two blocks, his refusal to shoot occasionally stalled the attack. If he is going to play, he either needs to shoot or play at center.

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