MavsFanForLife

Whew!

So not to ding Josh Howard but the trade that involved him to acquire Butler and Haywood seems to have gotten sweeter and likely a very good trade at perfect timing.

Josh Howard tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee which puts him out for the rest of the season. Riddled with injuries for the past year or so, injuries which most athletes could bounce back from, I think this one is going to really put Howard down, maybe even slowly start to dissipate from the spotlight as a premier player with All-Star quality and potential.

I just hope we can actually find a way to get Gooden back and just allow Dampier to disappear from the roster here in Dallas. It was a good idea at the time to get a big man but I just felt some Dallas players just don’t have it in their hearts to win or go for that championship, like Dirk and a few others carry with them. For some, it’s about playing and winning, not the money. Sadly I think Josh Howard was one of the obvious players who just stopped caring about not only his team but his own career and performances.

Everyone Chant, Haywood, Haywood, Haywood….

Dallas, I think we found our new big man in the middle to replace Dampier. Haywood had a great night last night against the Pacers, grabbing 20 rebounds along with 13 points.

Since the trade, we lost to OKC but I actually fear that team more than say, the Spurs nowadays. But since that loss after the big trade, we’ve now won 4 straight games.

Now only if we can get Kidd to shoot the ball as much as he likes to pass, we can start getting a further lead in our conference to secure a better playoff spot.

I would like to ask my friend Daniel to not go out and purchase any Haywood or Butler jersey’s because everytime he does, it seems the player starts to suck or gets traded.

Mavs 106, Heat 93

Take that Wade! That’s all I got to say except a congrats to Dampier for having a very good game.

Two Wins Down, Let’s Hope Another Makes It A Midwest Road Sweep

So with back to back wins for the Mavs, a relatively easy one against the T’Wolves who had only one win so far this season, the Mavs blew past them 85-70.

Then the Mavs won against the Pistons who were on a 3 game winning streak which was halted with the Mavs 95-90 win.

Now the Mavs are facing the Bucks with a red hot rookie Jennings, who set a team record for rookies with 55 points the other night and only part a few handful of other rookies to score more than 50. Wilt Chamberlain of course has the record mark at 58 for a rookie.

This game will be tough, although I think the Mavs can pull it off with another win to sweep the Midwest teams on the road. This will be the 3rd game in 4 nights, then with another day off before hosting the Spurs at home on Wednesday.

Let’s just hope the Maverick starters and bench will actually contribute instead of watching Dirk do most of the work this season in their first 10 games. At least Gooden looked more alive in the Mavs win against the Pistons, scoring 11 and grabbing 11 boards in Dampier’s absence. Gooden did a good job I think and the Mavs actually outscored the Pistons 46-36 in the paint, we can likely add this to the credit for the win, since the Mavericks shot pretty poorly with 43% from the field overall.

Mavs Beat Rockets

Overcoming a 17 point deficit at one point, the Mavericks topped the Rockets to win 121-103.

They held Ariza to only 9 points with Dampier having a huge game, scoring 14 points, going 6-6, 20 rebounds and 3 blocks. This is how Dampier should play every game, but then again, without Yao, he made it look easy.

Of course Terry had a huge game as the top Maverick scorer with 24 points in which he always does well against the Rockets.

We’ll have to thank the defense that helped spark a 22-3 run. The Mavericks need to keep this momentum going into Wednesdays matchup against the Spurs. The Mavericks are averaging 119 points in their past 3 games.

The Rockets went scoreless in the last 3 minutes in the first half, giving the Mavs a 10-0 run and then the Rockets opening the 3rd quarter only making 5 of 22 shots, making it their lowest scoring quarter for the season with 13 points.

Terry has also been hot, going 27-38 over the past 3 games which is likely for the increase in the Mavericks overall offense.

What’s In Store For The Mavs

So there’s been a lot of happenings around Mavland. Lots of player transactions which resulted in a lot of familiar faces sticking around but a lot of new faces we’ll be seeing this coming season.

With the Mavericks already over the grand old luxury tax imposed by the NBA, Stackhouse, George and Bass are just a few of the familiar faces no longer with the team. The newcomers are Shawn Marion, Drew Gooden and Tim Thomas, along with Rodrigue Beaubois, Ahmad Nivins (still unsigned) and Nick Calathes (still unsigned) who were all draft picks.

Gerald Green, Ryan Hollins and James Singleton are all free agents. I honestly hope the Mavs can keep Hollins around, the others really wouldn’t make an impact to the team.

As for the starting lineup, we can probably count that it will be Kidd, Marion, Howard, Nowitzki and Dampier. Jason Terry will continue to come out as the 6th man and Drew Gooden will be a versatile player who can back up Nowitzki and Dampier.

Tim Thomas being a 3 point specialist could come off the bench in hopes to get some easy baskets in little time, as he averaged close to 8 points a game in 20 minutes on average playtime each game.

Little Jose will continue coming off the bench and maybe get some more starts as well to back up Kidd. Hopefully Kidd can continue to mentor Barea to possibly take over the PG role while Kidd deeparts from his playing days in the NBA in the next few years that he has left.

Overall I believe the players we picked up makes the Mavericks a better team than last year and even the year before. If Gooden stays healthy along with Josh Howard staying healthy and Tim Thomas can put up some decent numbers, I can see this team being a threat to the Denver Nuggets and maybe rebounding to be a contender in the tight Western Conference. I’m not even so worried about Denver any longer, everyone should realize that the Lakers just got better picking up Artest and retaining Odom, so that’s the team to beat this year.