Dirk did his usual but Terry came out with 30 points off the bench to help secure this win. Caron Butler sat out this due to some negative reaction to medicine but Haywood had another great game, grabbing 9 boards and 11 points.

So who’s the best in the West? It’s hard to say, it seems we fair well against the Lakers but I’d also have to throw the Nuggets up there with these three teams being very close in dominating the West right now. Truly the only way to proclaim the best in your division is to make it to the Finals, that’s who will be the best in the West.

Nowitzki is now 34th on the all time NBA (doesn’t include the ABA) list and should easily move up the ranks as he still has plenty of years left in him.

Most might not realize this but the Mavs have the best road record in the Western Conference. To me, that’s a very good thing to be able to win on the road, it tells a lot about your team.

Tonight the Mavs face off against the Lakers. It’s a nice thought that the Mavs handed them their first loss early in the season and is one of the few teams to actually beat the Lakers this season, in LA. The Lakers have only dropped 6 games so far. A large portion of their first two months were home games so hopething the tides change when they start playing more on the road.

Both teams are healthy, it should hopefully be a great game and a good test of what’s to come down the stretch.

The final score was 94-80. Nowitzki scored 21, with Marion adding 18, Terry with 16 and Little Jose with 12. Kidd got 11 assists and Dampier actually stepped up with 10 boards.

Hopefully this is a game they can use to boost their confidence against big teams on the road.

The Mavericks play the Clippers tonight on Halloween, who have started the season 0-3, so hopefully this might work out to be an easy LA visit for the Mavericks.

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.