Dallas Mavericks

Mavs Beat Lakers

This was surprising, I actually anticipated a loss, especially when the Mavericks play the Lakers at the Staples Center, their first win there since March 11, 2007. But the Mavericks dominated, maintaining a lead and never losing that lead after each and every period.

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.

Let The Games Begin

The Mavericks start their season opener against the Wizards, a team that went to playoff contenders to only winning 19 games last season, with their start Gilbert Arenas out with injuries.

But he’s back and they’re hoping he will lift them out of the hole they found themselves in last year by becoming a contender once again.

The Mavericks on the other hand did some changes, added some depth to the team but also keeping the core team intact, adding some very valuable players to the roster. Marion, Thomas and Gooden all add an extra something and I feel this team will be better than last years team, which was also under a new coach. Now that they’ve played for Carlisle for a year, the Mavericks should feel a little more confident this season, Marion should pick up and work with the team with no problems.

I also think Humphries will be a hidden gem off the bench for us this season, able to grab rebounds and score from the paint. Might even be a breakout year for him if given the playing time.

Let’s just hope Howard can play like his old self, stay away from injuries, along with Tim Thomas fully recovering from his injury before preseason started, this Mavericks team can go further possibly than last year or at least put up a better fight if they get past the first round.

Nonetheless, they’ve won 7 of their last 8 match ups against the Wizards at home, I predict a win in their home opener and another 50 plus win season for this team.

Preseason

So I probably won’t be posting much during the preseason games, it’s just preseason which literally means nothing to me. It’s always experimental lineups that we usually see. It was good to see Marion post 26 points in his debut, following up with 15 in his second game.

Josh Howard still is out along with a few others. I’ll probably report back when the Mavericks play against the Cavs two games in a row in the coming week and finishing the preseason against Houston, that will probably determine how we’ll supposedly playing against a team (the Cavs) that most are saying will be destined to go to the Finals and against Houston, which likely won’t be as big as contenders this season since Yao is out with an injury.

Honestly, I don’t see Shaq helping out any, the Suns thought they would get that type of support from the big guy and they didn’t even make the playoffs. It’s clear Shaq just wants another ring before he calls it quits and the Cavs likely have a chance, unless they can’t get past the Celtics or Magic, which is highly probable if Garnett stays healthy and Carter can assume a bigger role than Turkoglu made while in Orlando.

The Mavericks are currently 2-1 in the preseason.

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.