Dallas Mavericks

Mavs Knock Out Hornets Perfect Season Start

Yeah that’s right. Take that Hornets, no stinging from you guys tonight in Dallas as the Mavericks put a stop to the Hornets perfect start of this season. They were the last unbeaten team and this is probably a great match up of playoff bound teams.

The Mavs were up at the end of the 1st quarter but started to slip behind until the 4th quarter as the Hornets surged ahead in the 2nd, outscoring the Mavs 28-20 and by 2 points in the 3rd to keep a 10 or so point lead.

The Mavs took control in the 4th, behind Terry’s 26 points on 9-19 shooting with 3 three pointers. Nowitzki added 25 points with 10 boards.

Chris Paul lead the Hornets in the first half with 20 points but was limited to just 2 points in the second half.

The Mavs and the Hornets meet again Wednesday night in a back to back match up, this time in New Orleans. Let’s hope the Mavs can keep up the pace against this surprise team this year.

Nowitzki Is West Player Of The Week

For the second week in a row for leading the Mavericks to 11 straight wins.

Congratulations Dirk, go for a third week in a row by keeping the streak alive.

Without Nowitzki, Expect Anything

Well, Nowitzki collided with Landry of the Rockets early in the game, sending them both out of the game. Nowitzki made one of his free throws having to do it left handed as he banged up his right elbow, requiring stitches.

Landry wasn’t as lucky, losing several teeth when Nowitzki’s elbow hit him when fouled.

But the Rockets squeezed by barely. Up by 10 or so points late in the game with what looked to become a closeout after knocking our star out of the game, the Mavs pulled it together and tied it at 100, but then lost all such momentum in OT as the Rockets pulled away 116-108.

From the fans standpoint, most were not pleased with the officiating in the end of the game but expect anything when Dirk is out, like Little Jose being our leading scorer.

After the Nowitzki and Landry collision, the Rockets went on an 18-5 run if that tells you anything. That’s how this Rockets team has to beat the Mavericks, take out the star.

Nowitzki is questionable for Sunday nights game against the Cavs, but at least it’s not a serious injury that is taking him out for weeks or the season.

Bouncy Bouncy In OT

With the game all tied up in OT, Dirk makes what he thought was a perfect shot that ended up with a little bounce but follows through in scoring when there was only 3.1 seconds left, the lights flash while the ball finally makes it way through the net.

Dirk prevented a 2nd overtime against the Bucks, with the final score 115-113 after grabbing the ball from a pass from Kidd, who was just 1 point from a triple double.

Nowitzki scored 7 of his 32 points in OT, also nabbing 11 boards.

Gooden came up with another great game in Dampiers place, scoring 22 and grabbing 14 rebounds. Perhaps Gooden should be starting in place of Dampier, he’s certainly proved in the last two games if he can keep this momentum up.

Terry also did his part, scoring 19 points coming off the bench.

Dampier was actually hospitalized and was flying to meet the team for their charter flight back to Dallas when they host the Spurs. No word except that he was ill and not feeling well.

The Mavericks also lost Shawn Marion in the 2nd quarter to a sprained left ankle. It was noted he is listed as day to day at this point. No matter though, the Mavericks seem to be on a roll without Marion, Howard and Thomas this season so far.

Spurs Top Mavs

When you’re players don’t make shots, you lose. It’s just that simple. The Spurs beat the Mavs without their two superstars, Duncan and Parker sat out in the Spurs win last night.

Nowitzki scored 29 points but went 9 for 27 from the floor. Josh Howard shot 2 for 11 from the floor to contribute 8 points while the whole team shot 35% from the floor.

Although the Mavs got within 4 points at one point late in the 4th quarter, the Spurs pulled away with a few buckets to land the win.

Of course, Dampier went back to his usual self and didn’t really contribute anything last night, after a few great games that help the Mavs secure wins when he does well.

A tough loss on a poor night by everyone. I don’t think anyone on the Mavs showed up for this game. Shooting 35% from the field, the Spurs cheerleaders could have beaten this team.

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.

Cristal Taylor Gets 5 Years

I usually won’t bother with these types of updates but figured most would be curious about it, since there’s really not a whole lot going on in Maverick land, but Nowitzki’s estranged ex-girlfriend was sentenced to 5 years for violating her probation from a 12 year old forgery case she was convicted in.

Taylor who is 38 and reported she was pregant with Nowitzki’s child will only serve 4 years as 1 year was already served under her probation and 100 days while she awaited trial.

Nowitzki has stated he will seek sole custody of the child if proven he is the father.

Now we’ll wait for real news and updates that isn’t diving into the personal lives of our beloved Maverick players.

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.