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.

Almost Time

So yeah, I avoided this site after the Mavs went down in the post season. There were a lot of happenings going on not only in the NBA but with the Mavericks. But I don’t get excited until the season is about to begin.

As for the Mavericks, I think this could be one of their better teams in years. Keeping the core players from last season after picking up Butler and Haywood, we’ll see what they can’t accomplish with these players for a full season, or at least starting out the season with them instead of half way through it.

The Mavericks got thumped against the Wizards for their opening preseason game but Nowitzki played a little more minutes in game 2 against the Bulls and they came out on top. But remember, this is only the preseason, it really means nothing as it’s a chance to rotate the guys in and off the bench to see who makes the cut for the regular season.

So far though, the Mavs looking decent. Chandler put up some good numbers in their first game. Jones put up some decent numbers in the second game against the Bulls, if you compare the amount of minutes he played. Of course, if Nowitzki, Butler, Haywood and Terry keep doing what they do best, we can definitely count on the Mavs on top in their division at the end of the season.

A few notes though, it’s good to see Dampier replaced by Chandler as the backup center and Haywood our primary starting center. Seems to have more heart and drive to win and accomplish more out on the court than Dampier did.

Mavs vs Spurs Game 2: Tough Loss

What happens when you shoot 36% from the field? You lose but surprising the Mavs almost came back, only to get denied late in the 4th quarter when Tim Duncan hit 4 field goals for 8 points. They started out cold in the first quarter, down 16-5 but could never keep up, even with their late 4th quarter rally.

Dirk got into foul trouble early in the game with two quick fouls and never really played to his potential like in Game 1.

Terry had 27 points, with a few 3 pointers. Kidd was pretty much a non-factor in this game, not scoring his first field goal til the second half.

I hope this is a wake up call to the Mavs who need to come out with the type of defense they started to display in the second half, where they went on a 12-0 run to cut the 20 point lead in half.

Game 3 is Friday in San Antonio. I knew this would be a tough matchup for the Mavs, as everyone in the West are so close in their regular season records, anything could happen. The one thing that stands out and I think that isn’t mentioned much is, this Dallas team has turned around from the past and became road warriors this past season. Out of all the teams in the West, the Mavs had the best road record of any of them. They had 27 road wins, the next team was Portland with 24 wins on the road. Actually, they had more road wins than any other team in the whole league.

Turkey Week Wrapup

So with their huge blowout in Houston, the Mavericks of course followed up with an easy win in Indiana and then a loss in Cleveland. I was expecting a loss against the Cavs but didn’t expect Mo Williams to hit all his 3 pointers to basically push them ahead.

Last night the Mavs almost blew a 17 point lead but with Terry hitting a 17 footer with 1.4 seconds remaining to secure their win 104-102 against the Sixers.

This puts the Mavericks at 13-5 and still on top in their division, although the Spurs seem to have gotten their momentum going in the win category this past week.

The Mavs next game is against the winless Nets. I hope they don’t lose to this team, that would just be embarrassing. If the Mavs win against he Nets, they’ll contribute the team in the worst NBA start in history.

On another note about the Sixers matchup, Jason Kidd had one of his best games to date, scoring 22 points, 11 assists and 6 boards.

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.

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.

Terry Shows Up Finally

Terry showed up for the game against the Hornets but with Dirk and Marion not playing their best, the Mavs fall short in OT against the Hornets, behind Paul’s 39 points.

At least Dampier showed some life, scoring 16 points. If he did that every game, the Mavs could be unstoppable when Dirk and the supporting cast did their part.

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.

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.