Tag Archives: Dallas Mavericks

Turn out the Lights

Posted on by
Reply

(www.espn.go.com)

Tonight, Dallas dropped their second straight game, losing 100-97 to the Golden State Warriors. Dirk Nowitzki could not go for the Mavericks as he had some sort of issue with a muscle near his thigh.

OJ Mayo and Vince Carter played well, scoring 25 and 22 respectively Shawn Marion filled the stat sheet as always with 18 points and 17 rebounds.

The Mavericks had two big runs in the 2nd half, including a 13-0 run in the 4th to tie the game at 92. They failed to ever get a lead in this game and could only manage a spinning Vince Carter 3 point attempt at the end of regulation to tie the game at 100. Carter missed, and the Mavericks lost a game they deserved to lose.

More telling than the game-ending play however, was the Mavs’ possession before, when OJ Mayo dribbled around, kicked to Collison who found Brendan Wright under the basket, who was then blocked by Andrew Bogut. The Mavs were down 2, needed a bucket, and the ball ended up in the hands of Brendan Wright. Mayo has to be decisive and either get a shot up, or create a shot for someone willing to take it. That’s what big time players do, and that’s what Mayo needs to do if he wants to eventually get paid as a big time player.

Continue reading →

Blowout

Posted on by
2
Dirk Nowitzki Big 3

(photo by Streetball.com

The Dallas Mavericks have put two wins together for the first time in 2013. With a 104-83 victory that wasn’t even that close, the Mavs dominated this game almost from start to finish. The Grizzlies seemed sluggish from the start and Dallas pulled away at the end of the first quarter despite Dirk Nowitzki only taking one shot in the quarter.

The game would pick up for Dirk who had an incredibly efficient game with 17 points on 5 of 8 shooting in just 28 minutes. Add to that 6 rebounds and 3 assists, Dirk is really beginning to look like himself. His effort and energy on the defensive end is picking up as well. One assist in particular was impressive, as he got switched on a smaller defender, pump faked, spun, and spotted Shawn Marion all by himself as Marion’s defender had reacted to Dirk getting in the lane.

Marion had 20 points on 13 shots, and played maybe his most productive offensive game of the year. Chris Kaman also had a great offensive game. After starting off slowly making only 1 of his first 5 shots, he had a stretch in the 3rd quarter where he scored 8 straight points and completely dominated Zach Randolph. Kaman finished with 10 points and was 1 of 6 Mavericks in double figures.

Also making an appearance in this game for the first time was a sustained period of great ball movement within the Mavs’ flow offense. Still, too often the ball was pounded in the hands of Darren Collison and O.J. Mayo, but it seems they are slowly realizing that offense is easier if they allow their offensively blessed teammates to touch the ball. It also seems that Collison and Mayo are learning that it’s their responsibility to get to the rim since the older guys are less eager to risk their bodies.

It would be nice to get carried away and say that maybe after 38 games this team has figured out what it needs to do to win. Prudently, though, we should remember that Memphis was on the second night of a back-to-back and they have struggled in that situation at 3-4. This was a good win for the Mavericks, but much more is needed before we can afford to believe in this basketball team.

Travis Kvaal

 

Finally

Posted on by
Reply

(Photo by Glenn James/NBAE via Getty Images)

 

Travis Kvaal

The Dallas Mavericks finally won a game.  After falling down 17 points in the 3rd quarter, Dallas was able to battle back to a 117-112 overtime victory in Sacramento.  Dirk Nowitzki is not yet himself, shooting 7 for 21 and just 1 for 5 from behind the 3 point line on his way to 17 points.  His effort was there though with 9 rebounds and a huge block late in the game.

The real players for the Mavericks this evening were O.J. Mayo, who spent the entire 4th quarter getting to the rim in transition, scoring 24 to go along with 10 rebounds and 5 assists, Vince Carter, who scored 23 on 13 shots, and Shawn Marion, who turned in a vintage performance, with 19 points 10 rebounds and 2 steals.

In winning this game they broke a 10 game losing streak in overtime games.  Dallas also broke a 4 game losing streak overall, and are hopefully coming out of a streak where they’ve lost 13 of their last 15.

Not to be overlooked in this game were the contributions of Mike James and Bernard James. Sarge completely changed the way Boogie Cousins was playing in 12 minutes late in the game, and had one huge put-back bucket. When Mike James was in the game in the 4th quarter, the Mavericks did not turn the ball over.

Also not to be overlooked: Darren Collison couldn’t play successfully with Dirk if Jason Kidd sent him a manual.  He is the worst good basketball player on the planet.  The jump pass at the end of overtime was a laugh out loud moment, but I didn’t see Carlise laughing as he pulled him in favor of James.

This Mavs team is bad, terrible defensively,  but tonight ended up all right, and 14 wins feels a bit better than 13.