Game 14, Dallas Mavericks host Indiana Pacers

Theme: Rotersand, "Exterminate Annihilate Destroy"
Game Info: Something I can believe in

Fuck you Pacers. Fuck you until you bleed.

- On the one hand, thank you refs for noticing that the Pacers had gone with hacking as a defensive plan. On the other, that call on Dirk at the half was total bullshit. Troy Murphy leaned in and created the contact. Total bullshit.

- Antoine Wright, who's been buried since the earliest part of the season, lit. It. Up. 24 points, good D, smart play . . . and happy birthday to your son, man.

- It was not a good night for our points. Jason Kidd took a shot in the face and had to step out for a minute, league-mandated infectious disease control time-out. The trainer had to see to a cut on his cheekbone. He's all right though. Later, JJ accidently poked himself in the eye going for a rebound. He was back by the end of the game. Oh, and he's the Lightning Bug. Just so you're aware.

- At the half, I was in despair. The score wasn't all that lopsided, but we were down ten boards and were zip in three-point shots. I'm seeing Coach's point; in order for a motion offense to work we've got to get stops.

- And that's where the centers come in. Dampier took one hell of charge, which I'm given to understand he never does. The Fish was mentioning solar eclipses and Hell freezing over. Which, for the record, is not as big a deal as you might think.

- The despair didn't dissipate in the third. For every lightning bolt we put up, the Pacers thundered back. Only down by seven? It felt like more, believe me.

- To Troy Murphy -- die motherfucker. I watched the video; you took a shot at Dirk's knee. Playing tough does not mean playing dirty. And the jersey pull with under thirty seconds left was just stupid.

- But in the fourth we had one major stroke of luck. Jason Terry put up a three that bounced off the rim, went high . . . and dropped through the hoop.

- The league needs to revise its opinion of Kidd not being a scoring threat. As a rule a lot of his shots aren't reliable . . . unless they're longish range and he doesn't fire off the dribble. Kidd made a couple of huge threes in the last two mintues, and thank you God and St. Jude, we're out of the hole.

- Last Mavericks posession, hot-potato series of passes that cut ten seconds off the clock without having to yo-yo the ball and give the defense time to get set up and do something nuts. Great when it works.

- I give the Pacers credit for this; they never gave it up. The last shot of the game was a cute three-ball that cut the deficit to just three points. I know they still lost the game, but they've got things to be proud of. On the other hand, I think that bit about basketball not being a contact sport got lost in the Pacers' interoffice mail.

In The Wash: It was like the Magic game in reverse; we were getting pwned in more ways than I want to think about, but hung tough, avoided settling for jump shots, and managed to scrape together a win. No settling for jumpers, no overrelying on Dirk when it was clear his shots weren't falling, just getting in and getting it done.

I need to watch this game straight through on the tape for a better look at the defense. I rewound and watched some of the second half and Mark and Coach O were talking about zone versus man-to-man. I didn't see it when I was at the game; I wasn't looking carefully.

With the last few games, it seems clear that Jet's our sixth man. Gerald Green sat the game out with a wrap on his back; I hope he didn't do anything drastic to it. J-Ho's still listed as day-to-day. I'm guessing he's going to be back on the floor for the next game. As to the starter's job, that's still up in air. I'm thinking, and this is only a guess, that Coach is going to give it until after this next roadie to settle on one guy.

Um, yeah. The next game. I want the Lakers ground into the dirt. I want Pau Gasol to wilt like ice cream under a heat lamp. I want Bynum's knees to explode. I want Kobe to cry. I really want Dirk to Frenzy and have to be pulled off the Lakers by the entire starting lineup plus Jack Nicholson, blood and torn flesh and litte yellow scraps everywhere, but that's just me.

Final: 106-103, Mavericks!
-BJ