Game 4, Dallas Mavericks host Utah Jazz

Theme: Noisuf-X, "Hit Me Hard"
Game Info: Hit me hard, hit me fast.

Let me paraphrase an actual exchange between me and Rick the A-Man (he's the fella that tallies up Kidd's assists in back of Section 113):

Me: (groaning after Dirk misses a shot)
Rick: Yeah.
Me: The boy's starting to worry me.

At the end of the third we were down by sixteen. Offensive breakdown, nobody could hit anything. I think Dirk's total by then was eleven. There goes the Longest Active +20 Streak In The NBA (if you discount the postseason, where his PPG dipped a bit during the San Antonio series). "This is what going mad feels like," I said.

Then the fourth quarter happened. It started with an and-one, and . . .

Really, Matt Moore over at Hardwood P says it best -- the boy went Nova.

I was there. I saw the whole thing.

He had eleven going in. He had 40 coming out. The 29 points scored in the interim -- most of those coming in the final seven minutes -- are a Dallas Mavericks record for points in a quarter. Seriously, this is his stat line just for that quarter:

29 points, 7-8 shooting, 14-14 free throws, 5 rebounds, 2 assists (one of those was to Kidd for his fifth wide-open three), 1 block, 1 steal, zero turnovers.

Re that exchange . . . bad me. Bad, bad me.

Final: 96-85, Mavericks
-BJ