Game 11, Dallas Mavericks visit Charlotte Bobcats

Theme: Rob Zombie, "Superbeast"
Game Info: Ragged they come

My day yesterday included a broken bed, a long field trip out to a landfill, a flat tire that needed professional help to change (gorram garage put the nuts on too tight), a long wait in the cold I was assured Texas didn't get (lie!), a miniature nervous breakdown from my roommate and new-minted MFFL (I call her Mom) . . . and, thank you Jesus and St. Jude, a Mavs blowout.

- Sure was nice of the 'Cats to kind of show up and get their butts kicked. Mavs fans, please take note. This is what a bad team looks like. We do not look like that. God forbid we ever look like that. Not with this lineup.

- Less than half the house sold and the guys who were there estimated less than 5000 souls in the building. Yowza. Say what you want about Mark Cuban, his organization knows how to put butts in the seats.

- Fifteen-to-zilch six minutes in? I didn't say it, for fear of invoking the Stat Curse -- and the way the Bobcats were playing, the only way a Stat Curse could've materialized was with an injury. God forbid.

- Our big guns got some decent rests, for once. That'll help against Houston tonight. Last I heard the Rockets were playing without T-Mac.

- Hi Shawne! Williams with first significant playing time was solid. Only four points, but seven rebounds.

- For the second game 'Gana Diop was DNP-CD. Considering how solid we were playing, it makes you wonder if the "doghouse" thing last year, where 'Gana was pretty much buried for no reason anybody could see, didn't have some factual basis. I don't think so though; the matchups just favored a smaller lineup. Coach please tell me you're working with him on those free-throws . . .

- I'm still fretting about turnovers -- this game the ball flipped away from us 17 times. The 'Cats couldn't do shit with them, but as we've seen several times already this season that's not true of most of the teams we're going to touch blades with.

- Paul Pierce is The Truth, I won't deny that . . . but our J-Ho's a plausible story. Some really tasty work . . . but I don't like the turnovers.

- Dirk outscoring an entire starting lineup? And nailing a buzzer-beating three? All is right with the world.

In The Wash: And so we have our first winning streak of the season. I'm not so much fired up as relieved. I know it doesn't prove much, blowing out a team that is or should be in the process of rebuilding. I don't care about what it proves or doesn't prove; I care about the effect it's having on the team's morale. It's easier to perform above and beyond the call if your heart insists that good things will happen when you do.

Anyway, the roadside guy Farmer's Insurance sent out was cool, the person in whose driveway we were stuck was kind enough to offer coffee, we got home okay, and the Mavs are on their way.

Final: 100-83, Mavericks!
-BJ