Game 16, Dallas Mavericks visit Sacramento Kings

Theme: Metallica, "Motorbreath"
Game Info: Full speed or nothing

The NBA equivalent of two Advil and a piece of chocolate cake. Well, kinda.

- Oh fuck. Antoine Wright, who's made a decent rise in the pecking order, is out with a groin strain.

- No J-Ho. Again. He's day-to-day, but he's been D-to-D since he rolled that ankle. One of three things happening; his foot was hurt worse than the team let on and he's physically incapable of playing, his foot is better but the Mavs are being gentle with it, or he's being kept out for other nondisclosed reasons. Option one is possible, option three less so. Option two is most likely. In any event, I'm doubting him for the Clips game.

- Hack-a-Shaq only works when the hackee is crap from the line. Since none of our guys are crap from the line (with the problematic exception of Diop and please dear God Coach is working with him on that), hacking is not a real good defensive strategy against the Mavericks.

- Dirk! Jabbed the ball away, raced John Salmons for it, flipped it back to Devean George who slammed it home.

- Jet had 24 points, which puts his season-so-far average at 20.1 points per. Sixth Man of the Year, anyone?

- Okay, that downchecks Gerald Green somewhat. Coach is keeping him on a short leash. Coach Ortegel on the Mavs commentating team is at pains to point out the rationale behind that; it's a matter of the kid's poor decision-making under fire (he's more than two years younger than me, I get to call him kid). Red Bull's brain has got to catch up with the rest of him if he's going to make a difference on this team or any other.

- I hope for the sake of the Sactown fanbase the Kings're in rebuild mode. God forbid they have to watch this as a Plan A.

- Define shit job; photographer just past the baseline in a NBA game. JJ was going in for a layup, went out of bounds, and landed butt-first on one of the camera guys. And JJ's a little guy by NBA standards. I mean, you're there, doing the work, not bothering nobody, and BANG! two-hundred plus pounds of power forward lands on you.

- Garbage time; JJ tosses it to Shawne Williams, Bobby Brown knocks it off-path, James Singleton grabs it back and takes it in.

In The Wash: So we split the roadie and the boys're back in town for the next couple weeks. Best case scenario calls for a sweep before we're back out in the world. We could use one. We're at ninth place as things sit right now, and that shit just won't do. We've also got a fanbase that's in need of some serious firing up.

I would go ahead and pencil the Clips game as an automatic Win . . . but the last time I did that the Mavs got their heinies paddled.

Musical Shooting Guard continues. The players seem to be okay with it, for the time being. No rumblings from the locker room, no loaded comments to the sports guys, and if there are any dissenters they're being very careful to keep their sulking private. I wish I could get into the locker room and behind the cliches . . . never happen, of course.

Final: 101-78, Mavericks
-BJ

Preseason Game 6, Dallas Mavericks host Sacramento Kings

Theme: Skinny Puppy, "Pro-Test"
Game Info: Make with the clicky.

Underrate this, you lazy-minded schlubs.

- Slow start again . . . a widening of focus is needed; whenever Dirk misses a shot I panic inside.

- To Reggie Theus, Head Coach of the Sacramento Kings. Simmer down Coach. And remember it isn't kosher for a coach to jump in and play the D his team's failing at.

- I think the Org is starting with the weeding-out process. The team's moving into more regular-season rotation, with the starters playing heavy minutes. (UPDATE: Confirmed. Charles Rhodes has been waived and Keith McLeod's contract's been restructured to "non-guaranteed." Not clear on the implications of that last bit. Will parse it out later.)

- By the way, Gerald Green. 29 points. One truly righteous slam. We got him; you didn't. Eat it, bitches.

- Sooner or later the Bad Guys'll take away those extra three or four seconds Jason Kidd needs to make those long shots, and there goes the triple-double threat.

- Turnovers still a major problem. Sticky fingers, gentlemen.

- Defensively, I can't make judgement calls. Offensively, I like our young Mr. Red Bull. I saw no evidence of ball-hoggery or bad judgement. If he tanks with the Mavs it won't be for lack of trying on the organization's part. I see Coach taking him aside a lot in games and the media guys've been impressed by his 'tude. Give it a year or so and he's got the opportunity to make some major noise.

- Depth at the 1 is a problem. Much as the organization likes JJ Barea, he's not a player of the calibur this team needs. Jet's decent at the point but is most useful when he can be the Sixth Man Everydude. The Mavs need a decent player at the point to relieve Kidd for ten to twenty minutes per game if Kidd's going to be useful all up through the Finals. I hate to say it, because JJ strikes me as being a good guy, but he's trade bait.

- At the 2 it looks like we've got something of an embarassment of riches. Williams, so far, not impressed. Antoine Wright, however, looks downright tasty. He's gotta be careful though; fouls are only a good thing if making them gives you an edge over and above the extra scoring opportunity they give the bad guys.

- There were some boo-birds up in my section trying to heckle J-Ho at various points in the game. They shut up shortly after the half.

In The Wash: Oh my God, the regular season can't get started soon enough. The Bulls are in town for another tushie-paddling tomorrow and the Pacers swing by on Thursday. In other NBA news, Deron Williams is down with a twisted ankle, no word yet on how long he'll be non-operational.

Final: 124-109, Mavericks
-BJ

Preseason, or Before The Withdrawl Causes Permanent Damage

We hope.

10-7, 7:30 PM CST, versus the Washington Wizards
10-9, 7:30 PM CST, at Chicago
10-10, 7:30 PM CST, at Milwaukee
10-15, 6:00 PM CST, at Indiana
10-16, 6:30 PM CST, at Detroit
10-18, 8:00 PM CST, versus the Sacramento Kings
10-21, 7:30 PM CST, versus the Chicago Bulls
10-23, 7:30 PM CST, versus the Indiana Pacers

Tickets for the preseason games go on sale on September 8. I'm going to as many as I can get away with.
-BJ

Mavs Fan For Life

Februrary 29.

Bad night that night, homesick and lonesome. Rather than spend an evening pouting with my cat, I decided to visit with my new and interesting boys; there's a pizza place by Lovers Lane and Greenville that's got a huge screen forever turned to The Game, whatever it is.

I split my attention between the TV and the Morning News, nose-deep in a ham and pineapple pizza. Nice game, good distraction from my woes.

Then I saw Amazing Happen.



That's the first time I got my socks knocked off. This wasn't a clip-fest or a retrospective with some guy lecturing me about why this was so bloody exciting. This was how the hell did they do that?!? This was holy shit wow! This was turning to the guy at the other table and saying, "Did you see that?" This was irrational giggling fits on the bus all the way home. This was staying up to see the clip on the late night news.

That's it. Michigan has my soul, but bury my heart at the American Airlines Center. MFFL
-BJ