Preseason Game 2: Dallas Mavericks visit Chicago Bulls

Theme: Ren and Stimpy, "Happy Happy Joy Joy"
Game Information: Courtesy of NBA.com

One of the reasons I hate the circumstances that prevent me from having modern television resources is not being able to watch road games. But that oft-forgotten, no-cost gem of broadcast media saves my ass -- radio. One problem; because of something in my apartment building -- can roaches cause signal interference? It would explain not being able to get Channel 5 -- the radio doesn't come in clearly.

So the Mavs are on the road up the west side of my favorite Great Lake, and I'm on the road up to Keller's for a supper of ooey-delicious hamburger and the car radio tuned to ESPN 103.3 FM. I missed most of the first quarter. Naturally, that's when the "OH MY GOD!!!" stuff happened. Oh well. I did catch Brandon Bass's dunk. I think Coop broke a vocal cord on that one.

- The starters didn't play very much at all after the first quarter. Unit 1 -- Dirk, Kidd, J-Ho, Wright, and Dampier -- opened it up and brought it to 36-22 Mavs. Unit 2 -- Jet Terry, Bass, JJ, Devean George, and 'Gana Diop -- played most of the second and the score at the half stood at 62-44.

- After the half, it was pretty much garbage time for the Mavs. The deep, deep benchers were playing serious minutes. Which is good. At least three of these guys will not make the team come regular season and they need every second of playing time they can get.

- Gerald Greene's justifying some of the hope placed in him by us fans; 18 points. That's reassuring. Some of The Boards are taking bets on when Jerry Stackhouse will start missing games because of injury.

- Speaking of, Stack missed the game due to family obligations. He'll be back tonight.

- JJ Barea scored ten? And he hit a three? And he had tasty assists? Can he do that against a good team? Please God?

- In the last minutes, the game must've looked pretty ugly. I didn't count, but there must've been at least five fouls called in the last minute of play time.

- I'll give the Bulls this; they tried to rally. They really tried. The Bulls actually outscored the Mavs by ten in the second half. But the last quarter the Mavs fought with one hand tied behind them. Five minutes from the starters and the Bulls would've been blown halfway to the moon.

- Everybody got play time last night, and of those sixteen, fifteen scored points. Yummy.

In The Wash: Last night marked the NBA debut of this year's #1 draft pick, Derrick Rose. 10 points in 27 minutes and he had problems getting his feet under him. As the Morning News points out, though, point guards tend to have long learning curves. Give it a couple years, no major injuries and no emotional meltdowns; we're going to be seeing his name a lot. For their sake, the Bulls would be wise to bend over all directions to make his maturing process as complete as possible.

Coach must be blissed about this; in the game against the Wizards the Mavs turned the ball over 24 times. Against the Bulls, 14. And 12 of those came in the second half. In other words, from players who are not likely to play much during the regular season. Happy happy joy joy.

Final: 110-102, Mavs
-BJ

PS: Dirk as a personal favor to me could you put your tongue away? It makes you look silly. And it makes me have bad thoughts.

Preseason Game 1, Dallas Mavericks host Washington Wizards

Theme Song: Mortal Kombat OST, "A Taste of Things To Come"
Game Info: From NBA.com

That was fun!

- Oh that's why the organization ponied up their immortal souls to get Jason Kidd. The triple-double threat lives.

- Kidd and Dirk only played for, maybe, twenty minutes. Good stuff to be had from them, but not needed. Why drag out the .50 cal when the M16's getting it done? Honest to God, official garbage time came with four and a half minutes left in the fourth; you probably could've declared it after halftime.

- Hihi! This is the first time I've seen Desagana Diop on the floor, and I think I like him. Splitting time between Dampier and Diop at the 5 makes sense to me, especially if he keeps playing good defense.

- I wasn't focused on the bench so I might've missed it, but it's something of a relief to not see Coach damn near drop dead of a heart attack eight or nine times. His huddles look like Story Time; "Come in close boys and girls, come on."

- JJ Barea . . . Fish characterizes him as the Mavs's pet rock, and I'm sorry but I didn't see much to refute the claim. Which makes Kidd's long-term endurance a worry again. Preseason, the eighty-two, plus post-season, and we need hardcore hero shit from him on a regular basis.

- I'm not a huge fan of the player parody vids, but making fun of Mark Cuban's a giggle. Diop's Welcome Back video was cute too.

- Antoine Wright. If he turns into a serious rotation player, the Kidd trade looks like much less of an overpayment.

- Ladies and gentlemen, Brandon Bass!

- The fanbase will forgive Josh Howard for behaving like an idiot this summer if this performance is an omen for the season. Though to be fair there were a few plays that probably reflect less on J-Ho's excellence and more on the Wizard's total breakdown on both ends of the floor. Serious, J-Ho got two or three fast-break layups in a row from some snatch-it-and-pass-it steals. Hey Wizards, wanna try for another one or do we see a pattern developing here?

- I love watching Jet Terry play. Lands neatly on his toes while catching a feed from Dirk, turns around, two points. Tasty.

In The Wash:
One thing the Mavs haven't lacked for me is The Potential. We can be really fucking awesome . . . which last year led to a few months of tantilizing glimpses of greatness bracketed by games in which the rest of the conference sharpened their claws on us. Lots of standing around looking confused. I saw that here too . . . but this time I have the hope of answers forthcoming. The preseason's for hammering out the rotation and game plans in real-game situations. In one sense, this game solves nothing. The Wizards didn't provide enough of a challenge. In another, the fans who've been hanging onto the wait-and-see perspective have gotten some returns -- a dominating win. And some good-looking basketball.

Bandwagon Bumper Sticker: Get in. Sit down. Hang on. Start yelling.

Final: 108-82, Mavs
-BJ

Nine More Hours

After a summer full of full-time committment (and pay, thank God) for part-time work, prayers that The Boards would be interesting without being bitchy (riiiiiiight), lots of lol cats (because monorail cats are funny), and too much time looking for good pictures of the big guy (damn pajama uniforms), the off-season is nearly over. We're sitting in the theater, suffering through easy listening and mediocre R'n'B, watching the ads and movie quiz cards flip across the screen (and they've already gone through the set eight times), and finally, there's a click, the screen goes dark, the lights go down, and the talking starts to quiet.

It's been a long few months. And it's going to be an even longer few months as I watch my Mavs become what they're going to be in 08-09. Will the new coach be as advertised, able to balance running offense with brick-wall D? Will Jason Kidd have one more season of greatness before riding into a future rich with alimony suits? Will Josh Howard finally crystalize under pressure, instead of just cracking? Will Stack's body hold out? Will the Four-String Motherfucker give us all the gifts the Hornets were too stupid to take? Will our young guns grow into heros in their own rights? Will Our Dirk become, once more, a player who kills so cleanly you're in Hell five minutes before you realize you're dead?

And will it be enough?

We'll see. Binoculars, train ticket, victory cigarette -- I'm ready!
-BJ

Couple Thursday Notes

Gerald Green's not looking at serious floor time? That's disappointing. I'd hoped to see some good stuff there.

I'm not schooled enough in the game to get why this is a big deal . . . but I'll note it for future research; the Mavs are working up a lot of depth at the center position. Dampier and 'Gana Diop are taking turns starting at scrimmage, Brandon Bass is being cross-trained as a 5, and Dirk's played center before. Still not sure why that's getting emphasized. I'll figure it out as the season gets rolling.

There'll be more scholarly stuff soon, promise.
-BJ

X-Factors and Other Intangibles

Put aside the potential problems in backcourt and perimeter depth (Hollinger, ESPN). Focus instead on those two little words everyone likes to throw around when competetive drive is aroused -- killer instinct.

The greats have it. Larry Bird eats baby kittens as snacks. Raw. Michael Jordan could've caused miscarriages with sheer force of mean. Michael Irvin (former Cowboy turned local sports blowhard), when his son points at his kid's league opponets saying "Dad they're my friends," barks "NO THEY'RE NOT!!!" Bill Russell writes, "No pussycats, please."

Killer instinct is about knowing where the other guys're weak and taking outrageous advantage of that knowledge. If that means making Shaq run his butt off when he's out of condition -- thereby making him look stupid -- you do that. If it means traipsing just this side of foul trouble manhandling Pau Gasol, okay. If it means making Dirk play on his toes when he's rolling on a bad ankle . . . if you're the bad guy (and may you burn in a Special Hell), that's a plan.

It's about fear. None for you, all of you. And it's something the Mavs have lacked.

Respect for this team is grudging at best, and nobody's really scared of us. Coach Carlisle is making a special note of that yesterday. "I’m looking for a few assholes here," said the coach. "Hating the opponent. Hating the opponent is a good start . . . Bird hated everybody."

Is that what we really need? A bred-in-bone son of a bitch? Or two? Or three?

Eagerness for the season just ticked up another notch. It'll be interesting to see what the players will do with permission to turn loose their inner bastards. I'm operating on the assumption that, in order to thrive in pro sports, every player's got one.

Meantime, I'd love to be a cat outside the gym there at SMU. Gauge the 'tudes of the players after practise. See if it's hit the "Somebody make the bad man stop" stage.

I'm evil that way.
-BJ