The Reason We Live -- Round One, after Game 3

Astronomers call the line between night and day the terminator. The Mavericks know that line. We're riding it now.

After a nice display of exterminate, annihilate, destroy in Game 1 -- and kindly don't bore me with your moans of exasperation regarding the "free throw disperity," David Lord did some subtraction (factoring out the on purpose crap on Dampier) and the "disperity" is more like two -- the Mavs have dropped two, surrendered home court advantage, and awarded hope to the Spurs and their fanbase after they went a season of doing without.

The finger points in two different directions. One points at the refs -- Dan Crawford, who led the officiating teams in Games 2 and 3, has a suspicious habit of whistle-swallowing. He's called seventeen counting those two, and the Mavericks have won once. That stretches the concept of coincidence.

The other finger points at Coach. In Game 3 the Mavericks went with the 3-Guard lineup and finally got some offense going. We'd taken the lead--

--and gave it right back up again. Here's the Mavericks' offensive production, beginning at 7:32 with a Nowitzki made basket:

Nowitzki jump shot, made
Nowitzki fadeaway jumper, missed
Terry 3pt shot, missed
Kidd 3pt shot, missed
Barea jump shot, missed
Terry jump shot, missed
Terry jump shot, missed
Kidd free throws, 2-2
Nowitzki free throws, 2-2
Nowitzki jump shot, made
Kidd 3pt shot, missed
Barea driving jump shot, missed
Terry jump shot, missed (McDyess block)
Nowitzki jump shot, missed
Terry 3pt shot, made
Barea jump shot, made
Beaubois layup, made
Barea layup, missed
Haywood tip-in, made

The three guards had played almost the entire second half at that point. Dirk was the only player who got to sit for a couple of minutes. David Lord, "On possession after possession, the Mavs were so dead that one afther another they would pass up wide open looks, knowing they didn't have the freshness to take a decent shot." There goes early offense, which is meat and drink for this team.

Notably absent from that list are Butler and Marion. I accept and appreciate Coach's right to bench players he feels are not contributing. But isn't that the whole reason those men are here? At the very least to hold the line whilst the knights get fresh horses, change into spare armor, get some new lances? Coach decided the cost of giving them minutes was more of a risk than he could afford. Why? What does he know about these men that we don't?

The men themselves -- Marion, Butler and Haywood -- are not happy with what's been going on, and are -- in the politest possible way -- making that clear. Most of the answers to questions regarding minutes boiled down to "talk to the jerk with the clipboard." The word around the campfire this morning is the players held a meeting before practise to hash out a few things.

Whatever the problem, it needs fixing. Now. The Mavericks need those men if they plan to do anything this summer besides roast weenies. As nice as roast weenies are, they can wait until July.
-BJ

The Reason We Live, Round One -- Before Game 1

Wow! Haven't done this in a while. Sorry guys; with nailing down a new day job and trying to reorganize my life, I've been hellacious busy.

So it's the Mavericks versus the Spurs in Round One. Again.

Who's favored depends on who you talk to. The usual suspects in the Dallas sporting media machine are optimistic about the Mavs' chances -- the consensus seems to be Mavs in six or seven. On the national stage, things are a mite murkier. In spite of being the higher seed, in spite of Tim Duncan simply not being the player he once was, in spite of Tony Parker's newly healed hand-- the series has more buts than an ashtray at a bowling alley.

Me?

The logical part -- the one that doesn't howl every year that the Mavericks are clearly the greatest basketball machine in the history of eternity -- is apprehensive. True, the Mavericks have upgraded significantly, but this is San Antonio. Both teams have gone through prolonged periods of waiting for their real lives to begin this year and both have lost games because of it. Because San Antonio has titles, because they're coached by one of the best, and because Tim Duncan still has a pulse, they're getting more of the benefit of the doubt. A lot of the folk outside the region simply do not believe the Mavericks are as good as their record.

I'll buy that as a line of reasoning.

I just don't see it unfolding that way. The Spurs have Ginobli back and that's not a small thing. Their rookie's decent, which will help if Parker has to have his minutes managed (in a way, having to sit out a few weeks was probably a good thing, because he was also dealing with plantar fasciitis and only time heals that). The Mavericks, to a certain degree, have to contain them both. San Antonio really doesn't have one guy they can stick on Dirk and last year he made them pay for double-teaming. It'd be intriguing to see if Coach puts in Rodrigue but JJ's been here before and performed brilliantly.

Neither team is really scared of the other and they both think they can go deep in the postseason if opportunity presents. Nobody has a reason to do anything other than bring it each and every second. I think as a series it's going to be a lot like the game at the AAC back in November. Prepare to have your heart torn out and pray to your god the Mavs can pick it up and put it back again. Mavs in seven.
-BJ

Worth It All

The lost glasses -- currently on the old pair and have a nice tension headache -- the sore feet -- stuck in standing room only -- and the lost voice.

Technically, the Mavs clinched a playoff spot on Monday night as Memphis officially slid under the waves. But that wasn't what it felt like. Much depended on last night. The second seed. The chance of someone else taking care of the Lakers (please please let Portland get the eighth seed!). Getting some pride back after getting owned when the Mavs hit Denver last. Writing a new page after getting knocked out of the playoffs. The tiebreaker, just in case.

I was terrified. In an eighty-two game season, there are exclaimation points. The home game against Boston and the game in Portland were two of the most recent, and the Mavericks dropped them both for bad reasons. Surely not this night. But suppose . . . suppose . . .

It is my delighted pleasure to report that the Mavericks did not let that happen. Play down to an opponent missing their best defender and their head coach, playing their second night of a back-to-back? Nope. Let Carmelo do what he does? Nada. Let Chauncey put the team on his back? Niente. Let themselves get outphysicaled by a team whose defensive raison d'etre is to beat you up without seeming to? Nein. Let the bad/lack of calls mess with their heads? Hell no!

Pick your cliche -- the Mavs stepped on their necks, broke their backs, sent them home to their mommies, beat them up and stole their lunch money, reduced them to piles of bones and shredded blue cloth, nuked them back to the Dark Ages. It all boils down to a sixteen point win, in fine style. In amongst that, we get fine play from the bigs, a freed Roddy B, Jet shifting into overdrive in the fourth, and oh yeah, that Dirk guy -- TRIPLE DOUBLE!!!

I'm tempted to call it a throwback game -- since when does Dirk take more than one or two threes per game anymore? -- except it's not. MVP? Try Hall of Fame.

Props must also go to Shawn Marion and Caron Butler, who held Carmelo Anthony eighteen points (!!!) below his season average. It's easy to harbor a little bit of resentment towards Shawn, because his shot just looks so bloody awkward; you expect it to miss and overlook when it hits. But opponent megastars tend to have bad nights against Dallas, and Marion's the reason why.

So after last night, we're in second place (with Utah breathing down our necks, that's a problem) and in case of Dallas and Denver finishing neck-and-neck, we got the tiebreaker. That's something; it is, in fact, a great deal.

Denver Nuggets, this song's for you:


-BJ

Uh-Oh

There are a lot of possible storylines that could grow out of a matchup between the Dallas Mavericks and the Golden State Warriors -- the Great Meltdown of 2007, the Warriors' steep downward trajectory from those days, the game earlier when the Mavs outnumbered the Warriors two to one and still lost, the Organization and fanbase's strange and enduring fascination with Golden State coach Don Nelson . . .

And, with 3:18 left in the first, every single one of them was rendered irrelevant.

Choosing to go small after Haywood jammed a finger, Coach put in Rodrigue. And Rodrigue--

I saw it and I still don't believe it.

40 points, 15-of-22 including 9-of-11 on 3’s, eight rebounds, three assists, and three blocked shots.

Coach is going to have some hard explaining to do if we don't see Roddy B on the floor in every game we have left. And I don't mean garbage time either. Jet's face is still puzzling itself together; there really isn't any reason for JJ to spell Jet as a shooting guard. Particularly in light of . . . well you know he . . .

(giggle)
-BJ

Gotta Give Portland's Defense Credit?

Bullshit I do.

We're down eighttenthirteen, and we're going to lose this game.

I'm not being a pessimist. The time hasn't run out yet. Something could happen.

A hard thing to learn -- miracles are treasured because they are rare. It will take one -- a small one, but even so -- to win this game. All the Mavericks are doing right now is treading water. My guys have solved many teams so far this year, picked many locks, battered down many gates, stormed and conquered, crushed our enemies and left their women and children sobbing over what's left. We have not solved Portland.

Doesn't help the refs are wearing their Mavericks colored glasses. That T against Caron was bogus.

In my layperson's opinion, the Mavs fell back in love with the jump shot, the panic threes are not falling, we're over-relying on Dirk when it's clear he's having an off night, Dampier's malfunction needs to get fixed right fucking NOW, and why did Coach not put Rodrigue in when it was clear JJ was in over his head (literally).

Fuck it. I'll squeeze what I can for the quoteboard and hit the hay.

I will admit my hopes for this team are not as high as they once were.
-BJ