Peter's Dallas Mavericks fan blog

The Mavs have just finished the series with the San Antonio Spurs who plays with speed and finess. Now, they face a Nuggets team that plays a different brand of basketball: a physical, pound the paint, and defensive style of playing that the Mavs could not adjust to in Game 1.

The Nuggets went for every block and every steal while clogging up the lane and batting away any one who dares come near the basket. The Mavs were frustrated by the non-calls and could not play their slow, half court game. The Mavs became careless with the ball and just gave away the ball in the second half. That, and the Mavs bench didn't show up.

What will the Mavs need to do to have a chance at winning this series? Take care of the ball, and play some defense in the paint. Nene scored 24 points in game 1 when he averaged only around 10 in the Nuggets-Hornets series.

Continue reading "Dallas Mavericks weakened by Denver Nuggets' physical play in Game 1"

The Mavs could have been able to get up to the 6th seed if they defeated New Orleans on Sunday. But, as we know, they didn't. Now, it's almost impossible to end the season in 6th place. The Hornets would have to lose both of their remaining games and the Mavs has to win theirs. And, that's just not going to happen.

But, the Mavs does have a chance of falling back into the 8th spot since Utah owns the tiebreaker between the two teams. So, if the Jazz and Mavs end the season with the same record, the Mavs will be seeded 8th, and play the Los Angeles Lakers. And, I don't think any team wants to play the Lakers right now.

So, the Mavs control their destiny. If they can win more games than the Jazz, then they will remain at 7th, and avoid going against the Lakers i

Continue reading "The Mavericks Control Their Own Fate"

Last night's game was just embarassing. The San Antonio Spurs played without Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili and still beat the Mavs 93-76. The Mavs only made 34% of their shots. Jason Kidd had 2 points and 4 assists. Tony Parker had 37, and dished out 12 assists. Any question that Kidd isn't an elite point guard any more? Can't help on offense, and laying out the welcome mat on defense. Let's just bench Kidd and let J.J. Barea start so he can begin to develope into the PG of the future. Kidd is clearly the PG of the past.

Let's also get some help in the paint. Dampier scored 2 pts and grabed 1 board. Did I mention that Tim Duncan didn't play? Spurs' center Matt Bonner scored 11 and power forward Kurt Thomas scored 10 with 15! rebounds. Where's the Mavs' center!? We need a center that's also somewhat of a scoring threat, and plays some D.

Continue reading "Mavericks Embarassed by Spurs"

The Mavs finished the month of January 8-7 for the month. There were some surprising wins and losses that are equally surprising.

On 1/4, they lost by 20 points to the Memphis Grizzlies who are at the bottom of the Southwest. On 1/11, they lost to the Sacramento Kings who have been struggling the entire season. Then on 1/21, they lost to the Milwaulkee Bucks in a blowout by 34 points. Other blowout losses this month also include the 28 point loss to the Phoenix Suns on 1/9 and the 24 point loss to the Boston Celtics on 1/25.

But they also had some good wins: 1/17 win over the Utah Jazz and the 1/23 win over the Detroit Pistons. The 1/31 win over the Miami Heat to close out the month wasn't bad either.

What's plagued the Mavs is how inconsistent they have been. They could have a great game one night, and the next night totally stink it up against a worse team. It's obvious that the team is good enough to win most of their games if they would show up like they did against the Jazz and Pistons. But it's outings like the ones against the Kings and Bucks that make you scratch your head.

Continue reading "Dallas Mavericks Inconsistent Through January"

Dallas has lost it's last 3 games, to the Phoenix Suns, Sacramento Kings, and Denver Nuggets. Today, they made a trade with the Charlotte Bobcats, giving away DeSagana Diop for guard Matt Carroll and center Ryan Hollins.

I'm not sure if the trade really helps either team. Dallas traded away its best defensive player who doesn't get enough court time to be effective and got some 3pt shooting and a center who doesn't play that much.

Maybe Dallas is going for the run and gun again and won't be playing any defense. We'll see how it works out...

Continue reading "Dallas Mavericks Trade Diop after 3-game losing streak"

I scored a pair of tickets to the Mavericks game against the Kings at the Arco Arena on Sunday night for less than half price through Craig's List. Yes, the Kings are so bad that season ticket holders are selling their tickets for less than what they paid for, even for a weekend game to see Dirk and Jason Kidd. The Kings came to the game with a 5 game losing streak with their last win against the Los Angeles Clippers. The Mavs were expected to walk all over the Kings.

I arrived at Arco Arena 15 minutes before the game. There was no traffic, no line at the parking plaza, no problem getting a good parking spot, and just a short line entering the arena for the metal detectors and bag checks. We got to our seats and less than half of the seats were filled in the arena. When the Mavs starters were introduced, there were a good number of cheers for Jason Kidd, Dirk, and Jason Terry.

Continue reading "Dallas Mavericks lost to the Sacramento Kings without Josh Howard"

A record of 5-1 in last 6 games looks pretty good on paper. But, all 6 of those teams have losing records. And the Mavs needed come back efforts in most of them to sneak out with a win.

The Mavs ended 2008 with a come-from-behind win over the Minnesota Timberwolves. The 29-point comeback is the largest in franchise history. They started 2009 with another come-from-behind victory, this time over the Philadelphia 76ers. They were 12 points behind on this one. They lost to the 11-25 Memphis Grizzlies by 20 points. No comeback on that one. In the 1/6/09 Clippers game, the Mavs lost their big lead and needed another comeback to come out on top. Oh, and the Clippers played without their top players like Baron Davis, Chris Kaman, and Zach Randolph. Last night's game against the New York Knicks, the Mavs were down again in the 4th quarter but were able to get some big baskets late in the game from Jason Kidd to get the W.

Continue reading "Dallas Mavericks struggled to 5-1 against 6 straight teams with losing records"

In last night's game against the Trail Blazers, the Mavs had a break down in the third quarter. The team collected 4 technical fouls and Josh Howard tackled Portland's Joel Przybilla, trash talked, and was ejected from the game. Dirk was in foul trouble. The team scored only 18 points in the quarter.

It appeared as if the Trail Blazers were picking up momentum just as the Mavs were fizzling out ending the 3rd quarter with a 3 point deficit. In comes the 3-guard lineup with Jason Kidd, Jason Terry, and Jose Barea along with Brandon Bass and DeSagana Diop down low. James Singleton and Antoine Wright also saw some court time. When I saw those lineups, I thought that the Mavs where just going to mail it in for the rest of the night and start their Christmas vacation early. Then Barea zipped in and out of the paint, picked and rolled, and connected with Bass going in for a dunk. It hit me, the Mavs are better without Howard and Dirk on the court! Because the bench players are actually pretty good, they pick up their level when their starters are off the court. If this keeps up, the Mavs will be a force to be reckoned with down the road.

Continue reading "Josh Howard kicked out of game and Mavericks came back to beat the Portland Trail Blazer on Christmas Day"

By now, any fan that watches the NBA knows that there will be a bunch of good players that will become free agents in 2010. The New York Knicks have already cleared their salary cap in anticipation of getting Lebron James and others from that free agency pool.

Now, according to the Dallas Morning News, Dirk is willing to take a pay cut for the Mavs to be able to compete for these free agents.

"I'm very fortunate that I've made a lot of money in this league, even though I've never really played for money. I love the sport. I love this organization. Obviously, I want to win. I won the MVP, and individually, there's nothing really left but winning a championship ... If that means I have to play for less money, it's all possible. It's all open."

Dirk has an option to also become a free agent in 2010, but he wants to stay in Dallas and will take a pay cut to get better teammates. Now, that's a team player!

Continue reading "Dirk willing to take a pay cut in 2010"

Tonight, the Mavs will play their 7th and last home game in a row against the Denver Nuggets. The Mavs have been playing strong 5-1 so far in this homestand beating the Clippers, Suns, Hawks, Bobcats, and Thunder. Their only loss came against the San Antonis Spurs in a double overtime game. Despite the 5-1 run, they're still 1.5 games behind the Southwest leader, the same amount of games before they started this home stretch. And, they are still 4th in the division. Nothing has changed.

This is testament to how good the Southwest Division is, with 4 out of 5 teams having winning records. And with the Mavs at 13-9, they're only 4th in the division. If the Mavs where in the Pacific Division, they'd be 2nd there.

Northwest leading Denver is 16-7 coming off a 3-game win streak. With the addition of Chauncy Billups, they've been on fire. The Mavs will have their work cut out for them tonight.

Continue reading "Dallas Mavericks still 1.5 games behind after 6 straight home games"