Peter's Dallas Mavericks fan blog

Dirk and Barea lead the Mavs over the Suns last night. "Barea? Who?" That would be the response from any one that doesn't live in Dallas or follow the Mavs. He's so unknown that even Yahoo! doesn't have a link for him in their stories about last night's game.

Jose Juan Barea is 5'11" from Puerto Rico, and went to college at Northeastern. He came to the Mavs undrafted in 2006 and played 33 games that season. Last year, he played 44 games for the Mavs and averaged about 10 min per game with less than 5 points per game. He earned his first NBA start after a stellar performance and pivotal role in beating the Clippers in the Mav's last game before the Suns. Barea normally plays point guard in reserve of Jason Kidd. But, coach Carlisle decided either to reward Barea, or just to shake things up to counter Steve Nash's fast running offense, starting two point guards. Barea played for 30 minutes with 18 points, 4 assists, and 3 rebounds. He may not be a household name, or be in the All-Star Game any time soon with those numbers. But, if he keeps developing the way he has this season, he'll be a vital cog in Dallas' playoffs and Championship chances.

Continue reading "Dallas Mavericks on 3 game win streak with victory over the Phoenix Suns"

Last night, the Mavs trailed the entire game until the final seconds to beat the Clippers. This is obviously far from an impressive outing. We're talking about the Clippers here. Their record is now 3-14. Dallas should be running laps around the Clippers. They shouldn't need to come from behind to beat them by just 2 points.

On the Mavs' Yahoo! team report, they're talking about the Mavs being on top of the division by the end of the 7 game home-stand. Are you kidding me? Sure, they're only 1 1/2 games behind the leading Houston Rockets. But, if they need last minute heroics from Jose Barea shooting 3's to edge out the lowly Clippers, they'll be lucky if still above .500 by the end of the home-stand. Especially because they'll be playing teams with winning records: Phoenix Suns, Atlanta Hawks, San Antonio Spurs, and Denver Nuggets. The Charlotte Bobcats and Oklahoma City Thunder games might seem like easy wins. But if they struggled against the Clippers, I wouldn't count on those wins yet.

Continue reading "Mavericks come from 15 points behind to beat the Los Angeles Clippers"

The Mavs enter the month of December with a mediocre 8-8 record.

Just when things were looking like it would turn around with a 5-game win streak, they met a brick wall in the Los Angeles Lakers. Sure, the Lakers are easily the best team in the league today. But, if the Mavs had won that game, they would have had a winning record for the first time since October. After finishing November and their California trip with a win over the Sacramento Kings, the Mavs go home with a .500 winning percentage.

Luckily, they will play the struggling Los Angeles Clippers at home tonight. For the Mavs to have any chance of resurrecting their season, they must start December with a win at home and get their first winning record in a month. Can they do it against a team led by Baron Davis? The same Baron Davis that led the 8th seed Golden State Warriors and surprised the top ranked Mavs in the playoffs a couple years ago? A team with strength in the paint with Kaman and Camby? Can they finally break the .500 mark? We will know by the end of the night. Let's go Mavs!!!

Continue reading "Can the Dallas Mavericks to break .500?"

On Monday 11/24/08, Dirk was named the Western Conference Player of the Week. He averaged a double-double with 27.0 points and 10.3 rebounds. He led the Mavs with wins over the Charlotte Bobcats, Houston Rockets, and Memphis Grizzlies for a perfect 3-0 week.

This is only the 9th time that Dirk has earned this award. The Mavs needs him to keep this up if they want to keep winning. Maybe Josh Howard being out is good for the team?

Continue reading "Dirk Nowitzki earned the Western Conference Player of the Week"

Last night, the Mavericks defeated the Memphis Grizzlies 91-76 with Jason Kidd scoring 18 points, with 7 of 12 shooting and only 6 assists.

I remember when Kidd was traded to Dallas, he was expected to distribute the ball for other players to get easy baskets. He wasn't expected to be a scorer. As a result, he wasn't taking open shots that he should have taken making it easier to defend against the Mavs offense.

This season has been different so far. Kidd is taking shots when he's open. Dishing out a little less, he's averaging less than 8.1 assists per game compared to 10.4 when he left New Jersey. But because he's taking his shots, defenses have to defend his shots, making it easier for others players to get open shots. His shooting percentage is also up from his last season with the Nets, 36.6% to this year's 46.8%.

Continue reading "Dallas Mavericks beat Memphis Grizzlies as Jason Kidd is becoming a scoring threat"