Dallas Mavericks Blogs

The NBA is completely bonkers right now. With less than two weeks until season’s tip-off, players are being flipped faster than flapjacks at IHOP. Chris Paul has been perfecting his start-and-stop from the comfort of his living room. Dwight Howard can't seem to decipher his own feelings about the Magic. Lamar Odom, as collateral from the Paul fall-out, whined his way to the Mavs, who were spurned earlier in the week by Tyson Chandler (Knicks). Chauncey Billups took his frequent flier miles to the Clips (though he could be dealt again by the time I finish this sentence) and Big Baby was swapped for Brandon Bass.

Continue reading "NBA Anarchy"

I think I can honestly say that everyone is quite relieved that we will have football to watch this year. I don't know what I would do after coming home from a blessed Sunday morning worship and have no football to watch. So it's a good thing we don't have to worry about that. Well let's talk some football, last year was very disappointing to say the least. But I saw some positive glimpses of hope. There is life in my Cowboys and woe to all of you Cowboy haters out there who are counting us out. True Champions never give up hope. I believe that Jason Garrettt has what it takes to rejuvenate that winning spirit back into the Cowboy locker room. There have been some serious cuts in the organization that were long overdue and I think they were positive cuts. I can't wait until the season starts and all of the football debates begin. I'd be interested to know who do you think will be the team to watch leading up to the start of the football season. I'm going with my Cowboys of course. Everyone always counts us out which is a terrible mistake. Just ask the NBA Champion Dallas Mavericks they were counted out too. You know I had to plug the Dallas Mavericks. I love my city and I support all the home teams.

Continue reading "What can we expect from the Dallas ..."

Congratulations to the Dallas Mavericks, Connecticut Huskies, for becoming newly minted champions. Enjoy the summer and good luck defending your titles next season. Now that college and pro basketball has concluded, AAU and shoe camps are heating up but let's review ten things what basketball has taught me these past few months.

Continue reading "2010-2011 Basketball Season Recap"

The Dallas Mavericks were marvelous.  They withstood a slow start by start Dirk Nowitski and made a team effort to beat back the Miami Heat to win game 6 and the NBA title.  Lebron James, DWade and Chris Bosh seemed to wilt under the pressure of winning that dream title.  Dallas won the game, and players like Jason Kidd and Dirk Nowitski received some vindication as great players who were able to win the title.  Jason Terry came up strong scoring 27 points while Dirk scored 21, ten in the 4th quarter. 

Continue reading "Dallas Does It in Miami"

First I would like to recognize the accomplishments of the Miami Heat and the Dallas Mavericks.  It was been quite a show watching these teams make it to the NBA Finals and I believe it will be a fantastic match-up.  

Continue reading "Spring Fever: The Heat of an indefinite ..."

Dallas Mavericks' new players played well last night, beating the top team in the east in Orlando Magic.

Caron Butler and Brenden Haywood combined for 73 minutes 16 rebounds and 31 points.  A really good bigman and another scorer.  Good Job Dallas.

Continue reading "New faces, early dividends"

Dallas and Washington traded talent this week. 

First Dallas---they get Caron Butler an all star that is almost averaging 17 points and 7 rebounds.  He will replace Josh Powell which is a huge up grade.  Brendon Haywood also joins the Mavs.  This was a good move because Eric Dampier hasn't been effective since hurting his knee.  Haywood is averaging 10 rebounds a game.  The Mavs also get Deshaun Stevenson.  A decent backup.

Continue reading "Mavs A Wizards--gambling"

NBA Commissioner David Stern predicted last week that a woman will play in the league within the next decade.

“I don’t want to get into all kinds of arguments with players and coaches about the likelihood,” Stern told Sports Illustrated. “But I really think it’s a good possibility.”

Continue reading "Women Can't Compete in the NBA"

Every Monday, with the assistance of the good people over at www.basketball-reference.com, I like to take a look deep into the statistics of teams and players from around the league in a little post I like to call “Fun with Box Scores”.

Continue reading "Fun With Box Scores"

Happy New Year!

With the new NBA season set to tip off with four games tonight, here are some of the things I’ll be watching for in tonight’s action.

Boston @ Cleveland, 7:30pm

Continue reading "NBA Opening Night Quick Thoughts"

Have the spurs put together enough talent to contend with elite teams in the NBA?

I believe the answer is a definite yes. The San Antonio Spurs have had an offseason many feel was their best ever and with the talent already in place, the spurs should be in the hunt for another title. It will be interesting  to see how the new players mesh with the likes of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili. Richard Jefferson and Antonio McDyess will add much needed scoring and length to a team that was exposed a bit during this  years surprising first round exit against the Dallas Mavericks. Looking back to last season, the spurs had quite a few issues that needed to be addressed to make the team better, younger and more athletic.

Continue reading "Can the San Antonio Spurs win a 5th ..."

Despite the hype surrounding a lot of high picks from this year’s NBA Draft the man who seems to have been making the biggest impact in Summer League action has been Rodrigue Beaubois, taken 25th by the Dallas Mavericks and thought even then to be a bit of a reach.

Continue reading "Summer has been good to Beaubois"

The Los Angeles Clippers are expected to pick former Oklahoma Sooners star Blake Griffin Thursday with the first overall selection in the 2009 NBA Draft at the WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City. 

Continue reading "The 5 Best Second Overall Selections ..."

The Dallas Mavericks only have one pick this year in the NBA draft and they really need help to keep from falling any further.  If you look at draft boards, the list of players that could go to Dallas at the 22nd pick are too numerous to mention.   But, we can look at how the past 14 drafts have done at that position.

Continue reading "Dallas Mavericks draft pick"

There have been many rumors surrounding the Phoenix Suns since they missed the playoffs this season. Some of these rumored trades would actually help the team, but some of the options are only opportunities to cut payroll for the oncoming season and further destroy the team. Some of the biggest names involved in these rumors for the team have been Amare Stoudemire, Shaquille O’Neal, Steve Nash, Leandro Barbosa, and Jason Richardson.

Continue reading "Catching up with the Phoenix Suns ..."

When Mark Cuban told Lydia Moore that her son, the Nuggets' Kenyon Martin, was a "thug" after Game 3 of the Nuggets-Mavs series, he crossed a line. I thought I'd point out the Top 10 Things he MEANT TO SAY to Ms. Moore:

Continue reading "Top 10 Things Mark Cuban MEANT TO ..."

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.

Continue reading "Dallas Mavericks weakened by Denver ..."

With the first round of the playoffs slowly crawling towards the end, and so much excitement developing around the league, I want to take some time out side of the Blazer Box and take a quick look at the two conferences and what they have brought us this playoff season.

Continue reading "Playoff Excitement Part 1: Winning in the West"

By now we've all heard the story and probably seen the video. Houston Texans running back Ryan Moats was driving his family to the Baylor Regional Medical Center in the Dallas Suburb of Plano, to make it to see his mother-in-law as she was in critical condition. She was suffering from breast cancer, and they had been told she didn't have much time. Moats put on his hazards, and by his account rolled through a red light after making sure the way was clear. Officer Robert Powell was parked nearby and attempted to pull him over. Moats continued to drive a short distance to the hospital, as Powell pursued. As he pulled up near the entrance of the hospital, the family jumped out of the car. Officer Powell instructed them to get back in the car, but Moats wife Tamishia and another family member ran inside. Ryan Moats tried explaining the situation to Officer Powell, who over the course of the next thirteen minutes would not listen, and herein lies the controversy.

Continue reading "Ryan Moats, You Are a Better Man Than Me..."

It isn't surprising that most teams dread the thought of having to face the Lakers in the first round. In fact, what team would want the responsibilty of having to put up a gameplan which would freeze Kobe Bryant? Or perhaps even trying to find a way to stop Pau Gasol and possibly even a healthy Andrew Bynum? Well, with only nine games to go until the regular season comes to an end, it seems more and more likely as if the Mavs will be the lucky group. 

Continue reading "Crystal ball reveals Mavs will face ..."

Oklahoma City's next game is against I-35 "rival" the Dallas Mavericks. The 34-23 Mavericks would normally look like a tall order for the 13-44 Thunder, but a strange pattern has emerged for

Continue reading "Luck in Favor of Thunder Against Mavericks"

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.

Continue reading "Mavericks Embarassed by Spurs"

This is not something I normally do, but it seems like everywhere I look and listen, there are faulty NBA power rankings. I have no choice but to improve upon what I've seen and heard. It's about that time for me to get my two cents in, but quickly I have to go over a couple rules:

Continue reading "NBA Power Rankings"

The Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics have indeed renewed there once coveted rivalry. The Lakers have had a very sour taste in there mouth since last year's NBA finals and this year they have come to play against the Celtics. The Lakers, yet again must learn life without Andrew Bynum. And this year things will be different. They match up so well with the Celtics. Kobe and Gasol against Garnet, Pierce, and Allen. One of the Celtics three will always shoot themselves in the foot. The Lakers bench is devised of quick, nagging, humble assassins who have come to love there role of being Kobe's sidekicks. The Celtics bench is devised of a Big Baby, a Leon Powe and a cold blooded Eddie House. I guess you could throw in an ineffective Tony Allen, as well.

Continue reading "Battle at The Garden"

So I just realized the TV guide channel had the wrong start time for the game and the first quarter is under way. Nevertheless here is tonight's prediction. The cards came up two down one up so this is a maybe lose situation and since the Mavericks are only a couple games behind us currently seems like they're gonna give us a run for our money. The first card came up reversed and it was the 6 of wands. This relates to living in the past, outworn friendships and disappointment. I'm not really sure how to interpret this one except that perhaps we'll have a disappointing loss. Second card was upright and the 6 of pentacles. This one stands for prosperity shared with others. This one is a little easier since our team is so good at assists and no one takes all the credit when we win. Last card was the page of cups and it was reversed.This one relates to selfishness and lack of imagination so let's just hope it's a reflection of how the Mavs are going to play and not that one of our guys is going to turn into a ball hog. So that's it for tonight. Obviously if my prediction is wrong I'll be much happier and I bet evryone else out there will too!

Continue reading "Tarot reading for tonight's Trailblazer ..."

All-Star Reserves ballots were due yesterday at 3p.m., and for the all the Eastern Conference coaches who tune in to my blog, I provided some help, a cheat sheet if you will, to aid in their quest to make the proper selections. Call it an East Coast bias, but time did not allow me to do the same for the West. Hopefully, they managed on their own.

Continue reading "The Sports Don Reveals His Western ..."

The starters for the 2009 NBA All-Star game were announced on TNT Thursday night, and once again, the fans demonstrated the decision should not be theirs. Detroit’s Allen Iverson received 1,804,649 votes proving that 1,804,649 NBA fans don’t know what they’re talking about.

Continue reading "Fans Rob Harris, Wrongfully Reward Iverson"

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.

Continue reading "Dallas Mavericks lost to the Sacramento ..."

Enough was finally enough for the Memphis Grizzlies.  After 13 consecutive losses to the Dallas Mavericks, the Grizzlies outplayed them in every facet of the game on Sunday as they claimed a shocking 102-82 win.

Continue reading "Grizzlies 102, Mavericks 82"

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.

Continue reading "Josh Howard kicked out of game and ..."

The Memphis Grizzlies must have been homesick Tuesday.  After spending a couple of weeks playing at home, they hit the road for Dallas and struggled mightily at the start in a 100-82 loss.

 

Continue reading "Mavericks 100, Grizzlies 82"

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.

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

 Sometimes, you have to win games the new-fashioned way -- by outlasting an outmanned opponent.

The Mavericks played with fire against the Charlotte Bobcats, but came to life just long enough in the fourth quarter to eke out a 95-90 victory Thursday night at American Airlines Center.

Continue reading "Dirk & Terrry Lead Mavs to Big Win"

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.

Continue reading "Dallas Mavericks on 3 game win streak ..."

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.

Continue reading "Mavericks come from 15 points behind ..."

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.

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

Anyone happen to catch that Laker-Mavs game last night?

Anyone else notice another game the Lakers were trailing in and somehow come out with a win?

Yeah, I know they were at home and Dallas is a team that no one really knows what to expect from, but they were on a five game winning streak coming in.

Continue reading "Lakers Roundup"

New football leagues seem to come about every number of years. Some find a way to stick around for awhile (see NFL Europe or the Arena League) others make some news but don't stick around for to long (USFL, XFL) and then others just never really happen. For the UFL, a new football league aimed to begin kick off in August of 2009, they hope to stay for a long time. For those not sure of what the UFL is, it's pretty simple. The United Football League is a professionalAmerican Football league being organized by William Hambrecht, a Wall Street investor and former minority partner in the USFL's Oakland Invaders, and Tim Armstrong, a senior executive at Google. The commissioner of the league is Michael Huyghue, former NFL agent. Mark Cuban, owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, was the first to publicly profess interest in owning a franchise. The league will have 6-8 teams, a $20 million salary cap for players, and will play on Friday nights in the fall. There is still a lot of football people crave and lately the NFL has really been the No Fun League. Of course, for this new venture to succeed it needs what has made the NFL, players. Peyton Manning or Terrell Owens won't be suiting up for the UFL anytime soon, but these players would certainly help.  

Continue reading "5 Players the UFL Needs"

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.

Continue reading "Dirk Nowitzki earned the Western ..."

The Grizzlies got the defensive battle they expected against Dallas on Friday, but failed to get their offense going in a 91-76 loss.

The Grizzlies (4-8) shot only 37 percent from the floor and finished with their lowest point total since scoring 67 points in a loss last December.  The usual suspects contributed for the Grizzlies as O.J. Mayo led the way with 19 points and Mike Conley and Rudy Gay each chipped in 14.  Conley's output was his best of the season.

Continue reading "Mavericks 91, Grizzlies 76"

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.

Continue reading "Dallas Mavericks beat Memphis Grizzlies ..."

The Memphis Grizzlies enter tonight's game at Dallas with a rare opportunity to leapfrog the Mavericks in the Southwest Division standings.  The Mavericks, who have been one of the better teams in the West over the last few years, have started slowly under new head coach Rick Carlisle.  The two teams play similar styles built around tough defense, and the Mavs are in the midst of a stretch in which they have held opponents to 40 percent shooting in five straight games, the last three of which have been wins.  If the Grizzlies are on top of their defensive game tonight, neither team may reach 90 points.  I think whoever does get to that mark will win the game.

Continue reading "Game at Dallas offers road opportunity"

March of the Spurs  11/05/08

0-3

Those numbers do not look good.  Three games into the season and the Spurs have yet to win a game.  Is it time to panic?  Clearly, it's not.  However, do any Spurs fans remember going 0-3 this early in the season?  Tim Duncan and Tony Parker are doing their part.  Roger Mason Jr. and George Hill played well.  This was George's first game, and there were some positive things, but where are the rest?  17 point loss, this does not sit well with the Maverick haters in the San Antonio area.  As I'm sure I'll say all month, we miss Manu.  He is the missing piece of the puzzle that has resulted in an early defeated season.  Never have I craved for December as much as I am now, unless you count my childhood days.  But much like Santa Claus, Manu could very well deliver wins as much needed gifts early in the season.  Still 79 games to go, so 0-3, statistically not bad.  Win one though, ok?

Continue reading "March of the Spurs"

Every expert on television, news columnist, sports reporter to your chat room and forum users all say the Houston Rockets can go deep into the playoffs if A: They can keep Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming healthy and

Continue reading "Unity leads Rockets past Mavs"

A big thanks to everyone who participated in the "Inbound Link Contest".  We have a winner!  A big congratulations go out to Marija.  Thank you for all your hard work on this.  While we had a lot of people participate, Marija was able to win with only 4 links!  So it wouldn't have taken a lot to win this contest!  We'll be having another contest soon so stay tuned.

Continue reading "Inbound link contest winner announced!"

I hope Mark Cuban was watching when Germany handled Angola, 95-66.

Dirk showed when he was at his best. No, not against extremely sub-par talent (true as that may be), but when he has a big man who can score inside on his team. Dirk was allowed to roam around the perimeter, and drive without drawing double teams. 

Continue reading "Dirk and Kaman too much to handle"

Tribune Co. is selling the Chicago Cubs franchise, along with Wrigley Field, and part of Comcast SportsNet. The Cubs, as well as Wrigley Field, would be the perfect investment for any billionaire; Cubs fans are not going to simply walk away from their favorite team no matter how long it takes for them to win the World Series. True Cubs fans are fans for life....they will continue to fill the seats every single year no matter the outcome of previous seasons. Call it stupid, some critics do, and I don't want to get into all of that right now, especially since I'm one of those "stupid" people that watches the Cubs every day. Anyway, all I'm saying is that Cubs fans are very loyal fans that will provide continually increasing revenue for the new owner.

Continue reading "CUBan bids how much?!"

To try and motivate our bloggers to get inbound links we're going to have a contest to see which blogger can get the most inbound links to their blog. The contest begins now and ends July 31st, 2008. To be entered in to the contest all you have to do is go out and get as many websites to link to your blog as you can and at the end of the month send us an email listing all those links. All links must be active from August 1st through August 7th when we'll be judging the entries - a winner will be announced on August 7th. All entry emails must be received by Midnight on July 31st, 2008. You can email them to sportsfan@nbabasketballonline.com

Continue reading "Inbound link contest - Win $100!"

I want to start with a giant HURRAY for the signing of Diop and the re-signing of JJ Barea.  For some reason these 2 guys just make me happy and they make me even happier as Dallas Mavericks!

Continue reading "Summer League"

After a disappointing first round loss to New Orleans the Mavericks fired head coach Avery Johnson.  Was that the right decission by mavs owner? in the off season the mavs hired Rick Carlisle as the new head coach and is determined to take this team to the playoffs for the 9th time.  Key additions to the Mavericks this season will be J.J. Barea signing a 3 yr contract worth $5 million, returning to the mavs will be center Desagana Diop, Diop signed a 5 yr contract worth $6 million, the mavs also signed Gerald Green to a one year deal worth $1 million.  Was the signing of these players worth the price? will it be high expectations only to end up in dissapointment again? with the changing of head coaches comes a change in the way the players will react hopefully the new head coach will be the one that can bring the championship to Dallas

Continue reading "New coach, new players same old mavs?"

This is the first of probably many blog entries expressing my feelings about NBA basketball and more specifically the Dallas Mavericks.

Since it is the "off" season there isn't too much for me to say right now except I hope the talk of Diop coming back to Dallas is true!  I missed him the last part of the season!  There are some pretty big names out there in the world of free agency, it'll be exciting to see where everyone lands!

Continue reading "Greetings"

Today's tangent is inspired by Raymond (shockingly, with me on this one) and Matt Stauffer, who has posed a challenge to me by asserting that the Celtics will lose to either Detroit or the winner of the Western Conference for a few key reasons.  Following the game one victory for Boston, I thought I'd address a few of his concerns (convenient that I waited until a resounding Celtics victory to start talking smack, isn't it?).  Hey, hey, easy now, I'm not fixin' to start a war or anything, in fact I respect the feedback and the fact that somebody is actually reading my posts (anyone else? ...Beuller?).  I'm only out to address the argument and provide as complete a rebuttal as I can, so without further delay, let's get started.

Continue reading "Hungry Like the (Former) Wolf"

I've been critical of Rajon Rondo in this space before, but he has proven through 12 playoff games that he's the absolute best point guard option that the Boston Celtics have if they want to return to the NBA Finals.

Continue reading "Celtics must ride Rondo to Finals"

The hits just keep on coming. This whole season, it seemed that the Bulls kept missing out on golden opportunities and unfortunately, that is also carrying on into the off-season.

           Over the weekend, former Suns coach Mike D’Antoni signed a four-year contract with the New York Knicks. Last week, reports released assumed that D’Antoni, whose Suns team averaged 58 victories over four seasons according to the Chicago Tribune, was extremely interested in coaching the Bulls. General Manager John Paxson was also interested in the partnership even though D’Antoni has an offensive mindset and Paxson is more interested in defense.

Continue reading "The search continues . . ."

Only three hours and ten minutes until the Hawks and Celtics tip off game 6 in Atlanta, so until then I figure I'll spend the beautiful afternoon rambling on and on about other news in the basketball world.  So I apologize, but this post will have little or nothing to do with my beloved hometown Celtics, but does concern another one of my favorite teams in the NBA, the Phoenix Suns.

Continue reading "Musings From the Hammock"

As the overwhelming excitement of New Orleans’ domination of the Mavs in Round One dwindles and potential anxieties about their upcoming showdown with last year’s champions arise, let’s take a closer look at some of the key match-ups for the Hornets and Spurs in the Western Conference Semifinals.

Continue reading "A look at the second round...."

Now that's more like it.  The Celtics have put the Hawks on the ropes with a resounding and convincing victory in game 5 last night.  Everything that was going wrong for Boston in games 3 and 4 seems to have been solved by playing in front of their home crowd, and similarly, everything that was going right for the Hawks evaporated into thin air as the road team.  I suppose that it just goes to show how huge an advantage a raucous home crowd can be in a playoff series.  That being said, I think that the Celtics are poised to break the cycle in this series and finish the Hawks off in game 6 in Atlanta.

Continue reading "Return to Form"

After watching last night's loss to the Hornets, and the Mavs putting themselves in a 3-1 series hole, I began to wonder what sort of team we really have. Two years ago, we were on the cusp of raising the Larry O'Brien Trophy and being the kings of the basketball world. Something I remember from that series was Jerry Stackhouse and his no-b.s. attitude.

Continue reading "Where's The Attitude?"

LA Lakers vs. Denver Nuggets 4:2

Lakers are Bynum-less; however, they have enough talent to win the series.  AI will win one game for Denver, as he usually does in playoffs. Denver will win another one on the back of Carmelo buy-me-a-drink-and-I-will-drive-home Anthony.

Continue reading "Western Conference Playoffs- First Round"

He finally did it. He finally put all those massive talents together and played up to his potential. Imagine if he plays like this the rest of the way. The Lakers won’t need Andrew Bynum back. Lamar Odom put together a doozy of a game, against a Mavericks club that was shooting the lights out despite pretty solid defense by the Purple and Gold. Odom made 12-14 shots, totaling 31 points. Pulled down ten boards, dished 5 assists, blocked 2 shots and threw in a steal to cap off his night. Plus he made two of the best plays of the game with a fake pass, layup that made Dirk look foolish, followed by a quick scoop pass to Pau for an and-one. Not only was his offense up to snuff, despite giving up 27 points to Dirk, Lamar made the key stop on the Big German with a about 30 seconds left. He played perfect defense. I mean, Diggler still shot a scorching 13-19, but Odom was in his grill on most of them. Dirk was just hot. I knew Lamar was feeling it. In the past, he would always look to Kobe to set the tone, or to make sure he was running the right plays. Tonight, he took the ball himself, juked, spun, shimmied, dropped dimes, battled for loose balls, dove to the basket for putbacks (he dunked Kobe’s missed layup at the end of the game when Kobe got fouled) and ice-manned the ball in the hoop all night. It was beautiful and extremely exciting to watch. Odom, for the first time I’ve ever seen him play, looked like he wanted the ball in his hands at the end of the game.

Continue reading "What We’ve Been Waiting For…"

I’m getting a bit worried of late. Teams are getting physical on the Lakers. This is the second game in a row that the opposing team has used 80s Pistons-like thuggery. Kobe said a couple weeks back that this wasn’t the 80s. Well, sorry Kobe. From here on out, teams will be gunning for that injured hand of yours. It’s the only realistic way of stopping you.  

Continue reading "Getting Rough and Rising to the Challenge"

http://lebasketbawl.blogspot.com/2008/02/i-love-rumors-9.html

Continue reading "I Love Rumors 9!"

Valentine's Day might have been one week ago, but Memphis Grizzlies' general manager Chris Wallace can expect a dozen roses from Kobe Bryant any minute now.
Fans of the Boston Celtics remember Wallace as the idiot who presided over several years of instability, a fool who drafted potential All-Stars like Jerome Moiso, Joseph Forte and Kedrick Brown in the first round and traded for impact players like Vin Baker. The fact that the Eastern Conference was so bad was the only thing that allowed the Celtics to be anything resembling a success under Wallace. They had no chance to contend against the powers in the West handing 38 percent shooters like Antoine Walker max contracts and leaning on bench support from reliable reserves like Vitaly Potapenko and Shammond Williams.  

Continue reading "Celtics' fans have seen Wallace's act before"

We have been waiting for this moment for months.  No, I’m not talking about the Jason Kidd trade to go through (which it did today).  I am talking to about the second half of the NBA season to begin.  The first three and a half months can be such a drag, and usually are but in the second half, everything picks up.  It is a two-month stretch run to the playoffs.  This is the time when teams like San Antonio and Detroit flip their switch on and look to be playing their best when the playoffs begin.  The flurry of trades that have gone on in the last two or three weeks has just made the second half that much more interesting.  The NBA season is about 20 games too long and it kills ratings but now is the time to jump on the bandwagon.  These next couple months of the regular season and the playoffs are going to be some of the best basketball since the ‘80’s.  The NBA, where exciting happens.

Continue reading "The NBA, Where Only the Second Half ..."

http://lebasketbawl.blogspot.com/2008/02/devean-george-blocks-kidd-trade

Continue reading "Devean George Blocks Kidd Trade"

http://thesportspoint.blogspot.com/2008/02/another-big-western-conference-trade.html

For the third time this month, a Western Conference title contender in the NBA has made a move to strengthen its team. This time, the Dallas Mavericks have agreed in principle to acquire point guard Jason Kidd, returning him to the team that he began his career.

Continue reading "Another Big Western Conference Trade"

ESPN is reporting that Jason Kidd is going to be traded to the Dallas Mavericks:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3244102

Continue reading "My Name Is KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDDDDDD ..."

http://lebasketbawl.blogspot.com/2008/02/mark-cuban-takes-on-hornets.htm

Continue reading "Mark Cuban Takes on the Hornets"

The Lakers looked awesome last night. Well, for a half at least. A night after coming off an 11-assist performance which included several wrap-around-the-back passes (the most impressive, by the way, was not the one to Turiaf, but rather the left handed around the back pass to Odom in the post—what an impossible pass…Try that Steve Nash!) Kobe had the Lakeshow rolling early. They took a 54-45 lead into halftime against the, albeit struggling, defending champs.

Continue reading "One Step Forward...Two Steps Back"

Surprise, surprise.  Pat Riley, he of the ridiculous slick-look, is thinking about quitting as the Miami Heat head coach?  Of course he veils it under the cover of just wanting to be president of the Heat because, you know, it's just so hard to be both president and head coach these days.

Continue reading "What a Shock; Riley Might Quit"

    Hey Mavs fans, I had the pleasure of enjoying two games this week in which the two least popular teams in the NBA got beat by the Mavericks. And by "two least popular teams", I mean least popular with me. (Golden State Warriors, least popular, and Miami Heat, second least popular) Dallas was strong and looked good against Golden State leading most of that game at home on Wednesday. I hate to say it was a blow out because really Golden State can score so quickly, that itisn 't a blow out until the game is over. That being said, I'm glad Dallas blew Golden State out making a statement at home. The Mavericks have certainly turned the tables on the Warriors this season going 2-0 this season against them, after of course losing every regular season game against them last year.

Continue reading "Mavericks Avenge Old Foes"

    Hello Mavericks fans, it’s been an emotional week. The Mavs were on a 5 game win streak heading into Utah on Wednesday, and I’m not going to pretend I expected the Mavericks to win this game. Utah has played exceptional all season especially, in Salt Lake. However, that being said, the Mavericks fell apart on offense. They shot 33% FOR THE GAME! That is terrible, worse than terrible.

Continue reading "Mavericks On A Rollercoaster"

On Christmas day, Andrew Bynum destroyed the Suns. Obliterated them. He had 28 points, 12 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 blocks. He out-stat Mr. STAT. Amare had 19, 6, 2 assists and 3 blocks against the yo

Continue reading "A VERY Merry Christmas"

    Hey Mavericks nation, I am pleased to report that my predictions have all been accurate thus far with the Dallas Mavericks going 3 for 3 against Orlando, Phoenix, and the LA Clippers. That little prediction was free, that being said, I am retiring from predicting Mavericks wins. I am no Nostradamus and I’d rather this be for fans of the Mavericks than a gambling blog. 

Continue reading "Dallas On A Roll"

I know it's more traditional to do this kind of report after the first twenty games. I, however, am a very non-traditional fellow. So here is your twenty-six game report.

Let's start with what we know about the Dallas Mavericks: nothing. Okay, we know a couple of things. However, if you take everything we know and shine a light on it, what you end up looking at is, well, nothing. At least nothing of any significance. But let’s try anyway.

Continue reading "Dallas Mavericks Early Season Report"

The Dallas Mavericks have opened the season 16-9. By comparison, the Mavs didn’t lose their ninth game until January 25th last season. And that was after starting out 0-4.

The most glaring reason for this drop off is a lack of production from reigning MVP, Dirk Nowitzki. On the surface Dirk’s numbers (21.4 pts, 8.3 rebs, 3.8 asts) aren’t bad. But in actuality, Nowitzki’s game doesn’t pack the same punch it has over the past several seasons.

Continue reading "Slumping Dirk Makes Mavs Look MVP-less"

   Just as I predicted Mavericks faithful, Avery Johnson has gotten his team looking like the explosion of athleticism that is the Dallas Mavericks.  The Mavs took down the impressive New Orleans Hornets on Thursday and the Houston Rockets last night to put them back in second place in the Southwest division only 3 games back of the Spurs. 

Continue reading "Dallas Mavericks Are Getting It Done"

     The Mavs have lost 5 of their last 5 and 9 games total this season. Mercifully, the New Orleans Hornets lost tonight as well, and the Mavericks didn’t lose any ground in the division. Friday, the Mavericks will square off against the Hornets, and as of now, the Mavericks are a half game back of them in the Southwest division and 4 games back of San Antonio, who looks like the real deal defending world champs. 

Continue reading "What's Going on with the Mavs?"