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So Far This Season:
DAL 124 @ 114 NYK

Discuss the game here.

GO MAVS

Sefko recaps the game and compares the Mavs to the Cowboys -- and not it in a good way.

About three months ago, another Dallas team was beating lame teams by slim margins and claiming all was right with the world.

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Terry made it pretty clear with his postgame quotes that they know last night was not cool.

"But no, we didn't play well, didn't play well at all, can't sugarcoat it. It's just we've had two bad games in a row. We're fortunate to get away with a win, but it is what it is."

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If I had felt like doing a 'notes and quotes' post last night, I definitely would have mentioned that I think Antoine Wright deserves to start tomorrow against New York.  Carlisle is still saying he wants someone to fill that starting spot permanently.

...the job description for the starting two-guard spot is simple.

"Basically to play six to eight minutes at the beginning of each half," Carlisle said, "and play solid, and bring something to the table that can help us be a real solid unit during that stretch."

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Jerry Stackhouse.  He's still on the team, just wanted to remind everyone because I had kind of forgotten.

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Jim Reeves has an article this morning which I find so annoying that I don't even want to link to it, but here it is anyway.  He basically says it's time to trade Josh Howard.  He points to Howard being inconsistent as the reason, but mentions his off the court stuff and dislike of the media as often as anything else.

Now, he sees a guy coming with a notebook or a tape recorder, he scuttles out of the room like a bashful cockroach.

Then again, guess I shouldn't use any form of the word "roach" when talking about Josh.

He ends the article by calling Howard the "most important player on the team", which he not only doesn't back up but also seems to contradict his point entirely...

Yeah, the last 60 seconds were exciting.  I jumped off the couch after the Kidd steal and Terry layup.  And I don't care.  I'm pissed.

Even ignoring that this came after a 20 point loss to Memphis, this game was poised to be the low point of the Mavs season.  They say every game is hard in the NBA.  And I know what it means -- every team has really good basketball players on it.  But this wasn't just an NBA team, it's a bad NBA team.  And tonight it was half of a bad NBA team.

The fact that Dallas not only didn't win by 20, but almost freaking lost is a joke.  We just witnessed one of the most pathetic wins any team will have all season.  But hey, what do you expect when you "don't play defense" [-Jason Kidd] and are a jump shooting team who isn't "going to shoot a high percentage" [-Jason Terry].

Clips Nation - Clipper Blog - Sefko Preview - NBA.com Preview - Clippers Last 5: LLLLL - Dallas Favored by 12.5 - Over/Under 185

So Far This Season:
DAL 92 @ 103 LAC
LAC 98 @ 100 DAL
LAC 76 @ 98 DAL

Discuss the game here.

GO MAVS

OK, I'm home at lunch today, turn on the TV, and having left it on ESPN last night 1st an 10 is on.  I've never watched that show before because there are about a million other things I'd rather do than listen to Skip Bayless and Jemele Hill talk about anything, but they were discussing whether or not LeBron traveled in the final play of their loss to Washington yesterday.  And it wasn't just 1st and 10, this is apparently a topic of conversation today.  I have no idea why.  It's obvious he traveled.  Only LeBron's teammates and the blindest of Cavs fans seem to be saying that "when LeBron takes three steps it's not traveling, it's awesome."  Yet because it was called against 'King James' it's a 'hot topic'.

It's a sad statement, but not a surprising one, on the state of NBA officiating when obvious correct calls are still debated just because whom they were called on.

Ugh, what a horrible game yesterday.

"When we win games, it's because of our defense, and tonight we were a no-show," Jason Kidd said. "Defensively, we were terrible. Offensively, we weren't that good either."

It's annoying to see the Mavs unable to convince themselves to play well against lesser opponents, but a scarier thought is that maybe they just can't.  I'm not to that point yet, but Dirk sees the obvious trend.

"We've been down 10, 12, 15 [points]; we were even down 30 [actually 29] the other night against Minnesota, so I don't think it has anything to do with Memphis," said Dirk Nowitzki, who had 28 points, but just six in the second half."We always have to fight back. We did that over the last couple of weeks, but at some point all the fighting back is going to haunt you and come back and hurt you."

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Mike Fisher goes over his pregame plan to see where Dallas went wrong (hint: everywhere).

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Sefko says Rick Carlisle's substitutions didn't work yesterday, but do we really think it mattered?

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Caplan has a little on Howard's inconsistent performances.

"We need him to be aggressive defensively and offensively," Jason Kidd
said. "For him, it's rebounding; we need him to play like he did against the Clippers in LA, fill up the stat sheet, and we didn't get that from him [Sunday]."

Maybe we just need Dirk to sit out a game to get him back on track.

Sefko Preview - NBA.com Preview - Memphis Last 5: WLLLL - Dallas Favored by 6 - Over/Under 188

So Far This Season:
MEM 76 @ 91 DAL
MEM 82 @ 100 DAL

Discuss the game here.

GO MAVS

- With the win tonight, Dallas is 20-12 through the first 32 games.  Last season they were 21-11 through the first 32. 

- Carlisle has said all season that everyone's time will come.  Tonight was Gerald Green's -- he played the final two seconds of the 1st quarter.  In those two seconds he watched PHI make a free throw and Dampier turn it over on a 50 foot inbounds pass.  Green did not see the court again until there were nine seconds remaining.  I'm trying to figure out what Green's role was supposed to be in those two seconds.   Perhaps it's a sign that Green's turn in the ever-changing bench rotation is coming as Singleton was a DNP.

- Dallas missed all five of their 3PA's in the first quarter, but Barea started off the 2nd by making two in a row.

- Dirk's four steals were the most he has had in regular season game since the 05/06 season.

- Mark Followill was clearly spoiled by the great comeback.  Anticipating the same second half domination, he said "the onslaught is on" after an 8-4 start to the 4th quarter.  The score was 74-70 and one minute later the game was tied.

- With a minute and thirty seconds left in the game, the entire Mavs coaching staff was up directing the defense.  When the possession turned into Igoudala trying to go one-on-one against Kidd they stopped and watched.  Igoudala ended up missing a well defended jump shot with Kidd's entire hand an inch away from his face.  Great defense all night by Kidd.  And Bob Ortegel said nobody would write about it...

- The TV crew pointed out  that coming into tonight's game Jason Terry was 2nd in the NBA in 4th quarter points.  He added six more to his total tonight, all in the final five minutes as Dallas came out of a timeout and decided to finish Philly off with the Dirk/Terry two-man game.  It worked.  In the three minutes after the timeout, Dirk and Terry scored the teams next 13 points and did not miss -- the lead increased from 2 to 9, and the game was pretty much over.

Postgame Quotes

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