[ddh33]

Wow! That was an offensive clinic put on by the Mavs tonight. Every player who played scored, and the team looked energized and impressive. Dallas shot 61% from the field. They also out-rebounded the Kings 44-26, and they had 29 assists.

I thought the defense was spotty. There were times the Mavs played excellent defense, but for the most part, the team wasn't as impressive on that end of the floor. I thought the Kings offense looked much better than it did earlier in the season. A lot of their ball movement is back, and that seemed to hurt the Mavs as much as anything. Dallas was aggressive in the passing lanes, and they were beat backdoor for layups several times. Bonzi Wells also hurt the team a little bit on penetration. In all honesty though, playing defense in a game like tonight's is actually a hard thing to do. The game was out of hand early, and the Kings had no answer for Dallas. That makes it way too easy to put your game on cruise control.

I thought Dirk Nowitzki was very impressive tonight. I'm sure that many have noticed how long Dirk's memory is. I think he showed that again tonight. There were tears and wailing after the last match-up against the Kings when Artest played Dirk physically and forced more missed shots than usual. I think Dirk wanted to show that it was a fluke. Now, I don't know if Dirk is the MVP. He gets my vote, of course, but all he does is throw up 25-30+ points a night. 29-7-2 from 17 shots in 31 minutes. It's tough to argue with that kind of production.

Behind Dirk, I thought Josh Powell really showed some things. I love the athleticism, and I love the fact that he isn't scared of contact. those are things you just can't teach. Either you will stick your nose in the pile or you won't, and Josh does. Powell had a spectacular block tonight, and he showed more of his jumper, knocking down several from around 18 feet. I think he's really trying to make a case about being able to help this team in the playoffs. But first, he's going to have to improve in a couple of key areas. Powell still telegraphs his passes and makes some bad decisions. I think a lot of those things can be attributed to youth and inexperience, so there's hope that it may improve. He's also going to have to show more restraint on defense. He got himself out of position a couple of times and committed some needless fouls. All in all though, I thought he was a positive for the game, and he showed some nice glimpses.

Josh Howard is such an important part to this team. I think he's actually underrated - even in Dallas. One of the things that stood out in my mind from tonight's game was seeing those familiar cross-matches. Artest, the Kings small forward, takes Dirk, the Mavs power forward. If that is going to happen, you have to have someone at the three who can take advantage of those mismatches. During this rough stretch with injury, the Mavs really haven't. Josh does. 23-8-4 in 28 minutes.

It was great to see Marquis back, as well. Daniels is such an enigma to me. I remember the rookie who looked like a future star, and then I see a guy making bad decisions and constantly being out of position. Tonight, I saw more glimpses of that rookie. Daniels had the ball in his hands a lot tonight. I am on record from way back as supporting that. Terry is then allowed to play off the ball more and be used as a scoring threat. Daniels, meanwhile, just seems to play better in that role. Quis handed out 5 assists against 0 turnovers. He snagged 4 rebounds. He got to the free throw line and finished with 11 efficient points.

Jerry Stackhouse continues his stay in the starting lineup, but I liked how Jerry didn't seem to force nearly as much tonight. He took 11 shots to get 10 points, but he did hand out 5 assists. I thought Stack was the big culprit on defense tonight. He really struggled with Wells. Stack looked limited laterally, so I hope that his minutes are able to reigned in just a little between now and the playoffs.

Rawle Marshall got into the game and had a nifty little move that led to a basket. I like the look of that player though, and I think he's got potential after some more work.

Darrell Armstrong did his thing too. DA got 3 assists in his 11 minutes, committed a couple of fouls, got hit the nose. You know, the usual.

I really liked Jason Terry's night though. Terry was very solid defensively against Mike Bibby, and he was very good on offense. JT shot 13 times and finished with 18 points. But I thought he did his best work by pushing the ball a little more and making the right pass on time. His 8 assists seem to confirm that. If he can do that consistently, this team is down right scary.

Desagana Diop only played 12 minutes. He did get 4 rebounds and a nice tip in.

Behind him, Erick Dampier was very solid. It seems like Damp is the lightning rod for criticism on this team, but he's actually been very consistent since he went to the bench. Tonight, Damp got 10 points on three shots. He had 8 rebounds, clogged up the lane effectively, and he even made a couple of nifty passes.

DJ Mbenga was also impressive in his limited time tonight. I know people call it "garbage" time, but DJ wants to prove something in those minutes. What was impressive about his game tonight was his mid range jump shot. He seems pretty confident in that aspect of his game, and maybe he should. He went 4-4.

I think Avery Johnson and this coaching staff deserve some credit too. It's no secret the team has had their hands full lately with everything that has been going on, and guys coming in and out of the lineup. Avery seems to have done a good job of rallying the troops and getting their attention again, and they have shown in the last two games just how much distance there is between this team and the middle tier of Western conference teams. Next up, is the big bad leader in the West though...