[cinemablend]

Wow. What a complete game. What a complete spanking... over an actually good team too. The Mavs dominated in every aspect.

What I loved most about this game is that the Mavs won not just by outhustling their opponent (which they did) and outscoring their opponent (which they did) and playing tougher defense than their opponent (against a team which most would rate as much better defensively than the mavs)... but most importantly by playing SMARTER than their opponent.

It was like the Mavs were playing a Chess game out there while the Utah Jazz were playing Checkers.

The way the Mavs picked apart the Utah zone was a thing of BEAUTY.

And please please please let this be the long awaited return of the REAL Josh Howard. The guy who plays smart, maximum effort defense and takes it hard to the basket regardless of the consequences to his body. The guy who gets in the paint and rebounds hard, even if it's against guys twice his weight. I don't care how many points he scores, if Josh Howard plays like this every night the Mavs might shock everyone in the playoffs.

If the Mavs beat New Orleans, I'm totally on the band wagon. Could this team actually be streaking into the playoffs on a hot streak for the first time?