GDT- Mavs @ Heat

[rabbitproof]

First GDT and it's a dangerous one... having huge trap potential and being a roadie... but what they, someone's gotta do it.

Mavs 109
Marion 24
rest of Heat 12

[Lor20]

miami might be without marion and for sure without wade, banks,Dorell, mourning... which would make it a cakewalk..
they only had 8 healthy players on friday, might be the same today. we should attack the basket and get them into foul trouble early - see if we cant get those 8 players down to 6 :-P. What happens if a team only has 4 players left?

[LonghornDub]

Originally Posted by Lor20

miami might be without marion and for sure without wade, banks,Dorell, mourning... which would make it a cakewalk..
they only had 8 healthy players on friday, might be the same today. we should attack the basket and get them into foul trouble early - see if we cant get those 8 players down to 6 :-P. What happens if a team only has 4 players left?

The last player to foul out gets to come back in, but every time he commits a foul after that, it's a technical + the personal.

[mqywaaah]

Mavs win this one. Miami's looking good nowadays!! Posting 14 straight victories and with Wade having an Mvp season. Wow! This is gonna be a tough one.

[left texas]

Stat sheet stuffer game.

[left texas]

A great read from the Fish. link

7 Deadly Sins
Mavs Morphing From Sinners To Winners
By Mike Fisher -- DB.com


As a good Catholic boy who has matured into a. … well, a bad Catholic boy, I’m a little troubled by the Pope’s decision to burden us with seven more sins. (To my relief, not on Benedict XVI’s ban list: dot-commer media credentials to Mavs games.)

The seven “new’’ social sins are: 1)``Bioethical' violations such as birth control, 2) ``Morally dubious'' experiments such as stem-cell research, 3) Drug abuse, 4) Polluting the environment, 5) Contributing to divide between rich and poor, 6) Excessive wealth and 7) Creating poverty. Now, the entire list seems “dubious’’ to me. Therefore I prefer to stick with the old standbys, The Seven Deadly Sins – and today I apply them to my suddenly saintly Dallas Mavericks and their 118-93 home win over the Bobcats:



Envy: As it regards the West, an inappropriate emotion for the Mavs. There are at least a couple of voices inside Dallas HQ who firmly believe this is (and I quote) “the best Mavericks team we (the Cuban/Nellie/Avery era) have ever had here.’’

Let’s consider that for a moment: The previous “best’’ Mavs arguably featured “The Big Three.’’ And now? Dirk, the defending MVP, is at the very peak of his greatness. This Kidd is better than that Nash. J-Ho is (arguably) superior to Finley. Those teams never had a center as productive as Dampier, never had a sixth man as accomplished as Jet/Stack, and as one staffer put it, “those teams had people on the roster who could not play. There isn’t anybody on this (year’s) roster who cannot play.’’



A comparison to the NBA Finals Mavs? The coach is more experienced, Dirk is improved, and Kidd supplants Devin. This year’s edition – on paper – would beat that team.

Therefore. …

With all due respect to Gasol joining The Drama Queen, and to Manu becoming an MVP-caliber sidekick to Duncan, and to the emergence of Paul and the girth of Shaq and all the rest of the powerful storylines in the West, this is (arguably, again) The Best Mavericks Team We’ve Ever Had.’’

That means that during the season’s stretch run, you CRUSH bad teams at home, as Dallas has now done in three straight games. Dallas is 42-23, with an average margin of victory in these three games of 25 points, this time dominating the Bobcats with a first half that included four steals, six blocked shots, 20 Josh Howard points and a 67-45 intermission lead.

That also means that there can be reasons for failure but not excuses. That means the big games facing Dallas next week represent not obstacles but opportunities. That means there is no reason to “envy’’ these foes – and every reason to believe the Mavs are capable of defeating them.

Pride: The slings and arrows are coming from all angles – even from the Flu Bug Gods, who requested Avery Johnson’s presence in the restroom during the second quarter -- and the coach’s response to them has created the impression that he’s overreacting to everything.

Example: From what I understand, no, the coach’s paranoia didn’t have anything to do with the ostensible handcuff slapped on the now-martyred Dallas Morning News blogger Tim MacMahon; in fact, my belief is that the supposed reason for the “ban’’ – Tim writing about the Fire Avery movement – had nothing to do with it. (It’s very clever of the DMNews to create that appearance, however.)



Anyway, Avery’s status is now such that the public assumes every organizational pimple is the coach’s fault. And yes, the “Poisonous Journalists’’ are hot on Avery’s heels, including Gentleman Charles Barkley – more a member of Avery’s fraternity than of mine – who took a break from TNT to appear in Dallas on Wednesday at the SMU Athletic Forum.

Said Barkley of Avery’s lineup change in Golden State last year and his benching of Kidd in San Antonio this year: “”All coaches make mistakes but he’s make two doozies, and it came back to haunt him. … I don’t mind people criticizing anybody, if it’s legit. And Avery’s made two doozies.’’

Avery Johnson has always been tightly wound; we’ve written repeatedly how Del Harris used to try to convince the young head coach that he couldn’t risk popping a blood vessel over every single missed shot and every single turnover. (It helps that on Wednesday, Dallas shot 34 percent and the two PGs, Kidd and Lue, combined for zero turnovers.) Right now, Avery seems tightly-wound because he’s been challenged, because the honeymoon is over.

But pride in the form of ego or narcissism has no place now. Forget about fronting the media. Forget about who needs to appear to be the “leader.’’ Forget about “I’s’’ and “they’s.’’ Johnson is a proud man, in the positive sense of the word, and can now supplement his terrific accomplishments and all that well-earned pride by becoming a better listener, a more flexible boss, an even better coach.





Gluttony: ”Temperance of desire of goods and services.’’ I could just make a Gov. Eliot Spitzer joke here. (“Spitzer Swallows’’ is the punchline; I’m still crafting the setup.) Instead, let’s touch on the way the Mavs this year have gobbled up swingmen. … and have just now settled on Jerry Stackhouse as the starter.

I refer you to David Moore’s good work on this subject featuring the opening line about Stack watching as Dallas allowed “every guard with a pulse to start except him.’’ Devean and Jet and Ager and and Hassell and Eddie and talk of Josh at the 2 and fans clamoring for Wright at the 2. … The Mavs have been gluttons in their collecting of “starting’’ 2’s – and have in most cases done nothing but induce vomiting.

And now along comes Stack. He scored 10 points with six assists against Charlotte, and it is worth pointing out that for the season, Dallas is 4-1 when he starts.

I’m not yet ready for Avery to follow through on what he said Monday (that Stack will be the guy to cover the Kobes and the T-Macs). I like better what he said Thursday (that Josh will be that guy). But I do like the idea that Dallas has thrown eight 2-guards into the Battle Royale ring and that Jerry Stackhouse is doing his best to be the last one standing.




Lust: We can go with the literal meaning and, following Art Garcia’s tip, direct you to the lustworthy Mavs Dancers, who need your vote to go all the way. (They’re not going to “go all the way’’ like that, jackass. A Mavs Dancer is not that kind of girl.) Or we can be more figurative, and remind you of the way Dallas lusted after Bobcats standout Gerald Wallace in the offseason. Maybe ESPN.com’s Bill Simmons should include that as one of his “What If’s?’’ (It’s nice to know that four years after the rest of us have let go of Steve Nash, Bill is still clinging to it for cheap column filler.)

Let’s instead play “What If?’’ on Wallace. Well, maybe he gets elbowed in the face and sits out and the team starts playing better without him and now he is scared to play inside and as gifted as he is, his club doesn’t quite know what to do with him. … All those things have come true in Charlotte. Meanwhile, what the Mavs did in terms of a summer acquisition of a power forward – snare an under-the-radar Brandon Bass – deserves another nod. “The Animal’’ was the pivot piece in the second quarter, when Dallas jump up 51-33 as Bass scored 10 of the Mavs’ 15 points. He finished 7-of-8 for 16 points.

Earlier this week Avery joked about how he recruited fellow Louisiana native Bass. “I went into the boondocks, fought off the alligators, and got him myself,’’ said the coach, a line so funny it might’ve come from Simmons’ imaginative pen.

So what if Dallas kept Nash, or got Wallace, or got KG, or got Shaq? If “ifs’’ and “buts’’ were candy and nuts, I’d be lounging in Simmons’ poolside chair at the Beverly Hills Hotel, writing screenplays while getting foot massages from Halle Barry.

Ah. … what if! But instead, like the Mavericks, I am forced to deal with reality. So instead I’m lounging on the couch, battling the flu, watching “Jeopardy’’ and telling my son that, yes, maybe we’ll go bowling today.




Anger: Josh Howard, this sin is for you! J-Ho expressed some displeasure with the frequency with which he’s been asked the “When-you-gonna-click-with-Kidd?’’ question. Against the Bobcats, he finally figured out the answer: You shut ‘em up by. … clicking with Kidd.

Howard was terrific, with those 20 first-half points, and 24 for the game, with seven rebounds and six assists. Just as important, he drew the assignment of shadowing Mavs-killer Jason Richardson, the Warrior-turned-Bobcat, and completely stifled him. Richardson – the Eastern Conference Player of the Week who has been a 29-ppg guy of late – was held by Josh to 11 points on 4-of-16 shooting.

“Josh did a great job on Richardson,’’ said Dirk Nowitzki, who has his own nice line with 26 points, nine rebounds, three assists and three steals, all in just 28 minutes. “If he plays like that, we’re going to be tough to beat.’’

The implication is obvious: The Mavs now know what they have in the other key bodies (Dirk, Damp, Stack, Kidd, Terry, Bass) and if Josh can just play like Josh. …

So congratulations to Josh Howard, Our Angry Young Man, who has maybe figured out what do with the anger he feels about the deaths in his family and the trades of his buddies: Funnel it. Channel it. Be angry at the other team.

Greed: Meant to be the opposite of generosity, and not much of a problem for the Kidd Era Mavericks. The Mavs dished out a season-high 34 assists in this game. … and remember, this is the same club that pre-Kidd was ranked 29th in NBA assists. And look at the individual digits in this game: Kidd with eight dimes, Stack with a season-high six, Josh with six, Dirk and Terry with three each, Dampier and Wright with two each, and four more guys with one.

The assists feed more assists. The steals feed more steals. The fast break leads to more fast breaks. Dallas scored 24 points on the break. That’s the fifth time in eight games the Mavs have scored 20 or more in that fashion. In the 53-game pre-Kidd Era, Dallas scored 20 fast-break points just seven times.

That’s all about Jason Kidd, and his on-court generosity.

“When we’re moving the ball, running up and down the floor and having fun, we can play with anyone in this league.”

That’s not a quote from Kidd. That’s a quote from Damp. That’s how much Kidd’s generosity rubs off; even Erick Dampier starts talking like a quarterback.




Sloth: After the morning shootaround on Wednesday, I stood alongside Jerry Stackhouse as he served as team spokesman for the collected media. He wore a huge bandage on his right cheek and a scowl on the rest of his face.

“We might be better suited to go into the playoffs this year than we were last year,’’ Stack said, essentially discussing sloth, which is the failure to utilize one’s talents and gifts. “I think we had so many highs and an easy road during the regular season last year, and then we got to the playoffs, saw a little adversity, and didn’t handle it well. Obviously, we’ve dealt with some adversity this year, so maybe that will help us this time around.’’

[left texas]

As we wonder where we will finish in the seedings for the playoffs. Maybe we would like to get paired up against a rival. Here is an interesting stat: SPURS HAVE A LOSING MARK AGAINST THE BEST OF THE WEST With their loss to New Orleans, the Spurs record dropped to 9-11 this season in games against the top eight teams in the Western Conference. In games between teams from the West that would qualify for the playoffs if the season ended today, only Phoenix (6-14) has a worse record than San Antonio.

[Underdog]

Originally Posted by left texas

As we wonder where we will finish in the seedings for the playoffs. Maybe we would like to get paired up against a rival. Here is an interesting stat: SPURS HAVE A LOSING MARK AGAINST THE BEST OF THE WEST With their loss to New Orleans, the Spurs record dropped to 9-11 this season in games against the top eight teams in the Western Conference. In games between teams from the West that would qualify for the playoffs if the season ended today, only Phoenix (6-14) has a worse record than San Antonio.

Looking at the current seeding, would anyone be surprised if the defending champs in San Antonio lost to Golden State in the first round or if Phoenix missed the playoffs completely? Anything seems possible in the West right now...

[horse900703]

should be an easy game!!!!!

[mqywaaah]

Originally Posted by horse900703

should be a easy game!!!!!

A E I O U?

[mqywaaah]

Really excited to see what Lue can offer more. GO MAVS!!!!

[LSMF]

I hope they embarrass those fools, I've never forgiven them for the 2006 finals, and how come every time these two teams meet during the season D-fake doesn't play for some reason? D-fake is scared of the mavs.

[mary]

So...they're playing Shaw Marion...and....who? Jason Williams? ......*drawing a blank*......oh yeah Udonis Haslem.


Dirk is playing against two "Previously-Deemed-Dirk-stoppers".


Let it rain.

[dude1394]

Mavs hound, harass, humiliate, hassle and hammer the heat into a hasty pudding.

Mavs 117-89...

[roadrunner]

How is the spread only 5 points for this game? Oh well, this is a different Mavs team than earlier in the year when they were dropping head scratching road games to weak eastern teams. Should be another blowout. Mavs 120-89.

[dude1394]

Originally Posted by roadrunner

How is the spread only 5 points for this game? Oh well, this is a different Mavs team than earlier in the year when they were dropping head scratching road games to weak eastern teams. Should be another blowout. Mavs 120-89.

Interesting. Their road record is pretty atrocious. That part will be interesting to contemplate.

[Lor20]

its a 5 spread cuz there was no line cuz its not sure wether marion is in or not- so its not really a spread.
our road record is bad but we still won more on the road than miami has won overall

[LonghornDub]

Originally Posted by roadrunner

How is the spread only 5 points for this game? Oh well, this is a different Mavs team than earlier in the year when they were dropping head scratching road games to weak eastern teams. Should be another blowout. Mavs 120-89.

U2 just made up a spread of 5 points because there isn't an official spread due to questions on Marion's availability.

*edit* Whoops, guy above me already answered this question.

[WraithXx]

These are the games that I mark on my schedule... ever since Finals 2006...

I want pain, I want blood, I want death.

[fluid.forty.one]

GO MAVS!

[monty55555]

Any link for this game would be much appreciated.

Thanks a lot.

[roadrunner]

Originally Posted by WraithXx

These are the games that I mark on my schedule... ever since Finals 2006...

I want pain, I want blood, I want death.

cosign

[roadrunner]

Well, I went all in on the our Mavs against spread...so, I can thank U2 for the gimme if it holds.

[Rick41]

Total domination this evening.

[StackAttack]

It's been a long time since I was this excited to watch the Mavs; I even count down the minutes to games against the Miami Heat.

Thank you, Jason Kidd.

[Lor20]

man the lakers suck ass without gasol and bynum. they wont even be a challenge in dallas next week. seems like boston will be the toughest of the three big games next week.

[dude1394]

It's a good thing that the dallasmorningnews has a blogger for the mavs, becasue their official one Art Garcia is starting to blow wind. Game day and he hasn't posted a durn thing.

No wonder cubes banned mcmahon, he was kicking his bloggers rear end.

The '06 Heat will always have a painful place in the memories of Mavs fans. The Mavs trip to Miami is a reminder of the Finals collapse, but the Heat's personnel certainly won't look familiar.

Odds are only one starter from the '06 Finals will suit up for the Heat today.

Shaq escaped to Phoenix. Dwyane Wade is done for the season. Antoine Walker is rotting at the end of the Timberwolves' bench.

Udonis Haslem is listed as questionable, but the Miami Herald reports that the Heat is consider shutting him down for the season, too. That leaves only Jason Williams, who a contender for the title of worst starting point guards on an NBA championship team.

I give the heat credit, when they go after lottery balls, they go after lottery balls man.

[Dirkadirkastan]

Originally Posted by WraithXx

These are the games that I mark on my schedule... ever since Finals 2006...

I want pain, I want blood, I want death.

Dwayne "Pussy" Wade has only played in one game against Dallas since... then.

And he's not playing tonight.

He's afraid. So very, very afraid.

[monty55555]

Just an hour away! Go Mavs!

Any link please?

Thanks!

[Robillion]

Mavs vs Marion...

The word "Marion" was mentioned in the Mavs-Miami preview 12 times compared to the word "Miami" at 6 times and the word "Heat" at 6 times.
http://www.nba.com/games/20080316/DA...scoreboardhome

[horse900703]

Hornets lost this afternoon!

[Dr.Zoidberg]

Game Link:

Click me

[sic62]

can ya reup the link please?

[monty55555]

Originally Posted by Dr.Zoidberg

Game Link:

Didn't get it Dr. Z...

Again please?

[bcrav4]

This should work in WMP:

http://nba.edgeboss.net/wmedia-live/as2sg7I**cHw9xacuconwxpfLFxhH9KVl4OlXMQXR3IWqkn0qx HWgUoyquWooNkYsRspZjt8TNOkDdyJ1pjT9bb!5EUSD1U!vrTe ixQtk7OBVS4m3Ilp604raUvTYPEQB?e=.asx

[purplefrog]

Mavs win 114 - 80. JET leads the way with 34 points. Kidd dishes out 17 dimes. Dirk mostly rests.

[Dr.Zoidberg]

Game Link:

Click me

[monty55555]

Originally Posted by bcrav4

This should work in WMP:

http://nba.edgeboss.net/wmedia-live/as2sg7I**cHw9xacuconwxpfLFxhH9KVl4OlXMQXR3IWqkn0qx HWgUoyquWooNkYsRspZjt8TNOkDdyJ1pjT9bb!5EUSD1U!vrTe ixQtk7OBVS4m3Ilp604raUvTYPEQB?e=.asx

Thanks a lot.

[monty55555]

Originally Posted by Dr.Zoidberg

Game Link:

Thanks!

[horse900703]

Originally Posted by Dr.Zoidberg

Game Link:

thanks~