January Will Be a Month to Remember for the Mavericks

[BGMaverick9]

The month of January was an interesting one for the Mavericks. They had to endure the season-ending injury to Caron Butler during the first game of the month. The team also had to endure the longest stretch of games lost due to injury for Dirk Nowitzki. Imagine the Spurs without Duncan and Ginboli, the Lakers without Bryant and Odom...how would those teams fare? They probably would have performed similar to the Mavericks as they started the month losing eight of their first 11 games. Things were corrected along the way and now, they have won their last five consecutive games.

With all of the ups and downs, the Mavericks are just half game out of second place in the Western Conference. Coach Rick Carlisle admitted that it used to be a regular routine to observe the standings, but that isn’t the case now. "I just really concentrate day-to-day on us. Right now, we just need to study our own game," Carlisle said. "The important thing is we’ve got to play our games well, we’ve got to keep improving as a team, we’ve got to keep improving our health. Those are the things that are going to impact us the most."

you can read more at http://www.mavsmoneyball.com/2011/2/...-the-mavericks

[fluid.forty.one]

At least we didn't have our first losing January since 1998.

[LSMF]

nm