FireAvery.com - A Dallas Mavericks Blog

Taking Care of Business

Another weak East team, another easy win for the Mavericks, as it should be. No Mav played more than 32 minutes in the win, with Dirk only need 22 minutes to rack up 18 points and 8 boards.

Stackhouse got the start again, which I am really liking right now. His willingness to go the basket, plus the extra size to start games, seems to have helped out this team the last two games. It also looks like he plays really well with Josh Howard as they had several nice plays together in the opening quarter.

Jason Terry coming off the bench also seems to be a better place for him right now. I don’t know if it’s a chip on his shoulder for not starting or playing against lesser defenders when he comes in the games but he lit it up for the second straight, this time finishing with 18 points and 5 assists in 26 minutes.

It’s really amazing how bad the Knicks are and it’s mind-boggling how Isiah Thomas has a job. When you have a coach like Avery around, which regardless of how he’s been this year there is no doubt he’s done great things for this team, you start to take a good coach for granted. So as Avery’s performance is scrutinized for the rest of the season it’s almost necessary to take a step back and be thankful things are not nearly as bad as they could be.

This brings the Mavs to 6-5 since the Kidd trade with the 6 wins coming against teams with sub-.500 records. They are now 3.5 games out of first place in the conference and 3.5 games away from missing the playoffs with a 41-23 record. Meanwhile in the East the Atlanta Hawks are currently holding down the 8th spot with a 26-37 record, 24.5 games out of first.