At least Dirk, JET, Bass and Damp are out there at least showing a little effort. Unfortunately effort alone doesn’t get you wins in this league. And right now this team needs a lot of work.

Of course having your head coach roll out freaking J.J. Barea in the second quarter while you’re holding on to a 9 point doesn’t help matters any. Seriously, what the hell was Avery thinking there? There is absolutely no reason for Barea to see the floor in this series. The kid may have potential, but that’s what summer leagues, the pre-season and early season games are for. Not pivotal game fours in an important playoff series.

To go along with that Stack played for 15:10 and provided absolutely nothing. He shouldn’t be on the floor at all right and Avery should be able to recognize that. I know he probably wouldn’t help, but would at least trying Antoine Wright for a few minutes hurt? I know I just got done saying young guys don’t need to be playing, but at least Wright is healthy. Or if not him put Eddie Jones out there to see if he can give you something besides a combined 4-21 from Stack and Howard.

There’s more to be said about lineups and coaching decisions tonight, but I’ll let you guys handle that.

Just a disappointing game and Tuesday will most likely be the final game for this group of guys. More tomorrow.

Quick disclaimer before I get into this post.  I was at the game, but before hand I indulged quite heavily in Hooter’s $1.99 domestic pint happy hour.  So any thoughts in this post are bound to be short or incomplete.

Let’s start by talking about the monster that is Dirk.  32 points, 19 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 blocks.   You can’t ask much more from any player than what Dirk gave tonight.

Jason Terry was also money tonight, going for 22 points including a dagger three with 1:39 left.  He also did an outstanding job guard Chris Paul tonight.

Avery’s adjustments for tonight’s game were very good.  Starting Terry and having him guard Paul was a great move.  Both Terry and Kidd deserve major credit for the defensive job they did tonight.  They fought through picks to stay on Paul all night.  This prevented any horrible mismatches with Dirk, Damp or Bass having to try to guard Paul off the pick.  And having Damp start off on West was a good move as it prevented West from getting easy layups and dunks off the pick and roll.

The overall defensive effort was outstanding tonight.  I’ll take Jannero Pargo going 12-20 and being the Hornets leading scorer any night.  Paul, Chandler and West went a combined 12-43 from the floor.  Very nice.

Avery also keep a much tighter lineup tonight by basically going with a 7 man rotation.  Malik Allen and Jerry Stackhouse only played a combined 10 minutes.  Other than that it was all Kidd, Howard, Dirk, Terry, Damp, George and Bass.  That type of rotation management is going to be key the rest of the games in this series.  Like I’ve said previously, the playoffs aren’t the time to limit Dirk’s and Kidd’s minutes to around 38-40 a game.  They need to be playing 44-46 a night and that worked out for the Mavs tonight.

Just a great game by everyone involved tonight.  The AAC was rocking all night long and it was just fun to watch this team play a game like that.  Of course the Mavs are still down 2-1 in the series so I’m going to hold off on getting too excited until the game Sunday, but if they can keep up the energy levels and just all around solid play tonight they can extend this series out to 6 or 7 games.

The Mavericks had a 7 point lead going at the end of the first quarter. So what does Avery decide to do to start the second? Run a lineup of Eddie Jones, Juwan Howard, Jason Terry, Josh Howard and Brandon Bass. I’ll never understand his insistence of putting the entire second unit on the floor at the same time. While that lineup was on the floor the Hornets cut the lead to 3. The rest of the second the Mavs had much better sub patterns and ran off to a 12 point lead at the half.

At the start of the third quarter the Hornets immediately went on a 8-2 run. Late in the quarter the Hornets had a 16-3 run. Overall the Mavs were outscored 36-20 during the quarter. It just goes to show who the better coach on the floor was yesterday. Byron Scott made adjustments during half-time and his team was better for it. Avery failed to react to what was happening on the floor and the Mavericks were outscored by 16.

Things didn’t get any better in the fourth quarter which opened with a 15-4 New Orleans run. For some unknown reason that run involved almost 2 minutes where Dirk was on the bench. It just seems strange to me to sit the guy who is obviously your best player on the night during a run by the other team.

The lack of lineup changes based on how Stack and Howard were playing especially questionable. Stackhouse didn’t make a bucket until the fourth. If a guy that is coming off an injury is shooting 0-7 during the first three quarters and not exactly doing all the much on the defensive end maybe he should be taken out of the game a little more. Giving Eddie Jones, who is a better defender, or Devean George, also a better defender, more looks might have been helpful.

Josh Howard was also depressing to watch. In the first quarter he was getting inside the lane and to the basket and shot 3-4. After that he became jump-shooting Josh Howard and didn’t contribute much at all the rest of the way.

Avery is now 2-6 in game one’s in the playoffs. That should be very telling to anyone who thinks he’s the coach this team needs to win. He’s incapable of making adjustments during half-time of these games and apparently has some problems coming up with game plans. Here’s what Avery said about the momentum in the first and second half.

“Between settling for jump shots and turning the ball over….the momentum swung. We had the momentum in the first half, they had the momentum in the second half.”

Yes, the Mavericks did start taking a lot of jumpers after the half. But isn’t Avery the guy that’s supposed to get them to stick to whatever game plan they had? And what does it say about him that his team apparently isn’t doing what he wants done?

There’s no doubt that New Orleans came out to win this game.  At the start of the first half it looked like they may run away with it but the Mavs stepped it up on D and got back in the game.  After trying to give the game away a few more times the Mavs end up with the 13 point win.

But enough about the game, it’s time for the playoffs.

This was by far the best possible outcome for the Mavericks.  They get to play an untested playoff team that’s been struggling down the stretch.  Compare that to possibly having to play Kobe in the first round and that’s no doubt the Hornets are the desirable choice.  There are still plenty of questions about the Mavericks and what Avery is going to do however.

I think it’s a good idea to put a half-court trap on Chris Paul like Avery had them several times through the game.  But it needs to be done with someone besides Dirk or Damp/Bass.  Bringing a big out to trap led to a layup line for David West and Tyson Chandler.

The other thing that’s bothering me right now is Brandon Bass’ play tonight.  Don’t get me wrong, it was good to see and he definitely helped the Mavs win the game, but what kind of impression did it leave on Avery?  There’s no way he would sit Damp and start Bass, is there?

Much more to come in the next few days so keep checking back.

Maybe the Mavs just wanted to let the Sonics say a nice goodbye to Seattle tonight. That’s the only thing I can think of to explain the collapse in the fourth quarter. I didn’t see too much of the game, just the last couple of minutes. But how can a team that gives up a 7-0 run late in a close game to a team like the Sonics be considered a playoff threat? And when you have three timeouts called in the last 40 seconds shouldn’t you be able to draw up some kind of play that will work?

Coming out of the first time out I knew it was going to be a Dirk isolation. Of course it was and Dirk got doubled in the corner and couldn’t get the pass out, ruining a two-for-one chance. I don’t blame that on Dirk. He had been getting double teamed all night long and Avery should have been able to tell that a double was going to come again. But he still called the iso.

And what the hell was he doing calling a timeout after the Sonics missed free-throw with 1.1 seconds left? There was no reason for that, the Mavs were down four and the Sonics would have let anybody have a wide-open look before they even thought about getting close enough to foul. Instead it partially killed the great vibe that was going on in the Key Arena as the fans said goodbye to their Sonics.

After these last two games I don’t see any way the Mavs can win their first round series, no matter who it is against. All these games have shown is that this isn’t a good road team and they can’t close out games. If you can’t close out a game against Portland or Seattle, does anybody really think they can against the Hornets, Spurs, Lakers or Rockets? Well, maybe the Rockets. But any of those other three teams and the Mavs are going down in 6, at the most. And that’s just really disappointing.

The game looked like it was going to be a complete blowout until the third quarter when the Mavs made a bit of a run. Damp played a big role in this with his interior defense during the run and it was easy to see when Brandon Bass entered the game for him in the fourth. So how does Avery reward Damp for good play? By sitting him for all but 20 seconds in the fourth while Malik Allen spared everyone to death.

The Mavs tied it up with a minute to go and then promptly gave up a and-one to Aldridge. Then Portland made their free-throws the rest of the way and beat the Mavs by the final of 108-105.

Maybe this game was just a case of the Mavs finally relaxing after clinching a playoff spot.  And after playing high intensity games for the past 2 months I can understand that.  But at the same time you want these guys to keep up any momentum they had built up over the last 5 or 6 games.

You could also say that this game really didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things.  If that was the case though why would Dirk play 40 minutes?  I know he said that he doesn’t want to rest and that the ankle won’t get better by not playing as much.  But do you really want to play him on a bad ankle for that long against the freakin’ Trailblazers?

In good news tonight the Hornets lost to Sacramento.  This puts the Lakers in the number one spot in the West and the Hornets fall to number two.  The Hornets would probably be the best team the Mavs could play in the first round so that’s good to see.  It’ll be interesting come Wednesday to see what kind of impact the Mavs game against the Hornets will have on the final standings.  If a win by the Mavs in that game would move the Hornets down to number three while the Spurs moved up, should the Mavs maybe hold back a little in that game?

It stayed a close game until the fourth quarter when Dirk helped put away the Sonics. Prior to that he had been struggling, going 2-10 from the field the first three quarters. It would’ve been nice for him to play a little less or not at all tonight, but Avery felt it necessary to play him 26 minutes.

Brandon Bass looks like an important part of this team again. After barely playing against the Warriors and Lakers he’s played 24 minutes in the last two games against the Suns and Sonics finishing with 19 and 13 points. It’ll be interesting too see how long Avery feels like making him a part of the rotation this time.

At the end of the day though they got the job done and outscored the Sonics by 9 in the fourth and took the game 99-83. They’ve now won 5 of 6 and seem to be getting in a little roll heading to the end of the season.

One big positive from this team since acquiring Kidd is that they haven’t lost any of these games played against weaker teams since he arrived. Being able to do that is the reason they’re going to make it to the playoffs. As Denver has shown lately losing to these ding-dong teams can really hurt your playoff chances.

Dirk continues to show why he is the man on this team. He had 32 points with 12 in the fourth and picked up 12 rebounds. His stumbling shot with 32 seconds left to put the Mavs up by 6 and put the game away was especially impressive. And it sure was nice to see the Dirk “this game is over” face after making that shot.

Jason Kidd had a pretty mediocre night stats wise but his defense on Nash in the fourth quarter is the main reason the Suns were held to just nine points. He even managed to hold his own the few times he switched onto Amare. But that type of defensive performance was one of the reasons the Mavs made the trade.

And credit has to been given to Avery. Leaving Devean George in during the fourth quarter so Dirk wouldn’t have to guard Amare or Shaq was great. Once he took Devean out with about 3:30 left in the fourth Amare scored on the next possession. Josh Howard then started taking Amare on the defensive end leaving Dirk on Grant Hill and taking a lot of pressure off of Dirk. The Dirk and Damp pick and rolls in the fourth were also nice to see. Overall this seems to be his best coached game in a while.

I’m trying not to get too excited about this win like I did after the one against Golden State, but it’s somewhat hard not to this time. They came back in the fourth then closed out the game like they brought Kidd in here to do. It’s been said before, but if they can play like this in the playoffs, even against the Lakers or San Antonio who they’ll probably be matched up against, they can make a run.

Dirk was once again out there giving his all tonight. Still obviously uncomfortable, at the least, he had a great offensive game scoring 27 points on 13-19 shooting. As the game went on though you could tell the ankle was troubling him. He couldn’t push off on it, he had no lift on his shot attempts, he was a guy playing when he really shouldn’t be. So why then does Avery call two isolation plays for him late in the fourth quarter? Lamar Odom was all over him and both possessions ended up in fall away jumpers that came up short. For most of the game prior to that Kidd was helping create shots for Dirk, so why go away from that when the game is on the line?

Another thing that didn’t help Dirk was Avery’s decision to have Dampier try to trap Kobe off of picks. This happened numerous times late in the fourth quarter. Odom or Gasol would come out to set a pick for Kobe and Damp would stay on Kobe. This made Dirk responsible for Gasol and Odom since he was getting no weak side help. Throughout the game Odom was having his way with Dirk. So how could it have been a good idea to have Dirk try to cover both Odom and Gasol on those possessions? I’m glad Avery finally decided to double Kobe, but there should have been a much better way to accomplish it.

The dumbass award of the night goes to Josh Howard. I don’t care how badly you think you got fouled, getting called for a technical at that point of the game is just stupid. I was glad to see Avery get in his face about it, but it was also telling how he just turned away looking disgusted as whatever Avery was saying. Other than that brain-dead moment he had a solid game. He only shot 8-20 but he was attacking the basket and ended up with 8 free throws.

Jason Kidd also shouldn’t escape blame free. He didn’t take a shot in the second half. This is after going 4-7 including 2-2 from three in the first half. I don’t know what happened in the locker room at the half, but there has to be some explanation why he would continue to pass up open looks throughout an entire half.

It looks like a lot of people, myself included, may have drank a little too much of the Kool-Aid from Wednesday night’s feel good game. Now the Mavs are back to being only one game ahead of the Warriors for the 9th seed. And the Mavs schedule is much tougher through these final six games than Golden State’s.

The Mavs now head to Phoenix to play the Suns on Sunday afternoon. I have no doubt Dirk will be out there doing everything he can but I don’t exactly like the idea of Amare being able to dominate him on the defensive end. We’ll just have to see if the rest of the team and the coach can step up and help him out.

That was an amazing showing tonight. It’s what I expected to happen every night when the Kidd trade was made. And it was great to finally see it happen. Yes, before we get too excited they’ll need to win one of the games this weekend against Phoenix and the Lakers, but maybe this will be the jump start to a strong finish to this season.

Jason Kidd dominated this game finishing with 5 points, 11 boards and 17 assists. It looks like Avery has finally given up the reins of this team to Kidd and it showed tonight. The Mavs had a huge advantage in fast break points as Kidd got this team running like they haven’t in the last month. The offense looked good with good ball movement and off the ball movement. Strong picks that actually lead to easy baskets. It was just fun to watch Kidd run this team tonight.

Jason Terry and Josh Howard also had great games ending up with 31 and 28 points respectively. Josh was getting to the rim and finishing, Terry was getting good, easy looks thanks to Kidd’s work. Josh may be back in the same form he was in at the beginning of the season and if he is that’s a very good thing for this team.

Dampier played 27 minutes and picked up 11 boards and 3 blocks to go along with 4 points. And he contributed in ways that don’t show up in the box score. He clogged up the lane, changed shots, set strong picks and just overall played a good game. Hopefully that was enough to show Avery that he belongs in these games.

It was great to see Eddie Jones playing the way he did. He played 20 minutes and had 12 points including an ally-oop dunk from Josh that tore the roof off the building. When he went out after seemingly reactivating his knee problem it was hard for me to watch. And you could see the disappoint in his face as well. Hopefully it was nothing serious and he’ll back this weekend as it looks like he can contribute to this team down the stretch here.

And then there was Dirk. His performance tonight was awe inspiring. Just his presence on the floor gave this team a boost and it was easily noticeable. You could tell he wasn’t anywhere near 100% but he was out there giving it all. He somehow manages to play 27 minutes and picked up 18 points and 5 boards. It was extremely nerve racking every time he went to floor when you just hope he gets back up okay.  I’m sure he’ll be sore tomorrow but he was there because his team needed him tonight.

To all of his doubters that are out there, you may question if he’s the right guy to lead this team but there is absolutely no way you can question the guys heart. And after tonight you can’t question that this is HIS team and he’s the guy all these other guys rally around. I could go on all night about him and his greatness tonight, but I’ll leave it at that.

Like I said, I don’t want to get too excited after one game where they finally win against a good team. But after tonight this team is making the playoffs. They now have a 2 game lead over the Warriors and the tie-break. And if they can keep playing like they did tonight then these guys can make a run in the playoffs.