FireAvery.com – A Dallas Mavericks Blog

Mavs-Hornets Game 1

After being up twelve at half-time, and at least somewhat controlling Chris Paul up until then, the Mavericks looked to be in good shape for the rest of the game. Then Byron Scott proved to be the better coach as he actually made adjustments during half-time while the Mavs were just trying to not lose. Of course that didn’t exactly work out for them.

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?

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Dallas Mavericks vs New Orleans Hornets

It’s finally playoff time and the future of the Mavericks depends quite a bit on how they play over the next, if things go well, 2 months.  There seem to be only two options after this season is over, and they both are clear to me.  Make a deep run, which would mean the conference finals at the least for me, and bring back this team next year, Avery included, and give them a full year to grow together and make another run at a title next year.  Go out in the first or second round and changes have to be made.

The Mavs have already helped themselves by getting the most favorable first round match up they could hope for.  Seeing them win games against playoff bound teams down the stretch was encouraging but losses to the Trailblazers and Sonics looked like cause for concern.  But then they came to play in the regular season finale and won a game that had to be won. 

The Mavericks can win this series, and I’m actually expecting them to, but a lot of their success is going to depend on decisions Avery makes.

The rotation the Mavericks use is going to be the biggest concern until Avery shows otherwise.  The starting lineup for game one has to be, and really almost 100% will be, Dirk, Kidd, Howard, Stackhouse and Damp.  Avery knows he messed up last year and wouldn’t dare make a similar mistake this year. 

Substitution choices are going to be interesting to watch.  First, there is absolutely no reason for Juwan Howard to see any playing time at all.  He’s been getting a little playing time the last month due to injuries but now is now the time to get cute and have him on the court.  There is also no chance of Magloire, Wright and Barea getting any minutes at all, as it should be.

That leaves a bench of Terry, Jones, Bass, Allen, Lue and George.  Terry is going to be the 6th man and is going to be important in this series as he’s averaged 22 points against the Hornets this year.  Bass will be Damp’s backup, backup being key word here.  I don’t want to see Bass playing 30 minutes while Damp only gets 16, it has to be the other way around.  George will be the 8th man relieving Dirk and Josh and Eddie Jones will probably be needed about 14-16 minutes a game until Stack is closer to 100%.  Lue and Allen should only be used if absolutely needed.

The main thing I don’t want to see is 4 bench guys playing together at the start of the 2nd quarter, something Avery had fallen in love with late in the season.  Dirk, Kidd and Howard must play at least 40 minutes a game while Stack/Jones and Damp each need 30. 

Read the rest of this entry »

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Good job Mark

That title isn’t meant to be sarcastic.  Mark Cuban deserves some major props for voting against the planned relocation of the Sonics to Oklahoma City.  Cuban and Paul Allen, owner of the Blazers, were the only two owners to vote against the move.   The move won’t be final until all the pending litigation is sorted through this summer, but hopefully the Sonics will still be playing in Seattle next season.  Check out Sonics Central for much more coverage of this whole debacle.

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Mavs heading to the Big Easy

Good win by the Mavs tonight to close out the regular season and clinch the 7th seed in the West. Jason Kidd picked up his 100th career triple-double and the Mavs came back from 11 point deficits twice.  Brandon Bass had a big game which may lead to questionable lineups by Avery this weekend.

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.

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Totally off-topic

I know this is totally off-topic and I’ll get rid of this post soon, but I just had to say this.

The Rangers suck. A lot.

It’s embarrassing how bad they are. Just had bases loaded with no outs in the top of the 11th and the Blue Jays strike out the side.

Just pathetic.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming…

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So the Mavs still have momentum?

Another day, another odd quote from Avery. This time he has this to say about the team’s momentum going into the playoffs.

“You know what? I think our momentum was built when we played Utah,” Avery said. “That’s not an excuse, but when we looked at those games against Utah and Phoenix, and we looked at how we played and finished those games, that was a big momentum boost for us right there. So no matter what happens tomorrow night, we still feel good about where we are.”

I had no idea that a team could carry any momentum gained from a few good wins through three losses heading into the playoffs. Thankfully losses to two teams that were mailing in the season have no effect on this team. But at least we know Avery doesn’t care whether they win or lose tomorrow night against the Hornets, so they have that going for them.

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Avery can’t really mean this, right?

This has to be a joke by Avery explaining last night’s failure. He had this to say about Gary Payton being at the game last night.

“I don’t know if Payton should have showed up tonight, because when he got that standing ovation, that really spurred them on more,” Mavericks coach Avery Johnson said. “I wish he would have watched it on television.”

Actually, even if it was a joke, there’s no excuse for a head coach to be saying something like that at this time of the season. Basically he’s saying that the Mavs can’t play against a team that has a hot crowd behind it. That’s going to be a big problem when there’s no chance of having home-court advantage until the Finals at the earliest.

It’s just something that shouldn’t be said after a loss to a team that has the second worst record in the NBA.

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And now the Mavs lose to the Sonics

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.

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Mavs fall short to the Trailblazers. Wait, what?

That was quite an uninspired effort by the Mavericks tonight, both the players and the coach. Things didn’t start off well as Portland jumped out to a 37-21 lead in the first quarter. The Mavs just didn’t look at all interested in playing defense and Brandon Roy and LeMarcus Aldridge made them pay for it.

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?

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Comments from last night’s game

Here are some comments from some posters here on the site about last night’s game. They all bring up good points about the game that I didn’t post up last night. I’m posting these on the main page so everybody can see that it’s just not me that feels this way about the team.

DB pointed out how effective Damp and Kidd were in the game despite their stat lines.

I just want to point out that Dampier was a +13 while only scoring 4 points himself. Come on people (ahem, Avery as well) +13 on 4 points!! Kid was a +9 and nobody else was even close. If that doesn’t say something about the big guy then I don’t know what would.

Only thing that really bugged me about this game that I saw a couple times and it has happened in the previous couple of games is their double teaming way outside of the arc. Every time I see that play called something bad happens inside. Why in the world you would send Damp or Dirk out for a double team outside of the arc is beyond me.

Andrew knows that this team needs to do something in the playoffs for Avery to be safe.

Im still not drinking the Mavs kool-aid. We’ve been alot closer before only to have it end in heartbreak. For Avery to earn another year, they need to go deep in the playoffs and show promise for next year.

WyldMavsFan says that just because it’s a win Avery shouldn’t be criticized.

The thing that is going to hurt us in the playoffs, it Avery inconsistent subing. It’s baffling to see what he is doing, and Juwan Howard has no business seeing any minutes. To start the 4th he put Dirk back in and pulled Bass out (having just played the last 4min of the 3rd) and put Juwan Howard in. If anyone out there can tell me one thing Juwan can do better than Bass, I would like to hear it. These are the little things that Avery does that are going to kill us in the playoffs.

He pulled Terry out 5min into both halves. Jet didn’t attempt a single shot in the 1st half b/c Avery didn’t play him much. This is a guy who has been on a roll lately and he pulls him out 5min into the game when the team is on a huge run. Terry had a great game, and it couldn’t have been even better if Avery let him play in the 1st half.

Again, I could go on and on about the little things he does that are going to hurt us in the playoffs, but we did win and that’s great, but Avery still doesn’t have a clue who should be in the game and who shouldn’t.

People who think Avery should only be fired if we lose games don’t know who bad he is even when we win.

And Richard thinks that not having a timeout after Williams tying shot actually helped out.

Any body here happy the Mavs didn’t have a timeout? Seems like drawing up last second plays is not Avery’s forte.

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What a win for the Mavs

Wow, what a great game and a great win for the Mavs tonight.

The Mavs came out in the first quarter and took off to a 14 point lead in the first 6 minutes. The Jazz came back but the Mavs stretched it back out to a 6 point lead at the half. Then they came out at the start of the second half and just couldn’t make a bucket. That led to just a one point lead going into the fourth.

Then Dirk and JET took over, scoring 25 of the Mavs 30 points in the fourth quarter. The game was back and forth in the quarter until the Mavs took a 94-91 lead with 9 seconds left.

I’ve got to give Avery a ton of credit here. During the timeout with 9 seconds left the camera was in the Mavs huddle and it was picking up what Avery was saying. It sounded like the entire timeout he was telling them to foul if the ball got inside the 3 point line. I love that strategy and as the Memphis-Kansas game showed Monday night there’s no reason at all not to do it. Especially when Deron Williams and Kyle Korver are going to be setup waiting to get the ball.

On the inbound Devean George tried to foul Williams but didn’t get the call and Williams banked in a three. Then you’ve got Eddie Jones running the ball up the court. I like what Jones has been giving this team lately but that’s not a situation I want him to be in.

But Dirk was right there with him and got open on the wing and hit the game winning three. It’s ridiculous how clutch and dominating Dirk has been lately. If he can keep up these kind of performances in the playoffs and Avery doesn’t make any huge mistakes this team has the potential to make a deep run.

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Fan’s Perspective

It looks like at this point in the season everybody is just waiting for the playoffs to start.  The Mavs pretty much have the 7th seed locked up and will most likely face San Antonio or Los Angeles in the first round.  In fact, a win tonight and a Golden State loss, they’re playing Denver, will clinch a playoff spot for the Mavs.

Here are a couple more comments made on the site recently pointing out some of Avery’s mistakes the last 3 years.  The first one is from PininFarina456.

I couldn’t agree with you more. This site serves a purpose until either Avery gets replaced or Avery wins a championship. The faults listed by you don’t even do justice, he has had many mistakes that a good coach wouldn’t do. He made many mistakes in his first playoff series against Houston, and it became a 7 game series, causing the Mavs to have less energy against PHX, whom they could have beat. Don’t even get me started on the back to back monumental collapses which were simply from bad coaching. What kind of a coach changes a line up after 67 wins in a GAME 1 against the lowest seed?? Anyhow, I’ll stop there, but the list goes on and on.

And then there was a follow up by WyldMavsFan.

I agree with Pinin, the website just started not that long ago, but Avery has been terrible since the Rockets series. He lost the 1st 2 games b/c he changed his lineup and finally went back to the regular lineup in game 3 and we won 4 of the next 5.

Against the spurs in the playoffs, he didn’t do anything special, Dirk was just the man in that series.

GS needs no further explanation and the Heat series was a huge coaching collapse.

I have said this before and this is a huge reason Avery is awful. His record in game 1 on the playoffs is 2-5. The team that wins game 1, goes on to win about 75% of the series, so that record is a joke. 5 of those games were at home, we beat Memphis (we swept them, and no coach could have lost us that series) and we beat the heat. We lost to the rockets, PHX twice, GS, and the spurs. Just awful and it’s b/c Avery over-coaches (GS lineup) and finally makes the decision to do what we have always done in game 2 or 3 but losing game 1 is huge

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Mavs beat the Sonics, yay!

Well, the Mavericks beat the Sonics tonight in a game that neither team looked too terribly interested in playing. The Sonics are probably much more interested in arranging moves from Seattle to Oklahoma City than playing ball right now and they should have been put away early. So of course the Mavs come out looking like they forgot how to shoot the ball.

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.

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Fan’s Perspective – Mav in Cali

I’m going to start a new series of posts where readers of the site can have their thoughts posted here on the main page. I thought this would be a good way to show how fans of this team are feeling for the people who don’t go in and read the comments. So if you have any comments about the team, Avery, what this site is doing, etc. send me an e-mail, contact@fireavery.com, or leave a comment and I’ll start posting them.

The first one is from frequent commenter Mav in Cali.

I definitely still agree with the basis of why this site was created. This is more of a “FireAveryIf.com” site than a “FireAvery.com” site, but that just doesn’t sound as good. I’m sure that most of the people that support this site believe in giving Avery his chances, but you have to realize that he’s already blown about 8 of his 9 lives.

Fire Avery IF he still can’t win a championship and avoid monumental playoff collapses with the caliber of talent on this team. Fire Avery IF he can’t prove that he is learning from his mistakes, trusting his players more, dropping his pride and ego for the sake of the team, relying on his coaching staff (and hopefully a Mr. Harris above), and making the necessary changes to his coaching in order to bring a championship to Dallas. Fire Avery IF he refuses to change for others, as opposed to making them change for him.

Like I said, “FireAveryIf.com” isn’t as sexy a URL, so for those site haters out there, you have to understand that this is merely a conditional statement. It’s not so black and white as many are taking it to be. I absolutely am not saying fire Avery just for the heck of it. If it ever comes down to that, it would be based on the previous collapses and terrible coaching decisions. And forward-looking it would be based on Avery’s inability to grow, learn and change if that ends up being the case.

All we’re asking for are his eyes to be opened, because the statement the Mavs organization made when trading half the team for Kidd is that they want a championship NOW, not 5 years from now. You have to realize that the same thing goes for the coach. If you want a championship NOW, can you afford to have Avery learn and grow on the job while Dirk is in his prime? This team is one of the oldest in the NBA now, and because of that, we are not allowed the same buffer for coaching mistakes and playoff collapses as younger teams are. The window is closing. I have no doubt in my mind that Avery will be a very good if not great NBA coach in his future years, but the question you have to ask yourself is if you are willing to sacrifice Dirk’s prime as the time for Avery’s elementary school years of learning how to be an NBA head coach.

This site only has the best intentions for the Mavs, and has been built by someone who just wants to see them get a championship, with or without Avery at the helm. And it allows those fans who have constructive criticism of Avery’s decisions to voice their opinions on a site that gives a loud statement. And honestly, it seems as if Avery may be hearing the cries and making changes due to this criticism, so it may very well already be serving its purpose.

I wish we could simply fire Avery’s coaching decisions as opposed to firing Avery himself, but unfortunately in such a short window of time, it’s harder to separate the man from the mistakes. We’re all only hoping that Avery can change though and become the championship caliber head coach the Mavs need to win a title TODAY… because if he can’t, then this website’s name may be the only rational thing left to do.

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One game and everything’s okay?

I’ve been hearing from people that are posting in the comments and sending me e-mail that this site is now pointless since the Mavs finally beat a winning team.  Since it’s been a slow couple of days in Mavs land I thought now would be a good time to reply to those people.

Yes, this site was started because Avery benched Kidd with 30 seconds left in a key game against San Antonio.  But that was just the tipping point, not the sole reason.  For the past 3 years Avery has undoubtedly had great success in the regular season.  Well, at least until this season.  But this is an elite level team whose time to win a championship is now.

If it wasn’t for Manu Ginobili’s bone-headed foul on Dirk in game 7 of the series against the Spurs in 2006 Avery wouldn’t have gotten this team past the 2nd round of the playoffs in 3 years.  When you consider that, along with the Finals collapse, the playing down to Golden State in game 1 last year, not letting Devin Harris become the player he’s quickly showing he can be in New Jersey, benching Jason Kidd, seemingly not trusting Kidd until very recently, a stale, predictable end of game offensive game plan and constantly being outcoached, to me at least, it’s evident that he’s not the coach to take this team to the championship.

So having a team that has Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd, Josh Howard, Jason Terry, Jerry Stackhouse, Erick Dampier and a deep bench finally beat a team that’s going to make the playoffs is not all of a sudden proof that he’s the man for the job.  Even Isiah Thomas gets a game right every now and then.

As I’ve said before, I’m a huge fan of this team.  I want them to win, I want to finally see an NBA championship in Dallas.  But I recognize that their window to do that is getting smaller very quickly.  That’s why, unless they win the championship this year, it has to be someone besides Avery leading this team next season.

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