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This is Much Bigger than DeAndre Jordan

By Isaac Harris

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It’s finally over.

DeAndre Jordan finally made his debut in Dallas after the summer fiasco and high school drama.

But this is much bigger than DeAndre Jordan, the Dallas Mavericks just beat a top 5 team in the league in the Los Angeles Clippers without arguably their most important player in Chandler Parsons.

From the moment you walked into the American Airlines Center, you could tell this wasn’t just any regular season game. Chatter between fans was louder than normal while the number of fans carrying posters seemed to be tripled compared to other games. The city of Dallas has had this date marked on their calendars ever since the schedule was released.

There was about 15 minutes left before tipoff when the Clippers took the court. With about half the area full, the chorus of boos echoed through the arena as Jordan was one of the last out of the tunnel. Lay-up lines started and Jordan touched the ball for the first time for a standard lay-up and the boos got louder. It was then that I realized, this was going to be much worse than I had thought.

In no exaggeration, EVERY SINGLE TIME Jordan touched the ball, thousands of Mavs fans rained the boos in unison. From the first lay-up in warm-ups, to the last time he left the court in the fourth quarter, it never died down. At one point during his first set of free throws, the arena was so loud I had to raise my voice to the person beside me for them to understand what I was saying.

To cap the night off, in the last minute of the game when the Mavericks were locked into the victory, the thousands of Mavs fans changed their chant. “DeAndre sucks” echoed throughout the arena as you could feel months of emotion coming out through the fans voices. It was a unique moment for any invested Mavs fan.

Overshadowed in welcoming DeAndre to Dallas was the most important victory of the Mavs season so far.

After the thrashing defeat in New Orleans the night before, Wesley Matthews sent text messages to Dirk Nowitzki about how they needed to step up as leaders and how he was going to guard Chris Paul the next night.

From the opening tip, Wesley Matthews took the job at guarding Paul full court. Paul finished the night shooting 2/11 with one of those shots being a leaning heave at the shot clock buzzer beyond the arc. Matthews on the other hand had his best showing as a member of the Mavs by posting 25 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists (full box score here). At one point, Carlisle went to Matthews three straight times in the post with Lance Stephenson guarding him, a player who was once known for being a great defender.

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To somewhat of a surprise, Carlisle put first round pick Justin Anderson into the game late into the first quarter where he played valuable minutes on 3/3 shooting. He finished the night logging 10 minutes in an important game where he had arguably his best game as a Mav. It will be interesting to see if Carlisle continues to use him in this role or if he will go back to riding the end of the bench.

I think everyone in the arena, including myself, was expecting a hard foul from Zaza Pachulia on Jordan, but it was his play that did all the talking. Pachulia  continues to impress beyond what many expected and simply out played Jordan last night finishing with another double-double.

At one point in the fourth quarter, Pachulia grabbed his second offensive rebound in the same possession that was followed by him falling to the ground after a foul. Laying on the ground, Pachulia yelled and pumped his fist in emotion that brought the crowd to their feet with the same emotion. Carlisle had this subtle comment after the game…

Even with the big nights from Matthews, Pachulia, and Deron Williams, it was once again, Dirk Nowitzki, that put the team and city on his back to will the Mavericks to a victory.

The very first Mavericks possession was a Nowitzki three at the top of the key right in Jordan’s face. This laid a foundation that Dirk would continue to build upon throughout the whole game. There was classic post up fade aways, transition three’s, and off the dribble jump shots. Nowitzki looked like he was 10 years younger doing what he wanted on the offensive end.

Nowitzki finished the night with 31 points and 11 rebounds on 11/14 shooting. Oh, and he did this on the frontline of DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin, arguably the best front court in the NBA. But he’s too old, washed, and done though…

The Los Angeles Clippers are considered to be one of the 4-6 teams who are being considered to win the championship. They are led by a top 3 point guard in the league in Chris Paul and MVP candidate Blake Griffin. They re-signed their center to a max contract and bolstered their bench with Paul Pierce and Josh Smith.

Well this Mavericks team just beat that team without Chandler Parsons. The same Mavericks team that was counted out by so many people before the season. The same Mavericks team that still isn’t fully healthy. The same Mavericks team that has the same amount of wins as the Grizzlies and Pelicans combined.

So sorry DeAndre, this win was much bigger than you.

Next: Are you the Fan of the Year?

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