The cheese stain on your pants, the corn chip crumbs engrained into your sweater, and the empty cans wedge underneath the leg rest as you try to put it down to it’s upright position. It’s been a great 11 hour basketball marathon.
Well great doesn’t really seem like the right adjective.
The Dallas Mavericks have rounded the final turn, and find themselves coming down the stretch. Less than 4 weeks left in the season, and the Mavericks have lost their swagger.
The Mavericks are the oldest team in the league, the Boston Celtics are the second oldest. The Celtics have been through a [...]

Winning 10 straight games in the NBA is nothing to sneeze at, so excuse me if I don’t hand you a tissue. Whether you want to consider it “winning ugly” or “beating bad opponents,” fact is the Mavericks are winning.
The Los Angeles Lakers lost tonight at Charlotte, so excuse me when I say a win is a win, and you should never take a win for granted.
The Mavericks won 108-100 at home against the Sacramento Kings. Yet the storyline is, Mavericks keep winning as the injuries pile up.
It was reported by numerous outlets that Jason Terry will be out a [...]

The beat goes on, yes the beat goes on.
The Mavericks went into Charlotte after a tough game the night before and won. Let’s hide the pictures from this one though, it was ugly.
With Butler, Nowitzki, and Terry all scoring over 20 points, the Mavericks withstood some cold shooting. They also fought through a case of laziness.
The breaths were deep, the hands on the shorts were prevalent, and fast breaks were caught in slow motion. Yet they won, and that’s all that counts when you are in a playoff push like the Mavericks find themselves in.
The Mavericks held the Bobcats to [...]

The Mavericks seemed to be a finely tuned engine purring their way to a seventh straight win, but things aren’t always what they seem.
With a twenty plus halftime lead that crept up to a twenty five point lead in the third quarter, ended up being a close game down the stretch.
The third quarter was once the power quarter for the Mavericks, yet the last two games they have been outscored by more then ten points each game. It seemed as though the intensity was taken away, and the New Orleans Hornets took advantage of that.
Led by Dirk Nowitzki’s 36 points, [...]

The Mavericks came out on fire, yet got stale and stiff the rest of the way. The momentum of beating the Lakers never boarded the flight to Atlanta.
The young Hawks team ran, shot, and hustled their way in the second, third, and half of the fourth quarters, after the Mavericks ran all over them in the first quarter.
During the win streak, the third quarter is where the Mavericks pulled away. Outscoring their opponents in the third quarter during the win streak, the Mavericks were outscored by 11 in the third quarter.
All signs pointed towards a blow-out win for the Hawks.
Playing [...]

Like finding a $20 bill in your jeans, the Mavericks got a pleasant gift with the play of DeShawn Stevenson. For Mavericks fans, it seems the trade returns just keeps getting better and better.
With Caron Butler out with a reaction to medications he took, and Erick Dampier still in street clothes, the Mavericks were playing shorthanded.
They were able to rise to the occasion.
The AA Center came alive in the fourth quarter and made the game feel like a playoff-style atmosphere.
The marquee read Dirk vs Kobe.
Feeding off the crowd, Dirk Nowitzki provided a great show for the home crowd. The [...]

Dirk didn’t appreciate the forearm that Grant Hill delivered to him in the fourth quarter. Nowitzki and Hill briefly jawed at each other, double technicals were handed out, the game went on.
The game was won by the Dallas.
I’m reluctant to say Dallas Mavericks due to for one night, I saw a different team. I saw a team physical on both ends of the court. Use of some well-times zones, physical man-to-man defense, owning the paint with blocked shots and boxing out, Dallas provided a fun team to watch.
The American Airlines Center crowd cheered and screamed. They rose to their feet, [...]

A glaring omission in the “Rookie vs. Sophomore” game at the American Airlines Center is a Dallas Maverick.
At the same time, the Dallas Mavericks will have two, count them two, All-Star players come Sunday night.
Dirk Nowitzki, an 11 year NBA veteran will start for the West All-Stars, while Jason Kidd, a 15 year NBA veteran was recently named a reserve after Kobe Bryant decided not to play.
The lack of youth is alarming though.
There is a thin line between building a successful team around a young core, and building a team with a veteran foundation. What side of the fence are [...]

The weather in Dallas seems like the only one that isn’t in the mood to party. Despite the chilly forecast All-Star Weekend has officially kicked off.
I had the chance to talk with Dirk Nowitzki this afternoon and he is feeling the “funk” Mavs fans are feeling. He believes that the team can “rebound from it”, and believes the team is set up nicely for a second half run.
Funny how he believes this team can rebound from the “funk,” they haven’t proved they can rebound on the court.
Dirk didn’t necessarily want to talk about the past, he thought the break was [...]

Every team goes through dips and lulls where they have troble getting on track and putting a solid game together. Lucky for NBA teams, the All-Star game gives everybody that much needed break.
The Dallas Mavericksare definitely a team that can benefit from some time off. Since the new year began they are 9-9, losing as much on the road now as they do at home. Their last game against the Minnesota Timberwolves is a text book example of what is wrong with the team.
Offensively the team did well- can you really complain about a 100+ point night. The team even [...]