Photo Credit Source: www.ibtimes.com

So far, so good. The Mavs left New Orleans with an 83-81 lead with Dirk on the sideline in his Sunday best. Rick Carlisle spoke briefly post game regarding the why Dirk will be sitting out the next four games, including tonights match against the Hornet, while working out his sore right knee.

“This is not a rest situation. Quite the opposite,” Carlisle said. “He’ll go through harder workouts this week than he would if we were having practice days and in some cases he’ll go multiple times.”

We know it’ not too serious or a tendinitis case or they mot likely wouldn’t be working him out at all.period. It was mentioned that Dirk, of course preferred to play and carry on, but it appears other opinion prevailed. I guess we can only hope for the best. I don’t think there is any question Dirk will do all he can to get back to his own personal accepted game play efforts – which is one of the reaons he is so successful; hard-work, determination, motivation and discipline.

With Dirk not suited up tonight, we saw Lamar Odom starting and racking up 16  points for his season high. He did not finish the game and Carlisle answered that for us afterwards. Many people have been wondering why Odom has only been playing an average of 20 minutes a game, it was confirmed tonight, at least, that he could in fact play more, if he wanted to. In other words, he requested not to play, with Carlisle stating, “he said he was tired” referring to Odom.

We are getting there. Tonight was a much needed win. Keep on rockin’ it Mavs.

Fun Facts:

• Mavericks’ streak of holding opponents under 100 points breaks record and hit 14 consecutive games with Saturday’s win.
• Do you know how the Mavericks got their name? According to NBA.com, in March 1980, radio station WBAP conducted a Name the Team contest. More than 4,600 entries were received and turned over to a five-person committee. The committee narrowed the choices to Mavericks, Wranglers and Express, ultimately recommending Mavericks to owner Donald Carter.
• The Mavericks have not defeated the Hornets on the road since 3/27/07 (won a 105-89 decision).
• Became the only player in NBA history to register 150 three-point field goals and 100 blocks in a season (he had 151 three-point field goals and 101 blocks in the 2000-01 season)

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 never seemed to lose control of the game; they just put in on cruise control for most of the second half. Down the stretch the defense was tightened up, as the Mavericks pulled off their seventh straight win.

The win pulled the Mavericks to within a half game of the Denver Nuggets for the second position in the West behind the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers beat the Nuggets this afternoon.

The Mavericks welcomed back Caron Butler to the starting lineup after Butler sat out the last two games. An obvious lift to an already powerful attack the last seven games, Butler made his presence felt on both ends of the court.

Carlisle was able to give Jason Kidd some rest on the bench after really asking a lot out of Kidd the last couple of games. Kidd sat out the whole second quarter, and got a long stretch of rest in the second half as well.

“As much as I want to play every minute of the game, it feels good to be able to rest. Collison made me run around tonight on the defense side of the court, so the rest will help me tomorrow night.”

The Mavericks have a quick turnaround tomorrow night.

Jason Terry wasn’t eager to admit they put it in cruise control, but he did admit they loosened up on the intensity. “The Hornets played well. We went cold during a stretch which is something you don’t want to do as a team, but overall we played well and got a win.”

“We’re winning games right now, and positioning ourselves for the playoffs. We are concentrating on winning the game when we walk on the court. It’s natural to look to see where we stand, but like we found out tonight we cannot lose the intensity.”

The Mavericks play in Charlotte tomorrow night to extend the winning streak to eight.