Has Dirk Nowitzki started an early bid for MVP with an incredible fourth quarter of 29 points against the Utah Jazz? Dirk had 40 total points on a night when for 3 quarters he just could not get it going and it looked like a boring defeat at the hands of the Jazz, but then the magic scoring hands of Nowitzki went to work and broke Mark Aguirre’s 1 quarter Maverick scoring record.

NBA factoid: Last December Carmelo Anthony had 33 in a single quarter to tie George Gervin’s all time NBA record.

Mark Aguirre had 27 on March 24th 1984.

Dirk had Jason Terry just gushing.

He scored 23 of 25 Maverick points in one stretch, including a step-back jumper with 2:05 to go that put them ahead, 85-83.

“It was tremendous,” Jason Terry said of Nowitzki’s fourth quarter. “Dirk put us on his back and showed us why he’s the MVP. We were in it defensively all night long. But offensively we struggled. It was getting to us. … But we didn’t let our defensive effort lack. I think that’s what kept us in the game.
source

Dirk Nowitzki with classic shooting form

Dirk Nowitzki has 29 in the fourth

For the Dallas Mavericks the true test will come at the defensive end as a team loaded with offensive stars attempts to stop the opposing team from scoring, which is something they have not shown a strong propensity to accomplish in the past.

What’s more significant to me is that the Mavs have won three consecutive games despite not shooting better than 41.7 percent in any game this season. Last year, when they shot 42.5 percent of worse from the floor, they were 3-25. In many ways, just like the Rangers, this offense has traditionally been so good that if it gets even a touch of defense, it wins. Since that rather rough season opener, the Mavs have won as much because of defense as anything.

That is most definitely a change in this team. Maybe it’s only a one-week aberration, but, at least for a week, you have to figure the attention to defense is paying off for this team.
source

If the Defensive Trend continues for the Dallas Mavericks then you can look for an extended playoff run at the end of the year.

Image: Zuma Press

As always, any NBA Basketball related comments are welcome.

More blogs about basketball.

As always, any NBA Basketball related comments are welcome.

More blogs about basketball.

Post from: NBA Obsessed

Shawn Marion is known as the Matrix and he can do it all on a hoop court. For years he operated in near anonymity in Phoenix. It got so bad that Shawn threatened to leave just so he could be the man on some other team instead of third banana behind Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire on the Suns. Finally the Suns gave him his wish and dealt him to the Heat for the Shaq. The Heat were not very good and needed a big man, so Matrix was dealt to Toronto and from there he was dealt to Dallas.

Dirk Nowitzki will join Shawn Marion to go for the NBA title!

In Dallas, Shawn will never be the man. That label belongs to Dirk Nowitzki the perennial All Star and offensive power house. But the overall game and relentless movement on offense from Shawn has brought an extra dimension to the Mavericks that will only serve to enhance the play of Nowitzki.

“He’s pretty amazing, I got to admit,” Nowitzki said. “Playing against him all these years, you don’t really know all the little things he does. I really like playing with him. He doesn’t demand the ball, he just gets his points on the go.”

And he also sees the big picture. Marion’s do-it-all game should make life simpler for Nowitzki.

“I really think, especially on the break, that’s going to open up my shots on transition,” he said. “And we can get some baskets where we don’t have to work extra, extra hard.”
source

The Mavericks will now face the Western Division with 3 solid but aging stars in Jason Kidd, Dirk Nowitzki, and Shawn Marion. If they stay healthy it could be the same formula the Boston Celtics used to win the NBA title a few years ago.

Image: Zuma Press

As always, any NBA Basketball related comments are welcome.

More blogs about basketball.

As always, any NBA Basketball related comments are welcome.

More blogs about basketball.

Post from: NBA Obsessed

It came out during an interview with Rick Carlisle, the Dallas Mavericks are better. Now if you look at the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association there are 3 super teams and the rest is wide open. The super teams would be the Los Angeles Lakers, the Denver Nuggets, and the San Antonio Spurs. After that the West is wide open, with even the rotten teams improving themselves.

The Dallas Mavericks have added Shawn Marion, Drew Gooden, and Tim Thomas to a 6th place team. That is three quality players that will add shooting, scoring, size, and rebounding. Each of those players has missing parts to their games, but put the 3 together and you have an amazing set of situational type players.

So what does Rick Carlisle, the coach of the Dallas Mavericks think of all this?

What about the roster changes of the off-season? What do the incoming players bring to the table?

I like the moves we’ve made. We’ve acquired competitive guys. I like our chemistry. I think the pieces we added fit. The personalities of the new guys complement our nucleus. And I really believe the abilities of our new guys complement the guys that we have. We’re more athletic. We’ve got more experience.
source

Rick is a coach that holds you accountable and often puts you in situations to help the team with what you do best. Look for him to get the most out of the new players. He also is a strong believer in scripting plays and defending 1 on 1. It will be interesting to see how well the new players adapt to this type of coaching.

Dirk is yelling for the ball!

Rick is smart enough to know that Dirk Nowitzki is what makes the team go and all the new players will have to play to Dirk’s strength. Who knows, maybe the Mavericks could move into the group of super teams in the West!

Image: Zuma Press

As always, any NBA Basketball related comments are welcome.

More blogs about basketball.

As always, any NBA Basketball related comments are welcome.

More blogs about basketball.

Post from: NBA Obsessed

So is Mark Cuban upset with Dirk Nowitzki or not? Is that why Dirk is not representing the German national team in Poland?

No. Mark simply asked Dirk to take time off if his team qualified for the Olympics and they did that. Dirk Nowitzki claims that he could have played and Mark would not have stopped him, but that was not all there was to it.

“Dirk and I agreed last year after his Olympic run, which was his dream for Germany, that he would take a year off,” Cuban said. “He has the option of returning after this year if that is what he wants to do. Hopefully, instead, the NBA will return the favor to FIBA in the use of our players that FIBA gave to us in summer league.”

In announcing to the German media that Nowitzki would not be playing in Poland, federation president Ingo Weiss told reporters that “we accept this decision completely,” describing his organization’s relationship with the Mavericks as “excellent and reliable.”

source

It sounds like everybody is happy, but that is not the case. The NBA allows players to compete for their respective national teams if they can get that team to pay for the insurance. The problem Mark Cuban had was not with Dirk playing, but with a little known rule that allows the National teams from preventing NBA players from playing in the NBA summer leagues without the permission of the player’s National team and that happened to the Dallas Mavericks, but not to Dirk, it was another player.

Mark Cuban is not always solidly behind his players when it comes to international play

Mark Cuban is still not happy period.

Yet in spite of his longtime backing of Nowitzki’s national-team excursions, Cuban remains a very reluctant supporter of international tournaments in general, having railed for years against the risks absorbed by NBA teams when star players such as Nowitzki return to FIBA play, where more physical contact is frequently allowed by referees.

You have to figure that stuff can happen and already did in the case of Tony Parker getting hurt playing for his National team. Cuban has millions of dollars riding on Nowitzki, not to mention any hint of going to the finals. Maybe Cuban is right?

Image: Zuma Press

As always, any NBA Basketball related comments are welcome.

More blogs about basketball.

As always, any NBA Basketball related comments are welcome.

More blogs about basketball.

Post from: NBA Obsessed

Every year you can count on the Dallas Mavericks being very interesting with Mark Cuban as an owner and Dirk Nowitzki as your star player, you have all the makings of an explosive team with explosive ownership. The Mavericks as usual made a lot of moves to change their team. One of the most lethal moves was to pick up Shawn “Matrix” Marion.

The Shawn Marion deal helps; there’s no question about that. In talking with Mark Cuban during summer league he told HOOPSWORLD to expect a lot of small ball next season. He said they’ll run Dirk Nowitzki at the center, Marion at the four, Josh Howard at the three, and some combination of Jason Kidd, Jason Terry, and J.J. Barea in the backcourt. We were quick to point out that playing Dirk at the five has been tried and was a dismal failure for both Don Nelson and Avery Johnson, but Cuban insisted that the up-tempo style his team will look to run next season will make that lineup a lethal combination.
source

Shawn Marion will be a Maverick

The Mavericks did not stop there as they also signed Drew Gooden, the man of 7 teams in 7 years.

Like Brandon Bass, Gooden has a good mid-range game. The good news for Mavericks fans is that Gooden is more consistent than Bass, who seemed to have good games about three out of every five nights. Gooden will deliver the same effort night in and night out, and given enough playing time he’s a solid double-double threat. He rebounds well, grabbing 7.9 boards per game over his career, hits 47% of his field goal attempts, and is an above average defender, as well. He should be a great addition, one who complements Jason Kidd nicely.
source

The up tempo style of the Dallas Mavericks makes the need for a lot of players paramount and in case you were wondering, they are loaded with a lot of players. Check out the two deep of:
PG Jason Kidd Jose Juan Barea
SG Jason Terry Matt Carroll
SF Josh Howard Shawn Marion
PF Dirk Nowitzki Drew Gooden
C Erick Dampier Kris Humphries
[as reported in Yahoo Sports]

Most teams would salivate at the likes of that type of depth. Not the Mavericks, they still feel they need a shooting guard to really make the team go. These guys never quit, on the court or in the front office.

Photo source Newscom

As always, any NBA Basketball related comments are welcome.

More blogs about basketball.

Post from: NBA Obsessed

Shawn aka ‘The Matrix’ Marion is going to be a Maverick and the odd thing about the whole trade, which involved four teams, is nobody can figure out if the Mavericks will be better or not. The plan is to play Shawn at the four spot, but that will involve moving a lot of players around even during the game.

Now maybe that won’t be a problem, because Rick Carlisle is a master at setting up plays and getting players in a position to do their thing, but just what is Shawn’s thing? Will he be over achieving as a rebounder or racing up the court to finish Jason Kidd fast breaks or stealing shots that Jason Terry would have shot or maybe just be the new out of control Jerry Stackhouse? Jerry ended up in Memphis for the time being. Yes, it was a bizarre trade.

Whether the Matrix produces for Dallas or not, this strange trade also accomplished some other odd things.

Dallas, Toronto, Orlando and Memphis came together to complete a deal that also allowed Toronto to receive Hedo Turkoglu in a sign-and-trade transaction. The rest of the complicated trade, which changed several times over the last day, includes fairly inconsequential parts.

The Grizzlies received Jerry Stackhouse from Dallas, a future second-round pick from Toronto plus cash considerations. Most of that cash will be used to buy out Stackhouse, who has $2 million guaranteed on his contract and doesn’t fit into the Grizzlies’ plans.
source

Turkoglu ends up in Toronto

So Dallas ends up with Marion, Toronto with Turkoglu, and Jerry Stackhouse ends up.

Photo source Newscom

As always, any NBA Basketball related comments are welcome.

More blogs about basketball.

Post from: NBA Obsessed

What is going on with these teams anyway? The Mavericks, Knicks, and Trail Blazers are fighting, that is right, fighting to sign Jason Kidd. Why? He will be a basketball grandpa age of 37 next year and how is he supposed to keep up with the speedy young guards if his team makes the playoffs?

Will Jason Kidd be able to keep up with the young guards, let alone the Tony Parkers of the world?

Jason Kidd will be in the Hall of Fame and there is no questioning that at all, but he will be there for piling up stats like the rest of us pile up our dirty clothes in the corner of the room. He is long past his prime and hardly worth the money to the three teams involved. These are all building teams.

Let us say, just for example, that you have a team with a superstar or two and all you need is a point guard to handle the rock and you are heading to the conference finals. Hey, Jason Kidd would be perfect, but that does not describe any of the above teams.

Kidd has enjoyed a fantastic career. A great deal of what he provides cannot show up in individual statistics, but individual statistics have also helped inflate his worth. He’s a bit of a liability to an offense if he isn’t dominating the rock, dishing out tons of assists. He has a reputation as a fast-break point guard, but I can’t tell you how many would-be breaks have been halted by Kidd chasing after rebounds, instead of leaking out and waiting for the outlet pass. And his jumper, though on-point in 2008-09, comes and goes.

This is the point where I have to point out that I’m not pointing toward denigrating this point guard’s skills. He’s a fine, fine player, even at this stage. He helps teams. I just don’t get where he fits into the plan for a team like the Knicks, or the Trail Blazers.

source

Image: Zuma Press

As always, any NBA Basketball related comments are welcome.

More blogs about basketball.

As always, any NBA Basketball related comments are welcome.

More blogs about basketball.

Post from: NBA Obsessed

Dallas is struggling to figure out how to stop the Nuggets. There just does not seem to be any one or two players that need stopping. There appears to be a whole bus load.

With the Mavericks moving back home, maybe they can stem the tidal wave of buckets and pull out a couple of victories.

On Tuesday, for the second straight game, Denver’s top two scorers, Anthony and Billups, struggled at the start. But, once again, the Nuggets found others to step up.

Smith, an athletic guard, scored 17 of his 21 points in the first half, and Nene scored 14 of his 25 as the Nuggets took a 58-55 lead. That made up for Anthony and Billups combining for just 10 first-half points.

In Sunday’s Game 1, Anthony and Billups combined for just seven first-half points. But Nene scored 18 of his team-high 24 before intermission, and the Nuggets led, 51-47, en route to a 109-95 win.

source

Carmelo is thinking Defense!

This is a confident Nugget team held together by ex-Piston Chauncey Billups and fueled by the high scoring Carmelo Anthony. George Karl has crafted a team that can score easily and defend when it has to. Even Carmelo was talking about playing defense when interviewed before the half. Yes, you are in trouble when Carmelo is talking defense.

Photo source Newscom

As always, any NBA Basketball related comments are welcome.

More blogs about basketball.

Post from: NBA Obsessed

But nobody told Dallas and Denver about the script. Not to mention a few other things.

Ok, let’s mention them.

No Manu Ginobili. Would the Spurs have won with him? Who knows, but their chances would have increased signifigantly.

Rick Carlisle. Rick has changed Dallas. They now play offense at a slightly less frenetic pace and they play defense. While Rick was in Piston land, before Larry Brown, he did an incredible job of making each player accountable. He loves to not double team and hold his defender accountable. It is working in Dallas. (On the flip side, Carlisle was very unlikeable to everyone right down to the janitors.)

The most significant different component in the organization is Carlisle, who has Jason Kidd running a well-coordinated offense and who has the Mavericks playing better defense than they ever did under defensive-minded Avery Johnson.

Carlisle seemed to make all the right moves, getting maximum effort from the bench, from Josh Howard, and, yes, from Erick Dampier.

source

Jason Kidd and Chauncey Billups.

Chauncey is a kid at 32 compared to Kidd at 36

Jason Kidd and Chauncey Billups are old-school warriors. Forget sizzle. They are grade-A, superior-quality point guards for whom winning is the only meaty issue, something that gives them far more pleasure than a breakaway dunk or a through-the-legs pass.

“This series,” Mavericks’ coach Rick Carlisle said Saturday, “will be a better-basketball DVD on how to play the point.”

The young, flashy point guards of the “now” NBA are Chris Paul and Deron Williams. They’re also on vacation.

Kidd and Billups? They represent the best of the vintage point guards left playing.

“It’s two old dogs,” Denver forward Kenyon Martin said.

source

Yes, the old dogs are getting it done!

Post from: NBA Obsessed

Maverick fans have to be drooling. Mark Cuban has let it be known that he would pick up the two worst contracts on the Hornets in order to get Chris Paul.

It makes the mind swirl to think of the Dallas Mavericks picking up Chris Paul to play on the same team as Dirk Nowitzki. You would have a former MVP still playing at a very high level with a future MVP candidate adding some much needed full court speed.

Chris Paul defies the laws of gravity

Dirk is still one of the top mismatch players in the league, presenting an interesting combination of size and long distance shooting ability. If you added in Chris Paul, just think of the explosiveness on the Mavericks. Chris is a penetrating point guard and they rule the NBA right now.

So why would the Hornets let this deal happen?

In a word, contracts. They have way too many dollars tied up in longer contracts.

Who would the Hornets want to get rid of so badly that they’d be willing to part with Paul? Peja Stojakovic ($13.39 million next season and $14.26 in 2010-11) would definitely be part of the deal. Chandler ($12.3 next season and $13.2 in 2010-11) probably would be included, too. Morris Peterson (due a total of $12 million over the next two seasons) or James Posey ($19.5 million over three seasons) are other possibilities.

Stojakovic’s contract ranks among the worst in the league. He’s had a very good career, but he’s an oft-injured 40-percent jump shooter these days. But he is the starting small forward for a playoff team.

source

Photo source Newscom

As always, any NBA Basketball related comments are welcome.

More blogs about basketball.

Post from: NBA Obsessed