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

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Tim Duncan has had an incredible career filled with winning that dates back to the David Robinson era. As Robinson grew older he was paired with Duncan to make a twin towers that dominated the court.

Now the time for Tim Duncan is growing short and he knows it. San Antonio’s management also knows it, so they took a desperate gamble.

The original thinking was to find a Super Star player in the up and coming free agency of 2010. Every team in the league wants to be involved in the 2010 free agent battle. LeBron James, Chris Bosh, maybe Dwyane Wade, and others will be available as free agents. San Antonio started to clear salary cap to prepare, but then realized that it may not do any good if Tim Duncan is no longer around.

Tim Duncan needs to win now!

Last year Dallas bounced Duncan and the Spurs out of the playoffs in 5 games in the very first series. That just does not happen to Duncan. The Spurs realized that and immediately decided to sign players right now. They signed Jefferson from the Bucks and free agent Antonio McDyess from the Pistons, and tried to sign Rasheed Wallace from the Pistons. The clock was ticking on the knees of Duncan.

So they elected not to wait. A few days before scoring DeJuan Blair with the 37th overall pick in what immediately was trumpeted as the steal of the draft, San Antonio traded three expiring contracts to Milwaukee — Fabricio Oberto, Kurt Thomas and defensive mainstay Bruce Bowen — for the right to inherit the final two years and nearly $30 million left on Richard Jefferson’s contract. The Spurs then extended two guaranteed years at $9.4 million and a partially guaranteed third year to free-agent forward Antonio McDyess, who just turned 35.

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They are well over the luxury tax threshold now and no longer involved in the chase for Chris Bosh, but that does not matter, because the Spurs feel they can win right now!
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Just listen to Tayshaun Prince tell it like it is concerning the next season for the Detroit Pistons. He claims they will have plenty of firepower from the top to the bottom of the lineup.

On how the new pieces will fit: “As a coach, the more firepower you have, they say the more problems you have. But I’m pretty sure he’ll love that problem. … With Ben (Gordon), his ability to score the ball at will, almost, will be helpful to us. And Charlie (Villanueva), being able to play inside-out, will cause some problems, being able to put him in pick-and-rolls. We’ll definitely have a lot of firepower on the perimeter.
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The real key was picking up Ben Gordon. Most of my friends just don’t seem to understand how valuable Ben can be to that team. Over the years of watching teams go into the playoffs one thing has become very clear. The level of defense in the playoffs is way greater than the level of defense during the regular season.

Ben Gordon and Rip Hamilton will have the same jersey now!

You will see players that can score at will during the season and can’t get their normal shot off in the playoffs. This is where Ben Gordon can pay dividends. He can get off his normal shot in the playoffs and be a dependable high scorer. If you look at the Pistons roster, Rip Hamilton has that ability and has proven it. Charlie Villanueva will also be expected to produce in that manner, so the Pistons could have as many as 3 playoff type scorers on the team.

Now they have to get into the playoffs.
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If there is a deeper team in all of basketball, then they automatically deserve the NBA title, because the Boston Celtics are super deep.

Now the Celtics have signed Marquise Daniels, the former Indiana Pacer.

Daniels is coming off the best of his six seasons, averaging career highs of 13.6 points and 4.6 rebounds in 54 games with the Indiana Pacers, 43 of them starts.

The 28-year-old Daniels spent three seasons with Dallas before moving to Indiana. For his career, he is averaging 9.4 points in 351 games, including 109 starts.
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Marquise is 6′6″ tall and can play the big guard position. Yeah, Boston was lacking at the big guard backup position. Like they actually lack at any position.

Check out this lineup:
You have Rajon Rondo and Ray Allen at the guard positions.
You have Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett at the forward positions.
You have Kendrick Perkins playing center.

Kevin Garnett is looking forward to playing with Marquis Daniels

That alone would be enough, but check out these backups:
You have Eddie House, the 3 point shooter, and Tony Allen, and now Marquise Daniels at the backup guard position.
You have Brian Scalabrine and Glen Davis at backup forward.
Then you can top it off with Rasheed Wallace at center.

Maybe the toughest thing all year will be to decide who plays in the 4th quarter with the game on the line. So how good is Boston? Well, the Boston Globe reports that Marquise Daniels turned down more money from other teams to play for the Celtics with the belief that they can win the NBA Title.
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Tim Duncan will once again have a team to write home about. There was serious talk that the Spurs had just grown too old and too complacent to be kings of the hill any more. Were they facing the same fate as the Pistons and heading into a slow destruction while still winning quite a few games, but not enough games?

It made for a very important off season for the San Antonio Spurs and future Hall of Famer Tim Duncan.

Tim Duncan is ready to challenge for the NBA title!

So how did the Spurs do? It appears a major upgrade took place and the Spurs can’t wait to start the season. Richard Jefferson, once one of the big three in New Jersey with Kidd and Carter, was added to the team along with veteran Antonio McDyess, a stand up guy and a stand out 15 foot jump shooter.

If it was only those two players you would have to be happy, but the Spurs appear to have some up and coming young talent including second round pick, the supposedly undersized DeJuan Blair.

Former University of Pittsburgh star DeJuan Blair, once considered a lottery pick, slipped all the way to 37th overall, where the Spurs gobbled him up like Homer Simpson would a doughnut. After a standout college career, Blair entered the 2009 draft following his sophomore season. In his second season at Pitt, Blair, who averaged 15.7 points and 12.3 rebounds (a whopping 5.6 of which were offensive) per game, led the Panthers to the team’s first ever No. 1 national ranking before falling to Cleveland State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
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Spurs fans everywhere have to be excited about this team!

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Joe D has done it again. This time he has lured high scoring combo guard Ben Gordon to the Detroit Pistons for a reportedly 55 million buckaroos and 5 years. A hefty price, but well worth it.

So what does Gordon bring to the Pistons? Ben Gordon brings the ability to shoot and score from range in a playoff situation. If you watch enough NBA ballgames, you will notice that some players can accumulate stats in the regular season and not do it in the playoffs. It is actually a rare ability to score when well guarded. Rip Hamilton can do it on the Pistons and now Ben Gordon will also bring that ability to the Pistons.

Gordon, 26, has been nailing three-pointers and creating his own shot since he came into the league as the third pick of the 2004 draft.

He is scorer who is a great shooter and adept at running the pick-and-roll. He stands 6-feet-3 and carries a career scoring average of 18.5 points. His compact body allows him to get into the paint and finish through contact. The only real knock is that he’s too short for shooting guard since he lacks the playmaking skills to play the point. That leads to defensive mismatches when paired against taller and more athletic players such as Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade.

Gordon has been on the Pistons’ radar for quite some time. and he upped his value when he averaged 24.3 points during a classic seven-game series against the Boston Celtics in this year’s playoffs.

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Will Ben Gordon co-exist with Rip Hamilton? Many think so.

With the trade of Chauncey Billups to the Nuggets, the Pistons needed a long distance scoring threat at guard and now they have one. Rip can only shoot threes from a set shot position. Nothing wrong with that, but you do not get a lot of those opportunities in the playoffs.
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Phil Jackson is the best coach in the game today.

You want proof. 10 NBA Titles.

Big deal, you say? How about 10 out of the last 19? Now that is incredible.

Stuart Scott interviews Phil Jackson

With this last title, Phil Jackson has become the NBA coach with the most NBA titles passing Red Auerbach of the Boston Celtics and Phil did it in the age of the free agent.

Those are staggering statistics, especially in this era of free agency, expansion and the salary cap.

Still, there will always be some – like the late Auerbach – who say that Jackson has only won with ready-made championship teams.

Jackson’s current superstar, Kobe Bryant, laughed at that notion Saturday.

“I can’t name one coach that won a championship with a bunch of scrubs, so that argument makes no sense,” Bryant said.

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Phil Jackson has left the game before and couldn’t stand being away. He had to return, there was just something about it.

“The addiction to coaching is a powerful one, which is why so many come back over and over and over. I don’t suspect I’ve got a serious case, but I am probably as susceptible to this drug as anyone else. I would never rule anything out.

“Since the early 1960s, I’ve played or coached in more than 2,000 games, and I can say safely there is nothing I’ve experienced outside of basketball that can match its intensity, its highs and lows, its feeling of fulfillment or failure. I can’t imagine what my life would have been like without it.”

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As much as Phil would love to retire to Montana, the Lakers stand to return pretty much the same team and the West grows weaker with every day that Tim Duncan ages, almost assuring a return to the Finals. How can he resist?

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The Los Angeles Lakers are a team known for talent and coaching and Kobe Bryant. What they are not known for is toughness. In last year’s series against the Boston Celtics, the lack of toughness haunted them and drove them out of the playoffs.

This year they face the Orlando Magic a team known for toughness with one of the toughest players in the league, the very physical Dwight Howard. Everyone felt the Lakers were the better team, but Orlando was hot and playing physical. Would the Lakers fold up and not play up to their potential.

Would Kobe play it cute? Would Pau Gasol play it safe?

Kobe and the Lakers are showing toughness

No, the Lakers came to play and have brought surprising toughness.

In these moments, two things became abundantly clear: The Lakers weren’t going to let Orlando’s physical play get to them, and the Lakers had added a thick outer callous since the Boston Celtics beat them up in last year’s Finals.
All season they have talked about being tougher. But toughness, like character, isn’t learned, but rather forged.

Through experience, from failure, with regret and desire fueling the hot fire it requires to be fed.

It wasn’t until Thursday night though, that the Lakers were pushed hard enough to show how much they had hardened.

“It was a game we had to work so hard for and fight through so much and in the end it really paid off,” Gasol said.

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No, the Lakers will never be compared to some of the Piston championship teams, last year’s Lakers, or even the Shaq Kobe Laker teams, but this team has found the toughness they needed to survive and gain victory.
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Pau Gasol is getting banged around by Dwight Howard, but what did he expect? Dwight has only one style of play and it involves a lot of muscle applied in a not so gentle manner.

Pau rubbed the back of his head to the referee for a visual explanation.

Then again, Pau is not the most physical center in the league and Dwight is going to have to be physical to compete with Gasol. If Dwight Howard lightened up for even a moment, the crafty Pau would destroy him on the offensive end.

Dwight Howard fights off the Lakers

Howard even seemed to acknowledge Gasol’s complaints, though he had not been told of them before his postgame news conference.

“I think with (Andrew) Bynum, he doesn’t mind banging,” Howard said. “With Gasol, sometimes you’ve got to be aware of what you do in the paint. Gasol is very smart. He’s been playing for a long, long time and I think with him, I’ve just got to be smart. I don’t want to pick up any cheap fouls and have to sit on the bench.”

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Hey, Dwight knows what he is doing.

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Orlando fans need to relax and enjoy, because they can win game 3. Usually the way these series go, the home team of the favored team (that would be the Lakers) will win big at home and be lucky to scrape a 1 point victory on the road.

Consider that Orlando had the ball and a chance to win at the end of game two and it bodes well for the Magic to win game 3. Especially look for Dwight Howard to have a big game on the home court.

Dwight Howard needs to reach out and take this game

On the other hand, Magic fans better put away the knives if the Lakers pull out game 3, because then all that is left to play for is respect. That does not win many titles.
In the mean time, please don’t blame Stan Van Gundy. He is doing everything he can.

Coach Stan Van Gundy pulled out everything imaginable from his bag of tricks on Sunday, and somehow the Magic almost turned the Finals on its ear before losing in overtime.

Van Gundy is desperate enough now in a series of must-win games that he might resort to the ol’ “Picket Fence” from the movie Hoosiers, the Ted Williams shift or the Veer. Well, he could always use the World’s Tallest Line-up, where every player is at least 6-feet-10.

“I’m not sure I’ve got another lineup to throw out there that you haven’t seen now, OK, unless I’m going to play like Dwight [Howard], Marcin [Gortat], Tony [Battie], Rashard [Lewis] and Hedo [Turkoglu]. I don’t have another one now,” Van Gundy said.

“We played with no point guard. We’ve played big. We played conventionally [with point guards]. We’ve had Rashard at the three [small forward], we played Hedo at the one [point guard], two [shooting guard] and three.
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