3 Cheers - Game 2, Round 1

MAVS 112 vs. WARRIORS 99

Dear sweet and beautiful baby Jesus,

Thanks for Wednesday night.  We aren't out of the woods yet, so keep the help coming.

Much Dude love, Amen.

3 CHEERS:

1. Resurrections - Dirk Nowitzki, Jerry Stackhouse, and Jason Terry came back to life in this game.  Dirk overcame an awful showing from Game 1 by getting back to the free throw line 11 times and shooting 7 of 15.  That amounted to 23 points, 7 rebounds, a steal and 2 blocks.  Stack stopped settling for jumpers and attacked the rim, getting himself 13 free throw attempts.  That allowed him to score 17 points, grab a season high 8 rebounds, toss out 4 assists, and he picked up a steal.  JET was the catalyst in this game, inspiring the team and the crowd with his fiery play.  JET had 28 points on 12 of 23 shooting, 3 steals and a block.  We have 5 guys that are the keys to this engine to some degree.  When these 3 keys aren't turning, as in Game 1, it's hard to be dominant or even be winners.  They were dead in the first game.  They came back to life in the second.  Fortunately, they could be even better.  One of the other keys . . .

2. Josh Howard - Howard was all over the court in this game.  He scored points (22), he got to the line (6 of 7), he rebounded (11), and he played solid defense (5 steals and 2 blocks).  This is a series for Howard to shine.  If the Warriors continue to take Dirk out of the picture offensively, that will leave the rest of the team to pick up the shots Dirk doesn't get.  Howard is just the guy to do it against this Warriors defense, and just the guy to guard this Warriors offense.

3. Attack Mode - Avery went back to his usual lineup of Dampier, Dirk, Howard, Terry and Harris.  Even though the first quarter was a little shaky and the halftime score was close, it put us back in our comfort zone to attack the basket and move the ball offensively.  It also helped us out rebound a small ball club 41 to 34.  It helped us play active defense, forcing 24 turnovers (14 steals) for 33 points, and block 9 shots.  You can't argue with that.  Keep attacking.

3 CHEERS:

1. Hot Heads - Baron Davis, Mavs scorcher from Game 1, and Stephen Jackson both got 2 technical fouls and tossed from the game.  These are the playoff veterans of this team, so that's bad news for the Warriors.  What was worse was that neither was tossed earlier.  The refs gave them every opportunity to let their transgressions and consistent complaining and cussing dissipate, but finally it all came down to them losing their cool and showing up the refs.  More about this in Random Crap (that's called a "tease").

2. Whistles - The Mavs were driving the lane like crazy and the Warriors were just driving the refs crazy, but even so, the two teams combined for 70 free throws.  The way the game was called varied from the first half to the second.  The first half, the teams combined for 27 free throws.  The second half brought 43.  In other words, it's just a sampling of the inconsistency that this crew of refs displayed during the game.  Not that I'm going to defend the Warriors players for getting ejected, but I can understand their frustration about getting whistled for a foul in the second half for something they didn't get whistled for in the first half.

3. Tivo - I love my Tivo, but it does have a dark side.  I have dual tuners on my dish, so I can record two programs simultaneously as long as I'm watching one of them.  I set my second tuner to the Mavs game so I could watch American Idol until the game came on.  Well, since American Idol decided to save babies, they let it run long so we could listen to a bunch of amateurs sing a hokey inspirational song about puppies and free colonoscopies for the needy or something like that.  Since I was watching that as it ran over, Lost comes on and takes over the second tuner because I have a season pass set up for it.  That wipes out the Mavs game, and I don't realize it until I switch over and find myself 8 minutes into the game.  I'm ashamed of myself, and I blame my Tivo for it.

RANDOM CRAP!

• American Idol was very inspirational during their pledge drive, which got me to thinking: If all of us watching the game donated just one point to the Mavs, we could put an end to Golden State Syndrome.
• I decided to watch the local feed (yes, I watched Bob-O) because the national feed didn't work so well for me last game.  I did switch to TNT at halftime to watch Barkley, and he said that he expects the Mavs to win in 5 even before he knew the Mavs were going to win this game.  Good stuff.  I should put him in my Five.
• I prepared for this game with a strict regimen of staying home with my 2-year-old daughter all day long while she was throwing up every 30 minutes, and doing laundry in the meantime.  I think she got everything dirty, and I got everything clean.  That's teamwork, and it translated to the Mavs game.
• Score of Game 1 at halftime = 38-38.  Score of Game 2 at halftime = 54-52.  You would think the lower score would benefit the more defensive minded Mavs over the high scoring Warriors, yet the Warriors won that game.  You would think the higher score would benefit the fast breaking Warriors over the half court offense of the Mavs, but the Mavs win this game.  Moral: Stop thinking, just watch and enjoy . . . or throw pillows, whatever the case may be.
• It might not be all that bad that Tivo lost the first 8 minutes of the game because if I had been watching when Monta Ellis scored 10 points in the first 4 minutes to give the Warriors a 15-7 lead, I would have been on the ledge.  By "ledge" I just mean "severely distraught".  I have too much to live for to be speaking literally.  Who would write the blog?
• How do you save a ball from going out-of-bounds by bouncing it off a guy that's standing out-of-bounds?  I guess that's a rhetorical question because if I was truly asking you these questions, you would be writing the blog and not me.  There was a scrum for the ball and while Diop was standing firmly out-of-bounds, Jason Richardson bounces the ball off Diop's leg.  I've seen a player bounce a ball off an opponent's leg as he's flying out-of-bounds, allowing the ball to carom off the opponent's leg so that the ball is out on the opponent.  That makes sense to me, even if I didn't word it very well in that description.  But if you are in-bounds and you throw the ball off an opponent that is standing out-of-bounds, didn't you just technically throw the ball out-of-bounds?  You might as well bounce it off one of the rich folk sitting courtside.  I guess I'm an idiot for thinking that, because you know what?  They ruled the ball was out-of-bounds on Diop, and gave the in-bounds to the Warriors.
• Speaking of in-bounds, aside from dribbling the ball once on the sidewalk in front of your house when no one else is around, there is no simpler move in basketball than in-bounding the ball after a made basket without defensive pressure.  One player grabs the ball as it comes out of the basket, steps out-of-bounds, tosses it in to a teammate, and they begin to dribble up the court.  Watch Dirk do this.  He makes it look so nonchalant.  He doesn't even put both feet out-of-bounds, he just sets one foot out-of-bounds, lifts the other like a flamingo (an MVP flamingo), and tosses the ball to one of the guards.  He's like the Cirque Du Soleil of in-bounds passers.  Contrast that to the Warriors last night, who managed to screw up the in-bounds pass.  One player "in-bounded" the ball while still standing in-bounds.  He then stepped out-of-bounds, and his teammate passed it back to him.  Ball out-of-bounds on Golden State.  It prompts Maverick Kevin Willis (wearing a suit on the bench) to point at his temple in a taunting fashion as to say "use your head."  It makes you wonder why bouncing the ball off Diop while he was standing out-of-bounds wasn't out-of-bounds, but passing the ball to your own player while he's standing out-of-bounds is out-of-bounds.  I guess that's not for me to understand, just like it's not for me to understand how you could screw up the easiest play in basketball.  At least I broke the record for most hyphens used in a Random Crap section.
• Have I mentioned how much I hate charge calls?  There's no rhyme or reason to how the refs are going to call it.  I'm sure I've mentioned it before.  I won't get into the entire rant that I vocalized last night during the game, but I did finally realize why my wife doesn't like watching games with me.  When I am done with my 2 minute dissertation on the inconsistencies of the charge call, she seems far from wildly entertained.  Needless to say, she went to bed at the end of the 3rd quarter.  She was on fire, too.  She was staying up, getting mad, yelling at players, etc.  Then I go flapping my gums instead of just writing it down to bore all of you guys with, and next thing I know, she's "tired".  That's how much I hate charge calls.  As I was talking, my brain was telling me to shut up, but I just couldn't stop, kind of like your brain tells you not to eat that last shrimp stuffed breaded jalapeno before the waiter brings your fresh beer but you eat it anyway and immediately curse yourself.  Now I've lost my wife for the rest of the game.  I glad it didn't blow the mojo of the game, though.
• At one point, I wrote this down: Get of your knees, refs!  You're blowing the game!  INNUENDO!!  Speaking of innuendo, towards the end of the game the camera zoomed in on a guy holding up a sign that read "Nellie Can't Beat Our Johnson".  Brilliant.  That is how you make a sign.
• I read before the game that China has been developing a process called "cloud-seeding" in which they sprinkle chemicals high in the air to force rain, leading to cleaner air and clearer skies on demand.  They plan to perfect and use this God-like (or Buddha-like) innovation before the 2008 Summer Games so that their other experiment, Yao Ming, tries to win basketball gold for his motherland.  Seriously, if these people, who average 4' 8", can stay committed to Communism AND create rain, don't you think they have the persistence and know-how to create the Godzilla of basketball out of a petri dish?
• Former Mav Darrell Armstrong was at the game.  It's good to see him.  I heard he wants to play another year or two before retiring and trying to get into coaching, but I bet he has a opening waiting here for him if and when he wants it.  I think this Mavs locker room misses his leadership and enthusiasm to a certain degree.
• What's with the lights in all the fans' mouths?  They keep showing these people with a couple of those little tiny flashlights that you would keep on your keychain that are powerful enough to spot an ant from 2 inches away.  I don't know if you've ever been to American Airlines Center, but it's bright as hell in there.  A dinky flash light isn't going to make much of an impression.  Now you're just an idiot that's trying to swallow batteries and filament.  Best of luck.  One bad beer burp and your tummy's glowing like you're E.T. feeling the warmth of human affection.
• Warriors forward Andris Biedrens's last name, when pronounced correctly, sounds just like "Beatrice".  Insert joke here.
• The Mavs took a big lead at the start of the 4th, but then started settling for 3 pointers.  Of the first 5 shots we took, 4 were from behind the arc.  When you shoot 1 of 16 as a team from behind the arc (with the 1 coming on the 16th attempt), don't jack up quick 3's with a 16 point lead and 10 minutes left in the game.  It played right into the Warriors run and gun style, and next thing you know, the deficit is cut to 9 in a matter of 2:30 minutes.  Needless to say, this wasn't lost on Avery, who called a timeout and dogcussed them.
• I would like to take this time to insist that nobody bag on Dirk for not throwing up 35 points and 20 rebounds a game in this series.  It's simply not going to happen.  Not because of Dirk, but because Nellie won't let him.  Some people have said that it's a detriment to the Mavs that Nellie knows Dirk so well.  It could be argued that it's a detriment to Nellie.  Let me remind you that Nellie was one of the wacky pioneer coaches that hypothesized that you could let a star player get all the points they wanted and as long as you shut down the rest of the team, you would probably win.  Let Jordan score 50.  If you hold the rest of the Bulls to a combined 25 and your team scored 80, you win.  So to think that Nellie "knows" Dirk so well to run double and triple teams at him constantly to keep the ball out of his hands might just show the amount of respect and fear Nellie has for his former pupil.  Doing so is allowing JET, Howard, Stack and Harris to have open looks.  Granted, they have to be able to take advantage of those looks, but still.  Let's not fault Dirk for not throwing up monster numbers here.  He's playing decoy to the betterment of his team and his teammates.  Let's not get on him too much for not putting up "MVP" numbers.  If everyone loves Nash for making his teammates better, then that is precisely what Dirk is doing in this series, even if it's to the detriment of his own personal stats.
• The only thing I will ask is that even though Dirk isn't going to score much, he needs to still touch the ball on nearly every possession to facilitate the offense.  Sending him out to the top of the arc isn't going to cut it.  The Warriors will only double down on him once he's put the ball on the floor.  In order to do that, he has to have the ball, preferably at or near the top of the key.  Even if Dirk's not averaging 30 points, he needs to stay involved in the offense by running the plays through him in the paint or low post.
• And now it's time for tonight's main event!  In this corner, we have an 8th seed team that has made the playoffs for the first time in 13 years trying to take a 2-0 lead on the best team in basketball before they even play a home game!  And in this corner we have the volatility and sarcasm of Baron Davis and Stephen Jackson, who play for that same 8th seeded team!  The 8th seed starts off well, landing punches and staying close.  But wait!  Baron Davis, who looks to have some left over fish sticks stuck in his beard from his pregame meal, takes a cheap swipe at Jason Terry after a whistle.  A scuffle ensues!  Stephen Jackson steps in to act like a peacemaker, but while he's holding his teammates back, he gets into his own scuffle with DeSagana Diop!  Davis and Jackson have just been hit with technicals!  What a blow to the 8th seed!  It's okay, folks, because the 8th seed seems to be battling back.  Wait a second!  Baron Davis just commits a very hard foul on Jerry Stackhouse!  He doesn't agree with the call!  Now he's sarcastically clapping at the refs for 13 seconds!  You can't taunt the refs like that.  Just ask Tim Duncan.  Davis has just been tossed from the game!  Another haymaker has been dealt to the 8th seed!  This is starting to get ugly now.  Boogedy, boogedy, folks, Stephen Jackson just took Dirk to the floor!  Now he doesn't agree with the call!  I think he's cussing at the officials, everybody.  When you already have a technical, and one of your teammates has already been ejected, and you were one of the main instigators of the worst brawl in the history of basketball, and you are on probation for firing a gun outside a strip club after getting run over by a car after a fight, your leash is shorter than a fire-ant's genitals.  Jackson has just been ejected, too!  Jackson is being restrained by his teammates!  They are shoving him back into the locker room with a towel over his mouth as to muffle and disguise the profanities he's spewing.  I think that's a knockout, ladies and gentlemen!  Davis and Jackson have just taken down their own 8th seeded team!  Wow!  This has been a bout for the ages!
• It looked to me like the Warriors were starting to get a little too cocky and when things stopped going their way, they got very upset and lost their cool.  On the way back to the locker room, Jackson even launched a verbal attack at security officers and Mavs President and CEO Terdema Ussery.  Baron Davis explained his own actions this way: "I think I got the first tech because I reached in after Jackson fouled Terry.  And the second one, he told coach that he gave me a warning and coach told me to calm down, and I was calm.  I thought we kept our emotions in check for the most part, but the refs saw otherwise."  Davis's beard must be growing over his eyes if that's how he saw it.  I saw two emotionally out of control players taunt the refs all game long as if winning the first game entitled them to winning the entire series.  They were lucky it took as long as it did for them to get tossed.
• They are still pushing this Tyler Perry's House of Payne show on the TNT broadcasts.  If you have to bend over backwards to tell me how hilarious a new show is, maybe it's not that funny to begin with.  It would be like hearing some dude talk about how awesome he was all the time.  I guess it's a convincing strategy when you really think about it.

Late start for Game 3.  Tipoff is set for 9:30 CST, which means closer to 10:00.  The Dude's going to hit the bowling alley for a few hours before the game to keep my mind sharp and nimble.  I'll be back with a Game 3 review, along with my bowling score, as soon as I can.  Until then, keep it real.  And in front of a hostile, energetic Warriors home crowd, playing a feisty and jilted Warriors team, the Mavs need to bring the thunder tonight.  Sweet baby Jesus, do your good work for me and the boys.  Much obliged.  Go Mavs!