Thoughts on our beloved Mavs tonight

[Ghazi]

A good win tonight but against a bad team. I only say good win because the margin was 18, so that to me is a sign of quality basketball. Still too many turnovers IMO.

Nothing spectacular in the game... except I was pleased when Singleton came into the game and got a dunk off of an in bounds pass... he had a good game overall nailing a 3, defending, and rebounding.

Mavs took care of business, but now it's time to show something on the road. I'll be fine if we go 1-1 @ Portland @ Utah and then finish up with a win against the Clippers.

[Brickhouse]

Jazz are vulnerable right now, Mavs absolutely need to go 2-0 if they want to have any semblance of a respectable playoff team (which we all know they really aren't).

I hope JHo's ankle is still "not 100%" if it means he doesn't get much PT after halftime.

[Ghazi]

Bro, winning @ Portland and @ Utah on consecutive nights is difficult even for teams like Cleveland, Boston, and Los Angeles... let alone the Mavericks.

We shouldn't be disappointed if the Mavs go 1-1 in these next 2 unless they get blown out in one and flukishly win the other.

[endrity]

Well losing at Portland wouldn't be the end of the world for sure!

[Brickhouse]

Excuses like that are the reason why the Mavs always pat themselves on the back after wins against shitty teams, and moral victories against quality teams.

[Ghazi]

My head is telling me we'll go 0-2 because they're road games against good teams, so I'll be content with 1-1...2-0 and I'd be very happy, not that it'd change my opinion of the team needing a trade to have some sort of contender semblance.

[Ghazi]

Excuses like that are the reason why the Mavs always pat themselves on the back after wins against shitty teams, and moral victories against quality teams.

Nobody's patting the Mavs on the back tonight just giving a little bit of credit for taking care of business... it's not an excuse, it's just reality... winning games on consecutive nights @ Portland @ Utah is exceedingly difficult for even the elite teams, let alone a team like the Mavs.

However, Utah has not been as spectacular so far at home this year like they were last year. The Rose Garden is still a hard place to play though, Portland always makes their jump shots there. shitsfluky.

We'll see what happens brother, we'll see what happens.

[monosylab1k]

Jazz are vulnerable right now, Mavs absolutely need to go 2-0 if they want to have any semblance of a respectable playoff team (which we all know they really aren't).

I hope JHo's ankle is still "not 100%" if it means he doesn't get much PT after halftime.

Absolutely correct. The Mavs have a chance right now to make a push up the standings and if they're legit, they will win both of these games. Portland is still young and the Jazz are falling apart. No excuses. The Mavs keep insisting that they're on the verge of being an elite team, now is their chance to prove it.

Of course they've failed us every other time this year, so why exactly anybody would expect something more than failure is beyond me.

[Ghazi]

We're not elite even if we win these two games. The Blazers are young but undeniably great at home... their only 2 losses there this year came off of last second shots (Turkoglu 3 at buzzer, Baron sending it to OT).

Considering our poor record against +.500 teams, going 2-0 in these games would likely be an anomaly rather than a sign of eliteness or turning the corner.

[monosylab1k]

We're not elite even if we win these two games. The Blazers are young but undeniably great at home... their only 2 losses there this year came off of last second shots (Turkoglu 3 at buzzer, Baron sending it to OT).

Considering our poor record against +.500 teams, going 2-0 in these games would likely be an anomaly rather than a sign of eliteness or turning the corner.

Are you kidding me? It absolutely could mean they're turning the corner. Turning the corner doesn't mean "elite" it means exactly what it says - they could be making the transition from an okay team to a very good team. And those games against winning teams are the only games that matter, so they better win those. I'm not interested in giving them high-fives for beating the fucking Grizzlies.

[Shank]

High five, Mono!

[Ghazi]

I just fear our beloved Mavs may lack the necessary firepower to beat the Blazers on the road. They're good at home primarily due to their fluky jump shooting. Do our beloved Mavs have the firepower to match? If Terry or Dirk has a cold shooting game we'll be in trouble, on top of that we'll probably need an "anomaly" game from someone like Bass or Barea and need more points and shots out of Kidd and an efficient game out of Howard (he's been getting points the last few games, but on high # of shots... 31 points in last 2 games on 31 shots is not very good)In other words, our beloved Mavs need to play outside of their talent level to win this game, and it pains me to say such.

It would be a wonderful X-Mas present if our Mavs could come through though.

[ElNono]

I just fear our beloved Mavs may lack the necessary firepower to beat the Blazers on the road. They're good at home primarily due to their fluky jump shooting. Do our beloved Mavs have the firepower to match? If Terry or Dirk has a cold shooting game we'll be in trouble, on top of that we'll probably need an "anomaly" game from someone like Bass or Barea and need more points and shots out of Kidd and an efficient game out of Howard (he's been getting points the last few games, but on high # of shots... 31 points in last 2 games on 31 shots is not very good)In other words, our beloved Mavs need to play outside of their talent level to win this game, and it pains me to say such.

It would be a wonderful X-Mas present if our Mavs could come through though.

You're just already making excuses in case they lose. 'But Portland is a great jumpshooting team at home'. Bullshit. If the Mavs players go there with your mentality (a 1-1 breakdown is OK. no, really) then you're setting yourself up for disappointment already. If instead you take these two games as a challenge to see if you've made progress (I'm pretty sure this is what mono is talking about) then you should be highly motivated to pull out back to back wins and start making a name for the team...

[Findog]

Utah is not playing all that well it seems, relative to their expectations. Mavs might be able to steal one.

[Ghazi]

You're just already making excuses in case they lose. 'But Portland is a great jumpshooting team at home'. Bullshit. If the Mavs players go there with your mentality (a 1-1 breakdown is OK. no, really) then you're setting yourself up for disappointment already. If instead you take these two games as a challenge to see if you've made progress (I'm pretty sure this is what mono is talking about) then you should be highly motivated to pull out back to back wins and start making a name for the team...

Brother Nono if I viewed things the way Mono did I'd be disappointed with anything other than 71-11 for our beloved Mavs.

If we play these 2 games, get blown out in one and win the other due to flukes I would be disappointed.... but say we beat the Blazers in 2OT with starters playing extended minutes and run out of gas late in the stretch of the Utah game? I could live with that.

It's just being a realist, we're gonna drop games here and there to both good teams and lottery teams, it's important that we keep these to a minimum though and protect our homecourt (which we've failed at thus far).



I really want the Blazers game, as it's a "statement" going into Rose and winning on Christmas Night on national television.