Views from the other side

[Mixability]

the first thing Cuban needs to do for Mavs to improve is to shut up, get off the spotlight and leave the team alone.

Cuban is as much to blame for Mavs failures as anyone.

[NFGIII]

the first thing Cuban needs to do for Mavs to improve is to shut up, get off the spotlight and leave the team alone.

Cuban is as much to blame for Mavs failures as anyone.

Agreed.

He should take a page from Holt's book and find competent people to run the team. Both on the and off the court. But as we all know he wont and never will unless he has an ephiphany or something. His ego is just too big at this point. Though it was probably a good thing when he was putting together his internet business it has shown not to work in professional sports. All he needs to do is look across town to see how an owner can screw up a team. Jones's ego concerning JJ is the main reason I believe that the 'Boys haven't been relevant for so many years. And Switzer's Super Bowl win was really Johnson's team. All he did was no screw it up. He inherited the bulk of the team and guided it to the promise land.

Though Cuban's actions may be detrimental to the Mavs they are a good thing for the Spurs. keep it up Mark. More power to you.

[Rainman]

I can never fell sorry for the Mavs as long as Cuban is the owner and Jason Terry is in a Mavs uniform.

Have to agree with you there. Dirk is not as floppy as he used to be so I don't hate on him as much. The big Q if they do lose out does Cuban blow up the team? These guys have gone down in flames in some of the biggest choke jobs the game has ever seen including the disaster in the NBA finals.

Cuban blow em up and see what you can get for Dirk while he still has game left.

[Mixability]

Cuban blow em up and see what you can get for Dirk while he still has game left.

And to think there was a straight up Kobe for Dirk rumor going around a while back.....

[duncan228]

Mavericks' Nowitzki brings on extreme reactions
Tim Cowlishaw/Columnist

At the driving range Saturday morning, two people asked me if Mark Cuban was going to blow up the Mavericks and get rid of Dirk Nowitzki. The team was down 2-1 in the series at this point.

As they faded away near the end of Game 4, I received a text message asking if I thought Cuban would trade Dirk this summer. This is what happens when the Mavericks lose games that some don't expect them to lose.

It's all on Dirk.

Frankly, those who choose to bash Dirk after Game 4 are not without ammunition. He was too timid. He got frustrated with the level of physical play in the third quarter and he didn't step up in the fourth.

And I have to wonder sometimes about the things tha Nowitzki says after games. He talked about the Spurs' relentless double teams, how they "ran at me from the get-go.''

I don't know. I watched the third quarter twice and I saw a lot of 35-year-old Antonio McDyess in Dirk's face with no help and Dirk going nowhere.

Just as Nowitzki is the greatest all-time Maverick, he has some similarities to Emmitt Smith, one of the greatest all-time Cowboys. Near the end of his career in Dallas, Smith could see eight-man fronts even when they weren't there. Nowitzki is the same with phantom double-teams.

But beyond that, Dirk is the only reason the Mavericks can even think about having another game to play. Nowitzki's shooting 53 percent from the field. He may not be shooting enough at times, but he's not killing the team when he does fire away.

He's averaging 28 points per game. Do you want to see the list of NBA players scoring more per game than Dirk this spring?

LeBron James. Carmelo Anthony. Dwyane Wade.

That's the list. And it's interesting that two of those three are also in deep, deep 3-1 holes.

Jason Kidd, reliable from three-point range all year, is shooting 29 percent from the field. The Spurs know exactly where Kidd will shoot and where he won't and how much time (tick....tick...tick) he needs to set his feet in order to launch it. They've seen his work and they aren't impressed.

Caron Butler has been a disaster. In addition to shooting below 39 percent, he has 14 turnovers. That's more than Kidd and J. J. Barea who handle the ball all night long.

As much as you might want to point fingers at a disappointing Dirk Sunday night, remember that the Spurs' "Big Three" of Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker had 31 points.

That's a game for one of them in recent years. Not all three.

But we have seen Richard Jefferson step up in one Spurs' victory. Now we have seen George Hill and DeJuan Blair and McDyess come up big in another.

When are any Mavericks not named Nowitzki going to up come up big in a Mavericks' playoff win? That's what fans -- and Cuban -- should be wondering.

[duncan228]

Marion: Mavericks can escape 3-1 hole
By Marc Stein
ESPN.com

It doesn't provide a great deal of comfort after three successive losses in their first-round series with San Antonio, but the Dallas Mavericks do have two prominent members in the organization who have experience coming back from a 3-1 deficit in a best-of-seven series.

Mavericks swingman Shawn Marion did it with Phoenix against the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round of the 2006 playoffs. Coach Rick Carlisle's Detroit Pistons overturned a 3-1 deficit against Orlando in the first round in 2003.

Marion insisted after Sunday's 92-89 defeat that he believes a comeback is still possible, even though history suggests that it's an extreme long shot.

Only eight teams in NBA annals, out of the 189 that have tried, have managed to win three games in a row after falling into a 3-1 deficit hole.

"I've been in this situation," Marion said. "It can be done.

"I don't see no fat lady."

Said Carlisle: "It starts with winning Game 5 [on Tuesday night]. That's the starting point."

Although he was visibly displeased to be lifted again by Carlisle early in the fourth quarter, Marion insisted that he would get past the move.

"I've got to support the coach's decision and we've got to stay together," Marion said after totaling 14 points and seven rebounds in Game 4.

[Muser]

blaming Dirk