Well, My Mavs Optimism Was Short Lived

Well, after Friday night's game, I thought Dallas would even the series back up to 2-2 and was hoping the Mavs could steal one down in New Orleans. However, things right now don't look too good. Where the Mavs played brilliantly Friday night, last night they played below average for 3 quarters of the game. They came out with the same aggressiveness they had Friday, going after loose balls and rebounds, but once the second quarter hit they stopped doing all that (at least as much as New Orleans was) and the ending result showed with a 97-84 loss. Dallas scored 30 points in the 1st quarter and seemed to be scoring at will. They were driving to basket pretty good and it looked like they were going to pick up where they left off on Friday night. Then they scored only 14 points in the second quarter. That pretty much tells you how Dallas lost...they went back to shooting jump shots. And because of that, they shot only 16 free throws (versus getting to the line 38 times Friday night) the entire game. Dallas' field goal percentage wasn't good either shooting 89 times (25 3-pointers) and finishing up the game with a whopping 36%. Oh yeah...they also allowed New Orleans to shoot 50% for the game which doesn't help things either. So they went back to shooting jump shots and slacked off on defense. Yep, that pretty much gets you beat every time. How does a team that knows how to drive to the basket not do it every game? Or if it starts driving to the basket, like Dallas did in the first quarter, why does it stop? That drives me absolutely bonkers. I mean it really does. I know a team will change things up defensively from game to game to take away good things it's opponent did the previous game but come on...16 free throws vs. 38?

Josh Howard played, arguably, one of his worst games as a Mav. He was 3 of 16 shooting for 6 points, including 0 for 2 from the free throw line in 31 minutes. That line is absolutely ridiculous, especially for a former all star player. How do you perform that badly in a playoff game that you need to win pretty desperately?!? I hope he takes that personally. I hope he doesn't sleep tonight. I hope he finds his game again and comes back with a fury on Tuesday night. Because after that, he can sit back on his butt all he wants for the next six months because it won't matter. Absolutely ridiculous to score 6 points in a playoff game. And he is suppose to be the Mavs second best player. Well, not anymore.

The Mavs bench proved once again it only has 1 player on it worth anything which is Brandon Bass. If Dallas could get something, anything, out of Jerry Stackhouse, Devon George and Eddie Jones I think they would have had a better chance of winning or at least made the game more competitive. Those collective 3 had only 9 points in 41 minutes. Pathetic. With J. Ho stinking it up and the majority of the bench doing the same, the Mavs have very little shot of advancing to the 2nd round, which may be for the best. I don't know...

The Flagrant 2 that was assessed to Kidd last night (which got him ejected) should not have been a Flagrant 2. Maybe a 1 but not a 2. It looked a lot worse full speed so I really thought the refs would reverse themselves and move the foul back to a Flagrant 1. Jason Kidd is not a dirty player (cough...Bruce Bowen...cough) so that will work in his favor when the league looks at it tomorrow. A Flagrant 2 foul could result in a one game suspension so lets hope the Stu Jackson and the rest of the NBA disciplinarians give Kidd a reprieve. Otherwise, the Mavs have virtually no shot of winning in New Orleans.

I never thought I would say this but thank goodness for the Stars. They won tonight to take a 2-0 lead over San Jose. I can at least hang my hat on them. But the Mavs...well not so much. It's desperation time for them now. They are the wounded animal and have to play like it. They have to play balls to the wall every play in New Orleans. If they don't, then this whole thing will come crashing down like a house o' cards and if that happens I think Dirk (and maybe Kidd b/c of his contract) that is guaranteed of coming back next season. Here's hoping it doesn't get to that point.