Going back home

- After a brutal 4 game stretch that included road games against the top 2 teams in the West (San Antonio and LA) and another personal house of horrors for the Mavs (Utah), they're coming home with a much easier schedule.

- All in all, victories would have been nice, but performances in these games had me encouraged for the playoffs. All on the road, all against top 4-5 teams. And every game was winnable. And with Howard and Stackhouse giving them absolutely nothing, too.

1) In it until the end at San Antonio, losing by 3. Played great defense throughout, mainly on Ginobli, and had Bowen and Finley get hot offensively on them.
2) Another game that was either tied or within a few possessions the entire game. Monster game from the emerging Dampier, great passion and stepping up of Dirk in the 4th, and another close loss in a hostile environment. LA needed Kobe being Superman just to get this win.
3) Got down early, got more passion, intensity, and big shots from Dirk (an ongoing theme since the Kidd trade), showed me a lot by coming back from a 21 point deficit and taking a 3 point lead midway through the 4th. But in the end, they had no energy and no extra gear. Just worn out.

- Now get home, take care of these lightweights and get yourself back in the Southwest Division race.

Dallas Mavericks rally, then fade in loss to Jazz

By EDDIE SEFKO / The Dallas Morning News

SALT LAKE CITY – The Dallas Mavericks finished their run of road games against the Western Conference divisional leaders Monday night.

They led in the fourth quarter against all three championship level opponents.

They lost all three games.

That's the bottom line for a team that could, and probably should, be emotionally gutted after Monday night's 116-110 defeat to the Utah Jazz.

But they are adamant that that's not the case.

"It's obviously a little frustrating losing all these games," said Dirk Nowitzki, who had 23 points and a flagrant foul that sent Utah's Andrei Kirilenko to the hospital.

"At home, we find ways to pull these games out. We get a big basket or a big stop. In the tight West, you hate losing these games. But maybe down the road it will help us learn to close out games. Maybe it's not all bad to go through this, but when you're losing these games, it's no fun."

The gut-wrenching losses have left the Mavericks in seventh place in the West but tied in the loss column with eighth-place Golden State. They are just three games up on Denver, which is out of the playoffs at the moment.

Yet their resolve remains steely, coach Avery Johnson said. The Mavericks are not getting beaten down psychologically by their heartbreak.

"Our team has a lot of intestinal fortitude," Johnson said. "They are not quitters. They could have packed it in early. But we found a way to get back in the game and take the lead.

"But we're not able to close out games, and historically we've been able to do that. We're just not there yet. But when we get there, the sky's the limit for this team.

"There's no 'beat you down' here. We're a positive team."

That vibe is being tested. This one may have hurt even more than the losses at San Antonio and the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Mavericks erased a 21-point first-half deficit behind big nights from Nowitzki, Josh Howard and Jason Terry but fell to pieces against a stiff Utah defense in the final minutes as the Jazz pulled away.

The Mavericks were up 92-89 with just over six minutes left, then gave up 16 points in a row to the Jazz, ending their chances. The Jazz, 26-3 at home, hasn't lost on its floor since Dec. 29.

The Mavericks fell to 4-4 since the trade for Jason Kidd. Utah got 20 assists and 17 points from The Colony product Deron Williams and 28 points from Carlos Boozer, who was big down the stretch as the Jazz buried the Mavericks.

At the end, the Mavericks took their first lead of the game at 90-89. A Kidd 20-footer made it a 3-point edge for the Mavericks, but Boozer scored four points, the beginning of a 16-0 Jazz run that closed things out.

"We're playing hard, but the other team's playing hard, too," Jerry Stackhouse said. "There's no secret to success. You just have to keep working and stay positive."

The last time the Mavericks were at EnergySolutions Arena, they were behind 16-0 before the first quarter was half done.

At least it was 2-2 for a brief spell Monday. But that didn't last long.

Utah went up 25-6 midway through the opening period and was up 52-34 before the Mavericks got their first two points in the paint on a Devean George hook shot. Utah had 22 points in the paint at that point.

The momentum swayed just minutes into the game when Nowitzki did his best Roy Williams imitation by putting a horse-collar on Kirilenko.

Nowitzki's takedown lit a fire under the Jazz and the fans, who unloaded their wrath on Nowitzki every time he touched the ball thereafter, booing him loudly.

Kirilenko went to the hospital after X-rays on his right hip at the arena were inconclusive. Kirilenko returned to the arena in the fourth quarter after further tests showed only a sprain.



- One of the many likeable guys on this team. They may not win, but there's a wonderful lack of prima donna's on this team. Here's one of them. Went to college with his brother at Tarleton.



Texas Rangers' Broussard won't get left out against lefties

08:40 PM CST on Monday, March 3, 2008
By EVAN GRANT / The Dallas Morning News
egrant@dallasnews.com

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – The Texas Rangers faced a left-handed starter for the second time this spring. Ben Broussard, the newly acquired left-handed hitting first baseman, was in the starting lineup for both games.

Or, put another way: He's been in the starting lineup more times this spring against lefties than he had been all of last season.

Against strike-challenged Noah Lowry, Broussard, hitting in the sixth spot, became the first Ranger to make an out in Monday's 8-6, 10-inning win over San Francisco.

After Lowry walked the first five hitters on the way to nine walks overall, Broussard lined a ball to left field for a run-scoring sacrifice fly. Two at-bats later, against right-hander Kevin Correia, Broussard poked his first hit of the spring through the right side.

This is no spring fancy. Manager Ron Washington has been adamant Broussard will open the season playing regularly against lefties. The Rangers are expected to face Seattle lefty Erik Bedard on opening day.

"I don't want him coming to the park every day wondering if he's going to play against a left-hander," Washington said. "He's going to play against them until he proves he can't."

For most of his career, Broussard has known he wouldn't play against lefties. Pressed into full-time duty for Cleveland in 2004, he batted .362 against lefties with a 1.081 on-base-plus-slugging percentage. The next year, he went right back to being a platoon guy. It's been that way ever since.

Last year, he started just one game vs. a left-hander. In 2006, he got just four starts: Three were against Barry Zito, Johan Santana and Randy Johnson.

"I feel like I'm in a movie scene where I've gained freedom," Broussard said. "It's like 'Wow, somebody believes in me.' I've been waiting for this my whole career. You ask any left-handed hitter and they will tell you that facing lefties is going to make them better against all pitching."

Broussard's point: A number of lefties don't worry as much about which side of the rubber the pitcher is coming from so long as they get consistent at-bats. That has been Broussard's issue the last three years. He said it's been hard for him to maintain consistent hot streaks when he sat down roughly once a series.

Broussard has been caught in the cycle in which left-handed hitters often get trapped. After the big 2004 season, he hit .225 against lefties in 2005. He got fewer at-bats and they often came against the toughest lefties, but he didn't do much against them so he couldn't justify getting more at-bats.

"It's been frustrating," said Broussard, who ranks 79th of 93 left-handed hitters with at least 250 plate appearances against lefties in batting average (.230) and on-base percentage (.296). "It's like I was always working against myself. I've just been in a very tough role the last couple of years. I kept thinking that one day, maybe I'd get that chance to play every day."

The Rangers are trying hard to keep Broussard from thinking he's a platoon player. Hitting instructor Rudy Jaramillo has not even approached him about problems against lefties yet. Instead, the pair have been working on changing the way Broussard pivots when he swings. Jaramillo said Broussard's back foot had been sliding more than it had been turning and that tends to make a hitter pull off the ball.

And they've been working on making sure he knows he's going to be in the lineup.

"I hadn't had a hit this spring," Broussard said after coming out of the lineup. "But I faced the lefty in the first and squared the ball up pretty good. In the second at-bat [a double-play grounder], I hit the ball hard. Then in the third, I got a hit. That's how it works. You get a couple of at-bats under your belt, and you make progress."

The Rangers are going to give him that chance.




- A good look at how a trade affects everyone involved.



Hearing you've been traded is tough; making the move is tougher

By Scott Burnside
ESPN.com

DALLAS -- The trade deadline.

Players, picks and prospects flit from team to team like chips across the felt; give you this for that and then move on; build, rebuild; pieces on an icy chess board.

And then, there's what happened to Jay Feaster.

The Tampa Bay general manager called Brad Richards on Tuesday morning to tell the former Conn Smythe Trophy winner he had been traded to Dallas. Feaster, Richards and Richards' agent, Pat Morris, had been talking about the potential move for days, so the news was hardly surprising. Still, Feaster had to hang up the phone.

"I phoned Brad and I couldn't finish the conversation. I broke down and I couldn't finish talking to him," Feaster told ESPN.com a day after he sent Richards to Dallas along with backup netminder Johan Holmqvist for goalie Mike Smith, forwards Jussi Jokinen and Jeff Halpern and a 2009 fourth-round pick.

"It was the weirdest day of my life," Richards told ESPN.com shortly after his first practice with the Stars.

On Monday, Richards was taking part in the Lightning's short skate and team golf outing. The next morning, Feaster told Richards to stay home from practice. What had been a theoretical discussion a couple of weeks ago -- would Richards consider waiving his no-trade clause if the right deal came along -- had become inevitable.

Richards' parents, who were supposed to spend three months in Tampa this winter to escape the Maritime winter in Eastern Canada, came to Richards' home from the house he rented for them on a local golf course.

The family bided their time until the trade was final. Then, after the Lightning players had skated and left the St. Pete Times Forum early Tuesday afternoon, Richards stopped by to pick up his personal possessions and take one last stroll through the only NHL dressing room, the only NHL rink, he has ever called home.

He sat for a while with the trainers, joking a bit, and sent a text message to Feaster, who came down to the locker room to say goodbye. Richards reminded Feaster that he crafted Richards' first pro contract after the Lightning selected him with the 64th pick in the 1998 draft. Feaster was then an assistant GM; Richards was a raw kid out of Prince Edward Island.

"As Brad pointed out to me, he said, 'You and I have been together 10 years," Feaster said.

Ten years with one NHL club is a lifetime, especially if you've accomplished what Richards and the Lightning have, turning a league laughingstock into a Stanley Cup winner.

Remember Richards' three-point performance in Game 6 of the 2004 Stanley Cup finals, which helped force a seventh and deciding game vs. Calgary back in Tampa Bay? Or his NHL-record seven game-winning goals during that championship run?

The names of Richards and his teammates are engraved forever on the Stanley Cup, but in some ways, the team's imprint will always be on the community in Tampa. Richards, like many of his teammates and friends, embraced the city. Richards has a charitable foundation and a suite for children with cancer. After every game, Richards made a point of stopping up to visit.

Feaster said Richards is not a player who just gives money, he gives his time.

"He's an even better person than he is a hockey player and he's a great hockey player," Feaster said. "He's a special young man."

Richards also met with coach John Tortorella before he left. That, too, was a difficult parting.

"There was a lot of emotion there, too. We grew up together, too," Richards said. "He turned us into champions. There will always be that bond."

He was, not surprisingly, in close touch with teammates Martin St. Louis and Vincent Lecavalier throughout the talks. "We've been through a lot together," Richards said.

Richards and St. Louis arrived in Tampa at exactly the same time. Lecavalier? He and Richards have been teammates since they were 14 years old, from prep school through junior, international tournaments and playing in Russia during the lockout.

When the Lightning finished their practice on Tuesday, Lecavalier and St. Louis came by and the three went out to lunch.

"That was when it really kind of hit me," Richards said. "That's when it got kind of tough."

This emotion doesn't just run one way.

The Dallas media arrived at the team's practice facility Wednesday to chronicle a team's excitement at having added a former playoff MVP, an Olympian, a winner. But juxtaposed against the optimism that they may be a big step closer to a championship is the recognition that Richards comes at a price.

On a franchise level, that price is measured in futures and what might have been given up in unrealized potential and assets. In the Stars' dressing room, that price is measured in friends and teammates who are now gone.

Stars goalie Marty Turco recalled his last conversation with Smith, his self-described "little brother, " as being "very sad."

Coach Dave Tippett likes to talk about team-building in a wheel metaphor -- the players are spokes in the wheel. You need all of your spokes to move forward. Now, three are gone.

Co-interim GM Les Jackson acknowledges the human toll of trades. He and the rest of the Stars organization drafted Jokinen and Smith, they sold them on the team and there was an element of trust in that relationship.

Then, in a moment, the relationship changes.

By the time Richards got to the Dr. Pepper Star Center in Frisco on Wednesday, there was already a Stars jersey with his new No. 91 (he always wore No. 19 in Tampa Bay) in a display case near a replica Stanley Cup (which retails for $199.99) and a fairly creepy looking large Turco figurine.

Richards was, of course, in a different situation than many NHL players in that he had a no-trade clause. He could have, a la Mats Sundin, said, "No thanks, I'm staying put." But he said he didn't want to hold a gun to management's head.

He understood the economics of the situation, but it still didn't make it any easier to walk away. He isn't married and doesn't have any pets to worry about. He is unencumbered, but that doesn't make the move any easier. He admitted that it has been difficult to reconcile the sadness with the excitement at this new opportunity.

When Richards stepped off the ice after his first practice with the Stars on Wednesday, the team's training staff dropped by to see what he needed before he was whisked away for interviews and photo ops. On a shelf in Richards' dressing room stall were a couple of shaving kits bearing the logo of the Tampa Bay Lightning. A moment later, the logos were turned to the back of the locker.

"It's been a weird two days," Richards said. "I think it's hit me that I've left Tampa, but it hasn't hit me yet that I'm playing for a new franchise."



- Good gosh.


- Some more Dumb and Dumber gems.