- Bad offense. No go-to scorers. No interior defense. Just a pitiful game all around.
- I hope this helps quiet all those who love to bash Dirk. Last night gave you a glimpse of what this team is. It's a collection of average players, with a few who might be above average (JET and Josh Howard), and a superstar (Dirk).
- I'll say it again, every dominant team has 2 legit, no brainer all stars. Phoenix has Nash and Amare. San Antonio has Duncan, Ginobli, and Parker. LA has Gasol and Kobe. New Orleans has Paul and West. Utah has Boozer and Deron. Houston has McGrady and Yao. Boston has KG, Pierce, and Ray Allen. Denver has Iverson and Carmelo. Dallas has Dirk. That's it.
- And like I keep saying.....with how they're constructed, it's a wonder they've accomplished what they have in the past 7 years. For those who love to bash Dirk, they have no clue what this guy is. Take him away, and you scrape away the Platinum and reveal the aluminum crap that lies underneath.
- To the Dallas sports idiot, who generically says Dirk can't lead a team to a title, they need to be reminded, there's only 3 guys who have led their teams to titles in the past 10 years. Shaq, Duncan, and Wade. That's it. So they're not going out on a limb by saying this, it applies to more friggin people than Dirk. And all those guys had major help next to them. Give Dirk a Kobe. Give him a Shaq. Give him Parker or Ginobli. Hopefully this opened some eyes last night. Without him, they're a lottery team.
- Heck, what has McGrady ever done? And he's had a big man next to him. What's Carmelo and Iverson ever done? Jermaine O'neal? Nash and Amare? Garnett? Nothing. They've had more help than anyone to get things done, and Dirk's outdone them all. League MVP. NBA Finals appearance. All NBA 1st team. 60 wins 3 times, with a 67 win season in there. WITH NOTHING AROUND HIM.
- Just irritates me to no end the unappreciative nature of the KVIL Mavericks fan. They want flash, they want Nike commercials, they want dunk contests, they want tattoos. I want a friggin winner and hard worker who cares only about the bottom line, winning.
- I've been waiting around a long time for local sports star I can enjoy watching, feel good about, get behind, feel like he's dying to bring this city a championship, etc. And he's here. But yet, to most people around here, it's just not good enough. People who don't like Dirk just have an agenda and have set their mind to not like him no matter what, that's the only reason I can come up with.
- Stackhouse is done. Finished. He really has nothing left. He looked terrible last night, and has ever since he came back from injury.
- Howard is driving the basket more, but that jumper still sucks.
- JET looked good early on and kept them in it, but he's just not a #1 scoring kind of guy, and couldn't do it for 4 quarters.
- Mavs lose. Dirk back Saturday.
Rockets rout Dirk-less Dallas Mavericks
06:39 AM CST on Friday, March 7, 2008
By DAVID MOORE / The Dallas Morning News
dmoore@dallasnews.com
The stretch that could define the Mavericks season is underway.
It was an inauspicious start.
That’s a nice way of saying bad.
A one-game suspension prevented Dirk Nowitzki from entering American Airlines Center for Thursday’s game. His absence didn’t prevent the Mavericks from playing bad defense. It didn’t prevent the sellout crowd from booing their disapproval at several points along the rocky way.
The Mavericks became Houston’s latest victim, falling 113-98 on a cold, March night. It was the first loss of the year for the Mavericks at home. The last came on Dec. 27 against Cleveland.
“I thought this would be a great night for us to rally,” said Mavericks coach Avery Johnson, who was optimistic after Wednesday’s practice and Thursday’s shoot-around.
“And I thought we were going to carry over on the floor. But we just didn’t have that type of energy that we needed and especially in the third quarter. They had it, and we didn’t.”
Houston outscored the Mavericks 35-20 in the third quarter, turning a two-point halftime lead into a blowout.
“We didn’t control the paint on the defensive end,” Josh Howard said. “We let them walk in for easy baskets. And they hit some big 3s, shots that were contested.”
The Rockets, who shot 54.2 percent, have won 17 consecutive games. Take the Mavericks longest winning streak of the season, multiply by two and it still falls short of Houston’s run.
The Rockets haven’t lost since Jan. 25. The team has won more games since that evening than Miami, Minnesota or Memphis has won all season. The last five victories have come without injured center Yao Ming, who will miss the rest of the season.
This is no seat-of-their-pants streak. Only three games have been decided by four points or less. The average margin of victory was 12.5 points entering the night.
“I don’t think anybody in our room didn’t think we could beat Dallas,” Rockets coach Rick Adelman said.
It’s the sort of dominance the Mavericks displayed throughout last season.
It’s the sort of momentum Johnson hoped his team could begin to build in a stretch that sees the Mavericks play nine of their next 10 games at home.
The Mavericks began this quest without their leading scorer.
Nowitzki has averaged 28.9 points since Jason Kidd became his running buddy. The Mavericks tried to cover the loss by committee.
They didn’t come close.
Brandon Bass started for Nowitzki and scored seven points in the game’s first 6:45. He didn’t score the remainder of the game.
Malik Allen, who came from New Jersey as a salary cap equalizer in the Kidd trade, chipped in with four points off the bench.
“It’s evident right now that we’ve got to have a big performance to snap out of this thing,” Jason Terry said. “Everybody has to look at themselves and see what each individual can do better in the team concept. We have to get rolling.
“We still have a good team. We do miss the MVP out there. But defensively, we didn’t play at all tonight.”
Any chance for a momentum-building win evaporated in the third quarter.
The Mavericks tied the score at 10:13 on a pull up jumper by Kidd. The Rockets responded with a 32-15 run to end the period and take control.
“They were the aggressors,” Johnson said. “They came out. They took the ball. They rammed it down our throats.”
Houston’s backcourt of Tracy McGrady and Rafer Alston combined for 55 points. The Rockets went over the 100-point mark with 6:46 left in the game.
The Mavericks weren’t much warmer than the temperature outside on offense. Terry had 17 points for the Mavericks but all of them came in the first half.
Howard once again struggled from the field, going 8-of-19, but he did finish with 21 points, seven rebounds and was active defensively in the first half. He acknowledged the significance of this stretch before the game.
“We’re right at the point we need to be,’’ Howard said. “We’re just not getting over the hump.’’
The hump grew bigger Thursday.
“This is a big home stand for us,’’ Nowitzki said earlier in the day. “We’re almost tied for the eighth spot. We feel like at home, we need to gain some ground here.
“I think this is our time to put a little winning streak together with the new team.’’
They will have to wait for Saturday. That’s when the Mavericks face Kidd’s old team and Devin Harris’ new one.
If the Mavericks play the Nets like they did the Rockets, they will have to wait even longer for that elusive winning streak to begin.
- A great "Where are they now" column here. Chris Sanders of FM Marcus fame, has reappeared. Saw some good games of him slinging it around against The Colony.
Former Flower Mound Marcus QB happy to find a home with Dallas Desperados
10:09 PM CST on Thursday, March 6, 2008
By ALBERT BREER / The Dallas Morning News
abreer@dallasnews.com
IRVING – When the Orlando Predators came to visit the Dallas Desperados in 2005, the Sanders clan was perched in Ross Perot's suite, set by happenstance adjacent to Jerry Jones' box at American Airlines Center.
Debbie Sanders' eldest son, Chris, an Orlando backup quarterback and Flower Mound Marcus alum, played in a mop-up role. As the game was ending with a solid finish from Sanders, his mom turned into a salewoman and approached the Cowboys and Desperados owner.
"You should've signed him a long time ago," she told Jones.
Finally, in November, the Desperados did. And tonight, Sanders takes center stage when he starts in place of the injured Clint Dolezel as Dallas hosts Columbus.
"This is something I've wanted ever since Dallas has gotten a team, to be in Dallas and to play in Dallas and to play in American Airlines Center," Sanders, 30, said. "I just hope I can get enough tickets for this weekend."
On Tuesday, that number hovered around 50. By Thursday night, it had bulged to more than 300.
And his mom knows why. "People just gravitate to him." Talk to those around the kid, and there's no need for an explanation.
Start with the fans, who saw him break state passing records during a 15-1 senior year at Marcus, while defying those who looked at his stocky 5-11 frame and dismissed him as something other than a top-notch quarterback.
Then, go to the people who saw how much more Sanders was than just a football player.
He's the kid who considered giving up his senior year to take of his mother, who had Hodgkin's Lymphoma. He's the guy who has served in a brother/father role for his four younger siblings. He's an athlete determined enough to live an itinerant life to play the game he loves. And he's come home.
"What a big day for this kid, this is a dream come true," Debbie Sanders said. "To play in Dallas, and have all his friends coming, 300 or 400 people there, this is his dream."
It took a while for it to happen. After a record-breaking career at Tennessee-Chattanooga, where he transferred to after starting at SMU, Sanders had two shots at the NFL, actually playing in the 2001 preseason for the Tennessee Titans. He moved to the Arena League in 2003 with Buffalo. From there, he had stints with Orlando (2005), Kansas City ('06) and Arizona ('07)
All indications were Sanders would return to Arizona this fall. But a change in the coaching staff meant the 195-pound quarterback was on the move again. It also gave him the opening to come home.
The timing couldn't be better. His brother Chad, 25, just returned from Iraq. His 21-year-old brother Chase is home for a semester from Vanderbilt. They'll be at the game tonight. So will so many others.
Sanders will be the starter for the next four weeks as Dolezel recovers from a separated shoulder.
After that, there's uncertainty, which has been the case with much of his football life. So he's going to enjoy this one, and try to show the Joneses and his teammates, just what his mother was talking about.
"When you go from an All-Arena player to a guy who's never been a full-time starter, I'm sure they have a little bit of doubt," Sanders said. "Once they see how much I love the game and how hard I play, they'll rally around me. Definitely."
SANDERS' ROAD BACK TO DALLAS
Flower Mound's Chris Sanders has taken a long path home after transferring from SMU to Tennessee-Chattanooga in 1999. Some stops along the way:
Tennessee Titans (2001): Went to training camp as an undrafted free agent; was 11-of-21 passing for 141 yards in the preseason before being cut.
Atlanta Falcons (2002): Signed and allocated to NFL Europe, where he was cut by Frankfurt.
Roanoke Steam (2002): Won af2 Player of Week honors before leaving to rejoin the Titans.
Tennessee Titans (2002): Cut at Titans training camp.
Buffalo Destroyers (2003): In his first AFL season, threw for 529 yards and eight touchdowns.
Manchester Wolves (2004): Returned to af2 after being cut from Orlando, and threw for 4,184 yards and 66 touchdowns.
Orlando Predators (2005): Passed for 897 yards and 16 touchdowns in six appearances.
Kansas City Brigade (2006): Became the starter in Week 8, holding the job for seven weeks and throwing for 2,025 yards and 36 touchdowns.
Arizona Rattlers (2007): Played in seven games and started two, throwing for 634 yards and 11 touchdowns.
Dallas Desperados (2008): Signed on Nov. 2, 2007
- Jack Black
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