- Dirk continues to lead, inspire, put this team on his back, and build his Dallas sports legacy. What he's doing can't be discounted. Not only is he out there playing hurt, he's producing and continuing to be the go-to guy that this team has to have.
- This team is a collection of average talent surrounded by a superstar. So for Dirk to come back and just be a spot up shooter and "just a guy," wouldn't help in the least.
- Some actual tangible good coaching moves by Avery yesterday. Putting Dirk on Raja Bell to save him for offense (basically the Bruce Bowen move when they play San Antonio). Putting Devean George on Amare. Sticking with Brandon Bass and Dampier for major minutes. Game by game, letting the reins loose on Kidd.
- What a win. Holding that offense to 9 points in the 4th. Holding Nash to 4-17 shooting, 0-6 in the 4th. And showing some sack on the road, late in the year, in a must win game, and winning that bastard.
No Time For Pain, So Dirk And Mavs Gain
By Marc Stein
ESPN.com
PHOENIX -- Dirk Nowitzki stumbled about 18 times by his own count as he drove left, gathered himself with one crucial step to rattle in a fall-away baseline dagger out of nobody's textbook, then showed us his truly unorthodox move.
Nowitzki didn't pop his jersey in celebration. He tugged it from the bottom.
Instead of grabbing it at the top to puff out the DALLAS on his chest, like Kobe Bryant and everyone else does, Nowitzki commemorated the biggest basket of the Mavericks' season by pulling tightly on his shirttail, trying for the same effect.
"I was too hyped up," Nowitzki said later with a laugh, "to even know what I was doing."
You could forgive Nowitzki for that one misstep and understand his emotional overspill Sunday, when he continued to dazzle playing basically on one leg. In only his third game back from a high ankle sprain that typically sidelines athletes in all sports from three to six weeks -- and which shelved the NBA's reigning MVP for only nine days -- Nowitzki had 32 points and 12 boards in 38 stubborn minutes.
The big difference for the visitors on this given Sunday: Dallas supplemented Nowitzki's show with its best all-around fourth quarter in forever, holding the uncharacteristically sleepy Phoenix Suns to a season-low nine points in the period to surge back from a double-digit deficit and claim a crucial 105-98 victory at US Airways Center.
The win didn't officially clinch anything for the Mavs, but the joy and obvious relief on their bench at the end suggested otherwise. It's the Mavs' first win over a team that is definitely playoff-bound since reacquiring Jason Kidd -- Wednesday's victims from Golden State, remember, are not in the West's top eight at the minute -- and almost certainly separates Dallas from the Nuggets and Warriors in the race for the final two playoff spots.
Especially with Denver capping a disastrous weekend by stunningly losing in double overtime at Seattle late Sunday.
"It meant more to them," Suns guard Steve Nash said of the Mavericks, "and they showed it."
It meant more to the Mavs because of their 1-11 record against winning teams with Kidd coming in. Nash's old team looked headed for 1-12, too, when some active switching, dominant board work (18-7 in the fourth quarter) and pesky hands on D combined with an inexplicable meltdown of the Suns' vaunted O to turn a 91-78 deficit into a 94-91 lead.
The Mavs didn't exactly flow freely on offense down the stretch, as has been their custom in recent weeks. Coach Avery Johnson's natural instinct to slow the game down when it gets tight, combined with occasional hesitation from Kidd running a new team, has seen Dallas' ball and player movement shut down in numerous crunch times lately. Yet compared to Phoenix, Dallas was running a virtual layup line in this fourth quarter with eight baskets and 13 trips to the line, while the befuddled hosts went nearly eight minutes without a point.
Nowitzki wound up outscoring the Suns by himself in the fourth, 12-9, with no more Shawn Marion to chase him around and Phoenix finding no suitable replacement in the teams' first meeting since they swung their blockbusters. Dirk's old pal Nash, meanwhile, missed all six of his shots in the quarter to somehow finish 4-for-17 from the field, with Kidd shadowing him well throughout and Nash unable to cash in on a few open looks he did get.
All of that added up to a comeback which served another purpose for the desperate Mavs, highlighting two important areas where they have shown improvement since the Kidd trade in spite of what the standings say.
No. 1: For all the fretting about what the losses of Devin Harris and DeSagana Diop would do to the Mavs defensively, they've actually had more consistency problems offensively, putting up some top-quality resistance against Boston, San Antonio and now Phoenix. "We've been doing this -- playing pretty good defense -- for a while now," Kidd said after totaling eight points, seven assists, six rebounds, four steals and, yes, four blocks. ("They were all below-the-belt blocks," Kidd joked.)
No. 2: Nowitzki is playing with emotion and a swagger that, until Kidd's Feb. 19 arrival, you hadn't seen since last season. Having a player of Kidd's stature to help him for really the first time since Nash's free-agent return to Phoenix in the summer of 2004 has clearly pumped Nowitzki with fresh hope and energy.
That's in spite of the Mavs' recent slump and an injury that still bugs him plenty. For all of Nowitzki's well-chronicled healing powers after numerous ankle sprains in his 10 seasons, Johnson estimates that his franchise player has regained only 60 to 75 percent of his mobility.
"It's not necessarily that Dirk is a fast healer," said Mavs athletic trainer Casey Smith, who doubles as a member of the Team USA training staff.
"He's back playing so fast because he does everything possible to return as quickly as possible and because he is by far one of the toughest players I've ever worked with. Everyone thinks that once he's back on the court that he's healed up, but in reality he usually deals with his injuries for days or even weeks after returning."
Yet it's a reality Nowitzki can block out after a win like this, coupled with the crushing loss Denver suffered in Seattle. The Mavs have seen just enough in the past week -- including a surge back to prominence from Josh Howard (24 points) and some more flashes from Brandon Bass (19 in 24 minutes after earning just 12 seconds of PT in Friday's loss to the Lakers) -- to think that they can rebound from that 0-10 start against winning teams with Kidd to be a dangerous first-round foe for New Orleans, San Antonio or L.A.
After all . . .
Owner Mark Cuban has been reminding folks for days now: Houston finished 17-18 in the 1994-95 season after acquiring Clyde Drexler at midseason and still went on to win the championship. Another pertinent bit of history along those lines that the Mavs know all too well: Shaquille O'Neal's Miami Heat went a humbling 2-12 against division leaders in the 2005-06 season and wound up overturning Dallas' 2-0 lead in the NBA Finals to win it all.
Could this have been one of those nationally televised Sundays that turns around someone's season, like Phoenix did on March 9 with a come-from-behind home win over the defending champs from San Antonio?
"It can't do anything but help," Johnson said.
Nowitzki took it a step further on his one leg, suggesting that having so much at stake in early April could ultimately prepare Dallas better for the playoffs than last season's 67-win romp did.
"In some ways, I like this better," Nowitzki said. "We didn't play a meaningful game after March last year."
- From the Arizona paper.
Suns go cold vs. Mavs
Paul Coro - Apr. 6, 2008 03:22 PM
The Arizona Republic
The Suns entered the fourth quarter of Sunday's game against Dallas needing only to score 20 points to become the NBA's top offense.
Instead, Phoenix blew a 13-point lead by looking like the worst offense around. The Suns went scoreless for nearly eight minutes in the fourth and Steve Nash missed his final seven shots in a 105-98 loss to Dallas at US Airways Center.
The team that had averaged 114.8 points to win 11 of its previous 14 games and had efficiently scored 89 points in Sunday's first three quarters disappeared.
After a Shaquille O'Neal turnaround opened the fourth quarter for a 91-78 lead, the Suns spent the next 7:51 with the sort of offensive helplessness that made Miami look potent. Phoenix missed 12 shots as the Mavericks' 16-0 run sent them to a win, making them 2-11 against winning teams since adding Jason Kidd.
The Suns still cinched a playoff spot with Golden State's and Denver's losses on Sunday but fell to sixth place in the West, three games ahead of Dallas, which now is firmly in the seventh spot. A Pacific Division title appears unlikely with Phoenix trailing the Lakers by two games with five games to play and Los Angeles holding the tiebreaker.
"Everything was going well for three quarters and their backs were really against the wall, so psychologically we were at two different places, and they played like it," Nash said. "It meant more to them, and they showed it."
Phoenix's seven-game home win streak ended with a 27-9 fourth quarter in which the Suns scored two more than the club's worst fourth quarter ever. In that 7:51, the Suns showed unfortunate balance, with six players missing and misfires coming from all over the floor. This came after shooting 50 percent with seven turnovers in the first three quarters.
"It's kind of like when you have a sugar high and crash," Suns forward Grant Hill said.
The Suns still had time to rally but did not score off two late Dallas turnovers. Then saw Dirk Nowitzki cap a 32-point game by scoring twice in the final minute after Phoenix had cut the lead to four.
"The momentum changed," said Stoudemire, who scored 31 points. "We couldn't warm back into it. They kept their guys in that got hot, and it was hard to slow them down."The difference in aggression was shown with the Suns not drawing a foul until the fourth quarter's seventh minute. By then, Dallas was in the penalty and scored 11 fourth-quarter points on free throws.
"The good thing is with Phoenix, you can be up 14 or down 14 and you're always in the game," Nowitzki said. "They play a fast-paced style and we play a fast-paced style so you're never really out of the game."
Until losing the lead with 5:15 to go in the game, the Suns had held the lead for 19 consecutive minutes after Boris Diaw's 12-point second quarter put the Suns in front.
- A 3-3 roadtrip with great starting pitching?
Texas Rangers end West swing with 10-4 win
08:05 PM CDT on Sunday, April 6, 2008
By EVAN GRANT / The Dallas Morning News
egrant@dallasnews.com
ANAHEIM, Calif. – Their record suggests the Rangers just treaded water on their season-opening West Coast swing.
Records can be deceiving.
On the way to splitting a six-game trip to Seattle and Los Angeles – topped off by Sunday's 10-4 win over the Angels – the Rangers fought the perceived contenders in the AL West to a draw while battling a flu epidemic that threatened to overrun the clubhouse.
But that's not all they accomplished. During the 3-3 trip, the Rangers showed signs of having a legitimate reliable starting rotation; they showed far more ability to overcome adversity (mainly errors); they showed an ability to play the kind of pass-the-baton game manager Ron Washington so desperately wants them to grasp; and the most second-guessed members of the opening-day lineup showed maybe they do belong after all.
Those guys – catcher Gerald Laird and first baseman Ben Broussard – combined for three homers and eight RBIs Sunday. Laird had two of the homers and a career-high six RBIs playing in his hometown. Broussard's homer was his third in the last four days.
Hey, did we mention the starting pitching?
"I think regardless of the record, we're happy with the way we're playing," shortstop Michael Young said. "We are playing as a team. We like where we are as a team right now."
A few examples of why Young felt so good, even though he's still coughing as an aftereffect from the flu:
•The starting rotation: Vicente Padilla gave the Rangers their fifth quality start in six games this season. The rotation, which pitched the fewest innings in the AL last year, is averaging almost 6 2/3 innings per outing for the young season. The rotation returns for the home opener with a 2.30 ERA and it has its first complete game since Aug. 29, 2006.
Padilla pitched seven solid innings Sunday even though he said he'd been battling the flu the last couple of days, too. Afterward, Padilla talked about the rotation as a whole rather than just his performance.
"Everybody was patting each other on the back," he said through a translator. "I think it's important that all the starters are doing the job and that we're all talking to each other and helping each other. We need to keep doing that."
When Washington went to him after the sixth, Padilla, with 93 pitches under his belt, said he wanted to go one more.
"First time," Washington acknowledged. "Last year, he didn't say much."
•Team play: The Rangers had perfect attendance at a team dinner last Sunday on the eve of the season, which was not overlooked by the club's veterans, who took it as a sign more players were on the same page.
Besides the flu, they overcame their own errors. They won twice despite committing multiple errors. Last year, they lost seven of their first eight multi-error games and didn't win their second until Mother's Day.
And one other example of the new team-first attitude: Given a choice of taking either Saturday or Sunday off, Laird chose to play Sunday. He was 0-for-8 against Saturday starter Jered Weaver and 1-for-6 against Sunday's starter Jon Garland.
That, he said, had nothing to do with it.
"I just wanted to work with Padilla," he said. "I feel like if we can get on the same page and get something going, we can really get on a roll."
•The road: Last year, the Rangers had the worst road-winning percentage in the majors (.346). Had they finished above .500 at 41-40 on the road last year, they would have ended up with 88 wins. By taking two of three from the Angels, the Rangers won a road series in just their second try of the season. Last year, they didn't win a road series until late May, their eighth of the year.
But, hey, did we mention the pitching?
"We are very pleased," Washington said. "Everything we do is going to be based on the work we get on the mound. So, far, we've been pitching pretty well. We are 3-3, and we are looking to get better."
- Dallas Stars Round 1 playoff schedule.
The Dallas Stars will open their first-round series with the Ducks at 9 p.m. CDT in Anaheim:
Ducks vs. Stars (All times Central)
Game 1: 9 p.m. Thursday at Anaheim
Game 2: 9 p.m. Saturday at Anaheim
Game 3: 7:30 p.m. Tues. April 15 at Dallas
Game 4: 7 p.m. Thurs. April 17 at Dallas
Game 5: 9:30 p.m. Fri. April 18 at Anaheim
Game 6: Time TBD Sun. April 20 at Dallas
Game 7: Time TBD Tue. April 22 at Anaheim
Games 5-7 will be played if necessary
- Jackson Height's own Randy Watson.
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