Go time

- Gameday is finally here.

- Can the Stars keep the good vibes going? Can they keep the incredible Mojo working? Or will the door get slammed shut in their faces like so many other past meetings with Detroit? A lot of demons can be exorcised in the next 2 weeks.

- From the Ann Arbor paper.

Wings expect Dallas' Morrow to be tough matchup

by Ansar Khan
Wednesday May 07, 2008, 1:21 AM

DETROIT -- After the euphoria of scoring in the fourth overtime finally faded, Dallas' Brenden Morrow felt the effects of logging 51 minutes of ice time and registering 19 hits in the decisive Game 6 playoff victory over San Jose Sunday.

"It felt like two games' worth of hitting," Morrow said. "Body was a little drained. Every time you (sat) down in the chair, it was pretty tough getting up, just losing all those fluids, aches and pains. ... It was grueling playing that many minutes, trying to play the same way, play physical. It took its toll, but it was well worth it."


After having three days to recharge, the Detroit Red Wings can expect Morrow to be just as relentless and as difficult to deal with when they face the Stars in the Western Conference finals, starting Thursday at Joe Louis Arena.

While Detroit's Johan Franzen was rewriting the record books with his goal-scoring binge against Colorado in the last round, Morrow likewise has been a force in the postseason. Though not as big as Franzen, Morrow is a hard-nosed left winger who is difficult to contain around the net, a scoring threat, a punishing checker and the team leader as a second-year captain.

"He's their heart and soul," Franzen said. "He plays hard every night. He's got a really hard body. He's not that big, but he hits hard. He takes the puck to the net and you have to be ready for him."

Red Wings forward Aaron Downey, who played with Morrow for two seasons in Dallas, said, "I think Brenden Morrow is becoming probably the premier power forward in the league by the looks of his playoffs. Look at the development of Johan Franzen, it's the same situation with Brenden. He's doing it at both ends of the ice."

Morrow leads the Stars with seven playoff goals, including that power-play effort at 9:03 of quadruple-overtime. He leads all players with 66 hits, including a devastating shoulder check that knocked Milan Michalek out of Sunday's game at the end of regulation.

"He wants to hunt you down a little bit on the ice," Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. "That's the player most people would like to have on their team."

"It's been a long time since I've seen a player have as much of an impact on a series as Brendan had," Stars coach Dave Tippett said. "When you see a player play that hard, that determined, willing to do whatever it takes, whether it's finding a big hit, blocking a shot, scoring a goal, that's very infectious within your group."

Through two rounds against Nashville and Colorado, the Red Wings haven't faced a forward this difficult to play against.

"We've got to match his work ethic. That's the key," Detroit defenseman Niklas Kronwall said. "He's not huge (5-11, 205), but he's strong on his feet. He's got one of the biggest hearts in the league and passion for the sport. That's something we have to match to be able to contain him."

Stars goaltender Marty Turco called Morrow "a consummate leader."

"What he does is demand the puck, demand to be good and make his next shift the best one possible," Turco said. "To say it's contagious is an understatement. It's something that we're going to continue to need from him and from everybody else to follow suit. It's one thing to say things in the locker room as a leader, to inspire and try to encourage players, but it's another thing to get out there and actually do it."

Morrow promises to forecheck just as hard and be just as physical against the Red Wings as he was against Anaheim and San Jose in the first two rounds.

"It's tough to get a good lick on (defensemen Nicklas) Lidstrom or (Brian) Rafalski. They're pretty good puck-movers," Morrow said. "Our plan is to attack, get pucks in areas where we can force turnovers, get some pressure on them. It's finishing checks on (Henrik) Zetterberg, trying to get in people's way, slow them down a little bit. That's going to be our focus against this team."



- The preview from the Detroit paper.



Wings-Stars scouting report, prediction

Forwards

The Wings have two lines stacked with the likes of Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, Tomas Holmstrom, Johan Franzen, Valtteri Filppula and Mikael Samuelsson, and there's still more offensive depth with Dan Cleary and Jiri Hudler. Plus, every line is reliable defensively. For Dallas, trade-day acquisition Brad Richards has delivered, producing 11 points in 12 games, tying with team captain Brenden Morrow and trailing only Mike Ribeiro's 14 points. Former Westland resident Mike Modano has 10 points.

Edge: Push

Defense

Stars defenseman Mattias Norstrom is as tough as they come, and Sergei Zubov and Stephane Robidas are productive from the points, giving Dallas a good all-around defense. Nicklas Lidstrom, who may soon win his sixth Norris Trophy, and Brian Rafalski are the most adept puck-controlling duo in the NHL, and Niklas Kronwall and Brad Stuart add fierce physicality and offense. Beyond a third pairing made up of Chris Chelios, Brett Lebda or Andreas Lilja, the Wings possess great depth, too, with Derek Meech, Kyle Quincey and Jonathan Ericsson ready if needed.

Edge: Wings

Goaltending

Chris Osgood hasn't had to steal a game yet for the Wings. They've been playing so well in front of him, and scoring so much, he has just needed to make timely saves. Marty Turco has played a bigger role in getting the Stars to Round 3, building a 1.73 goals-against average and .929 save percentage. Now the question is if he can overcome his past against the Wings. He's 2-10-5 against them in his career, and is 0-7-2 at Joe Louis Arena -- but those numbers all come from regular-season games.

Edge: Wings

Special teams

The Stars already have 15 goals off their power plays -- including four each from Modano and Morrow -- giving them a 25% success rate, compared with 20.4% for Detroit. On the penalty kill, the teams are practically dead even: Dallas has an 85.7% success rate, Detroit is at 85.4%, albeit with three shorthanded goals.

Edge: Stars

Coaching

Mike Babcock has gotten the Wings to a point where they can win by finesse or grit and is making his second straight appearance in the Western finals. After seeing the Stars go 4-8-2 from March to the end of the regular season, Dave Tippett has guided the team past defending Stanley Cup champ Anaheim and San Jose, a team widely picked to win the Cup.

Edge: Push

Other Details

Everything has been going so well for the Wings -- no serious injuries, no straining travel -- it seems like they're touched by destiny. The Stars, however, come into this series hardened by two tougher opening rounds and have to be bursting with confidence.

Edge: Push

Prediction

Wings in six.




- The Detroit curse.....



Hockeytown curse? Stars goalie Turco 0-7-2 at Detroit

DALLAS — Throughout the shellings, blown leads and other indignations he’s endured at Joe Louis Arena, Dallas Stars goaltender Marty Turco has pacified himself with one thought: “At least it’s not the playoffs.”

Well, now it is.

Turco is carrying an 0-7-2 record and a 3.17 goals-against average at “The Joe” into the Western Conference finals against the Detroit Red Wings starting Thursday night.

Uh-oh, eh?

“Actually, not at all,” Turco said Tuesday. “This is totally a different animal. ... To say I’m looking forward to this is an understatement.”

He’s coming off arguably the best performance of his career, one of the best in club history — a franchise-record 61 saves in a quadruple-overtime victory that ended the second-round series against the Sharks. Had he let any of those shots get past him, Dallas would’ve been playing Game 7 in San Jose on Tuesday night.

Turco has been solid the entire postseason, with a goals-against average that’s second only to Detroit’s Chris Osgood and the fourth-best save percentage. More important, he outdueled reigning Stanley Cup champion Jean-Sebastien Giguere of Anaheim in the first round, then topped Vezina Trophy finalist Evgeni Nabokov in the second round.

“He’s been spectacular in making the hard saves look easy for us for a long time,” Stars captain Brenden Morrow said. “It’s been a lot of fun to watch.”

Now, if he wins a single game — and Dallas will need at least one in Detroit to win the series — he’ll really have done something.

“I’m not trying to erase any memories of playing against these guys at Joe Louis at all,” Turco said. “I’m here to win this series, to win the next game, and, from a focus level, to make that next save. That’s for me, and pretty much all goalies, the approach you need to have and look forward to it.”

The last time the Stars won in Detroit, backup Mike Smith got the win. The time before that, it was another of Turco’s backups, Johan Hedberg.

But Turco isn’t much better against the Red Wings in Dallas, going 2-3-3. That’s a career record of 2-10-5 against Detroit for a goalie who’s 205-93-21 against everyone else.

“I really could care less if I was 0-and-100 against these guys or had never lost a game and never got scored on,” Turco said. “It is totally all irrelevant at this time of year. It’s something that, to be honest, isn’t entering my mind at all. ... So there’s a lot to think about, and that’s not one of them.”

The Red Wings surely will be thinking about it. They know they’ve owned Turco at their place and will do all they can to remind him of it. In other words, if they’re not already in his head — like he insists — then they will try getting there quickly, whether they admit it or not.

“I’m not playing into that,” Detroit forward Kris Draper said. “It’s a different time of year. He’s a huge reason why the Dallas Stars are coming into the Western Conference finals. He’s never played here this time of year, and we’ve never played him this time of year. It’s a whole new ballgame.”

Turco is in the conference finals for the first time in his career, a feat that would be the angle if Dallas was facing anyone else.

After winning his first-ever playoff series, back in 2003, he lost four straight. The last three were first-rounders, prompting questions of whether he was the right guy in goal.

Turco earned the benefit of the doubt last postseason with three shutout wins and forcing overtime in two of his losses, including a four-OT thriller. His performance the last two rounds — which includes winning Games 1 and 2 on the road in both series — proves the franchise was right to keep trusting him, having dealt the highly touted Smith to Tampa at the trade deadline for Brad Richards.

Now, conquering his house of horrors, er, Joe Louis Arena, and getting Dallas back to the Stanley Cup finals would be a double dose of credibility.

“Today is a new day and a series is a new series, so it’s a time to re-establish yourself again and quiet those critics,” Stars icon Mike Modano said.

The irony is Turco loved playing at The Joe during his college days at Michigan.

“You know, it’s got a lot of great memories for me, not just the disappointing ones in the NHL,” he said. “To draw on experiences from all areas of my career, you know, you’re going to do that. But I’m really looking forward to going back there and looking to have some more success.”



- A look back at the 1998 series.



A rematch 10 years in the making

Bob Matuszak May 7, 2008, 5:01 PM EDT

In the spring of 1998, hope sprung eternal for the Dallas Stars. After all, they had just disposed of the Edmonton Oilers in a mere five games to advance to the conference finals for the first time since 1991, the year they made it all the way to the Stanley Cup finals. And like that team at the turn of the decade, this edition was built to win a championship.

A confident group guided by wily veterans like Pat Verbeek and Guy Carbonneau, these Stars had an edge to them, thanks in large part to their taskmaster, Ken Hitchcock. Hitchcock drove the team hard while implementing a disciplined and defensive style that suffocated teams to death.

The Stars fully expected to meet up with either Buffalo or Washington, the two teams playing in the Eastern Conference finals, and then proudly parade the silver trophy through the streets alongside Reunion Arena.

The only thing standing in their date with destiny was Scotty Bowman, Steve Yzerman, and the rest of the defending Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings.

"I've played against these guys my whole career, so I know what they're going to do," Dallas' enigmatic goaltender Ed Belfour said about his upcoming opponent. "I know who their snipers are, and I know how to approach them."

The series was billed as a battle of the behemoths. The Stars boasted a tight-checking style, with Belfour rarely seeing more than 25 shots per game. Centers Joe Nieuwendyk and Mike Modano led the offensive charge, while general manager Bob Gainey bolstered the veteran presence on his team with the addition of Mike Keane and Brian Skrudland in a deadline deal with the New York Rangers.

The Red Wings, meanwhile, had won their first championship in 42 years the summer before, and were looking to become the first team since Pittsburgh in 1992 to win consecutive Stanley Cups. Like the Stars, the Red Wings had a splendid mix of gritty forwards like Kris Draper and Darren McCarty coupled with offensive stars Yzerman and Sergei Fedorov.

Heading into the series, the Stars were on a roll despite losing Nieuwendyk for the rest of the postseason when he injured his knee in Game 1 of the Western Conference quarterfinals against San Jose. Dallas had allowed just five goals to the Oilers in their semifinal series win, and was ready for whatever Detroit was going to throw at them.

Below is a capsule look at the series that proved to be everything it was billed up to be.

Game 1, May 24 at Dallas
Having won six of their last seven games, Dallas entered Game 1 with tremendous confidence. Detroit goalie Chris Osgood, however, quickly let the air out of the Stars balloon.

Playing in front of a raucous sold-out Reunion Arena, Osgood silenced the crowd while being hardly tested, finishing with just 14 saves, including only eight after the first 20 minutes.

Slava Kozlov and Martin Lapointe scored second-period goals for the Red Wings, who improved to 6-1 on the road in the '98 playoffs.

"Both of these teams can shut down the other one real well," Bowman said. "That's what happened today. There was not much in the way of scoring opportunities."

The Red Wings took 23 shots on Belfour, and killed off all five of Dallas' power play opportunities, including a 5-on-3 in the first period.

"Our power play did not get it done," Hitchcock said. "We need to focus on that. Detroit's four outworked our five."

The Stars work on the power play was becoming troubling for Hitchcock. Dallas had converted only twice on its last 34 man advantage attempts heading into the series, and following Game 1 they were just 9-for-75 in the postseason.

"We're not happy with the way we played," Stars captain Derian Hatcher said. "After we got behind I think we got frustrated. It's a lot tougher to come back from the deficit against teams that play like ours."

Game 2, May 26 at Dallas
Determined to erase the bitter taste of their Game 1 loss, the Stars came out hitting in Game 2. The strategy worked.

Outmuscling the Red Wings the entire game, the Stars tied the series thanks to a convincing 3-1 win. Dallas got goals from grinder Bob Bassen and Greg Adams, and Carbonneau iced the game with an empty-net tally to send the best-of-seven to Detroit deadlocked at a game apiece.

The Stars set the tone in a physical first period, outhitting the Red Wings by a 15-5 margin.

"The nastier and harder Derian (Hatcher) and those guys play, the harder the whole group plays, and that's better for us," Hitchcock said.

Bassen, who had scored all of three goals in the regular season, opened the scoring when he chipped the puck over Osgood's shoulder just six minutes into the game. Hatcher and defensive partner Richard Matvichuk, meanwhile, combined for nine hits in the game, which was one more than all of the Detroit blueliners.

Bassen also got physical after he scored, banging into the glass with a jubilatory force the Stars soon latched onto.

"I was a little out of control there," Bassen said. "I had to go sit on the bench."

It was quite a change for a team that looked lethargic at best in Game 1.

"Our first game effort was not good enough," Modano said. "We knew we had to come out and play physically, play with a high level of intensity and take the body."

In the process, the Stars set a playoff record by allowing two goals or less in 10 consecutive postseason games. The original record was set by the 1928 Montreal Maroons.

"The last 10 minutes, Dallas just stayed back and played defensive hockey," Fedorov said. "All five of their guys stayed back and played defense in the third and they did an outstanding job of doing that and upsetting our attack."

Game 3, May 29 at Detroit
Stingy defense had been the name of the Stars game throughout the '97-98 season. In Game 3 of the Western Conference finals, it took the night off at the most inopportune time.

Detroit used four unanswered goals in the game's first 25 minutes to unglue the Stars just enough to take a 2-1 series lead with a 5-3 Game 3 win. Red Wings defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom scored twice in the four-goal outburst, and Brent Gilchrist, Jamie Macoun and Lapointe also scored.

Down 4-0, the Stars put on a ferocious counter-attack, and made it 4-3 with 12 minutes left in regulation on Modano's goal. But Lapointe put the game away with his seventh postseason tally with just over four minutes to go after he knocked down Belfour behind the net before skating out in front to deposit the clincher.

"Lapointe two-handed me and caught me in between a piece of pad," Belfour said. "Obviously it hurt. I went down and tried to get back in the net, but it was too late."

Jere Lehtinen had a pair of goals for the Stars, who registered 34 shots on Osgood but went an abysmal 0-for-7 with the man advantage.

"We can talk all we want about how we came back and almost won the game, but we aren't going to fool anyone," Skrudland said. "Detroit had a 4-0 lead in their building and they slacked off a little. That's just human nature, and that's all it was."

Game 4, May 31 at Detroit
The Stars didn't want to dream about what would happen to their championship aspirations if they lost Game 4. Unfortunately, their nightmare came true.

Smelling blood, the Red Wings jumped on the Stars early then held on for dear life for the second straight game, defeating Dallas 3-2 to take a commanding 3-1 series lead back to Texas.

Kirk Maltby and Yzerman scored in the first period, and Kozlov netted the winner midway through the third period for Detroit.

Verbeek cut the lead in half with a goal in the second period, and Sergei Zubov tied it just under a minute into the third. But the rally fell short again, as the Stars found themselves in a big hole that was going to be tough to crawl out of.

"There's a big difference between 2-2 and 3-1," Yzerman said. "This is going to be one of the most difficult teams in the league to try and end the series."

The Red Wings also received an emotional boost with the attendance of former defenseman Vladimir Konstantinov, who was recovering from a severe head injury sustained in a limousine accident last June.

The Stars, meanwhile, once again unloaded on Osgood, peppering the netminder with 30 shots.

"We had some great chances, but Chris Osgood played better than I've ever seen him play," Hitchcock said.

"This team's got way too much character and way too much strength and experience to give up," Matvichuk said. "We know if we can get that one early in our rink, we'll be all right."

Game 5, June 3 at Dallas
The Stars didn't need a miracle to get back into their series with the Red Wings, they just needed a win. They ended up getting both.

Jamie Langenbrunner's improbable goal from 100-feet out just 46 seconds into overtime helped Dallas stave off elimination with a 3-2 Game 5 win at Reunion Arena. Langenbrunner's slap shot from the center of the red line skipped over Osgood's stick and jumped into the net, giving the Stars sudden life in sudden death.

"I don't know if I've ever scored form that far," Langenbrunner said.

Langenbrunner, though, never would have been in the position to win it had it not been for Carbonneau's dramatic goal with just 85 seconds left in regulation. Carbonneau's wrist shot from the right circle deflected off Lidstrom's stick and over Osgood's shoulder to send the game into the extra session.

"I didn't really see what happened," said Carbonneau, who also assisted on Keane's first-period goal. "I know I wasn't trying to shoot the puck high."

That didn't matter. What did was the Stars not squandering another powerful offensive effort in which they pummeled Osgood with 36 shots.

"I've had the chance to win the Cup twice," Carbonneau said. "Once you win it once, you want to win it every year. Instead of going on vacation, we get to play another game."

Game 6, June 5 at Dallas
The showdown in Motown turned into a severe Dallas Stars letdown.

Larry Murphy and Fedorov scored for the Red Wings, and Osgood atoned for his shoddy play in Game 5 to help lift Detroit to a 2-0 Game 6 win at Joe Louis Arena, sending the Presidents' Trophy-winning Stars home with a bitter 4-2 series defeat.

The Stars were unable to ride the high of their Game 5 win, as the Red Wings put 14 shots on Belfour during a first-period surge. After Fedorov scored early in the second, Osgood took over, making 19 of his 26 saves over the final two periods to post his second shutout of the series.

"I allowed a couple of long goals in the playoffs, but who cares," Osgood said. "I bounced back. I couldn't wait to play tonight."

Osgood assisted in the Stars elimination, but one of the main reasons was their inability to put the puck in the net while Detroit was shorthanded. Dallas was a meager 1-for-30 in the series on the power play, and even allowed a pair of short-handed tallies.

"That hurt us," Verbeek said. "It helped us win games all year, but we couldn't get any when we needed them at the most crucial times of the game. It's frustrating…you get this close to going to the finals, and then come up short."

"They won, and there's not a lot to talk about," Hatcher said.

The Aftermath
Hatcher, Verbeek and Co. had plenty to talk about a year later, as the Stars captured their first-ever Stanley Cup on Brett Hull's triple-overtime winner in Game 6 against Buffalo, who had lost to Washington in the '98 Eastern Conference finals.

Detroit, meanwhile, went on to sweep the Capitals to win their second straight Stanley Cup in 1998.





- Time for some old school magic.


- The Captain.


- Round 1.


- Round 2.

Welcome back 1998

- A classic rematch is back. The series that got me hooked on hockey 10 years ago is back and ready to go on Thursday.

- As good as Dallas has looked this year, and as much as they look like a team of destiny, you can't help but look across at Detroit, consider the mental block the Stars have against them, and not expect doom.

- Just look down the roster - Draper, Maltby, McCarty, Dallas Drake, Hasek, Osgood, Lidstrom, Datysuk, Zetterburg, Franzen, Chelios. This friggin team could be an all-star team by themselves. In the salary cap era, how is this even possible? How can all of these guys be signed and under the cap?

- 3 keys to this series. Dallas must win all 3 of these to advance to the Finals.

1) Marty/Detroit curse - Can he keep his stellar play up? Can the Stars get over the Detroit mental block? I lump these together because the team as a whole, and Marty in particular, just can't help but be owned by Detroit. Turco is 2-10-5 in his last 17 games vs. the Red Army. And he is winless in his career at Joe Louis Arena. This is no doubt the key to the whole series. Slaying that mental dragon that is the Detroit Red Wings.

Something tells me this team is as well prepared as any in the past 10 years to do it. Brendan Morrow has completely re-wired this team's brain. They are as ready mentally as they've been ever against Detroit.

2) Blue line rookies - That all-star lineup I listed above could potentially scar these 3 rookie defenseman for the rest of their careers. Fistric, Grossman, and Niskanen were able to take some lumps, get some experience, and perform admirably in the first 2 rounds. But playing Anaheim and San Jose is not like playing Detroit. You're looking at the finest group of forwards and center iceman in the league. You're also looking at a historically phenomenal power play, with possibly the best quarterback ever (Lidstrom). These guys take rookies to the woodshed.

The 3 rookies will have help for sure (Daley, Robidas, and Zubov). But their performance and ability to not crack under pressure could decide this series.

3) Money players - Up until this point, the Stars' money players have raised their games and made their money in the postseason. Ribeiro leads the league in points. Richards has been a maniac with the puck. Modano has been scoring. Morrow has raised his game to legendary status. Robidas has been the best scoring defenseman in the playoffs. Hell, even cement footed defenseman Norstrom has 2 goals.

2-1 games won't happen against Detroit. To beat these guys, a minimum of 3 goals is needed, with 4 the most likely number. Dallas' money players must continue to be money. Pretty simple.

- Summary - All in all, I can't see all of these 3 keys coming to fruition. I see Dallas' defense cracking under the constant barrage of offensive talent, with the rookies being preyed on big time by Detroit. I do see Marty playing a pretty good series and I do see Dallas' money players continuing to produce, but I see the mental block Dallas has against Detroit rearing its ugly head. Bad bounces, bad breaks, etc. It all happens against Dallas when they play Detroit. Things just start snowballing, and those evil thoughts start creeping back into the Stars' heads.

Detroit in 6.


- ESPN's take.....

Conference finals breakdown: Red Wings vs. Stars

By Scott Burnside
ESPN.com

Guess the Dallas Stars have gotten over their first-round postseason phobia, haven't they? After failing to advance beyond the opening series since 2004, the Stars this spring have upended the defending Stanley Cup champs in six games and disposed the hottest team heading into the playoffs, the San Jose Sharks.

The Stars went to a fourth overtime in Game 6 but advanced to their first conference finals since 2000, when they also went to the Stanley Cup finals.

The Detroit Red Wings, meanwhile, struggled midway through their opening-round series against Nashville but took advantage of woeful netminding by Jose Theodore and cruised to a four-game sweep of the Colorado Avalanche in the West semis. The Stars, who have terrific depth down the middle, now have an identity they lacked the past three or four postseasons. Marty Turco, fresh off a 61-save effort, will represent a much sterner test than the Avs, or he should.

Still, the Red Wings seem to be firing on all cylinders and will be very difficult to knock out.

1. Not stubborn, just smokin' - Here's the thing about Johan Franzen, goal-scoring machine -- he didn't just start his torrid tear when the playoffs began. Down the stretch, the Red Wings forward scored 15 goals in the last 16 games of the regular season. When you factor in his 11 postseason markers, Franzen has scored 26 times in his past 26 games. More impressive, however, has been the crucial nature of Franzen's contributions. He scored eight game-winning goals during the regular season and has added four more winners in the playoffs. Forget about Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg and Nicklas Lidstrom. Whether the Stars can stop the big Swede they call "The Mule" may be the most important question of this series.


2. Captain Morrow - The decision to make Brenden Morrow a captain at the start of the 2006-07 season created quite a kerfuffle in Dallas, given the iconic status of former captain Mike Modano. Morrow missed half of last season with wrist and groin injuries, but played in all 82 regular-season games this campaign and has helped solidify the Stars' hard-working and skilled identity. Morrow finished second in team scoring to Mike Ribeiro with 74 points and was a team-best plus-23. In the playoffs, he has taken another step forward as he leads the team with two overtime winners, including the series-clincher versus San Jose. Morrow, who played 51 minutes in the deciding game and was credited with 19 hits, also had two goals disallowed in Game 5, but he didn't let that slow him down. In the way that Steve Yzerman used to be "the guy" in Detroit and Modano used to be "the guy" in Dallas, Morrow is now that player for the Stars.


3. The big men on the blue line - This series features two of the finest veteran defensemen in the game in Lidstrom and Dallas' Sergei Zubov. Lidstrom is unparalleled -- the cool, calm catalyst that drives a precise Detroit engine. Lidstrom is expected to win his sixth Norris Trophy and third in a row as the game's best defenseman. This spring, he's added seven points, is a plus-7 and has one game-winning goal for the 8-2 Red Wings. Zubov, meanwhile, has been a surprise contributor to the Stars' playoff success. The often underappreciated Russian missed the start of the playoffs, not to mention 26 regular-season games, trying to work through a sports hernia injury. The 37-year-old went to Germany on the eve of the playoffs to have the injury treated, returned in the second round and made an immediate impact with four points in five games. He played an astounding 53:50 in Game 6 against San Jose. Both Lidstrom and Zubov are key to their teams' respective power plays and have the ability to turn the course of a game on their own.


4. The snarl factor - The expected knock 'em down, drag 'em out battle against the Avalanche never materialized for the Red Wings. Detroit so often was ahead early in games that Colorado was forced to open things up as opposed to grind them out. The Wings may yet get that type of series against a Stars team that is comfortable playing close to the vest. Last season, the Wings displayed a surprising amount of grit in advancing to the Western Conference finals against Anaheim, and they have the tools to play that type of game with veterans like Kris Draper, Kirk Maltby, Dallas Drake and the reclaimed Darren McCarty. The Stars, meanwhile, don't mind the dirty work in the corners, either, with Steve Ott and Morrow. Neither team has a heavyweight in the Georges Laraque/Donald Brashear mold, but don't think this series won't get a bit ugly.


5. Ozzie redux, again - All Chris Osgood has done since coming off the bench for an inconsistent Dominik Hasek after Game 4 of the first round is win six straight games. The 35-year-old veteran won a Stanley Cup as the starter here in 1998 but has never really been given credit for being an elite netminder. The perception is no different now, and many will suggest the Stars hold a significant advantage in goal with Turco. Still, Turco is the one who historically has struggled in the playoffs. Both have played exceptionally well this postseason. Osgood leads the league with a 1.52 goals-against average and a third-best .937 save percentage. Turco has a 1.73 GAA and .929 save percentage. Watch for Detroit coach Mike Babcock to go back to Hasek if Osgood can't match Turco save for save. Not that he may have to worry about that.


- Key Matchup -

• Mike Ribeiro vs. Niklas Kronwall: Mike Ribeiro remains the Stars' most dangerous forward and leads the team with 14 points in 12 games. He can expect to spend a lot of time making sure he's not getting his head handed to him by Detroit defenseman Niklas Kronwall, who is making the most of his first playoff run with the Wings. The injury-prone Swede has good offensive tools, is strong in his own zone and has the added bonus of being able to deliver the big open-ice hit. The Stars need Ribeiro's continued offensive production, while the Wings need Kronwall to shut him down.

- Who's hot, Who's not -

• Red Wings: Zetterberg is second in team scoring with 13 points and is a league-best plus-10 through the second round. Daniel Cleary has one goal and one assist through 10 games.

• Stars: Stephane Robidas is tied with Kronwall for the lead among NHL defensemen with eight postseason points. Niklas Hagman has just two points in these playoffs, and both came in one game against San Jose.

- Prediction -

We didn't have enough courage to pick the Stars in the second round after picking them to beat Anaheim. And as much as we love how far the Stars have come this season, we once again lack courage to pick them against a Red Wings team that is healthy, rested and just a little too deep for the Stars to handle.

Wings in seven.




- Watching the pure joy and excitement on the faces of these guys never gets old.

A new side of Avery emerges

- A new side of Avery Johnson has emerged from all of this. He's quick to take the credit for not only team successes, but for player successes/improvements that happened under his watch.

- He claims it's a miracle that a 67 win in 2007 made the playoffs in 2008.

- He claims (against countless insider reports that say otherwise, and a quote, "Get me a point guard.") that he loved the direction Devin Harris was going and was on the verge of being an 18 and 8 All-Star.

- He's a paranoid, self-aggrandizing, insecure person. As good of a person he is off the court, his true colors come to pass when he's in an athletic, authoritative environment.

- It's sad to see him go, he's truly a good person, he had the most success of any coach in the team's history, and he gave me some of my best Maverick's memories.

- But what's written below by www.dallasbasketball.com is all the proof you need.

- Insecure, mentally weak, and paranoid -

1) These are the main things I will take from Avery. As much as he liked to preach being mentally strong, I'll argue he was just as mentally weak as the team he was coaching.

2) His pet projects - Dampier, Howard, Devin Harris. All mush in the head. Dampier with his penchant for getting his feelings hurt by teammates. Howard with his penchant for cracking under pressure and also getting his feelings hurt by pretty much anyone who bashes him or stands against him. And the way he handled his BFF Harris geting traded. Grow up and get a sack. Harris and his penchant for being ultra-sensitive to media criticism. All Avery guys.

3) Avery's so paranoid, insecure, and afraid of his power getting compromised or his knowledge being questioned, runs off 3 assistants in the past 3 years. He runs off an NBA lifer, a man who's been in the league for 40 years (Del Harris). The power issues, the paranoia of his coaching decisions being put into question, and the insecurity of someone else being more knowledable than him. All adds up the ridiculousness of this guy.

4) And then not only running Del Harris off, but also promoting some video coordinator whipping boy in "Assistant coach Joe Prunty". A dude who Avery KNEW he could control and wouldn't speak up.

- Read below, DallasBasketball.com does it about as good as I could do it in why Little Hitler needed to go. This was written before the firing.





In March 2005, upon his hiring as head coach, Avery Johnson – with equal parts humility and power –promised that if he didn’t lead the Mavs to a title in the coming years, he “wouldn’t have to be fired’’ because he would resign. That humility is gone. That power should be. That title never came. The dismissal now must.

To the bitter end – and by God this is bitter, The Lil' Johnson somehow screaming down his exciting and elite 2006 NBA Finals club into a team that this year felt fortunate to even make the playoffs – Avery twisted the empathetic tales into being all about Avery, and twisted the tales of failure into being all about the shortcomings of “the men.’’ The media noticed. The fans noticed. And yeah, the players noticed.

"This is tough for me," said Avery after Tuesday’s playoff dismissal in New Orleans as he sidestepped a question about his job security. "Obviously this is where I was bornand raised. " Yes, that is an important note, Avery. All the time, money, blood and sweat invested in the Dallas Mavericks, by owner, staff, players and fans. … but what the 4-1 loss to the Hornets is REALLY about is the fact that you grew up there.

To those who read this space, it is not a newsflash that Avery is tip-toeing toward the unemployment line. We’ve spent the year chronicling how his approach has devolved from inspirational preacher/teacher to obnoxious Napoleonic know-it-all, from General Johnson to Captain Queeg. Because of Avery’s well-documented positives – he is a man of faith, a self-made basketball hero, helped get Dallas to some of its greatest pinnacles and even to this day, is admired by the players who have tired of his relentless hectoring – make this diffcult. The many examples of slippage – most of them never before reported -- have been painful for DallasBasketball.com to watch and to report.

DEL’S DEPARTURE: You first read about Del Harris’ semi-retirement a year ago in this space. Now know this: Del sits in a luxury suite at Mavs games and serves as a consultant to the owner in large part because Avery forcefully decided he no longer needed the once-valued guidance of the man the inexperienced coach used to refer to as “Professor.’’

NEVER CONTRADICT AVERY!: Avery’s close friend Joe Prunty earned sympathy from players after an incident in Detroit this year when the head coach excitedly called the wrong play in the huddle (no problem, it happens) and Prunty attempted to correct him. Johnson’s viciously profane directive to Prunty to “never’’ contradict him again caused players to alarmingly notice Avery’s sensitive ego.

‘AVERY’S TEAM’: Mark Cuban’s March 18 post-game meeting with Avery over the use of players in a home loss to the Lakers was well within the rights of the owner, and certainly not uncommon in Dallas. It wasn’t even an act of unhappiness with the coach, as evidenced by Cuban’s ensuing donning of an “Avery’s Team’’ T-shirt. Avery didn’t discuss the issue as if the owner was his boss, or even his co-worker; Avery discussed the issue loudly, defensively, and illogically.

THE ORIGIN OF BROKESTACK MOUNTAIN: Avery’s choice of which players would be his “pets’’ and which would be in his “doghouse’’ was once thought to be the result of his knowledge of psychology. We now believe it was more about which players stood up to the coach’s screaming and which did not. The feisty Jerry Stackhouse made it clear more than two years ago that he would not; we are told Stack was inches away from a physical altercation with the badgering coach before he was pulled away by teammates. And the next thing you know, Avery is a “Stack guy.’’ (And yes, Mavs fans, that is the genesis of Avery’s BrokeStack Mountain love for his veteran.) Avery and Stack are respectful friends. But Stack not taking Avery’s crap is part of how they got that way.

‘WE DON’T HAVE ANY LEADERS’: One of Avery’s training-camp themes was about how the Mavs “don’t have any leaders,’’ and that Avery is therefore the sole leader. This was, at the very least, an irritant to his veteran players. At at most, a stinging insult. In fact, the empty platitudes from the cartoon character we came to call “Cliché’vry Johnson’’ were empty to some of his players, even the many who love him.

MEDIA-ALLY WHISPERING: In what is either a clumsy political attempt to gain PR clout or just something clumsy, period, Johnson had made a habit of whispering to media confidants about the shortcomings of his stars. It’s bad form, it’s disloyal, and it is difficult to keep that sort of thing from caroming back in one’s face. Jason Kidd has definitely been a victim of this (intentional or not) back-stabbing. Dirk Nowitzki has probably been a victim of it. The phrase "thrown under the bus'' become trite in DB.com readers' circles, but it was accurate enough.

WHERE’S WESTPHAL?: Paul Westphal was brought here this year to help with the offense. Insiders suggest that Westphal has been allowed to make virtually no changes in Dallas’ attack.

CREDIT AND BLAME: Avery has an annoying habit of taking credit for the successes and deflecting blame to the players upon failure. When speaking of Dirk’s success, for instance, Avery’s comments were about how well Avery had guided Dirk. And when asked what Avery could do better during a tough time in the postseason, Johnson was sarcastic is saying he’s accept all blame, but then added a “but’’ and went on to say it’s about the players performing at a higher level.

‘AVERY’S SYSTEM’: Another important example to some staffers: Avery tells anyone who will listen about his “system.’’ In fact, the “Mavs System’’ – while obviously influenced by three-plus years of Avery’s thoughts -- is the result of 40 years of labor by Don Nelson, Del Harris and others, endorsed by Cuban and Don Nelson, and by now a component in the teachings of most NBA and college coaches. It is not “Avery’s System’’ because there is in fact no such thing as “Avery’s System.’’

RE-WIRING: Avery’s attempts to make Dirk “more Duncan-like’’ (a phrase used derisively by Mavs staffers) and to “re-wire’’ Kidd (Kidd’s own words) speak to the coach’s mindset: Mold star athletes around the coach’s style and strengths, rather than molding the coach around the star athletes’ style and strengths.

WE LOVE AVERY, BUT. …’: This quote from one chuckling veteran: “We love Avery. But 80 percent of the time, we have no idea what he’s trying to do.’’

THE ONE-VOICE POLICY: We are told that at one point during the season Avery became so irritated at the number of assistants who were offering ideas to players during practice that the head coach instituted a “one-voice’’ policy. And that the “one voice’’ was to be, of course, Avery’s.

THE PLAYERS-ONLY BLOWUP: Any one of those could be a justifiable last straw. But then came this week’s players-only practice, and the apparent blowup that preceded it.

As DallasBasketball.com initially reported, Josh Howard had scheduled a birthday party for Sunday night, after Game 4 against the Hornets. This was not news to us, this was not news to our readers, this was not news to listeners of “urban’’ radio. … but it was apparently news to “The General,’’ who prides himself on his relationships and communications with his players.

Howard, very much in the spotlight last weekend thanks to his public pronouncements of Reefer Madness, should’ve been the most important member of the Mavs to receive guidance and attention. How, given the circumstance, could the team let this goofball escape over the wall? Instead, we understand that Avery learned of details of the party (likely attended by a handful of teammates) too late, and that his reaction contributed to his angry decision to cancel Monday’s potentially final practice of the season. (Note: Some gossip has it that Avery knew about the party in advance and ordered it be cancelled. Neither version of the story makes Avery appear to be a respected boss in charge of his employees.)

Howard screwed up. Again.

Avery blew up. Again.

The players decided to practice on their own (imagine an NFL team not practicing before the Super Bowl because its coach was bothered!). And Avery’s comments that afternoon about the session were dismissive.

“We're in a situation right now where I don't know if we need another drill,’’ he said.

“Dismissive’’? “Pouty’’? The exact opposite of “communication’’ and “leadership’’ and “motivation’’? You (and Mark Cuban) be the judge.

Please note that none of the aforementioned items even approach being about X’s-and-O’s, about benching Kidd in the final seconds of the loss at San Antonio, about Avery’s assemblage of thirty-something “pets’’ who on a whole made few contributions to one of the worst overall seasons experienced in the highly-successful Cuban Era. None of them are even about wins and losses, the recent 3-12 playoff record, for instance – even though Avery struggles in all these areas.

No, these complaints are about dealing with people, about motivation, about relationships, about communication.

Avery Johnson’s 2006 Coach of the Year trophy casts a large shadow. Paired with his ego, that shadow has wilted all those areas that were once his blossoming strengths.

So is Avery a bad apple? Are his players a spoiled bushel?

No, and no.

It is so important to remind the reader that the players’ inability or unwillingness to follow their leader is in part the fault of a coach who has not developed in those areas. But it is also the result of human nature. In coaching history, smart organizations replace an avuncular-style coach with a taskmaster, and then replace the taskmaster with an avuncular guy. (See Jimmy Johnson being replaced by Barry Switzer, and then later, Bill Parcells being replaced by Wade Phillips.) Under the avuncular guy, discipline eventually slips, and it’s time for a taskmaster. After four or five years (according to Jimmy) players cannot help but tune out the taskmaster, and it’s time for a cyclical change.

True story: Old Cowboys linemen Nate Newton and the late Mark Tuinei were telling me all the way back in 1993 – Jimmy’s fifth season, not coincidentally – that during team meetings, the veterans would fall asleep in meetings and skip pep talks altogether. “We’ve heard the same speech every August 17th for five straight August 17ths,’’ Tui once told me, adding that the Pro Bowl lineman also passed the time by sitting in the back of meeting rooms with the fellas doodling in the margins of the Cowboys playbook. (I saw the doodles.)

When did Jimmy leave the Cowboys? After that 1993 season. Why? Contrary to those who think it’s Jerry Jones’ fault, Jimmy left on purpose. He knew the guys were failing to pay attention. He knew they were sick of his voice. He knew that what they had there was. … a failure to communicate.

He knew.

Remember? It was his fifth season.

Now, the question is: Does Avery know?

Does Avery know that it’s time for the Mavs to negotiate a departure, to wish him well elsewhere, and to begin the contemplation of a long list of candidates?

By the way, what a long (and very preliminary) list might look like: Mavs assistant Mario Elle, Jeff Van Gundy, Boston assistant Tom Thibodeaux, Detroit’s Flip Saunders, Rick Carlisle, fired Bobcats coach Sam Vincent, Phoenix’ reportedly available Mike D’Antoni and Washington’s Eddie Jordan, who happens to be a “Kidd guy.’’

The experienced of those guys might not be available. The young among them might be too Avery-green.

If you believe us when we say this organization believes it provided Avery “the best team we’ve ever had,’’ don’t dismiss the idea of a short-and-quick list: Head coach Paul Westphal, with his suitcase of offensive ideas still unopened, assisted by the suddenly re-respected Del Harris.

After the Mavs were eliminated, Dirk, Stack and other team leaders could not avoid the obvious question of their coach’s future.

Said Dirk: “You don't want to say stuff when you're emotional and disappointed. We'll just let this one sit for a while and then obviously, once you don't win it all, once you don't win a championship, you've always got to look at what you have to do to make the franchise better.’’

Said Stack: “We've had a great run with this group. But when you lose in the first round two years in a row, you expect some changes. We're all hired to be fired at some point. … They all see the end. … We'll wait and see what the boss (Cuban) does. No matter what happens or what changes are made. … for the last four years, it's been a great situation for everybody that's involved. So if this is the end or whatever, you can't do nothing but say we had our chance. Had our opportunity.’’

Meanwhile, the passionate Cuban wisely did not engage with reporters.

Johnson, however, did.

“Our offseason has started,” Avery said. “We will evaluate everybody and every situation from the coaching staff and the players. (Cuban) and I have great communication and we’ll sit down and talk about it, and see what we need to do to go from here.”

What we need to do to go from here is apparent. The Mavs season shouldn’t have been all about the coach, but he made it so. Now the Mavs offseason is all about the coach. And in a way befitting a control freak, he made that so, too.





- And then a post-firing press conference analysis. More lies, more backtracking, more contradictory comments. Once again, a brilliant piece from DallasBasketball.com.



The Miracle Worker

Avery Leaves 'Suite' Life With Mavs
By Mike Fisher -- DB.com


I came to the Ritz-Carlton to praise Avery, not to bury him. But as the departing Mavs coach exited through the lobby and retreated to the Suite 1402 that is his temporary home, I leafed through my notebook full of “goodbye’’ quotes and realized there was no praise I could offer him that Avery hadn’t just spent the morning giving himself.

Honest to God, I recognize that before we do as Avery instructs and “turn the page,’’ we should honor the man who helped us to a 67-win season, and to an NBA Finals appearance, and – Avery’s words again – “changed the culture’’ of the once-woeful Mavs.

It’s all true. Avery was an important leader during the Mavs’ charge toward the top.

And if you don’t believe how important he was. … just ask him.

It is indeed a “suite’’ life. Avery appreciatively bids Dallas – “a city that’s one of the major cities in all of the world’’ – with what a massive severance check. (At least $12 mil? Or, given Tony Cubes’ famous generosity, could it be a check for $360,000,000,000?) He is the owner of his pad just up the street from American Airlines Center (it’s a two-bedroom, 2,700 square-foot piece of real-estate heaven worth $2.09 mil if you’re in the market). The owner and the rest of the Mavs are all trying to say the right things as their old coach considers what he insists can be an immediate move, if he wishes, to a new club. (If not New York, maybe Chicago, where there are already an-interview-is-coming sources?)

Avery tried to say the right things, too. He thanked “all of our players that put on a Maverick uniform,’’ and all the staffers, and the fans, and said “I want to thank Mark for taking a shot and a swing on me four years ago as an assistant, to think enough of me to bring me in immediately, he and Nellie, to make me an assistant head coach without any experience. I’ve enjoyed my time here working with Mark. We had a lot of great moments. And we had a lot of fun.’’

There is no denying that. Cuban and Nellie handed Avery the baton, and he ran with it like his hair was afire. He coached like that, too, and there is no truly shame in a driving style, a 100-MPH/24/7 style, that inevitably runs out of gas.

There is some shame, though, in continuing his efforts to revise history, to attempt to escape blame for failures, and to try to sell the successes as the result of the coach’s individual brilliance.

I’ll try to quit judging now. I’ll let Avery talk. You judge. I’ll nudge.

Avery on this year’s team: “This year’s team? It was a miracle we made the playoffs.’’

And there’s the money shot of the day: Avery Johnson is. … “The Miracle Worker.’’

Avery on the 67-win team: “When we won 67 games, that team significantly, significantly overachieved.’’

More miracles. Are you sensing a theme here?

Avery on bad decisions: “We can get up every morning and look ourselves in the mirror, every player that played, coach, and also myself. We can look ourselves in the mirror and really be proud of what we took over when we took over this team and the direction we went in. We can feel very proud of what we did, each and every day. Every decision that I had a chance to be a part of, I can really feel good about it.’’

Proud of every decision he was part of. (And, of course, not so proud of the ones he wasn’t a part of.)

Every. Single. Decision.

That’s one proud son of a gun.

Avery on his organizational know-how: “I think in terms of what I came from a blueprint of what I knew how an organization should be run from top to bottom; I knew what type of players should be drafted, free-agent signings, how the coach should function. I had a really good blueprint with all my successful years down south (as a player with the Spurs). And we were able to come here and really make some headway. We were able to change the culture and attitude. ‘’

Avery on this being a “results-driven business’’: We got the results that we wanted in terms of when we made it to the Finals. Now once you make it to the Finals, one of two teams are going to win, but this organization had never made it there before, so that was a pretty good result.’’

Avery on whether this year he had everything in place to succeed: “No, not this year. This is a different team. Before we made the trade, we had the best record against the Western Conference and one of the things that I talked to Mark and Donnie about, I said: ‘Hey, I’ve got to get a point guard.’ That’s why I wanted to develop Devin Harris.’ I said ‘I’ve got to get this boy to a point where he can be a scorer first and pass some. We got him to a point, like I told you guys before, we were knocking on the door with this young man making the All-Star team. He was going to be an 18-and-8 player. I invested a significant amount of time with him and, again, he was injured and a lot of things were happening around the NBA, and like I said, if we can just hold on a little while, we’ve got the best record against the West. I think we were second or third in the Western Conference at that point and we were going to play the Western Conference quite a bit after the All-Star break. The team was changed and we never really got back on track.’’

Seems pretty clear. Avery is claiming he was 100-percent against acquiring Kidd, 100-percent for handing the reins to Devin. And that the Kidd deal ruined Avery’s blueprint.

Wow. He's lying. The Triangle of Authority made it "unanimous,'' says Donnie, who wasn't trying to be argumentative but rather was simply answering a Randy Galloway question. Truth is, to my knowledge, the other two points on the triangle NEVER forced on the coach a player he did not want. NEVER.

Avery, when asked if he’d like to clarify: “We not here for slamming anybody’s name through the mud. … Whatever happened, I think my name is on record with the organization as what I wanted to do.’’

As a matter of fact, Avery’s in-house position is very clear to those in the know. Although the record might have gotten stained after having been “slammed through the mud.’’

I will add, as a sidebar: When Avery’s potential future employers are digging around. … and they call Donnie, or Keith Grant, or Dirk. … and they ask them whether Avery is telling the truth about his supposed don’t-trade-for-Kidd views. … I wonder what they’ll say? And I wonder what the prospective employer will think?

“The Miracle Worker’’ with more offerings on this year’s club: “I feel proud about what we’ve done here, contrary to popular belief. We were a seventh-seed this year that was anywhere from a seventh to a ninth seed, could have been a 10th seed with this particular team. We weren’t quick. We just didn’t have what it takes to compete against some of the teams in the Western Conference. It is what it is.’’

Only a bit confusing. Avery’s “seven-seed’’ should have been a 10th seed. … but at the same time, “It is what it is’’?

And more, on whether Avery got all he could from this year’s team: “Oh, yes. Absolutely. And more. Yes. Yes. Yes.’’

Avery on whether the team tuned him out: “Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. When that happens, then sometimes you need a new voice. It's not that I'm cool with it or I'm not resilient or I'm not disappointed. But this is a part of coaching. Because of that, I've said it all the time. Coaches, we're going to resign or we're going to get fired. Now, whatever words we try to use, that's what happens.’’

I feel absolved. More immediately important to the Mavs in the last two months than Avery’s assorted flaws is this issue, which has little to do with his personality or his strategies: Players eventually tune out coaches. It’s not a coaching crime. It’s cyclical. I’ve tried to explain that my view on this subject is not an attack on Coach, but rather a fact I’ve seen up-close in 28 years of study. Avery said it better than I have.

More on the cycle, and how it has nothing to do with ownership: “I'm proud of my working relationship with Mark. I'm proud of it. We've had moments behind the scenes where we've talked about management styles, vision and I've learned a whole heck of a lot from Mark. I don’t have anything but great things to say (about Cuban). There were 29 other owners in the NBA and nobody else gave me my first shot but him. Did we have some rough periods? Absolutely. Am I proud that we were able to get through those rough periods? Yes, I am.

“(Coaching changes are) going to happen at some point, whether it was five years down the line or yesterday. … All coaches either get fired or resign.’’

Avery on whether he’s already fielded calls from interested teams: “Yes!’’

That’s grand, and I believe as with most guys, they will be better on their second go-round. “I won’t try to do 200 different things on the first day of training camp,’’ Avery said, in a rare moment of genuine self-reflection.

A cautionary note: The buzz suggests that Avery is a candidate for openings with the Bulls and Knicks. (And if Avery is telling the truth about getting multiple calls, he’s almost certainly talking about those positions.) I wrote on Wednesday that if Avery thinks the DFW media represents “Poisonous Journalism,’’ he ain’t seen nothin’ ‘til he loses three straight games in Chicago and New York.

I just realized this, for people (maybe Avery included) who think Cuban was a demanding, involved boss? In addition to the fact that I APPLAUD Cuban’s passionate involvement. …

Chicago’s owner is Jerry Reinsdorf. New York’s owner is James Dolan.

I’m telling you, Avery’s existence in Dallas was more “suite’’ than he knows.

Avery on the times when the team did listen to him: “Whatever strategies we tried, they really bought into them -- even if they were bad strategies. Because I've had one (bad strategy) in four years.’’

There were a lot of folks assembled at the press conference. The media came out in full force; when the Ritz-Carlton staff saw most of us unkempt hacks slogging in, they surely assumed we should be entering through the service door, or were maybe begging for dumpster-stored kitchen scraps.

There were also a handful of emotional staffers who came three blocks up from the gym to say their goodbyes, including assistant Popeye Jones, broadcaster Laura (Mrs. Joe Prunty) Green, equipment man Al Whitley, trainer Casey Smith and the hard-working PR people. (I thought a number of The Lil’ General’s admiring enlisted men were conspicuous in their absence, but I’m cynical that way. I might even kid that if they had shown up and said anything to Avery, it’d be the first time all year he let most of them speak).

And when Coach drawled out the “one bad strategy’’ line, we all chuckled. Avery – in so many ways the most successful coach the Dallas Mavericks have ever employed-- had made a funny.

A self-effacing joke.

At least I think it was a joke.

A team of destiny

- What else can you say? They're winning on the road. They're getting production from both role players and star players. They're winning overtime games. They're getting top-level goaltending. The money players are delivering. There is just something about this team that you can't explain. There's a confidence, there's a swagger, a belief that they just will not lose.

- Sergei Zubov. What a talent. I severely underrated his return. I got so sick of hearing people talking about his return like Wayne Gretzky was coming back to the lineup. I recognized his greatness for sure, the guy is awesome, but I thought no way would he be able to return and have his stamina intact, and be able to give the Stars 25 minutes of effective ice time.

- Not only is he back, he's playing huge minutes, he's back to quarterbacking the power play, and he's racking up points. A huge power play goal to tie the game in the 3rd (a period in which the Stars now have outscored opponents 18-6).

- Marty continued to perform like a top 3 goalie in the NHL. If not for a breakaway goal, he'd have yet another shutout. His save in OT on CheeChoo no doubt turned the series. They score there, it's suddenly 2-1, with the biggest game of the season tomorrow night. Instead, he stoned him, and now it's 3-0 and the Stars can close this thing out tomorrow.

- Brendan Morrow is quickly building his legend as the Captain of the Dallas Stars. He is rising to every occasion. He is not disappearing from the spotlight. One night he's scoring the game winner (Game 1), then he's assisting on big goals (Game 2), and then he's leading the team in hits and being the inspirational leader on the ice (Game 3).

- He's a special player. A player who can combine top-notch leadership qualities with tangible production as well, (especially production in the playoffs), is about the most valuable player you can have on a hockey team outside of a kickass goalie. Brendan Morrow is a stud.

- What has to be killing San Jose is that it looked to me as though they gave their best shot tonight. That was probably their best effort of the series. Joe Thornton, CheeChoo, and Setagoochi (spelling?) were active and assaulting Turco all night. San Jose stayed out of the penalty box for the most part, played pretty good defense for about 2 periods. And got an absolutely superb performance from their goalie. And that was all they had.

- But in the end, the Stars just played just as well, if not better than San Jose. They owned the 3rd period like they have all during the playoffs. They severely outshot the Sharks in the 3rd, played the entire period in San Jose's end, and once again scored on the power play.

- The Stars seemed to win every loose puck battle, seemed to be the more aggressive team the whole game. They were flying all over the ice and looked like an insanely hungry team.

- Game 4 tomorrow night. End this thing. Get some rest. Let Colorado and Detroit beat each other up. Teams that want to make a long trip through the playoffs need at least 1 quick series at some point, preferably in Round 1 or Round 2. They need a sweep or a 5 gamer in order to rest up for a long series down the road. You can't make every series into a 6 or 7 gamer, it takes too much out of you. You'll have nothing left come Round 3 or Round 4. The Stars need this win tomorrow night.

- I'm ready for Game 4.



- This is great.

Jugular night

- The Stars can effectively bury San Jose tonight with a win. A 3-0 series lead is 99% of the time Church. And the Mavs look like they are taking the sword from New Orleans and slicing their own jugular. They want no part of the playoffs anymore. They'll get beat by double digits tonight.

- The view from San Jose.

Sharks don't need any momentum

Ray Ratto
Tuesday, April 29, 2008

(04-29) 04:00 PDT Dallas -- It is still too early to declare that the San Jose Sharks are the Atlanta Braves of shinny, and it is also too generous. Right now, backed against the ropes by a team that doesn't hit all that much, they aren't even Braves caliber. Truth be told, they actually look more like the Sacramento Kings of the Rick Adelman era - always in the playoffs, rarely for very long.

The Sharks made their annual plea for "desperate" hockey after being smothered again by the Dallas Stars in Game 2 on Sunday night. They said it as though it was an actual strategic plan, like the neutral-zone trap, rather than a "Well, what brilliant idea do you have, smart ass?" statement that betrays both the arrogance of talent and the fear of failure.

And therein lies the problem with Game 3 coming tonight. This isn't so much about whether the Sharks can skate with Dallas, because they can. This isn't even about tactical considerations, because they were doing the things they needed to do throughout most of the first two periods Sunday.

But as they seem to do far too often, they stopped doing it. They were caught surprised when Joe Pavelski hit the deck, lost the puck and surrendered Brad Richards' game-tying goal 32 seconds into the third period Sunday. They were gob-smacked when the underharassed Sergei Zubov spun at the right face-off dot and hit the even less bothered Mike Modano for a one-timer from the left face-off circle that provided the game-winner.

And they accepted their fate too easily thereafter. Not by quitting, which is too easy a buzzword, but deciding to no longer do the things that worked for them before - crowding Dallas goalie Marty Turco, blocking shots, taking care to keep tabs on Dallas' best players, Mike Ribeiro, Brenden Morrow, Brad Richards and, yes, Modano Emeritus.

The fact is, and you don't need stats to prove this although they are easily found, Dallas' best players have enjoyed too much free-range hockey, with the predictable result, and San Jose's best players have been harassed, smothered or simply failed on their own.

Ribeiro has been better than Joe Thornton. Richards has been better than Jonathan Cheechoo. Morrow has been better than Ryane Clowe. Zubov and Stephane Robidas have been better than Brian Campbell, and Turco has been better than Evgeni Nabokov. And San Jose's young players and support staff have done largely nothing.

Hockey is not played as a man-on-man exercise, but when your best lose to their best, you lose. And when your other guys don't dramatically outplay the other guy's other guys, you lose fast.

The Sharks' only hope, then, is not that they have such a swell road record, or that they do well in Dallas, or that they're really good when they're desperate. In fact, what ails the Sharks is that, though they do have some exploitable players, what they really have is a bad case of short attention span. They go good, but if the other team doesn't cave under the Sharks' collective throw-weight, the Sharks sometimes forget what got them there. Contemporary example: They have had one consistently strong game out of nine, and that was Game 7 against Calgary.

This Sharks team, then, is not a Cup winner, not with what it is showing this postseason. This isn't even the Braves.

So what, then, do they have going for them in Game 3 other than the template for winning that actually was working before they abandoned it for whatever Dallas wanted to do? The fact that momentum doesn't hold much water in hockey.

You see, Dallas is capable of playing less well in Game 3 than it did in Games 1 and 2, simply by forgetting to mind its trap well, or getting a squirrelly performance by Turco, or by thinking the job is done before it is done. And though San Jose's trip to the conference finals seems highly unlikely at this point, the Sharks still can win only the game in front of them, which is tonight's.

We are seeing that San Jose is in fact not as good as it persistently has been cracked up to be, and that's not a coaching issue but a talent and devotion issue. But the Sharks are surely better than going down in an uninspired heap, aren't they?

Well, aren't they?




- Turco proving his worth....



Turco has taken his duties, his team to a serious level

By JIM REEVESStar-Telegram Staff Writer

Hockey, by its nature, is a game of scars. The speed, the flashing blades, the violent collisions, inevitably see to that.

That most of Marty Turco's scars are on the inside, instead of the outside, doesn't mean that they have been any less painful.

On the contrary, I would argue that Turco has bled more than most in his NHL career. His hemorrhages have simply been internal. That's the lot of an NHL goaltender.

It's no coincidence that the Dallas Stars have advanced this deep in the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time in five years with Turco playing at a higher level.

We can talk about how Mike Modano owns San Jose, or Brad Richards' four third-period points in Game 2 Sunday night, or even the dramatic return of defenseman Sergei Zubov, but make no mistake about it, the Stars are where they are, leading the Sharks 2-games-to-none in this best-of-seven Western Conference semifinal series, because Turco has been, hands down, the best player on the ice.

As the Stars and Sharks line up tonight for Game 3 at the AAC, there's not a single player on either team who doesn't know that.

This is the new and different Turco, the one we actually saw emerging during last year's seven-game, first-round loss to Vancouver, when the Stars won three times only because he pitched shutouts.

This Turco, the father of two young daughters, doesn't laugh as much as he did when he was 27 and coming off a modern-day NHL record-setting season after replacing Eddie Belfour and posting an amazing 1.76 goals-against average in his first full year between the Stars' posts.

Subsequent playoff failures, when the fickle finger of blame found itself, more often than not, wagging in Turco's direction changed his outlook, changed his approach, even changed his persona.

Like most of us, he simply didn't know then what he knows now.

"For me, the complete understanding of what I need to do for this hockey club has come to me," Turco said in San Jose, where the Sharks threw everything they had in his direction and it still wasn't enough. "I've always known that stopping the puck and moving it and giving these guys confidence is what I've wanted to do, but I'm just at a better place now.

"You always wish you'd known more things when you were younger, but there's nothing I would change now that got me to this point."

He understands and appreciates the first-round losses now as learning experiences, a process that he needed to go through and absorb to become the goaltender and person he is today.

"Experience is a huge thing for anybody, experiences you can draw on to keep you calm," Turco said. "My game has developed with a lot of confidence to trust my instincts and abilities, to remain in position and to remain patient and to be strong for the whole game.

"Every facet of being a professional athlete has been tremendously better. It's been a lot of hard work, a lot of sacrificing, but that's exactly what I wanted."

Stars' play-by-play TV and radio announcer Ralph Strangis has had a front seat for Turco's metamorphosis from cocky playoff failure to quiet, efficient brilliance.

"Losing humbles you. It slaps you in the face," Strangis said. "I imagine life had always been pretty easy for Marty Turco. He'd won at every level, played on two national [collegiate] championship teams.

"Then he had to wait behind Belfour, and I'm sure he thought he would step right in and [win Stanley Cups], too, and he didn't."

At least not yet. But this Turco, who owns a 1.99 goals against-average for the first eight games of the 2008 playoffs, has the talent, and now the maturity, to do exactly that.

"What you're seeing is the maturity of becoming a veteran goaltender, accepting his role on the team," coach Dave Tippett said. "His leadership has evolved and his leadership is essential for our team.

"That's his personality. The combination of recognizing that he's one of our best players, of doing the job, has a big impact on him being a leader. Those are all situations and processes you go through."

If that means he doesn't joke around quite as much as he once did, or that the smiles are fewer because of how seriously he takes his responsibility now, it's a small price to pay.

"It's not just me out there that's out there working and thinking," Turco said. "It's for my guys.

"It's about winning, and that's all that I want. It's always been about getting better in order to win and give these guys confidence."

Turco is so confident in his own ability now, he's almost surprised on those rare occasions when the puck winds up in the net behind him.

"There's not too many goals, and I mean probably less than you'd think, that I shouldn't have had," he insisted. "There's something inside me that thinks I actually should stop all of them.

"But you have to know that mistakes are going to happen, never mind just goals and bounces, whatever. My job is about kind of forgetting and moving on. I've played enough, in big games and in overtime, to know that it's all about the next play, the next save and that my teammates look at their goalie as a wall. It's something I cherish dearly."

He has been that mighty wall throughout these playoffs, the Stars' last and most formidable line of defense.

"To say that I trust myself, it's true," he said. "But it's been a long road.

"I'm not perfect. I'm not the best ever. But I think I can help this team win."

Five years after his first foray into the postseason, a wiser, stronger Turco is all about proving he can do just that.




- You knew it was coming.....the bandwagon Dallas sports fan is tearing ass down the tracks trying to hop back on to the Stars train.



Hockey hot again in Dallas

04:50 AM CDT on Tuesday, April 29, 2008
By CHUCK CARLTON / The Dallas Morning News
ccarlton@dallasnews.com

As the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs progressed, people sitting near stressed Stars fan Linda Rich at American Airlines Center fretted.

She was so tense and uncharacteristically quiet that they wondered if she was sick or facing a personal crisis.

Not to worry, Ms. Rich said. It was just the tension of the playoffs.

Ms. Rich might be in rare form tonight. The Stars will make their first AAC appearance of the second round, having taken a surprising 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 series against the higher-seeded San Jose Sharks.

The Stars might have made some of their fans anxious by going five years without a playoff series victory before defeating defending champion Anaheim last week in six games. Their six wins in these playoffs are more than they have achieved in the last three postseasons combined.

Perhaps this postseason run will improve their standing in the local big league sports scene, where they have fallen greatly since winning the Stanley Cup in 1999 and reaching the Finals again in 2000.

"I'm beyond belief excited," said Ms. Rich, a dog groomer from Wylie and a Stars season ticket holder since 1995.

She isn't alone. A sellout crowd made the clinching victory against Anaheim sound like the Stars' halcyon days at Reunion Arena.

"The fans have been as eager as we've been to get out of the first round," said center Mike Modano, the face of the franchise. "It seems like they're waiting to erupt, and they're waiting for us to give them something to cheer about.

"I think they were missing it as much as we were."

Team owner Tom Hicks admits to a soft spot for the Stars, his first pro team in a sports empire that includes the baseball Rangers and Liverpool FC, the renowned English soccer team.

"We're getting our season-ticket base back, and that's what it is all about," Mr. Hicks said. "Dallas is a city that loves winners. Whether it's the Stars or the Mavs or the Cowboys – and hopefully someday it's going to be the Rangers again – there's a lot more interest when they feel like you're going to win."

Consider where the Stars' local pro neighbors stood when they held their championship parade in June 1999. The Rangers actually were their closest competition, having won division titles in 1996, '98 and '99 – but having gone 1-9 in Division Series play following those title runs. New Cowboys coach Chan Gailey got the 1998 team back into the playoffs, but it lost at home to Arizona. The Mavericks had just completed their 10th consecutive losing season.

When the Stars franchise moved from Minnesota in 1993, it was a novelty. Team executives like Jim Lites and Jeff Cogen sold the experience as football on ice.

Ms. Rich, an Oklahoma transplant, was smitten after watching her first Stars game during that 1993-94 season. She told her husband, Wayne: "I don't care if we go to another football, basketball or baseball game. I want season tickets."

She wasn't alone. In 2000-01, the Stars had 16,500 season ticket holders. The total now: 12,500.

The 2000 Finals finale, a loss to the New Jersey Devils at Reunion, drew a 28.7 TV rating and a 47 percent share in the local market. During the 2007-08 regular season, the Stars averaged an 0.8 rating on local over-the-air broadcasts vs. a 4.8 for the NBA Mavericks.

The Stars' decline in popularity wasn't totally tied to playoff shortcomings. The move from Reunion to AAC in 2001 alienated some fans who feel the new arena is too impersonal. And there was the unique loss of an entire season because of the NHL lockout of 2004-05.

Ms. Rich kept her season tickets, but she noted other familiar faces who quit attending games as first-round eliminations negated successful regular seasons.

"That's about the worst situation that you can imagine," said Daniel Howard, chairman of SMU's marketing department. "Good enough to raise hopes – not good enough to win."

Mr. Cogen replaced Mr. Lites as team president last fall and likens the current situation to what he faced in the mid-'90s during his first tour with the Stars, with some advantages. He credits Mr. Hicks for building the eight Dr Pepper StarsCenters, which Mr. Cogen said function as "fan factories."

The Stars have already announced lower ticket prices for most upper-bowl seats next season, in hopes of luring back fans and gaining new ones.

"Would they come back at a price? Probably," Mr. Cogen said. "Would they come back at a price and with some success? More probable."




- Whoever doesn't think this team has tuned Avery out, I present this.....



Dallas Mavericks practice for Game 5 without coaches

03:58 AM CDT on Tuesday, April 29, 2008
By EDDIE SEFKO / The Dallas Morning News
esefko@dallasnews.com

NEW ORLEANS – After Game 4 confirmed suspicions that this season just isn't meant to be, it seemed clear that the only thing left for the Mavericks was to close ranks and pull together.

Instead, they might be pulling apart as the season's end lurks as early as tonight.

The players stepped out on their own Monday afternoon. After coach Avery Johnson spoke briefly with the team at American Airlines Center, he canceled practice and said he would see everybody at the team plane for the flight to New Orleans.

But several players said that they wanted to practice. So they did, without the coaching staff.

"After the conversation, the players decided to have more of a players-only practice, and from what I heard, it went pretty good," Johnson said at the team's New Orleans hotel. "Somebody amongst the players decided that they thought they needed some sort of practice."

It was not disobeying a direct order. But it was clear the players felt they needed to organize themselves away from authority figures. Though no players were made available to the media Monday, Johnson's commentary on his team spoke volumes.

He sounded like a coach who was not excited that his team would go beyond simply having a players-only meeting by actually doing court work. Players-only meetings happen all the time. But a players-only practice before a possible playoff elimination game?

"We're in a situation where I don't know if we need another drill," Johnson said. "We've been having drills and scrimmages since the first day of training camp and if you don't have it by now, I don't know if you're going to have a CliffsNotes session and get it.

"I was just thinking about keeping the legs fresh and meeting on the plane. But they decided they needed to go down on the court and do something. We'll see what type of carryover it has."

The Mavericks are down 3-1 to the New Orleans Hornets. Game 5 could end their season tonight at New Orleans Arena. Eight teams in NBA history have come back to win a series after falling behind 3-1, the most recent being the 2006 Phoenix Suns against the Los Angeles Lakers.

There already has been talk about the future of the Mavericks if they lose this series. Everything from the security of Johnson's job to the roster spots of pretty much every player not named Dirk Nowitzki are open to question.

Johnson talked openly Monday about whether the players are still in his corner. He said he will continue to run his team the way he believes it should be run. He said that since the trade for Jason Kidd, the transition has been rocky.

"Overall, these men have been very loyal to me," he said. "It's a tough spot for us. Sometimes, we haven't played our best basketball. Maybe another team at that particular time was just a better team. But it's not because the men don't listen or don't try.

"This is a team that hasn't been together for a while. We've tried to incorporate a very tough situation. And we just haven't had the type of carryover like we want.

"But we're still alive. We're playing this game [today], and we have every reason in the world to think we can win it."

The Mavericks have had trouble on the road all season. In Game 4, at home, they had trouble with so many of the same things that made them a No. 7 seed in the eight-team playoff bracket.

Nowitzki said Game 4 was a microcosm of everything that has gone wrong.

"All season long we've lost leads way too quick," Nowitzki said. "We gave up fast-break points, way too many. We left some of their shooters wide-open and just didn't have the composure you need there when things got tight."

None of the Mavericks had it. That's another reflection on the coaching staff.

As for his job security, Johnson said he knows what people have said and written, adding that it hasn't bothered him and he hopes it doesn't distract his players.

"I don't think what we've done, we have to be ashamed of," he said. "We try to lay it on the line and get the team in the best shape as we can to go out and perform. From there, obviously, you need some of the guys to really step up and play well."





- Hollinger on Josh Howard. I was seeing this 3 years ago. Why was everyone so blind? I guess they needed to see absolute rock-bottom before everyone started to see what I saw as far back as 2005.



The disappearance of Josh Howard
When I looked at these teams before the series, it seemed as close as you could get to a dead-even matchup, and the Hornets' home-court advantage was the main reason I picked them in seven.

It hasn't worked out that way, even though Dirk Nowitzki has had a very strong series. But he isn't getting enough help, thanks mainly to Josh Howard's complete and total implosion at the offensive end. Forget this week's controversy about his confession that he smoked marijuana in the offseason -- it's his game that's gone to pot.

In the series, he's mustered just 12.8 points and 6.5 boards while shooting a dismal 15-for-58 (25.9 percent). By Sunday night's Game 4, the Hornets were leaving him wide open for jumpers throughout the second half, but he clanked all of them.

It's not like he's got Michael Cooper on him either. His primary defenders have been Peja Stojakovic and Bonzi Wells, neither of whom is known for putting the clamps on opponents. While Peja's D probably is a little underrated, Howard faced plenty of good defenders this season and averaged 19.9 points and 7.0 boards on 45.5 percent shooting.

As a result of his struggles, a position where Dallas expected to have a sizable advantage has become a surprising plus for the Hornets. And not surprisingly, the unexpected minus at the small forward spot also has put the Mavs at a minus in the games department, 3-1.



- The analysis and obituaries are coming from everywhere. Here's the New York Times....



Mavericks’ Only Certainty Is a Cloudy Future

By HOWARD BECK
Published: April 29, 2008

NEW ORLEANS — The itinerary Monday called for the Dallas Mavericks to hold a brief practice, then fly to New Orleans. But the practice was decidedly unconventional and the Mavericks’ ultimate destination is anything but clear.

The team landed here in the Crescent City in midafternoon, with considerable baggage in tow: a former All-Star who has lost his way, a future Hall of Famer who has lost his touch and a coach who may soon lose his job.

The Mavericks play the Hornets on Tuesday night, with their season and just about everything else at stake. The Hornets lead the first-round series, three games to one.

Despite the stakes, Coach Avery Johnson initially canceled practice in Dallas. His players decided to practice anyway, without the coaches. The unofficial workout allowed the Mavericks to skirt league rules on news media availability, and thus avoid many nagging questions.

Chief among them: How is a team that was supposed to contend for the title facing first-round elimination for the second year in a row? Wrapped up in the answer is Johnson’s future.

He guided the Mavericks to the Western Conference title two years ago, but since then they have produced mostly disappointment. Dallas had a 2-0 lead over the Miami Heat in the 2006 finals, but lost the next four games. The Mavericks won a league-best 67 games last season, but were bounced by the Golden State Warriors.

Despite trading for Jason Kidd, a future Hall of Famer, at midseason, the Mavericks struggled to make the playoffs and finished as the seventh seed. Now they are fizzling again, against a New Orleans team that is younger, grittier and more confident.

The Mavericks are 3-11 in their last 14 playoff games under Johnson, including 0-8 on the road.

These are not the marks of a contender, which is why speculation is growing daily that the owner Mark Cuban will fire Johnson when the season ends. If Cuban’s anger runs deep enough, he might just jettison everyone but Dirk Nowitzki, last season’s most valuable player.

When Johnson met with reporters at the team hotel early Monday evening, he acknowledged, albeit indirectly, that his job could be at stake.

“Whatever decisions that were made, it will have to be discussed at a later time,” he said. “Right now, we’re still alive.”

Johnson added, “We have to let it run its course, and then we’ll have to adjourn after, whenever that is, and we’ll take a look at it, put everything on the board and see at that point.”

A year ago, the heat fell mostly on Nowitzki. But Nowitzki has been more than solid against the Hornets, averaging 28 points, 11.8 rebounds and 3.5 assists, while shooting 50 percent in the series. It is the rest of the roster that is failing.

Josh Howard, an All-Star in 2007 and the Mavericks’ No. 2 scorer this season, has been an unmitigated mess in the playoffs. He is shooting 26 percent from the field and averaging 12.8 points. He has been alternately tentative and overeager with his jump shot and has failed to attack the basket consistently.

Kidd was supposed to be the missing piece of a championship team but instead has been a disappointment. He is averaging 7.3 points and 6.3 assists, and he has hardly made an imprint in the last three games. He has also failed to do the one thing he did best in Phoenix and New Jersey — make his teammates better.

Kidd’s most noteworthy moment in the series came in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s 97-84 loss, when he was ejected for a flagrant foul on Jannero Pargo. The N.B.A. reviewed the play Monday but determined that it did not warrant a suspension.

As it stands now, the bold trade for Kidd — which cost the Mavericks the young point guard Devin Harris — looks like a mistake.

“Whenever you do something or make a decision, I think there are going to be ramifications of that decision,” Johnson said.

It was yet another subtle admission that the Mavericks are more of a work in progress than a polished product. The trade was clearly the primary reason. The Mavericks still feature five of their top six scorers from the 2006 finals (Nowitzki, Howard, Jason Terry, Jerry Stackhouse and Erick Dampier), but they lack cohesion.

With everything up in the air, Johnson seemed to be asking for understanding — from fans, from the news media and perhaps from Cuban.

“I think over all these men have been very loyal to me,” Johnson said. “It’s just a tough spot for us. Maybe another team at that particular time was just a better team. But it’s not because the men don’t listen or don’t try. But again, this is a team that hasn’t been together for a while. We’ve tried to incorporate a very tough situation. And we just haven’t had the type of carryover like we want. But we’re still alive.”




- The new fan favorite....


- Punk Roenick gets nailed.

Turn out the lights

- This party is over. The Avery era is over. The post-Nash/Finley era is over. It's time to strip this thing down.

- It's time to strip it down to Dirk, Bass, Terry, and Dampier. Avery gone. Howard gone. Stackhouse, Eddie Jones, Devean George gone. Jason Kidd can stay as long as a new coach comes in.

- A core of Dirk, Bass, and Terry can be more successful than this current mix. The bench/role players have maxed out. Josh Howard has regressed so severely that I'm not even sure what you could get for him anymore. They need more youth, different basketball IQ's, and a new voice leading them.

- Get some youthful and hungry young players, get an athletic wing (trade Howard and trash and cash for Jason Richardson), an athletic big man (re-sign Diop), get Kidd a less Hitler-like coach, get Dirk healthy, get Bass 35 minutes a game, and insert Terry back into the starting lineup full time, and I think we can get back to watching good basketball.

- Josh Howard - 3-16, 6 points. 25% shooting for the series.

- If the game can ever be won in the 2nd quarter, it happened last night. The Mavericks are up 32-23, momentum is there, and New Orleans has its 2nd unit in the game.

- So what does Avery do? Reacting to Scott's substitutions for some reason (you're up 9 and are at home, why are you reacting to his moves?), he inserts Jerry Stackhouse, Devean George, and JJ BAREA. Instead of laying the hammer down with CP3 and the rest of the starters out of the game, he inserts probably the least effective lineup of any playoff team ever. Within 3 minutes, the Hornets have the lead and the game is officially over.

- Just like in Game 1 when he put George, Stack, and JUWAN HOWARD in the game when Scott put in his 2nd unit. The game was officially over at that point as well.

- How many more times can a person out-coach himself, out-think himself, and just get dominated by the opposing coach? Byron Scott is not Red Auerbach, but he's sure looking like it this series.

- When you go into a series, your coach should be about #3 or #4 on the list of reasons why you will lose. Avery's coaching decisions consistently rank #1 or #2 on expert's lists on why Dallas will lose a series. He cannot be here anymore. That's unacceptable.

- He's had 4 seasons in the league. Opposing coaches have figured him out. And he's not good enough to win a chess match, adjustments-type game. The book is out on Avery.

- What a pitiful team this is. On a night where CP3 just looked like an average point guard, and the rest of the team looked pretty average, the Mavericks looked like a team that has mailed this season in. They looked like a beaten, get this damn thing over with type of team. I really do hate this team.

- Marc Stein's column says it all.

Mavs Fall In A Tough Hole

By Marc Stein
ESPN.com

DALLAS -- Chris Paul required some extra in-game stretching to stay loose Sunday night, took most of the second quarter off and looked closer to mortal than he has for months.

None of which helped the Dallas Mavericks one iota.

The surging New Orleans Hornets didn't need Paul at his peak to deliver a Game 4 blow to the Mavs -- and Avery Johnson's tenure coaching them -- that looked and sounded unmistakably fatal. The Hornets erased Dallas' biggest lead with Paul on the bench, kept piling on from there and progressively drained away the Mavs' spirit, emptying the building earlier than any playoff game here in recent memory and ultimately cruising to a 97-84 triumph that will be recorded as the franchise's first win in this town since 1998.

"You want to see if hopefully you can take their life away," Hornets coach Byron Scott said, summarizing the message he plans to transmit to his players before Tuesday's Game 5 back home.

Honestly? It looks like they already have.

Judging by the clear-cut lack of swagger, bounce, intensity and belief coming from the Mavs -- all of which began to fritter away on this night when New Orleans uncorked a 15-2 run in the second quarter with Paul spectating -- you'd give Phoenix more of a chance to overturn its 3-1 deficit to mighty San Antonio faster than you'd suggest Dallas can come back from 3-1 down in this series.

Jason Kidd looked more out of sorts in Johnson's offense than ever before, managing just three points, three assists and four rebounds while attempting just six shots from the field. Josh Howard responded to the scrutiny his untimely comments about marijuana use have invited by trying to shoot his way out of it and hitting a new low by missing 15 of 18 attempts from the field. No surprise, then, that New Orleans responded by swarming Dirk Nowitzki throughout, trying to force the ball out of Nowitzki's hands by packing the paint and attacking him almost every time he dared to dribble. Although he still managed 22 points and 13 rebounds, Nowitzki's production and Jason Terry's 20 points weren't nearly enough to compensate for the struggles of Kidd and Howard and a bench that provided virtually nil.

Even Nowitzki was guilty of uncharacteristically missing three free throws … as well as an accidental slip into the past tense.

After Dallas absorbed its 11th loss in 14 playoff games since taking a 2-0 lead over Miami in the 2006 NBA Finals, Nowitzki said: "This sport is still about scoring points. And we just didn't have a great offensive series, I guess."

The series, of course, is not quite over. But the Mavs will need some benevolence from the league office just so Kidd -- whom Dallas chased so hard in Feburary because he "knows how to finish games," in Johnson's words -- can play in the expected finale.

He's facing a possible suspension after being ejected with 7:16 to play after a hard one-handed takedown of Jannero Pargo. It was a flagrant foul on a fast break, with New Orleans up 16, that would have been a lot uglier if not for Pargo's deft landing.

Pargo was heading for the floor headfirst when he managed to get his hands down to break the fall. The sight of the Hornets' bench spark plug bouncing back up quickly, however, doesn't change the fact that every Type 2 flagrant foul is automatically reviewed by the league office for additional penalties. Kidd denied later that it was a frustration foul, but it might regrettably wind up being the signature play of his 2008 postseason if he's forced to sit out Game 5, which would only add to the sense of doom rapidly enveloping the Mavs after they were widely picked to upset the No. 2 seed.

"The league is going to do what they do," Nowitzki said. "You never know what's going to happen with them anyway and what they're going to make up."

Said Paul: "I don't think there's [any] reason for him to be suspended for the next game."

The bad news there is that Paul might also be saying that the Hornets wouldn't mind seeing Kidd in Game 5, fond as he is of Kidd after their time together on Team USA.

You certainly can't hang the fact that Howard has become totally undependable (15-for-58 from the field for the series) on his coach. The Hornets likewise never imagined that Jerry Stackhouse's contribution would be so negligible … or that Johnson, getting nothing from his reserves apart from Brandon Bass, would gamble on playing little-used guard J.J. Barea and then pay the price during New Orleans' second-quarter burst without Paul.

Yet there have been whispers coming from the Hornets' camp, going back before the series even started, that they looked forward to playing Dallas because they were convinced that Kidd couldn't hurt them in his current role, given Johnson's penchant for slowing the game whenever it gets close and an offense not exactly known for ball or player movement, which so often turns Kidd into a weakside shooter.

And …

After backing off to let David West (24 points) carry the offense in the third quarter and finishing with a tame (for him) 16 points, eight assists and seven boards, Paul did say that the Hornets believed they could win this comfortably, even though he had never won a game at American Airlines Center in six previous tries.

Asked if the ease of the victory surprised him in any way, Paul said: "Not really, to tell you the truth."

He's only that confident with good reason. It would be an immeasurable surprise, after this dour display, if Dallas goes to Avery's hometown and finds a way to drag Paul back here for a Game 6.






- At least one team is playing inspired, clutch, and raising their game in the playoffs.

- Any questions as to why the Stars paid such a high price for Brad Richards should be answered by now. The guy is a gamer. He looked lost and out of sorts during those 20 or so game in the regular season. But he has found his way on this team, is comfortable, and is now kicking ass. In sports, you pay a premium for players who step up their games when it matters most. Regular seasons are nice, but legends are born when the lights shine the brightest. Richards is just as advertised.

- Wow did Sergei Zubov look good last night. That spinning, backhand assist on Modano's goal was just unreal. There's maybe a handful of defenseman in this league who can make that pass.

- Marty continues to play some of the best hockey of his career. He has continued his top-level play from last year's playoffs and has really locked it down this year.

- His passing and elimination of the opponent's dumping and chasing has really pushed his game to the next level. You can see teams getting frustrated when they try to dump it in and start an offensive attack, and there's Marty to grab the puck and shoot it back out quickly to one of his teammates. This is a part of his game that is so underrated and is something that no other goalie can do. He's like a 3rd defenseman back there with how he can pass and handle the puck.

- Mikey Modano has found the fountain. He's in a groove right now. He always loves playing San Jose, but he has raised his game. He looks as effective as he has in a while right now.

- Bottom line, the Stars are getting big time production from their money players. Richards, Ribeiro, Modano, Turco, Morrow, and Zubov.

- Like last round, the Stars sweep the 1st 2 road games of the series, and have a chance to come home and really shut the door on a team. Sure is fun to watch a team excel and raise their level of play in the playoffs.



Dallas Stars beat San Jose, 5-2, in Game 2


02:19 AM CDT on Monday, April 28, 2008
By MIKE HEIKA / The Dallas Morning News
mheika@dallasnews.com

SAN JOSE, Calif. – This is exactly why the Stars got Brad Richards.

The 27-year-old center simply has a way of making the big play at the biggest of times.

He did it again Sunday. With the Stars trailing San Jose in the third period, Richards came up with a goal and three assists, breaking a Stars playoff record and leading Dallas to a 5-2 victory in Game 2.

Richards scored the tying goal 32 seconds into the period when he converted a Joe Pavelski turnover into a beautiful wrister that beat Evgeni Nabokov on the stick side. He then added assists on goals by Mike Modano and Niklas Hagman, who scored twice, including an empty-netter.

"He just has a knack for making the right play at the right time," Modano said. "I mean, you look at the play he scored on, and Pavelski falls down. But when you get a play like that, it takes someone special to turn it into a goal. He's just done that his whole life.

The victory gives the Stars a 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 second-round series that heads to Dallas for Games 3 and 4 on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Dallas continued its trend of leaping on teams at the most opportune moments. The Stars have outscored opponents 16-5 in third periods during the playoffs.

"It's hard to explain," Richards said. "I know last game we didn't have a good third period, and we didn't want to repeat that. We didn't want to sit back when we got a lead. When you sit back, good things don't happen, so we really tried to push the pace."

Dallas was trailing 2-1 thanks to solid play from the Sharks. Pavelski made a deft redirection of a Craig Rivet pass on a first-period power-play goal, and then Milan Michalek split defensemen Trevor Daley and Sergei Zubov for a second-period breakaway. Those two goals were sandwiched around Mike Ribeiro's third goal of the playoffs, and they gave the Sharks and their rabid fans at HP Pavilion reason to get excited.

But Richards sapped that excitement in no time at all. With Hagman applying pressure on the forecheck, Pavelski had to make a hard cut to receive a pass and fell down. Richards grabbed the loose puck, took a couple of steps and whistled a hard wrister past Nabokov to tie the score.

"I probably should have waited longer, but I just wanted to get a shot off," Richards said.

The Stars were happy with that decision, and they rallied behind it. Steve Ott drew a holding call on Christian Ehrhoff minutes later, and Modano scored on the power play. Zubov, who was returning to play for the first time since Jan. 17, whipped a spinning, backhand pass from circle to circle to Modano, who picked the top corner for the 14th playoff game-winning goal of his career. Richards got the puck to Zubov on that play.

But the Stars weren't content to sit on that one-goal lead. Inspired by its newfound energy, the Richards line scored twice more. Richards carried the puck into the offensive zone, circled behind the net and fed out front to Hagman, who flipped in his first goal of the playoffs to give Dallas a 4-2 lead. Richards then fed Hagman for an empty-netter to finish the scoring.

It was a strong statement about a team that has struggled in third periods in playoffs past.

"Scary, eh?" Modano said with a raised eyebrow. "It's just a different team. We're really confident playing from behind. We're really confident playing in pressure situations. It's just who we are right now."