Monday Morning Donuts

For a moment there, it looked like it was going to be a “Go Cowboys! (And Take The Mavs With You!) kind of weekend. The Mavs’ demoralizing loss at New Jersey on Friday. The Cowboys’ demoralizing loss to Bal’mer to close Texas Stadium on Saturday. (Though chin up: A win at Philly next week and the ‘Boys are in the playoffs!) And then. … would there be another Dallas demoralizer in D.C. on Sunday? Time to make the sigh-of-relief Monday Morning Donuts, all reflecting on the Mavs’ 97-86 win in Washington:

   DONUT 1: I hear this as more defiance from The Defiant One, Jason Terry, who led all scorers with 25, helped Dallas outscore the Wizards 27-18 in the fourth, and did so because orchestrator Jason Kidd handed out six of his 11 assists in the final six minutes of the game.

 “He's the greatest point guard in the world,’’ Jet said of Kidd.

After the weekend the Mavs have been through? Defiance.

   DONUT 2: Coach Rick Carlisle puppeteered a really sound 29 minutes from seldom-used scrapper James Singleton. The 6-9 Singleton – a do-the-little-things specialist who doesn’t get to do much at all – hasn’t played significant minutes since mid-November. But here, he jumped up into the rotation, ahead of ‘Gana Diop (nine minutes) and ahead of Brandon Bass (a rather alarming DNP). He guarded the likes of Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler, registered 13 rebounds, scored eight points, had three blocks and two steals, and seemed sharp on pick-and-roll defense, on protecting the basket as a shot-blocking “center’’ and on out-hustling the other nine guys on the floor.

   “He’s been working hard all year,’’ Carlisle said of Singleton. “He brings something to our team every day. He comes early, he stays late, he works, he gets better and he’s earned a shot. He came up big. He made timely plays. … Every day, he shows up and does things with force and with a winning attitude. His teammates respect him.’’

    Very nice. But inasmuch as Singleton “does this every day,’’ where did Carlisle pull Singleton-on-Sunday out of? Turns out, on Saturday, the coach watched as his scrubs played a 3-on-3 game. Singleton’s intensity in that mini-scrimmage was such that he was thrown this bone.

   A 29-minute, game-winning bone.

   DONUT 3: Off the floor: My understanding is that their present teams are allowing the tires to be kicked on scoring centers Chris Kaman (Clippers) and Brad Miller (Kings) and on do-everything wingman Gerald Wallace (Bobcats) all names that we’ve addressed at length in this space.

   And yes, the Mavs are kicking. As they should be.

   DONUT 4: I would think one of coach Carlisle’s New Year’s resolutions would be to find a way to fully tap Josh Howard’s potential, to fully harness his talent, to find a consistency and a balance in the production of the erstwhile All-Star.

    Good news on J-Ho: He started the game and totaled 17 points on 7-of-14 shooting.

    Less good news on J-Ho: He scored 10 of those points in the first six minutes of the game. And over the entirety of his 27 minutes, he never managed to notch a rebound, an assist, a block or a steal.

    For the bulk of the game’s finish, Josh was on the bench. It wasn’t punishment, as Dirk was over there, too, Carlisle opting to give some of his main men a blow that extended on and on as Dallas’ lead extended on and on. The oddball quintet that ate up the fourth quarter: The 3-PGs (Kidd, Jet and JJB) plus George and Singleton.

   “That group we had at the end did a great job,’’ said Carlisle, who admitted he was “just trying to get Dirk a minute or two’’ before deciding to let those boys play it out. “They were great at both ends, and they closed it out by playing tough and smart.’’

    No argument. It worked. But of course, the eventually plan would include having Josh be a necessary component there. Howard averages 8.2 points per first quarter, second only to LeBron James’ 8.3.

   Ah, imagine if Josh Howard could do that in the fourth quarter, too!

   DONUT 5: Live by the Jet, die by the Jet. Isn’t that the old saying? The praise for Jason Terry as the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year is stacking up; heck, he should probably get some sort of All-Star also-ranness as well. One area where he saved the Mavs: From the arc. Dallas was 1-of-15 in the first half on 3-point tries.

   Terry fixed all that. He made four of his eight bombs, offsetting the starting five’s 0-for-17 suckage from out yonder. And then JJB got into the swing midway through the fourth with a high-arcing 3 – Carlisle joked that it stayed airborne “for about seven seconds’’ -- that put Dallas up by nine.

  “It’s not what we want to live on,’’ Carlisle said, “but it’s good to have guys who can manufacture something.’’

   DONUT 6: It almost goes without saying, by now, that Jason Terry scored 25 points. This is 15 straight games of 19 points or more. He’s played 27 games and scored fewer than 15 just twice.

   It also almost goes without saying that Dirk scored 23 (with nine rebounds). The UberMan and the Jet combine to be as successful a scoring duo as there is in basketball.

   “We’ve got those types of guys,’’ said Jason Kidd, “and then put Howard in that mix, it makes us very dangerous.’’

   Yes, J-Kidd. I just got done mentioning that.

   DONUT 7: Strategic props to Jason Kidd and friends for closing this thing out by recognizing that Washington pulled out a desperation ploy – overplaying and fronting and hoping for steals – and that there was a simple way to answer it: Misdirection passes, patience on entry passes, pick-and-roll after pick-and-roll, and most of all, to finish, lobs to the hole. Erick Dampier (six points and 12 rebounds and among the NBA leaders in FG percentage and rebounds-per-minute), Devean George (doing something on offense besides launching corner treys) and Singleton all benefitted from the alley-oop opportunities.

   “We’ve been trying to run those (alley-oops) for the last month,’’ Kidd said, tongue-in-cheek, “and we just needed an athlete who could go get ‘em. … Dirk’s going to work on that.’’

   Some analysis from George: "When he’s like that, it’s a lot of fun. He was putting us in the right positions, telling us, 'You want to dunk? I’m going to get you a dunk. Let’s run this, let’s run that.’ He saw what was coming before we did."

   And of course, before the Wizards did, too.

   DONUT 8: Kidd, still joking, with the Quote of the Night: Asked what he considered the key to the win, he said, “Me not shooting.’’

   Jason was 0-of-7 and scored a point. But he had those 11 dimes. And he was funny!   

  DONUT 9:  Interesting tidbit from my man Jan Hubbard: The Wizards had shuffled Sunday’s game with the Mavericks from noon to 6 in order to avoid a conflict with Eagles-at-Redskins, which was originally slated for noon as well. Smart. But then the NFL shifted the D.C. football game to 4:15. The result: The 4-21 Wizards -- Washington tied a 42-year-old franchise record for worst start — the 1966-67 Baltimore Bullets also started 4-21. -- can’t beat anybody in the NBA. … and can’t beat anybody in the NFL, either.

   DONUT 10: Carlisle is claiming he’s such a one-game-at-a-timer that he’s unaware of the Mavericks’ schedule this week. Well, bundle up, coach. Grizz here on Tuesday, and then the Mavs will depart on Christmas Eve for Portland and a late start on TNT on Dec. 25. Then the second night of a B-2-B in snowy Utah. Then a breath, Saturday off in Los Angeles to prepare for the Clippers on Sunday.

   “The holidays can be a trying time because of families and those kinds of distractions," Carlisle said, "so we’ve got to just focus in on doing our jobs and being in a position to concentrate and be ready to practice and then play games and win.’’

   DONUT 11: The non-Mavs story of the day is the big scoop out of Cleveland:  LeBron would consider foregoing 2010 free agency to instead re-up with the Cavs this summer. Hey, where have I heard this before?

   Oh yeah. I’ve written and said it, like, 1,000 times. Here’s No. 1,001, and it goes for the Knicks for damn sure, and for the Cavs and the Mavs and the rest, too: The Summer Sweepstakes of 2010 can be A franchise plan. But it cannot be THE franchise plan.

   DONUT 12: Hey, Happy Holidays and all that. … and we’ll see you at the AAC on Tuesday as the 15-11Mavs host the visiting Grizz for a one-game homestand. But if you absolutely must drink to excess this week, please take it out on your own liver and not on my loved ones, who might be traveling in that car right next to you on the highway, OK? Thank you.

501am dec 22 2008