Hornets 104, Mavs 88: 'The Rainmaker'

    So I’m watching “The Rainmaker’’ the other night. Burt Lancaster as a dreamy conman and Katherine Hepburn as a cobwebbed old maid and all the characters are about 15 years too old for their parts and the whole thing seems very stagey, as so many 1950’s movies do. But Burt rids the 49-year-old Kate of her wholesomeness back in the barn, so there’s that.

     As I write this, it’s 10 p.m. and I’m not much in the mood for the conventional game review right now. (Maybe because so many of these 25 losses seem like they’ve come spitting out of the Xerox machine, each a duplicate of the last, so there’s little fresh to say.) Oh. …

    *CP3 was 27/15 magnificent and Dallas doesn’t have anybody who can guard him. (Or, it sometimes seems, who can guard Tony Parker, Russell Westbrook, Steve Nash, Deron Williams, Baron Davis, Aaron Brooks, Derek Fisher, Baron Davis or Monte Ellis. Beno Udrih? Now Beno Udrih, we got his number!) Paul was good for 12 points and seven assists in the third quarter alone, as he shifted into a higher gear and made the gassed Dallas defenders look like a quintet of “yield’’ signs.

    *And “gassed’’ isn’t an excuse – just a reason. This is NBA life: Pour your heart into a physically and emotionally draining win over the archrival Spurs, get on a plane, hope for some sleep, and try to win a road game against the nemesis Hornets. Picking NO was the smart bet here, and any gambler that went the other way deserves to be walking the streets today in stocking feet.

     *This thing was tied at 56-all and KIDDIRK did their thing to get it there. Dirk finished with 27 and Kidd scored 13. But Josh Howard’s ankle limited him to 17 minutes (and seven points) and even the usually-energetic Jason Terry lacked the juice to do any better than 4-of-13 for 10 points.

    And so 56-all becomes Hornets 48, Mavs 32 the rest of the way.

     But I said I was going to avoid conventional game analysis. So enough.

      What I’ll do instead is continue to cling to a bigger picture, and a potentially better picture, until I cain’t cling no more. I said this last year when the Mavs were involved in an ill-fated bout with New Orleans in the postseason, and I’ll say it this year as the Mavs are, again, in a bout.

    Not in the postseason. Right now.

    And not ill-fated. Not yet.

    I’m more about the possibilities. Possibilities made real on Wednesday in the 107-102 victory over San Antonio. Possibilities that still exist even after Thursday in New Orleans.

    Real possibilities.

    I’m prepared for the critics to say the Wednesday Mavs were not the “real’’ Mavs, that they revealed their true identity as the Thursday Mavs.

   I say both faces of this team are “real’’ faces. And it’s like that two-faced lady attendant in the airlines commercials: she’d be fine if she’d just never turn back around.

    Anyway, real possibilities:

    By reputation, San Antonio is substantially better than 37-25 Dallas. It just feels that way, doesn’t it? But in terms of “possibilities,’’ the Spurs are 40-20 and in terms of “real,’’ the Mavs are just four games behind that. Four games! And no matter what it “feels’’ like, the Mavs and Spurs split their four-game series this year.

    By reputation, New Orleans is substantially better than Dallas. It just feels that way, too, right? But in terms of “real,’’ the Hornets are 38-22 and in terms of “possibilities,’’ the Mavs are just two games behind the fourth-seeded bugs. (Granted, they were just one game behind but a few hours ago. …)

   And no matter what it feels like. … the Mavs play the Hornets two more times this year. Two meetings left. April 10 here and April 12 there. The 79^th and 80^th games of this 82-game season.

    Do I like Dallas’ chances of Kidd out-exploding CP3 in those games? Do I like the chances of J-Ho avoiding a birthday distraction or of somebody not getting sideways with the coach or of Jet breaking a bone in half or of Damp breaking Tyson Chandler in half or of Dirk dismissively patting David West on the cheek?

    No, I’m not saying I like Dallas’ chances to use the final 20 games of the season to establish that it is superior to the No. 2-seeded Spurs. I’m not betting they’ll use April 10 and 12 to establish that they’re better than the No. 4-seeded Hornets.

   I’m saying you and I are sitting on our Barcaloungers or you and I are sitting in Section 323 and you and I might as well hope for a successfully entertaining final month of the regular season.

    You don’t believe in trying? You don’t believe in cheering? You don’t believe in hoping?

    What do you believe in, mister? Dyin’ cattle?  

1033pm mar 5 2009