Donuts: 'Showing Off' And 'Rubbing In' Edition

It’s Time To Make The Easter Donuts! We do it with notes big (Mavs-at-New Orleans analysis), medium (guess who Dirk just passed on the all-time NBA scoring list?) and small (I’m on the ESPN 103.3 Radio pregame show today at 10:20, readying for the noon tipoff … and then on TV tonight, on The 33’s “Inside Sports at 9:30):

  DONUT 1: Boy, if we think Dirk Nowitzki carries too much of a load, has too little help, deserves to be surrounded by better teammates. ….

   What about poor little Baby Eyes?

   When Chris Paul isn’t on the floor – which fortunately for New Orleans isn’t very often, as he played 42 minutes on Friday in Dallas – that team is clueless.

   At least the Mavs are capable of maintaining scores when they go to Terry (obviously) and to JJB and to Bass or Singleton or Hollins.

   Now, that can change with David West playing like an All-Star – which he likely to do today. And that can change if Tyson Chandler returns in time for the playoffs. But among the “good’’ teams gearing up for the postseason, New Orleans is as much of a one-man show as there is. As much as Cleveland. As much as Miami.

    And way more than Dallas.

  DONUT 2: “The Bigger They Are, The Harder We Ball.’’ I’ve got my 75-Member Staff team of lawyers working on the trademark/patent/whatnot.

   Don’t try to steal it.

  DONUT 3: Thanks to DB.com reader ‘Taimur’ for alerting the media (me) to The UberMan’s statistical accomplishment: With his performance Wednesday against the Jazz, Dirk rose to No. 45 on the career NBA scoring list.

   Who did he pass? One of his (alledged) boyhood idols, Scottie Pippen.

  DONUT 4: One more Dirk thing – but this goes for Antoine Wright, too. And definitely for the fiery J-Ho, who is also apt to be sucked into this trap:

   Don’t let yourself be bothered by the High-School Harry bullshit from Byron Scott or James Posey or David West (and here, I’m talking to you, Dirk, and to your cheek). While they’re touching your face or calling you “pussy’’ or lamely suggesting that you “rubbed it in’’ in a win that required Jason Kidd FTs in the final 24 seconds to ice it, ignore it.

   (C’mon, Coach. The Mavs were "rubbing it in" and "showing off"? I saw none of that, but if I missed something? Whatsamatter, your feewings hurt?)

   Anyway, ignore that. Score 100. Keep CP3 from scoring 50. And take sole control of sixth place.   

  DONUT 5: The roll Dallas is on “starts with defense,’’ says Josh Howard. And I won’t dispute that. At the same time, in the playoff-like wins over Suns, Jazz and Hornets, Dallas hasn’t just outscored them by a total of 61 points; Dallas has also averaged 123.3 points.

   So it’s offense, too.

   DONUT 6: Dallas and New Orleans. Both at 48-31. I don't know what two more wins means to them. But to us? It means celebratory '9X50' T-shirts for all my peeps!

   DONUT 7: The “PTI’’ mention for DallasBasketball.com was nice. Now, for us at ESPN, there’s nowhere to go but down. And you know what that means:

   Skip Bayless will probably ask us to appear on “First Pizza’’ or whatever.

   (That’s Skip, pictured at right, maybe washing his mouth out with soap.)

  DONUT 8: Funny how when things get rolling, they get rolling in waves.

  Consider the Dallas core group (considering age, minutes, dollars, talent, whatever) of Dirk, Kidd, Josh, Damp and Jet:

  *For 22 straight games, Dirk has scored 20-plus.

  *For five straight games, Kidd has 10-plus assists.

  *For the five straight games in which Josh has been healthy, Dallas is 5-0.

  *For two straight games, Damp has been in double-double territory.

  *And Jet? For, like, 400 straight games, he’s eaten chicken fingers as his pregame meal.

   No, really, for Jet, he's having a career year.

   Five or six or seven guys, all playing well at the same time, who knows what can happen?

  DONUT 10: For obviously justifiable reasons, Mavs fans have great respect for the Hornets. So we’d have to actually look it up to notice that they’ve lost four of five. And that after today, they close the season at Houston and at San Antonio. … so whether or not the Mavs are “peaking’’ is questionable.

  Whether or not the Hornets are peaking isn’t much of a debate.

  DONUT 11: Speaking of fading ... didn't you used to be the Utah Jazz?

  DONUT 12: Here’s hoping Dallas is something more than “dangerous’’ (Carlisle’s description) inasmuch as “dangerous’’ is also the word the Chicago Bulls are using to describe themselves.

    I think we're the most dangerous team that's going to be in the postseason in the Eastern Conference right now," Tyrus Thomas says. “We’re the underdog right now. But I think we're going to shock a lot of people."

   Point being, talk is cheap.

    DONUT 13: ESPN 103.3 radio coming up at 10:20 this morning. The 33 TV coming up at 9:30 p.m. I’ll wave at you!

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949am april 12 2009