Friday Morning Mavs Donuts

  It’s time to make the Friday Morning Donuts ... and to make enough to last all the way to Saturday, when we quick-turnaround this thing for Game 4. Let's reflect on last night's 88-67 blowout over the Spurs and look ahead to the rest of the day and to the rest of the weekend. ...

   Donuts! 

  DONUT 1: Put me down for a very educated guess that while the Mavs obviously used a variety of bodies and methods to “cut the head off the snake,’’ the reason Jason Kidd opened the game against him and spent a considerable time guarding him while the game was still a game is because Jason Kidd volunteered to do so.

  DONUT 2: And if you are a great shooter with an unblockable release but are not a create-off-the-dribble athlete, THAT is how you beat the double-team.

   You position yourself where the double-teams can’t go and/or you shoot it before the double-team arrives.

   See, Dirk? It really isn’t all that complicated.

  DONUT 3: Weak-side shot-blocking comes from a willingness to leave your man to help out on a driver. Given the fact that Parker is more of a finisher than he is a drive-and-disher, and given the fact that when the Mavs leave men like That Bonner Character to instead meet Parker at the rim (a wise pick-your-poison choice), weak-side shot-blocking was a key point of emphasis for Dallas.

   Josh Howard, in particular, did a skillion little things from the “weak-side’’ position. Two early steals as an off-the-ball defender. Four quick defensive rebounds in the first five minutes. And most of all, the decision to risk leaving the streaky (and scoreless) Michael Finley to instead join Kidd and friends when Parker sliced inside.

   Of course, some of the defense, and some of the blocked shots, were simply of the “I’m-So-Much-More-Athletic-Than-You’’ variety. Cases in point: Brandon Bass guarding Drew Gooden and using man-on-man blocked shots to mumble “Get that weak shit outta here!’’ through that zany blue mouthpiece of his.

  DONUT 4: Quote of the Night: “Damp is our anchor. And we follow our anchor.’’ – Josh Howard, mixing up metaphors or maybe even completely making up a metaphor. … and yet having it all make perfect sense.

  DONUT 5: “That kind of performance that we put out there is all the fuel that we need," Tim Duncan said. "We're not going to play like that again."

   At the risk of being snarky: Spurs fans should hope Tim Duncan doesn’t play like that again. In fact, they’d better hope he doesn’t even play twice as well as that again. … because if he does, he’ll end up with eight points.

    Honestly, the Spurs portion of the boxscore looks like the result of an 8-year-old girls YMCA game.

   DONUT 6: No matter what happens from here on out: Are you sure you wanted the Mavs to “tank’’ and to “blow it up’’ and to introduce the cancer of aimless losing into their franchise, all so they could have the 14^th pick in the draft?

    In other words: Are we having fun yet?

   DONUT 7: DallasBasketball.com will be all over the Mavs today. Practices, press conferences, AUDIO at the AAC … and we’ll be all over it. Follow me at twitter.com/fishsports, on Facebook and of course, right here on DB.com.

   DONUT 8: You probably don’t need a reminder of the Spurs’ pedigree as it relates to this situations. But just in case:

   Last season, in Round 2, against the New Orleans team that had just dismantled Dallas, SA’s losses were by scores of 19, 18 and 22 points. In one of those games, it wasn’t Timmy’s night – he scored five points, up until Thursday his playoff-life low – and San Antonio ended up having to go seven games against the Hornets, and playing G7 in New Orleans.

    And the Spurs won.

  DONUT 9: Carlisle said something about having “been there’’ for the “Memorial Day Massacre.’’ That was the infamous 1985 Finals game known for the Celtics registering a 34-point blowout of the Lakers. …Somehow, the Lakers rebounded and won the series.

    Carlisle was a reserve on that Celtics team.

    Hopefully, as the coach of the Mavs, he has more control over things than he did then.

  DONUT 10: A keen observation here on DB.com Boards, regarding Carlisle’s public approach: He’s pulling a Nellie.

     “We’re not worthy!’’ (Credit, Mike Myers.)

    “We’re just a bunch of Nappy-Headed Schmoes!’’ (Credit, Mike Fisher.)

    “Aw, we couldn’t beat the Pismo Beach Panthers.’’ (Credit, the master of pretending to be an underdog himself, Uncle Nellie.)

  DONUT 11: We knew Jason Terry was superstitious (the multiple socks, the chicken fingers). But … wow. He still won’t say much of anything about him winning the Sixth Man of the Year award. There is a press conference today. Then he’ll talk. There is an in-game celebration on Saturday. He’ll talk some more.

    But until then, it’s multiple socks, chicken fingers and no black cats crossing his path.

   Unfortunately, there continues to be lots of Bruce Bowen crossing his path.

   DONUT 12: Somebody on The 75-Member Staff do some research on this: Is it just me, or do Brandon Bass and JJB frequently have highly-effective games in tandem?

    DONUT 13: I’ve got friends – Mavs fans -- who bought tickets to Game 3, and they are actually complaining because Pop waved the white flag of surrender, thus transforming a nail-biting playoff game into a Blue-Black Scrimmage.

    Now, I can see Spurs fans being pissed. Give up on a playoff game 30 minutes into it? Let them debate that down by the ugly-ass river.

    But Mavs fans?

    Y’all are kidding me, right? You’d rather the game would’ve been close?