Tuesday Morning Donuts: Mavs As Stat Leaders

Handsome Humphries ... Losing to an exercise ball. ... The Fish videocasts with Brian Cuban ... Two Mavs offensive stats that go together like chocolate and peanut butter ... Your chance to win that FOURPACK to the Mavs-Cavs game … It’s Tuesday Morning Donuts!

   DONUT 1: Kris Humphries seems to be aware that he’s quickly becoming a fan favorite.

   DONUT 2: Statistically speaking, it doesn’t get much better than this: At this moment, the Dallas Mavericks are the NBA team with the most points per game (114.0) and are also the NBA team committing the fewest turnovers (14.3). (Thanks, mavEricka!)  

   There is much more to winning than those two stats, of course. And it’s a small (three-game) preseason sample. But this is efficiency at work, Carlisle’s system meshing with the talents of Kidd (for sure) and maybe Marion, too. 

   DONUT 3: A fun and bizarre Mavs season preview by Skeets and company. My nitpick? Once you get past Skeets and Dwyer, I'm not sure most of the “experts’’ quoted in this piece really know a dang thing about the Mavs. But otherwise, it’s bizarre fun!

   DONUT 4: A programming note: I’ll join Brian Cuban’s video Rant on Tuesday at noon. Visit “The Cuban Revolution’’ for more information, and to watch the broadcast!

   DONUT 5: Misty Mav over in the DB.com Store has a way for you to win a FOUR-PACK of tickets to Saturday’s Cavs-at-Mavs game … check it out!

   DONUT 6: The tiff between Mark Cuban and SI’s Peter King? Peter attempts to have the last word with a review of the Twitter fight. Peter’s contention is that he’s simply pleading ignorance of the existence of HDNet. Cuban’s contention is that Peter was over dismissive of the network. My contention is that because Peter was working on a story on the upstart UFL (televised on HDNet), he should’ve either known … or should’ve hurried up and learned.

   I say this with all due respect to my friend Peter, and I’ll try to use an example:

   Yesterday I made some dismissive remark about Oprah, the State Fair and Fried Snickers. Had Oprah responded to me by saying, “Fish, I DO NOT eat Fried Snickers,’’ would it have been OK of me to respond, “Hey, how can I be expected to know that? I’m not the Fried Snickers beat writer”?

   I’m the one who decided to broach the subjects of “Oprah’’ and “State Fair’’ and “Fried Snickers’’ and if I goof on those subjects, it’s not good enough for me to excuse it all away by saying, “Well, I’m not an expert.’’

    DONUT 7: Those Fox/NFL/Burger King cartoon TV ads? It’s not that they’re crude and in bad humor. It’s that they’re poorly drawn, outdated (Jessica-Romo jokes five games into a season in which she is no longer a football storyline? Really, guys?) and in no humor.  

    DONUT 8: I'm in the unique and blessed position to be able to say this about the artwork in those pieces -- and it ain't braggin' 'cause it's true: I can draw better than that by sticking a crayon in my nose. 

    DONUT 9: Here’s a first: Coach Rick Carlisle says one of Dallas’ problems on defense has been over-aggression.

    “Sometimes it’s over-aggression,’’ he said, “and that leads to over-rotating, and that leads to open shots, and that leads to bodies going off of bodies and to offensive rebounding opportunities. So you’ve got to gauge your level of aggression and make sure that in your efforts to be aggressive you don’t overextend and create other problems. We’re going to stay at it, and we’re going to get better. We have to.”

    DONUT 11: Dallas is trying different candidates for the PA announcer job during games. And the Mavs want you to Rock the Vote.   

    DONUT 12: Jason Kidd almost got a “High Five.’’

    DONUT 13: How bad are the Sacramento Kings? They just lost a game to an exercise ball.