Mavs Donuts: Erick Is A Modern-Day Emmitt

How Erick Dampier and his numbers are like Emmitt Smith and his ... Jet's breakout from the perimeter ... the Mavs' blow-you-out formula ... Drew Gooden as a Whipping Post -- a job he most certainly does not want. ... It's Wednesday Morning Mavs Donuts!

   DONUT 1: Erick Dampier’s cause-and-effect numbers are, to me, chicken-or-the-egg, like Emmitt Smith and his 100 yards used to be.

   On Tuesday in the win over Houston, the Mavs center recorded his third double-double of the season with 14 points (on 6-of-6) and a season-high 20 rebounds. (By the way, that’s the eighth time in his career when Damp has totaled 20-plus rebounds; doesn’t that seem like a lot?)

   So here’s the Emmitt number: Since Dampier came to Dallas to start the 2004-05 season, the Mavericks are 35-11 when he has a double-double and 70-19 when he scores 10-plus points.

    It’s a simple equation then, right? Make sure Damp gets the ball in his hands, and Dallas wins.

    Right?

    Let me take you back to the Cowboys salad days, when everybody made a huge deal of “The Cowboys win 99.9 percent of the time when Emmitt rushes for 100 yards.’’ I was on a one-man campaign back then, trying to explain to the country that it’s chicken/egg, that not always were the Cowboys winning because Emmitt rushed for 100; sometimes Emmitt rushed for 100 because the Cowboys were winning.

    Example: Cowboys are up 21-10 going into the fourth quarter. Emmitt has a decent 52 yards rushing. But in the final quarter, Dallas wants to eat clock. So plowing behind that great and massive line, he gets 12 more ball-control carries in the final period. He gains four yards per carry, 4 x 12 = 48, and by God, in the end, Emmitt has his magical 100!

    Is some of that in play with Dampier? I haven't exactly fine-tuned this theory yet, so. ... Discuss among yourselves in this thread.

     DONUT 2: The Mavs grabbed a flight immediately after the game to head to The Ugly-Ass River City, where Dallas’ second-night-of-a-B-2-B concerns are exceeded by the Spurs’ injury woes.

     Tony Parker has a sprained ankle. Timmy Duncan has a swollen ankle. And the Spurs now have a new logo.

     DONUT 3: I alluded to Jason Terry’s turnaround as a shooter in my wee-hours game story and here are some more specifics:

   In addition to leading all scorers in the Houston game with 24 points in 25 minutes, he did so with phenomenal accuracy for a “perimeter’’ player: 7-of-8 from the floor along with 9-of-9 from the line. Now, here’s the streaky good stuff: Over the last three games, All-Star-Ballot virgin Jet is averaging 26 points while shooting 71 percent (27-of-38 FGs) from the floor. And – as if to prove that he is still a “perimeter’’ guy – during this stretch he’s shooting 57 percent (8-of-14) from 3-point range.

     DONUT 4: Damp's attempt at explaining his double-double average: "The guys are looking for me more around the basket. A lot of it is Jason Kidd. He has the ball in his hands a lot so the only thing I can do is present myself in an open area and try to score whenever I get it.''

   That simple explanation is partly true. But I have it on good authority that there is a specific reason Kidd "looks for Damp around the basket'': Kidd and other Mavs are well-aware of the work Dampier put in over the summer. Virtually every day, shooting, shooting, shooting, down in the basement. I say Kidd's BBIQ causes him to want to reward Dampier for his labors.

    And Dampier is rewarding everybody in return. 

     DONUT 5: Your DallasBasketball.com T-shirt is available! The “DallasBasketball.com classic’’ and “The UberMan’’ and the “Fish for Lunch’’ and “The DUST Chip’’ are yours for the taking! Please visit the DB.com Store today!

     DONUT 6: The Grizzlies sure know how to stay in the headlines! Their prized FA signing is AWOL. And now their prized rookie draftee has a broken jaw.

     DONUT 7: We’ve learned a couple of things via Dwight Howard in the last 24 hours. One, we’ve learned that Dirk Nowitzki unabashedly believes D-Howard is “the best center in the league.’’ And two, we’ve learned that no matter how great D-Howard is, he cannot complain too much about the zebras – not even on his blog.

    He’s been fined $15,000 for electronic bitching.

    DONUT 8: Could Roddy Beaubois be part of All-Star Weekend? Well, he's got two shots at it.

    During the at-large press conference on Tuesday, Mark Cuban told the media that the Mavs rookie might just be worthy of being in the Slam-Dunk Contest. When I spoke to him one-on-one later, the focus of my questions were about Roddy in the Rookie game.

     Both might be overkill for the NBA But neither would be bad business for the NBA, which is staging its All-Star Weekend, of course, in Roddy's home NBA city.

    DONUT 9: A smart way to get tickets to see your Mavs?

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  I’ve received dozens of letters from readers who are so pleased with MavCowTickets, and with Ryan’s personal touch (order those tickets and you’ll experience it yourself!) … make sure you mention “dallasbasketball.com’’ in the order notes to qualify for all these great specials! Your satisfaction is absolutely guaranteed!

    DONUT 10: You knew it would come.

   Four games into the year, we celebrated Dallas’ ability to win games while shooting 42-percent-or-poorer. The Mavs won three straight that way – and last year, Dallas was 3-20 all year in that circumstance.

   Right now, Dallas doesn’t have to worry much about shooting under 42 percent.

   Over the last three games, Dallas is shooting 54.5 percent (on 138-of-253) and is averaging 119 points per game. The Mavs have won their last two games by an average of 23.5 points and have a point-differential matched in the entire NBA only by Boston.

   Right now, if the Mavs play well at both ends – and they are starting to do that – the Mavs blow you out.

   DONUT 11: I’m still haunted by the free-throw problems in New Orleans. And the Mavs were haunted by that statistically, too. Voodoo! Paranormal Activity! Something! In the previous two games before Tuesday, Dallas shot a combined 68.9 percent (31-of-45) from the line. That’s not good enough for this bunch, so the Mavs set about improving that.

   Against Houston, Dallas made 22 of its 23 free throws.

   That’ll fix it.

   DONUT 12: The one miss? From Roddy Beaubois during garbage time with 17 seconds to play. French Cuffs is excused … though I wonder if he’ll be de-excused tonight when on the second night of a B-2-B the Mavs might find a way to milk him for a few minutes in San Antonio, whether Tony Longoria (listed as “doubtful’’) is a go or not.

   DONUT 13: Drew Gooden returned to action last night after missing four games due to a strained muscle in his rib cage. The good news: Gooden was healthy enough to contribute eight points and three rebounds in 17 minutes. The bad news: He picked up right where he left off when last we saw him, arguably trying to hard to find his shot. My preference with Drew (and with Kris Humphries, too) would be to have them work their way up the offensive totem pole by first succeeding on the other end. As it is right now, Drew is positioning himself to be the heir to the throne once held by Antoine Walker and by Shawn Bradley before him: DB.com Boards Whipping Post. 

   Drew Gooden, you do not want to be the DB.com Boards Whipping Post.

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