Mavs Wednesday Morning Donuts: Six Feet Under

Six guys? Really? ... More on Rick Carlisle’s sarcasm, a shocking number from the Warriors’ win over Dallas that serves as a statistical kick in the teeth, the Mavs’ Power Rankings go kaput, here comes a “busy’’ road stretch, Ron Artest in his underwear and The 50 Best NBA Dunks of All Time. ... it's Mavs Wednesday Morning Donuts!

   DONUT 1: My game story focused on what I thought was a justifiably sarcastic tone as he discussed his players who’d just been outworked in Tuesday’s 111-103 home loss to the seemingly undermanned Warriors.

   My man David Lord heard the sarcasm – but thinks the target is more specific.

   The telling Carlisle quote: “Hey, maybe this was a case of me playing some of our guys too many minutes, and if so, that's on me."
  My interpretation of it? Carlisle was sarcastically saying that maybe some of his poor, poor overworked Mavs got tired, in contrast to the Warriors who played an all-time shorty rotation and had some players who didn't get to sit the entire game.
   D-Lord’s interpretation: Carlisle took a shot and meant it as a threat.

  How David translates Carlisle’s line:

 "Some of our guys need to be given less minutes, and it's on me when I give them enough minutes where they lose their intensity and focus and pull the team down. Next time, don't look for me to let you play as much if you play like crap."
   Well, that interpretation would be fine, too. Was Carlisle trying to tell pretty much everybody beyond Dirk, Jet and Kidd that he was disgusted with what he saw and that he's not going to keep guys on the floor if they don't find a way to keep from hurting the team when rewarded with extra minutes? Either way, let’s hope the supplemental Mavs who apparently “didn’t sprint back on defense’’ and “didn’t pay attention to detail’’ feel threatened and alarmed enough that they show up tonight in Houston and beyond.

  DONUT 2: Steiny-Mo digs up some trivia: This is the first time three Warriors played all 48 minutes in a game since November of the 1964-65 season. That would be Guy Rodgers, Nate Thurman and some skinny freak named Wilt Chamberlain.

    And Eddie Sefko adds that in the 1981 NBA Finals, Del Harris coached the Houston Rockets over Boston while only using six players: Moses Malone, Billy Paultz, Robert Reid, Tom Henderson, Mike Dunleavy and Bill Willoughby.

    Point being, this is the sort of thing that happens about once every 20 years. And someday, I have the opportunity to tell my grandchildren that I was there.

   I will not, however, take that opportunity. I think I’ll keep this one to myself.

   DONUT 3: Last Friday, Carlisle was on Randy Galloway’s 103.3 ESPN show, and was asked about the development of Roddy Beaubois:

    “He’s still learning; if he can get up to 20 or so minutes, that will be good news for us because it’ll mean that Kidd’s minutes are down.”

   That’s full of nutrients right there. Rick is targeting French Cuffs for 20 mpg! Rick views that as a good thing! And – interestingly – Rick seems Roddy developing as someone who can play not only alongside Kidd but also in place of him, establishing that Beaubois is still a prized prospect at both guard positions!

    Yay!

    And then came Tuesday night. Roddy started (yay!) and he got his 20 minutes (yay) but as Warriors waterbugs Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry were absolutely roasting Dallas’ perimeter defense, Roddy sat while J.J. Barea played all 12 minutes of the fourth quarter.

    Yay?

   DONUT 4: A handy video packaging of The 50 Best NBA Slam-Dunks of All Time. 

     DONUT 5: If you want FISH on the radio, if you want Mavs on the radio. …You get 103.3 ESPN Radio’s “Mavs Magazine’’! We’ll do it every Saturday through the NBA season, from 10-to-11 a.m., on the Mavs flagship station, 103.3 ESPN Radio! … it’s the official Mavs radio show, full of Mavs guests – players, media, coaches, you name it!

    Oh, and thanks, too, for the response to my work on the Mavs pregame and postgame shows with hosts Ben & Skin. We did the pregame and the postgame last night and some of that’s going to continue to be a regular deal, so. … some game nights, before and after, and every Saturday, we serve you Fish on 103.3 ESPN Radio!

  DONUT 6: Donnie Nelson’s D-League team is throwing a Team-Naming Party tonight.

   DONUT 7: Mark Cuban’s Puzzle Palace. (It’s an IPod app, not an amusement park.)

   DONUT 8: There goes the five-game winning streak and here comes what Carlisle calls a “busy’’ schedule: The Mavs have the second-best road winning percentage in the NBA (5-2, .714) and they are going to need it, with five of the next six on the road.

   DONUT 9: Here’s video of Ron Artest guesting on the “Jimmy Kimmel’’ show … in only his boxer shorts. The desperation is palpable and it is Rodmanesque and it is kind of sad and I assume the next career move for Artest is to show up on stage at a Music Awards show to tongue-wrestle with Adam Lambert while 40 naked men writhe in the background shaving the word “A-R-T-E-S-T’’ into each others’ chest hair.

   DONUT 10: An argument that the Cowboys will approach the Raiders as if it’s a “Civil War.’’ My latest column at Blogging The Boys. 

  DONUT 11: DallasBasketball.com presents the DB.com Store. Dig it.

  DONUT 12: The Warriors didn’t have Nellie. Were they more relaxed than they would’ve otherwise been? (The anti-Nellie faction in the Bay Area is certainly going to use Monta Ellis’ 37-point explosion against Nellie, who has been trying since summer to dump the guard. And at this moment, if I’m the Mavs, I want to get that phone call.) Stephen Jackson is gone. More relaxed without him? Just six guys played, but veteran Corey Maggette was dressed and available and was apparently truly a DNP-CD. More relaxed without him?

    Was this a success of the uncomplicated mind, the young Warriors free to shoot and run and work?

    Oh, and don’t forget the “work’’ part. GS is a poor rebounding team. Dallas is an excellent rebounding team. And in this game, the visitors outboarded Dallas 46-41.

   DONUT 13: Last night, the Mavs shot 21 free throws in the first half. As expected, they made 19 of them. Second half? The Mavs shot four. Final quarter? While Golden State attempted nine, the Mavs earned none.

   Ballgame.

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923am nov 25 2009