Donuts: Mavs 127, Warriors 117, And Is This 'Gut-Check' Time Or 'Cash-A-Check' Time?

    “The next 48 hours,’’ Skin wrote,  “will show … who exactly is down to bunker up as opposed to who’s down to party and cash a check.’’

    Tuesday Morning Mavs Donuts as we review Dallas’ 127-117 win at Golden State on Monday … and the only hiccup in Skin’s otherwise sound reasoning: What if the schitzo Mavs, at different times over the course of 48 minutes, played like they are “down to bunker up’’ AND played like they are “down to party and cash a check’’?  

    DONUT 1: “This was a bit of a gut check for us,” Dallas coach Rick Carlisle said. “It was a game we desperately needed and we fought hard for. … We fought like it was a decisive game in a playoff series.’’

    If you, Dear Reader, will allow for a smidge or two of optimistic notes here:

    *When Dallas loses a game, it rarely comes back in the ensuing outing and loses again. I know it doesn’t feel like that after a streak during which the Mavs lost four of five. But overall, Dallas is 15-4 in games after a loss – and that’s the best such mark in the NBA.

     *The Mavs never held a lead until the fourth quarter. But by rallying from a double-digit deficit for the win, Dallas did that for the 11th time – and that mark leads the NBA, too.

      The Warriors are a poor team, but this is no small victory. The Mavs have some deficiencies … but can we agree, given those two stats, that “guts’’ aren’t among them?

 

    DONUT 2: We mentioned last week that Dallas’ Job 1 against the Warriors is to limit their fastbreak, which is the top producer in that department in the NBA. Along with that, of course, is Golden State’s penchant for scoring 100. …

    And Golden State’s failure when it falls short of 100.

    The Warriors are 0-12 when failing to score 100 points. Unfortunately, that was never an issue here, inasmuch as the Mavs allowed them to score their 100^th point just seconds into the fourth quarter. (Dallas allowed a season-worst 70 points in the first half and entered the fourth trailing 98-90) That scoring explosion is the result of a Mavs defense that still isn’t fixed; opponents now shoot 49-percent-plus as a matter of course.

    But there is another side to the century coin: When Dallas scores 100, it doesn’t lose.

    The Mavs are now 19-6 when scoring 100-plus points (and three of those losses were in overtime.) The Mavs are 10-2 when scoring 110-plus, and you get the picture. On a night when Dirk Nowitzki was a supplemental scorer (15 points after being saddled with early foul trouble), there is nevertheless no shortage of offensive weaponry around here.

    Or at least that’s the case when the Mavs get to play the Warriors, who were outscored 37-19 in the fourth.

    A trio of Mavs scored season-highs: Jason Terry (36), Drew Gooden (24) and Josh Howard (25), who said:

    “The whole team did our thing.’’

 

    DONUT 3: The Mavs decided to once again rest center Erick Dampier. Damp sat out last week’s meeting with the Warriors due to his balky knee, tried to play with it over the weekend, and on Monday came another Golden State game and another DNP.

     Maybe he’s ready to go tonight in Denver, where the Mavs will need all hands on deck on the second night of a B-2-B. Or maybe shutting Damp down for a full week will do him some good.

     Either way, while Eddie Najera started in his place (as he did in the last GS meeting), thank goodness for Drew Gooden and his 24 points and his 10 rebounds.

    Thanks to Gooden and Josh, the Dallas bench outscored the (non-existent) Golden State bench 54-14.

     We know that in any trade the Mavs do decide to discuss, Gooden (and his expiring contract) will be included in the talks. But we also know that in any trade talks, Dallas will need to be getting back in return who would make up for the loss of this guy, a non-traditional center who came to town with the reputation of a flake but has spend the first 51 games of the season working his ass off.

 

    DONUT 4: In the previous six meetings with the Warriors, Jason Terry was averaging in impressive 23.5 points on 52-percent shooting. He just blew those numbers out of the San Francisco Bay, with a season-topping 36 points (plus nine assists, six rebounds and three steals, for his overall finest game of the year.)

    That’s one way to counteract Monta Ellis: Outscore him. Out-stat him.

    The Mavs were planning on double-teaming Ellis, blitzing him, forcing the ball out of his hand, making him a passer … anything to keep him from going off for another 46. I mean, there is a way, right? On Saturday, the Thunder held him to 15. So … there is a way. It is possible.

     There was the planned double-teaming, and there was lots of Shawn Marion, too. But Jet took on the assignment, in a sense, on both ends of the floor. Oh, Ellis got his, with 27 points. But in the second half he was just 2-of-8 shooting. And the idea of turning Monta into a passer?

    He had just five assists … marred by his five turnovers.

    “The best thing you can do is put pressure on them, don’t settle and just play as hard as you can,” Terry said. “If they outhustle you, they’re going to win the game.’’

    “Outhustle’’? In the language spoken by the Mavs and Warriors, “outhustle’’ translates to “outscore.’’

 

    DONUT 5: While the Mavs view Golden State as “scary,’’ the truth is revealed in the standings: Golden State has lost four straight at home. They’ve also lost nine straight overall. They are going to fail to make the playoffs for the 15^th time in 16 years. They are a putrid 13-37.

    Still. … it’s about “matchups,’’ right?

    And somehow, the Warriors “match up’’ with Dallas well enough to have beaten Dallas in five of six previous meetings in the Bay. In fact, this is just the Mavs’ second win in Golden State in the last 10 tries.

    I might be whistling past the graveyard here, but down double-digits on the road in a place where you traditionally get spooked. … and you win? Is that meaningful in any way?

 

    DONUT 6: Dallas opened the second half with SmallBall: Nowitzki in the middle, Howard and Marion at the forwards, Kidd and Terry in the backcourt.

    Why did it work?

     An offensive style of play that led to free throws.

    Dallas prides itself on being the NBA’s best free-throw shooting team, and here, the Mavs were not only the “best’’ … they were also the “most.’’ Dallas shot 89 percent on a season-best 46 attempts and a season-best 41 makes. Even with SmallBall, and even with offense as a foundation, and even with the flashiness of that quintet, there is a “grind-it-out’’ mentality that is evident when you get to the line 46 times.

    Best example: Josh Howard’s 10-of-12 from the line. That’s grinding your way to success.

 

    DONUT 7: Against which team does Jason Kidd most pile up stats?

    His hometown Golden State Warriors, of course.

    Kidd, an Oakland native, came into the game with career-high averages in points (15.5), assists (10.6) and steals (2.6) against GS.

    He did not disappoint.

     J-Kidd scored 17 points, had 12 assists and contributed three steals. (He’s got 13 steals in his last three games, by the way.) His right-play-at-the-right-time knack was in evidence here … but I guess against his hometown team, it usually is.

      

   DONUT 8: You can order your Mavs DB.com T-Shirt today, and – from “The DUST Chip’’ to the “DallasBasketball.com’’ essential to the throw-back “Fish For Lunch’’ to “The UberMan’’ – we can ship it today, priority mail, and you (and/or your sweetheart) will have it before Valentine’s Day! The DB.com Store: Order up!

 

   DONUT 9: Before tipoff, in our pregame conversation on 103.3 ESPN Radio (by the way, I'm co-hosting "GameNight'' again tonight, pre- and postgame, starting at 6 p.m. with Choppy), Chuck Cooperstein put the "over/under on Warriors 3-point attempts at 35.''

    Oddly, GS attempted only 20, making eight. Anthony Morrow was outstanding (5-of-9 on treys for 33), but actually it was Dallas that was aces from the arc, with 12 makes in 22 shots. 

    Put that together with the free throws and you have yourself an oddly effective offensive night: 46 free-throw attempts AND 12 makes from the arc!

 

   DONUT 10: From Gooden, on the early-game substitution pattern:

   “One thing we've been talking about is everybody being accountable, so you saw a lot of subs being yanked in and out of the game in the first half because if you were messing up and you messed up twice out there, you were coming to sit down," Gooden said. "We had about 10 guys come in in that first quarter."

    Actually, I think it was just eight guys. But they came in as if they were on hockey shifts, so Gooden’s point is understood.

     Is Carlisle’s?

 

    DONUT 11: If you are a Dallas sports fan or a fan of the Dallas sports social scene, following us on Twitter will be especially fun this week. … twitter.com/fishsports ... DallasBasketball.com will be at all the parties and all the events, hobnobbing with all the hobnobs … and we’ll update throughout the day and night! Follow up!

 

    DONUT 12: Dallas is now 32-19. Maybe behind them is a skid that featured four losses in five outings. … and the fact that in consecutive home games against cruddy clubs (Golden State and then Minnesota) they struggled to earn a split despite the fact that the Warriors and Wolves were tied for the fewest wins in the West with an unlucky 13 wins.

    That’s maybe behind them. Ahead of them? On the court, is a Tuesday night challenge at Denver, the team that has asserted itself as the second best in the West, steaming ahead of the Mavs. It’s the final game on the schedule before this week’s All-Star Break, which leads to. …

    Of the court? The ongoing debate: Does beating Golden State mean the Mavs are repairing themselves? Is third place in the West an accomplishment? Can a trade move the Mavs up a notch? And will “up a notch’’ be enough to justify the cost?

 

 

 

 

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929am feb 9 2010

 

                                                     

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