STEAL!

It's only one game, but things are looking good for the Dallas Mavericks so far.

Jason Kidd 4 points and an unusually low 5 assists. Dirk Nowitzki was less than 50% from the field and only scored 19 points. Jason Terry only scored 12 points and was 2 of 5 from downtown.

The Spurs were up by 13 in the second quarter. They were at home, and were able to hit shots from beyond the arc (Something I made a point of saying needed to be defended in my post from Friday). They were 11-14 from 3 point land. Tim Duncan poured in 27 points. Tony Parker was able to score 24 and dished out 8 assists.

All of this going on, the Mavericks still went in and beat the Spurs 105-98. This should be very encouraging to the Mavericks and borderline disturbing to the Spurs and their fans.



I know everyone is loving Barea this morning, but the Mavericks don't win this game without Josh Howard. Another nice performance with 25 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists and a steal. Howard just dominated the Spurs defense in the third quarter. It's good to see him start recognizing his ability to drive to the hoop, something Mavericks fans have been begging for from him since he got here. A big complaint about Howard has always been his shot selection. As of late, J-Ho has been driving to the bucket, especially in the second half of games (See yesterday and Wednesday against Houston)

About Barea, he made some crucial shots and played good defense on Parker in the second half, but can we drop the ridiculous amount of love he gets? He still only shot 6-14 and while he can get in the paint, he gets blocked too easily. He needs to learn to kick out more. I think people love Barea for the simple fact that we all love cheering for the little guy. But Barea still makes big mistakes and often takes bad shots. It's something we as fans have chosen to ignore apparently. And his "brilliant" fourth quarter, consisted of 3 of 8 shooting.

Still, he hit some nice shots and was good on Parker in the second half.

I love what Brandon Bass did yesterday. Hit a big shot with less than a minute to go in the game and stepped up nicely when Dirk picked up his third foul early in the second quarter.

Can't wait for Game 2. I expect the veteran San Antonio team to win it, but if Dallas is somehow able to win another on the road, this series is over. There is just no way the Spurs could come back from down 2-0 and facing three games in Dallas.

Little note should be made...DMN's basketball blog says Jason Kidd was vomiting on the bench Saturday and that he missed practice today because of it. Not good. Hopefully he feels better by Monday's 8:30 tipoff.

Here's a preview from NBA.com



Rangers are in the middle of their game right now. Bottom of the 8th and it's now tied up at 5. 2 outs, 2 on for Ian Kinsler. I'll get a blog post up tonight or tomorrow on the Rangers game, and I'll also discuss the calling up of major prospect, Derek Holland.