Cardiac Kids

[edit: Cuban annihilates TNT and rips the Suns a bit, too -- definitely worth checking out http://www.blogmaverick.com/.]

This is going to be a long season -- a good one, in all likelihood, but one that will hasten the evacuation of my follicles.

Continuing their pattern from the playoffs, the Mavs looked godawful for 3 quarters. They played tight and anxious, as evidenced by overthrown passes, ill-advised swipes at players already at the cup, and oh-so-many offensive fouls. They lacked any sort of offensive cohesion, and Dirk still appeared tentative and spastic. All of this culminated in a 17-point deficit with 8 minutes left. And then the Mavs did their thing, stealing a game from the Suns they had no business winning.

Heroic moments:
-Dirk’s three 3s in the fourth, all of which came under five minutes to go, I believe
-Howard harassing Marion into a 4-12 night over 51 minutes
-Down 5 with 29 secs left in OT, Daniels hit a huge 3
-Howard then forced a Nash miss (yeah, he does that once in awhile) with 3.3 secs in OT
-Terry hits the layup at the buzzer to send us to double OT
-From there, Daniels and Van Horn salted the game away with the three-ball, some free throws, and a clutch steal

You need one of two things to be successful on offense in the NBA: a sound system or good PG. For Phil Jackson, Jerry Sloan, or Jeff Van Gundy, only a caretaker/defender is needed at the point; their schemes revolve a set of well-designed plays in which everyone acts out a role. Elsewhere, players like Baron Davis, Steve Nash, and Jason Kidd turn stagnant four-corner offenses into scoring machines with their vision, penetration, and passing. You need one of those things, and the Mavs have neither. What we have are 4 average to above-average ball-handlers at their positions on the floor at any time, which can generate offense, but leaves us prone to stuttering fits of incompetence. At least until the 4th.

Mavs 1, D'Antoni 0.

Defibrillator, please.