The Mavericks took on the Cavaliers tonight sans Lebron and promptly lost 85-79 dropping to 1-3 in the pre-season. This was an awful game. Truly awful. Nevertheless, here are some thoughts on some players performances as we start praying that more Jason Terry at the point guard position is a cruel evil joke.
First let's start out with the good-
-The center position continues to look like it will be a strong point for the Mavericks this year. Both Chandler and Haywood played well tonight and while they both approach the center position in different ways, they seem to have gelled together nicely and should make a very good tandem during the season.
-Of course, Dirk was Dirk scoring 13 points on 6-12 shooting.
-Steve Novak had a good game nudging ahead of Brian Cardinal by going 3-5 and providing the Mavericks with an option to help spread the floor. I'm rooting for him to win the final roster spot.
The Grit-
-'Twas brought by Brian Cardinal tonight, drawing 3 offensive fouls and doing other slow white guy basketball activities like setting good screens and hustling on defense.
The bad-
-Caron Butler still looks slow and out of rhythm with his teammates. He settled for way too many jumpers tonight and missed most of them, going 3-9 while not getting to the line once. His weight loss has apparently not translated to better results on the basketball court. Maybe he should try Judo.
-Dominique Jones. I'll give him this, he still shows an insatiable ability to drive to the basket. Once he gets there however, things get very erratic. He made a couple of nice passes in the lane tonight which gives me hope that he'll be able to adjust eventually, but right now, the game looks a bit too fast for him.
-Jason Terry had an awful shooting night going 3-11.
The Why God Why??!!!
-The Mavericks gave Jason Terry some more minutes at point guard tonight in what's increasingly looking like a more important story line than first thought.
"Only point guard in Mavericks history to take his team to the Finals," Terry said.
"I haven’t done it in a while, and I think I had one situation [against the Bulls] where I was on the break and I usually pull up but was looking to get an extra pass, but that’s going to come with timing.
"It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do. Maybe this season I’ll get my opportunity.
First off, the finals run didn't take off until Harris was inserted at point in game 2 at San Antonio and ran wild over Parker. Secondly, we've been through this rodeo before. Terry is not a capable point guard. He can not guard point guards. He has a shoot first mentality and does not distribute the ball well. It makes me mad just typing this. I would rather have JJ Barea at point guard than Terry and that says a lot. This makes it pretty clear however that Beaubois is not going to see any meaningful minutes at the point this year and will likely be in-thrust as the Mavericks starting 2 guard from the start of season. I have no problem with that. Speaking of Beaubois...
Beaubois is back in a walking boot, but the Mavericks aren't too concerned
"He's back in a boot for a while, but it's not serious," coach Rick Carlisle said Monday. "How much, if at all, it extends his recovery is not certain, but we don't think a big deal. We're going to be cautious with it, like we would with any player. He's doing extremely well, but we're going to make sure that he's ready for 100 games and not just a yo-yo in-and-out deal."
And finally Rick Carlisle was back on the bench tonight after fainting in practice late last week. Good to see him back and healthy.
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