Mavs take a giant opening night shit on the court

With 1:57 left in the 4th quarter, the Mavericks ran a pick n' roll involving Jose Juan Barea and Shawn Marion. The result: Marion received the ball, streaking to the basket where he laid the ball in easily. With 1:57 left in the 4th quarter, the Mavs found a way to use Shawn Marion properly. Since the game included 46:03 before that, the Mavericks ended up losing 102-91.


The bad news for the Mavs? 4/18 on three pointers looks an awful lot like last year. The good news? The culprits taking those shots were Jason Terry/Dirk Nowitzki/JJ Barea/Jason Kidd. I didn't see Devean George or Antoine Wright anywhere, which was music to the eyes.

One of the most interesting moments came in the third quarter when Drew "Talent" Gooden replaced Erick Dampier on the floor. As Talent received the ball and took a jumpshot, the ball clanged harmlessly off the backboard. But the weird thing was a brown spot seemed to form on the back of Talent's pants, and brown drops of semi solid liquid seemed be falling onto the floor underneath him. If you pause your tivo, you can see the resulting mess. That Drew, he's such a character.

In the other locker room the Wizards looked pretty damn decent. Gilbert Arenas is clearly healthy and looks like he might be able to play 20-25(!) games this year. If I were in the business of writing shocking things that probably aren't true, I would say that maybe Antawn Jamison's absence is a blessing in disguise. Jamison's interior defense is pretty non existent and the Bullets have plenty of scoring when they are knocking down every single 20 footer they take. Another interesting set of Wizard weapons are Andray Blatche and Randy Foye, who combined for 39 points on 16/28 shooting. Careful research indicates that these are the first 16 baskets that these players have ever made in their careers. Look for Washington to challenge the Cavs and Celtics for East supremacy if they continue to shoot 93% on 23 foot 2 pointers.


Maverick fan's minds must be going in a lot of different directions right now. The prudent observer might tell everyone to chill out, that this is only 1 of 82 games and the Mavs wil be just fine. The guy who sat next to me in the '03-'04 season section 332 in the corner (you know who you are) just hung himself. Probably the most wise response is to be concerned over the poor start, but just remember we will have our share of bad games this year.