Mavs 93 Blazers 87 Grades: Ugly Wins Are Still Wins How ugly? This game was so ugly that the Mavs did not score for the first Six minutes and 24 seconds of the game. How ugly? Once again the Mavs threatened to break their own record for fewest points scored in the first half. How ugly? The Mavs struggled to get by the worst team in the Western Conference. The bonus is that the Mavs get to do it all over again in Portland Thursday night. Johnson: C, Even with a day to practice, the Mavs weren’t ready for this one. It even took Dirk five time to dunk the ball in pre-game warm-ups. Avery was so mad he didn’t even go to the Mavs’ locker room at halftime, Del gave the motivational speech. Avery was so mad he gave an interesting, but short post game interview. In short, Avery is at his wits end with his team: “We haven't played well since the All-Star break”…”It’s not the injuries”. Avery repeated about a dozen times: ”The schedule is not a problem” before claiming "I'm going to have to change my hair color, because whatever I'm doing is not working", pounded his fist on the stand and exited stage right to a dumbfounded audience. The good news is that Avery didn’t give the opportunity to Portland to make technical free throws upon his ejection for his disgust. Daniels: C-; Marquis got the start tonight but this was not one of his stellar games. Daniels got 27 minutes and put up 4 points (2-7 FG, 0-1 trey, 0-0 FT) to go with 3 rebounds, 1 steal and 1 assist. +3 Nowitzki: B; Dirk got to a double-double with 25 points (7-15 FG, 0-1 trey, 11-12 FT) and 10 rebounds, nevertheless, Dirk was part of the problem in the first half. The good news is that he became part of the solution in the second half. Dirk made a key but strange pass to Jerry for a wide open trey. Strange? Sort of…Dirk was doubled by Portland’s guards, Blake and Dixon, at the free throw line. Instead of shooting over the shortest Blazers on the floor, Dirk got the assist to Jerry who was all alone behind the arc. +30 Diop: B; DeSagana was active tonight, but still struggled against the Blazer’s post players. Diop backed up Dirk’s 10 rebounds with 8 of his own. Zero turnovers. +9 Terry: A; Jason was a bit late for the Oscars, but did get the technical for his tantrum. Jason was perhaps a surprise to even be with the Mavs tonight as he had to fly back to deal with some family problems. The good news is that he did make it back. Facing the Blazers guard tandem of Blake and Dixon, Avery went with the Terry and Harris for over 20 minutes together. It definitely paid off tonight as Jason led the Mavs in scoring with 26 points, 11 in the fourth period. Jason was the ‘Bud Light’ player of the game over the intense competition from Devin and Jerry. Zero turnovers. +20 Griffin: C+; Adrian didn’t have much offensive carry-over from his exploits against the Suns on Sunday, scoring only 2 points (1-4 FG). +2 Stackhouse: A-; Jerry started slow, but got it going in the fourth period as he scored to give the Mavs their first lead of the game with 6:19 left in the game. Jerry nails two treys and a bunch of free throws to steal this game from the Blazers. +20 Dampier: C+; Erick was quite active as he grabbed 7 rebounds that included 4 offensive boards. Unfortunately, Erick also went 0-4 from the field and did not score. +5 Harris: A; Devin comes back after 4 games (resting his quadriceps) and proves to be the spark the Mavs need to get past the Spurs. Devin played 32 minutes, including over 20 next to Jason, on his away to 13 points (5-11 FG, 0-1 trey, 3-4 FT). Devin led the Mavs with 3 turnovers, but his drives to the basket brought back the Mavs inside –outside game that proved to be the difference tonight. +15 Armstrong : C-; Darrell got less than two minutes but was a bit less than a spark with a foul and a turnover. -1 Powell: C+; Josh provided Dirk with some 5 minutes of bench time on his way to 3 rebounds and 1 assist. Zero turnovers. +2 M’Benga: C; DJ got about a minute and a half of floor time but failed to box. +0 Marshall : DNP-CD. Howard: DNP-CD, Inactive. Josh stepped on Brezec’s foot in the second period of the Bobcat game and re-aggravated his hamstring that was sore from a bad dunk landing in San Antonio. Van Horn: DNP-CD, Inactive. Keith will be out with a strained MCL for at least 2 weeks sustained when Darrell Armstrong was pushed into him in the Bobcat game. Podkolzin: DNP-CD, Inactive. Pavel had surgery to repair his right foot and ankle and will be going to the Fort Worth Flyers for playing time. Typical Chef Ed Type
