Mavs 95 Rockets 81 Grades: Rawle Gives Dirk Some Help Nice win for the Mavs on the tail end of a back-to-back. The Rockets are missing Tracy McGrady, but they still have Yao Ming (36 points, 12 rebounds tonight). The Mavs aren?t looking to see Josh Howard or Devin Harris back real soon so it was nice to see Rawle Marshall playing defense along with some scoring punch (12 points). Up next are the Wizards on Friday. UPN 21 : A++; UPN 21 on the road just gives the camera crew new ideas to work with. The eyes of Texas are definitely wide open. +36 Laura Green: A+, Laura even got to be the pre-game feature as she compared the Avery she knew with the Spurs with the Avery she is seeing now. The good news is that Laura is going on the road with the Mavs to Washington. Johnson: A, Avery again started the rookie Rawle Marshall and Rawle delivered, even getting play late in the fourth as the Mavs made sure the Rockets got no closer. The Mavs, despite not being as well rested as the Rockets had the greater energy tonight. Yao burned the Mavs for 27 points in the first half, but the Mavs held Ming to only 2 points in the third period. Marshall : A; Rawle again got the start, as well as the start in the second half, as well as playing time late in the fourth to maintain control of this win. Marshall sure has come a long way. Rawle played good defense and added 12 points (4-7 FG, 4-4 FT) to go with 2 rebounds, 2 steals, and 1 assist. Rawle had to have had his ears perk up when he heard Avery in the post game interview comment that Rawle contributed in a big way tonight. +13 Nowitzki: A+; Dirk was rolling from the start tonight on his way to yet another double-double with 30 points and 11 rebounds to go with 3 assists and 3 blocked shots. +37 Diop: C; DeSagana struggled as he got schooled by Yao Ming. Diop picked up 5 fouls in only 10 minutes put a big crimp in his production. +1 Daniels: B+; Marquis had another good game with 12 points (6-10 FG, 0-1 FT) and 5 rebounds. Kind of interesting to compare Marquis with Rawle as both were undrafted rookies. +14 Terry: A; Jason played well tonight backing up Dirk with 19 points (8-121 FG, 3-4 treys) to go with 4 assists. +21 M?Benga: B+, DJ got early floor time tonight with Diop in early foul trouble. Tonight DJ made more of an impact in filling out the egg crate a bit with 2 points (1-1 FG), a rebound and a nice block of Yao Ming. Armstrong : B; Darrell provided some good relief to Jason tonight with Devin out. Armstrong had 4 rebounds and 3 assists. +5 Stackhouse: C+; Jerry remains in a funk as can be seen by his field goal to free throw ratio: 13 FG attempts to 3 FT attempts. Jerry did throw in 3 assists and 2 rebounds but also led the Mavs with 3 turnovers. +6 Dampier: A-; Erick was again a force tonight off the bench with solid defense to go with 7 rebounds, 5 points, 3 assists and 2 blocked shots. +13 Powell: C+, Josh focused on defense and blocking out tonight, it just didn?t show in his box. +0 Griffin: DNP-CD, Adrian is out with a strained right hamstring. Van Horn: DNP-CD, Keith is with a strained MCL sustained when Darrell Armstrong was pushed into him in the Bobcat game. Keith has started light running and will accompany the team on their upcoming road trip. Harris: DNP-CD, Inactive. Devin is out with a sore quadriceps. Howard: DNP-CD, Inactive. Josh is out with a strained hamstring. Podkolzin: DNP-CD, Inactive. Pavel has been sent to the Fort Worth Flyers for playing time. Typical Chef Ed Type
I was impressed with Marshall. Dallas continues to find diamonds in the ruff, it seems. I wish the Rockets would take a hint and go after younger, athletic players compared to the 30+, slow, "tough", Rick Brunson-types.
Rawle Marshall looks like a second coming of Marquis Daniels..What a steal for the Mavs. I hope he continues to play like he did yesterday until Griffin gets back. Mavs should re-sign him next year if Griffin does not return. On the other hand, Josh Powell has been a disappointment. I was hoping he'd be a Udonis Haslem type rugged player, but he's just not confident on the floor and has been costing the mavs with turnovers. viggenja37 - How do you come up with your points system? Are you keeping track of the season total for each player? I think Dirk would be #1, I want to see how many points Diop, Griffin and Stack have gotten thus far.
Kudos to Avery Johnson for instructing a defender from the weak side to come and double Yao in the second half. By doing that, the Mavs were able to rotate in time and seal off any open shooter as a result of the double-team. It also helped that the Mavs always played calmly when the Rockets made a run. Their jumper was just dropping from all angles last night.
<font color=""Blue"">This was a good win for the Mavs. I was also impressed with Marshall.. I think hes been doing a really good job starting. The first game he started, I was listening to the game and I was actually pretty angry that he was starting over Stackhouse, but hes been proving himself. If he can keep up this effort, his future will look bright </font>
