Mavericks Beat The Hornets: First Loss Of The Season

Just a brief recap today, very busy with studies and the like.

After a first quarter which to say the least was an ugly one for the Hornets, it picked up a bit from there. Again this game was essentially a three point barrage where the Mavericks did a good job of forcing the Hornets into tough shots, nothing easy today. Chris Paul was off to a raring start but then was quieted for the rest of the game as foul trouble had him playing a less aggressive form of basketball. In turn he couldn’t hit anything.

Ariza had a chance to win the game but he couldn’t. Which is to bad because his stroke looked good from deep today.

Good Stuff:

• Peja Stojakovic has his stroke back. He was hitting virtually everything from deep and Paul was finding him for every and all possible attempts. He finished with 17 points on 4-6 from deep.
• Chris Paul had a good “half-game.” I suppose it’s no fault of his own as he was in foul trouble. But after Bayless came in for him he had a tough time getting back into a groove. Paul finished with 22 points, 9 assists, 4 rebounds and 3 steals.
• Willie Green was hot from deep, don’t expect him to shoot 3-4 from 3 point range every night.

Bad Stuff:

• This had to of been Monty Williams’ first bad game as a head coach. His rotations were terrible at times with Tyson Chandler and Dirk Nowitzki on the floor, Monty went with a small ball lineup which cost the team as the Mavs picked up numerous second-chance opportunities. The thing was that they hadn’t for most of the game, but as soon as our rebounders went out we suffered. As well he kept Peja on the floor for a long time in the fourth and defensively we suffered. Jason Terry got hot as did Jason Kidd, they had a number of WIDE OPEN three’s that had me yelling at the top of my lungs.
• Emeka Okafor missed practically everything tonight. There were plenty of shots to be made, he just didn’t hit them, hopefully that changes.
• Willie Green goes in both categories because his defense was horrendous tonight. He got lost on off ball screens and in turn the likes of Terry and Kidd got hot. When is Thornton coming back?
• David West was downright awful today. He couldn’t get anything going today, he hesitated on his jump-shots, drove and got no call, was a night to forget for him.
• We missed to many free-throws tonight. We were 16-24 from the line and that’s 8 points left out there that could’ve come in handy. The frustrating thing was that of the 8 misses two were attributed to Paul, three to Ariza and 1 to Belinelli all decent foul shooters…
• Our offense stunk at times. It seemed we didn’t know what we were doing out there because the Mavericks turned up the dial at the end of the fourth. We resorted to jumpshots and as a result suffered the defeat.

Other Observations:

• I got the sense that the Maverick commentators wanted this one as much as a Championship, for some reason they were perplexed a small-market team could win. Little to they realize, San Antonio is one, poor uneducated Maverick commentators.
• They also made a snarl comment on how a Maverick player should just “go all out and take Chris Paul out of the game and sacrifice their ejection for the good of the team.” That has to be the most terrible thing to say by any commentator I’ve ever heard. As much as I want Dirk Nowitzki to somehow leave the game, I’m not going to incite David West to go and fly kick his knees and intentionally take him out of the game, poor sportsmanship there.
• I hate Mark Cuban, he didn’t do anything in the game that I noted, but I guarantee you he slipped a few words and comments to Chris Paul whom I sure he hates.

Next up is Dallas at home on Wednesday. I want this win more than a championship, wait no I don’t, that would be like a Mavericks fans. Never mind then.

Final Word: Dejected.