Mavs 102, Wiz 92 - Mavs extend win streak to 5

Initially it was a little hard for me to get up for a late night DVR’d matchup against the lowly Wizards, who came to town sporting a 13-33 record. The Wiz have had major turnover the last season and a half, sending vets like Butler, Stevenson, Haywood, Jamison and Arenas out the door in favor of the current youth movement. They got Rashard Lewis back in the Arenas deal, but this team is all about John Wall now and to be honest, I hadn’t seen the kid play a full game this year, so he gave me reason to get excited.
The team is extremely young and that inexperience is one reason they came to Dallas with a beyond terrible 0-23 road record this year. Combine that with the fact that they were without Josh Howard and starting the game off attempting to guard Dirk with a guy I have literally never heard of (Trevor Booker) and it seemed like a pretty safe bet the Mavs would walk away with an easy W. On the flip side, now that Pavlovic has been kicked to the curb we opted to start Brian Cardinal at the 3 spot in order that Marion and JET could keep coming off the bench together. You heard that right, Brian Cardinal = starter in the NBA. Interesting. Cardinal strikes me as a poor man’s Najera, which should be insulting to one of those two guys, I’m just not sure which…..

The Mavs lacked all kinds of energy and execution well into the 2nd quarter by which time the Wiz had built up a 12 point lead. From that point on it was all Mavs. Tyson Chandler has been a beast this year and an absolute jolt of life this team needed. He continued his plea for replacement all-star spot with a big 18 point, 18 rebound double-double. On top of that he easily had the highlight of the night with a transition dunk where he swung his feet up to touch the backboard. Sick. Dirk was his usually efficient self, going 7-11 for a game high 24. Marion and Terry each had 14 off the bench and JKidd finished a rebound shy of a triple-double after hitting the dagger 3 with 49 seconds left that officially put the game out of reach. After a rough start, it turned into a pretty routine win by the home team.

Let’s be honest, the Wizards suck and the Mavs don’t, so things played out about like they were supposed to. A young team that can’t win on the road lost another road game. On our end, things continue to come together and Dirk looks better and better every game. The Mavs have now won 5 in a row and 6 of 7 to bring them within a half game of the Lakers for the 2 spot in the West. Unfortunately, things will get a little tougher for our boys as 9 of our 12 February games are roadies with the next one being Wednesday night against Amare and the Knicks. Tune in live or check back with us at the D-F Dub for post game insights and analysis.

Other random tidbits:
· Yi Jianlian is alive and playing in the NBA. Looked aggressive actually and put down a nice stat line of 14 and 11 in 28 minutes
· I’ve always liked me some Kirk Hinrich. On the other hand, I’ve always thought wearing glasses to play ball was kind of gay, which he did tonight. Check his new look here.
· At one point Harp said Booker reminds him of Danny Fortson. After laughing out loud, I realized this was another case where one of those two should be insulted, just not sure which….