Are They Who We Thought They Were?

To paraphrase Dennis Green, are they really who we thought they were?  Did you recognize what you saw last night?  The Mavericks resembled Elaine Benes' herky jerky dancing from Seinfeld.  Seriously.  And like Elaine's dancing, it's impossible to figure out just what this Mavericks team is.

Is it the one that beat San Antonio by six in Game 1 and looked dominant?  The one that failed to show up in Game 2 and lose by 14? Or is it the Game 3 group that battled but didn't have anything left late in the game?  Even CBS11/TXA21 photographer Bill Ellis remarked while looking at the video he shot of Game 3 that the Mavericks looked confused.


I get the sense Dallas thought the Spurs would be an easier bunch to deal with.  Even after last night's loss, I still sort of feel that way.

The Mavericks have to make shots down the stretch.  They made only seven of their 22 shot attempts in the final period.  Would making a substitution have helped?  Rick Carlisle stayed with small ball for the majority of the fourth:  Jason Terry and JJ Barea to start the fourth, along with Jason Kidd.  Dirk Nowitzki started the fourth on the bench, like he usually does.  It's easy to understand why Carlisle went with that group the majority of the second half, they had a 17-0 run in the 3rd quarter, built a nine point lead and entered the fourth quarter with 70-66 lead.

"In the fourth quarter, we had too many empty possessions," Nowitzki said after the game.

You have to wonder if it was as effective as it could have been.

Caron Butler sat the entire second half. A starter.  Yes, I get he struggled,  going just 1 for 3 with two points.  Don't you at least give him a few minutes?  Now you have to ask where his confidence is.  Will he be pressing in Game 4?

This much I do know about the Mavericks: they need to win Game 4 because based on what they've shown, combined with the way the Spurs are playing, Dallas doesn't seem have the constitution to come back from a 3-1 deficit.

Please Stop!
Finally.  Stop.  Just stop about the refs.  It's so junior varsity.  Sure, the Mavericks are a whine-inducing 1-17 when Dan Crawford officiates games.  It's a bitch.  I get it.  But deal with it and move on.  It's an excuse that's old, tired and nothing more than a lame reason for the Mavericks to feel something was taken from them.  Take responsibility and deal with it.

No More Masked Mavs Man!!!!

I seriously had a dream about Jason Terry in that damn mask.

Get your mind out of the gutter! 

Nothing inappropriate at all!  It was more like a Jason/Friday the 13th/scary sort of dream.  I even told  him about it last week and he mentioned that he was ready to be done with that thing. 

Well after he played without on Sunday in game 1 against the Spurs, he's says he's done for good.  "Keeping my fingers crossed I don’t get hit or anything but no mask," he said after shootaround on Wednesday.

No doubt he's looking for a better performance in Game 2.  Terry was 2/9 with 5 points, with both of those shots coming in the final 6:05 of the fourth quarter.

"I'm definitely going to be more aggressive than I was in that last game," he said.  "Watching the tape, I let the defense dictate how I was getting my shots."

Did You Know:
The Spurs have not won a playoff game in Dallas since Game 6 of the Western Conference semifinals on 5/19/06.

If You Want to Meet the Hotties, You Gotta Take Pilates

An NBA player, I am 90% certain you know, told me that.  I had heard he was taking classes at a popular gym.  I asked him about it and he simply responded with "If you want to meet the hotties, you gotta take pilates!"  Then he proceeded to form a wide sh!t-eating grin which led me to believe that he did, in fact, meet some hotties.  

Player A wasn't alone.  He took pilates with another more famous, more successful NBA player I know you know.  Joining them were the expected soccer moms and MILF's along with a member or two of Dallas' SWAT team.  I'm talking serious, athletic guys participating in a workout that many out-of-shape guys I know think is a bit girly.

Pilates is a method of exercising that builds flexibility, endurance, coordination and strength without adding bulky muscles.  The primary focus is core strength: stomach and lower back.  A solid workout will also hit hips, legs, buttocks and upper back as well as focus on controlled breathing techniques.  This can help produce a fabulous physique.  Think long, lean and sinewy muscles vs stocky, thick ones. 

I have to admit, my first couple of pilates classes were awful.  They were taught by instructors who either a) didn't know what they were doing or b) too fearful of challenging the class.  Recently, I have been taking group classes at my personal gym and we are blessed with a phenomenal instructor.  A well-taught one hour class hits almost every major muscle.  You definitely "feel the burn" but it's a sensation different from that "pump" you get when lifting weights.  It's a true burn, a good one, that will stick with you for 12-24 hours.  I consider myself to be in pretty good shape but after a good class, I feel it.

There are a two primary ways to practice pilates.  Many people (like me) take classes on mat using their own body weight for resistance along with a few tools.  This pilates ring looks painfully simple but can be painfully challenging when properly used.  Exercise bands are also helpful for adding resistance.

Another method of training involves using what's called a reformer.  This adds additional resistance and allows a person to focus perhaps a little better on developing proper alignment, core strength and flexibility.

Here is a link to a Pilates-based workout I profiled in 2009 for CBS11/TXA21's Get Healthy Texas segments.  The story was targeted to get women bikini ready in a six-weeks.  Trust me, you can get there with these moves.

Pilates isn't for wimps.  It's a phenomenal way to get in shape regrardless of your fitness level and gender. With practice and dedication, it will improve your strength, flexibility and physique.  And if the latter is true, Player A's line appropriate for both men and women.

Have any clue who my pilates-practicing NBA guys are?

Some Spurs Perspective Down the Stretch

With five games left and the Mavericks impersonating Sybil, the Spurs are quietly playing some good basketball at the perfect time of year.  They're only two and a half games behind Dallas in the Southwest division.  San Antonio is 7-3 over its last 10 games with impressive road wins over Boston and the Lakers and home wins against Cleveland and Orlando.  Interestingly, they do have a stinker loss against New Jersey serving as the only blemish during a 5-1 stretch.

The DMN's Brad Townsend breaks it down here.  Long story short, if the Mavs tank and the Spurs win the regular season finale, by virtue of a few tiebreaks, San Antonio could win the division.

The Spurs had just a 4-4 record when they came to Dallas on November 14th.  They actually dropped to 4-6 and back to 9-9 in November.  I asked Tim Duncan about that .500 mark and about their general approach on the season.  He told me that they don't get too concerned with the first few months of the regular season.  "We want to be playing our best basketball going into the playoffs," he deadpanned, looking over to his PR guy hoping that he would end the interview after just the third question.  (The PR guy didn't)

Duncan's bunch doesn't seem to have that identity crisis that's plaguing the Mavericks.  Will it get them any a first-round series win?  Who knows but theirs is certainly a good philosophy to have.

Mavs Knock Nuggets Down and More.

After Dallas' win over Denver, coupled with Utah's win over New York, the Nuggets fall to 5th in the Western conference.  They entered Monday's game tied for 2nd in the West with the Mavericks.  How crazy is that?

Detes on that, Dirk's triple double and more after the Mavericks 109-93 win over the Nuggets on Monday night here in YouTube video blog.

One thing I didn't touch on: Rodrigue Beaubois.  The hot topic this morning was just how much Roddy B would play vs the Nuggets.  The pre-game media throng that included, the Dallas Morning News' Jean-Jacques Taylor, the Star-Telegram's Jen Floyd-Engel and Dallasmavs.com's Earl K Sneed set the over/under at 14 minutes.  A number of people, including Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and yours truly, took the over.  Turns out we were right just by a hair.  Beaubois' line: 14 minutes 56 seconds, five points, three steals, one assist and two fouls.  This prompted my partner in pre- and post-game crime Derek Harper to remind everyone who had just punched Beaubois' ticket to the basketball hall of fame that "40 is hard to follow-up" and that it "doesn't happen every night".  True that but I think we can all agree there's a lot to look forward to with the 22-year old Guadelope native.

Mindless Trivia Time:
Now from the dumb question department: without checking Google, do you know what a Guadeloupe native is called?  Guadelopian? Not sure.

What I am sure of, though, is that those indigenous to the US territory Guam are called Chamorro.  How do I know?  Because for six months I lived right on the Phillipine Sea on that tiny little island. 

And with that, I bid you a good night!

10 Games To Go And What Do You Know?

Two things I've noticed:

1) Taking a break from blogging blows.  I missed it.  I had a very entertaining stretch that included a FABULOUS 80th birthday party for stepdad, Ed Hipps.  A Marilyn Monroe impersonator made his night. 

2) During the Mavericks 2-4 stretch, they haven't been pushing the ball enough.

Dallas has only two wins in its last six games with those wins coming over the Clippers and Bulls.  In that span, the Mavericks have been putting up just 13 fast break points a game.  You could argue they hit rock bottom against Portland when they laid a goose egg.  ZERO fast break points compared to the Blazers' 16.  Ouch.

During their 13-game win streak, Dallas put up 20.15 fast break points a game.  Fast break points are just one element but it's definitely a strong contributing factor to this six-game span.  Add to that, Dallas has taken less free throws lately with no more than 20 in the last four games heading into the Warriors game and there are some points lefts on the court that they were getting during the win-streak. 

So what the hell is going on? 

The Mavericks, the most veteran team in the NBA, are struggling at one of the most important times of the season. This is when their experience should be paying off yet it seems to have disappeared.

My Mavs Game Night partner, Derek Harper, is adamant that successful veteran teams team should place emphasis on closing a season strongly.  No doubt the coach is placing an emphasis on this but are the players?  The timing of this stumble is concerning.   Where will the Mavs be at the end of this 10 game stretch?  I don't know.  And I am not sure if anyone knows which version of the Mavs team will show up once the playoffs begin.

Mavs Beat Bulls and A Bull Almost Beats Harp!

Does Dallas lack a killer instinct? Dirk says kinda sorta. Why was Jason Terry all stopped up? PLUS, which Bulls player shot Derek the devil eyes?

Check out my latest video blog for the answers to all those questions and more!


One Addendum:

Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said after the game that Jason Kidd asked to sit out at the start of the fourth quarter because his knees were sore.  Kidd after the game that it wasn't an issue,  the game was in hand and that he wanted to "let the other guys play".  The Bulls did get to within seven, so the game wasn't quite that in control.

 Ok, there's a disconnect. 

Simple miscommunication?  Perhaps.  The real story might lie somewhere in between.  Right now, I'm not losing sleep over it.

OH!  One more from the RANDOM department: 
Former Nets coach Lawrence Frank was at the game.  He came up to Harp after the game to say hello.   Remember New Jersey fired him in November?  He said life is great right now.  He's being paid to hang.  Nice.

I happened to see him sit down in the stands during the pregame show and I was like "is that Lawrence Frank?!?!?".  He's all of 5'7 so he's kind of hard to pick out of a crowd.

Why in the hell I kind of know him is because he was an assistant coach at the University of Tennessee under Kevin O'Neill when I covered the Vols.  MAN, could I tell you some stories (about O'Neill, not Frank).  They would all involved some serious curse words and questionable behavior.

Anyway, Frank doesn't remember me at all and has no clue who I am because I was as low-level and spare as they come.  That being said I never, ever felt comfortable around that Tennessee coaching staff.  Just saying.

And To End on a Positive Note: 
Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro couldn't have been nicer.   He came up to say hello to Derek (which almost everyone does - players & coaches LOVE him).  Del Negro has had a tough few months and admitted as much.  He was so nice to introduce himself to me and say hello.  Just saying.