The Mavericks big German will make his 11th straight All-Star game this season. Despite averaging career lows since his rookie season (FG%, 3FG%, Points), the Coaches around the association voted Dirk in to represent the 2010-2011 World Champs within the main event.

Although Dirk Nowitzki has made 11 appearances, he was never named an All-Star starter throughout his career.

Last week, Rob Mahoney said Dirk's slow start should cost him the All-Star berth and Dirk agreed, but Marc Stein mentioned on the Ben & Skin show that Dirk would have no choice. Players like him have always received the benefit of the doubt and have been voted in because of their reputation. He also mentioned the NBA Champs shouldn't be left out of the All-Star Game.

Turns out that Marc Stein was right. It can be questioned if Dirk is too thrilled about the nomination, because he could have used that weekend off and surely wanted to send a message to coaches not to select him with his statement.

Anyway: Congrats and don't play too much!

As Mark Followill noted, it's the 7th time in NBA history that the defending Champ has had one All-Star representative.

The complete roster can be found here.

Follow @j0Shi_f

No off-season move was given a more apathetic glare from Dallas fans than the Mavericks acquiring of Vince Carter. The former All-Star and somewhat poster boy for not making most of his physical gifts, Carter arrived in Dallas with a collective sigh and a shrug of the shoulders. The Mavericks two-guard problems have been well documented and Carter, on the surface, appeared to be nothing more than a flashy stopgap providing more headaches than productive minutes.

Even with that reputation, Zach Lowe wrote before the season on how Carter could potentially surprise some fans if placed on a good team:

Continue reading this post »

What the Dallas Mavericks and the Denver Nuggets said 
after Game Twentysix of the Perfect Season.

Continue reading this post »

The Dallas Mavericks defeated the Denver Nuggets at the Pepsi Center, 105-95. Dirk Nowitzki led all scorers with 25, on 11-20 of shooting, and moved past Adrian Dantley for 21^st on the all-time scoring list. One-time Mav (sort of ) Rudy Fernandez led the Nugs with 17.

The Mavs rode an impressive first half, as usual, into a second half where they did, again, not as much as you’d hope. After scoring over 30 each of the first two quarters, they had 23 in the 3^rd and 18 in the 4^th, a trend that has become all too common. This time, however, thanks to some (thankfully) expected shooting from Dirk Nowitzki, and some timely contributions from Vince Carter, the lead never really shrunk into dangerous territory.

Likewise, the Mavs defense wasn’t necessarily better than it has been, but the Nuggets, small as they are, weren’t quite the force on the boards the Mavs have gotten used to, and couldn’t take advantage of some open shots. And so the Mavs not only survived, but thrived.

Bullets:

Continue reading this post »

WHO: The Denver Nuggets host the Dallas Mavericks

WHAT: First game back after a nice little break.

WHERE: Pepsi Center, Denver, CO

WHEN: 8:00pm CT

HOW: FSSW | League Pass

THE STORY: The first time these two teams met, the Nuggets put the Mavericks in their place. Since then Dallas has found some defensive consistency and Denver has fallen off a bit. Tonight they face each other after both falling on a three-game losing skid. Dallas will still be without Jason Kidd, and Denver will be missing their centerpiece, Danilo Gallinari, as well as Timofey Mozgov. Should be a decent game, since it's must-win for both teams. Stop by Denver Stiffs for Nuggets coverage.

Don't lose this one!

This is an auto-generated statistical overview of todays opponent of the Dallas Mavericks. The data is only presented for your review and apart from the glossary it features no additional comments. Please post in the comment section if you'll find any uncertainties that should be included in the glossary. Throughout the season this overview could be tweaked here and there, so stay tuned for updates! In the current form it features:

1. Overall Stats
2. Possession-Type Efficiencies
3. Players that will hurt you
4. Players that will help you
5. Lineups that will hurt you
6. Lineups that will help you
7. Shot Locations & Shot Distances
8. Full Heat-Chart

Please note that some of the data-tables don't fit into the "narrow" layout of this page. Please switch to the Wide one.

I also recommend to visit SynergySports for their preview of the two teams.

Follow @j0Shi_f

Click through to see the numbers!

Continue reading this post »

Really, there are only two arguments for Dirk Nowitzki and the All-Star game:

For him going: The NBA All-Star game isn't a highly-regarded career achievement. It's a showcase for the NBA to entertain masses. Dirk helps entertain masses (even if it is giving hilarious answers to The Basketball Jones' questions)

For him not: He's averaging his worst numbers since his rookie year and, like, four other forwards are totally doing better than him right now. The All-Star game is a reward for players playing the best at the halfway point of the season.

That's about it. I don't want to dig into numbers and explain to you why Dirk doesn't have the stats to backup an All-Star bid this year, because it's so obvious. But instead, how about we kill two birds with one stone: Let Dirk be at All-Star weekend, not to play, but announce.

It's really a genius idea spawned by whoever started this twitter account.

Here's Dirk's announcing resume, in case you needed a reminder here and here.

My Wednesday thoughts after the jump:

Continue reading this post »