Happy Daylight Savings Day Roundup

About a million noteworthy things happened last night, so forgive me if I leave your favorite one off.  Consider this thread the place to talk about them.  All I have to say is...

Whew.

That was one of those dammed if you do, damned if you don't sort of games.  Lose it, and the freefall might begin.  Win it, and well, you've won a game that you should have.  Either way, Avery said afterwards that he wants no more excuses.  I'm glad to hear that- it ought to start with AJ.  However, Jan Hubbard writes that there's plenty more work to do.

But you know what?  After the last week of games, I'll take it.  Like JET said, you have to start a winning streak with a win.

Speaking of JET, he's gone from super-sub to 9th man.  It's an interesting night when both George and Bass get off the bench before he does.  JET only got 5 points and played only 17 minutes.  George did worse, but Bass certainly proved his worth.  He was largely responsible for the Mavs lead after the first quarter.  Is AJ going to continue to tweak the starting lineup?  AJ said last night that he was going to start Stack with Kidd for the foreseeable future.  I think that's a wise choice.  With Kidd providing some significant size at the PG spot, Stack apparently feeling much better after having tweaked his hammy, and Antonie Wright playing like a legitimate NBA SG the Mavs suddenly have an embarrassment of riches at the 2 spot.  Quite a ways from Mo' Shots getting minutes, isn't it?  I do think this is a situation that bears watching though- how long will JET be happy about this kind of role?  In any event, I prefer him sitting on the bench playing overpaid cheerleader to Kidd.

The trade that made that possible put Devin Harris in a surely strange looking uniform.  Fortunately, MMFL at the AAC remembered all the times he laid his body on the line for the team and gave him the standing ovation that he so deserved.  I was glad to see that.  I still have mixed feelings every time that Michael Finley gets booed.  On one hand- it's Michael Finley.  On the other hand, he's now a freaking Spur and we're still paying him to play for them.  In the end, I would boo my own Momma if she was wearing a Spurs jersey.

David Moore has a good article about Harris coming back for the first time.

Our current shot-happy swingman J-Ho shot 50% last night.  Of course, he did it on a total of 4 shots, but at least he's no longer trying to shoot his way out of his slump like a 12 year old playing Halo.  Is his back still hurting?  Is he still in a personal funk?  I dunno, but I want to see him running the floor, darn it.  And given the way that Brandon Bass and Malik Allen have completely buried Juwan Howard at the end of the bench, I think we can give J-Ho his nickname back without much confusion now.

Damp didn't put up spectacular numbers last night, but the Mavs got pretty good production from the 4/5 spot anyway.  Brandon Bass scored a season high in points with 19, and Jamal Magloire made his first appearance.  Malik Allen put in every shot he heaved towards the rim, scoring 6 points in the process, but managed to pull down 9 boards in 16 minutes.

In some playoff seeding news, the Rockets beat the Hornets for their 18th in a row, and the Jazz blew out the Nuggets.  The Mavs are currently a 7 seed and matched up against the Spurs in round 1.  They're a half game behind the Suns who were inactive, and having post-trade troubles of their own.

Gil Lebreton continues the barrage of "the future is now" articles.

Last, but certainly not least- Congrats to Dirk.  With his fallaway jumper over a double team last night to score his 34th point he passed Rolando Blackman for #1 on the all-time Dallas Mavericks scoring list.  He's gotten a lot of flack for not being the vocal leader the team has needed at times (much of it undeserved), but you can't deny that he's been the face of the franchise through thick and thin since he was a 19 year old kid with a bad haircut.  Here's hoping we get another 16,644 points out of the Diggler.

Next up:  The completely hapless New York Knicks.  Monday, March 10 at the AAC.  Tipoff is 7:30 Central on FSNSW.  GO MAVS!