Thursday Morning Roundup

So the Mavericks will disappear today sort of like they did in the fourth quarter against the Hornets, who shot 39 percent and still outscored the Mavericks, 25-18.

The Mavs are not holding a practice at all today, and that seems like a good idea to me.  Carlisle said after the game they need to "get away from this for a day."  I think Mavs fans know the feeling.  Of course it still won't change anything on Saturday -- Dallas will still be playing Utah and trying to avoid a five game losing streak.

--------------------

Hubbard recaps the game with a focus on Chris Paul.  Sigh, I hate that we as Mavs fans just have to accept that Paul will kill us every time.

------------------

Tim Cowlishaw says the Mavs should probably get used to being ninth in the West.

-------------------

Mike Fisher has his notes on the game and isn't too impressed with Kidd's shooting touch.

After a 2-for-9 effort here, Jason is 1-of-9, 1-of-9 and 2-of-9 in his last three. That'd be 15 percent.

In this month's eight games - in which the Mavs have a 3-5 record -- Kidd is shooting 19-of-67. That'd be 28 percent.

Take away his 6-of-9 night in the 28-point loss at Phoenix (I say it's fair to take it away; team-wise, it was an empty performance) and Jason in the other seven games is 13-of-58. That'd be 22 percent.

Since Dec. 2, Kidd is shooting 57-of-181. That'd be 31 percent.

Here's a list of Mavs who I'm really not comfortable seeing shoot at the moment --  Kidd, George, Wright, Diop, Singleton, Dampier, Green, Barea, and Williams.  That leaves Dirk and Terry with Bass somewhere behind them. Basically Dallas has two people they can depend on each night right now -- not exactly ground breaking analysis, but it's not my fault the Mavs problems on offense are so obvious.

Dallas is finding that it has to work quite a bit and involve contributions from unlikely sources (Antoine Wright, 15 points) just to be able to compete. Raymond Felton won't fix that.

-------------------

Sefko has an article on the Cuban/Karl war of words over JR Smith.  (here's video of what all the fuss is about)

"There's no room for it. If this was a normal fan, he would have been banned from the building. In general, I think Mark is good for the game. He's always trying to make the league better. ... But don't mess with my players."

Hey Karl, if you were just a regular fan then you would be banned from the building too!  Of course you aren't, and either is Cuban.