As the Dallas Mavericks come in to tonight’s game against the Golden State Warriors one can only hope that they learned their lesson from the last time these two teams met.  In November the Warriors only dressed the minimum six players but still managed to pull out an eight-point win.  

Try as he might that game, Dirk couldn’t save Dallas even as he poured in 28 points (Ellis finished with 37).  Do the Mavericks learn from past mistakes are they doomed to repeat history?  

Game as a Whole:

Welcome back Josh Howard.  After a handful of trade rumors and constant blogging about how Howard has not been helping the team, we see the Mavericks’ swingman go for 19 on 9 for 15 shooting.  Howard was also one of five Dallas players to reach double figures, which the Mavericks needed to overcome a Warriors surge late. 

The other big story of the night was Beaubois soaking up a majority of the minutes usually reserved for Barea.  During Beaubois’ sixteen-minute stint we got to watch as he ran the offense for a majority of the 4^th quarter before seeing Kidd return to finish out the game.  Was he spectacular?  Definitely not, but he played solid enough for a rookie who has not logged a ton of minutes in the NBA. 

Another interesting note, Najera got the start in place of Gooden.  I do like that Carlisle is trying to work Najera into the lineup and keeping Gooden coming off the bench to energize the second unit (which he did effectively tonight).

Let’s look at the quarters…

1st Quarter:

• Dampier is back out of the lineup.  Should allow him to rest that knee.
• 11:45, Dirk hits his first shot of the night.  Looks like he has a different shooting sleeve on.
• 11:20, Marion starts his night with a dunk, we need more of that.
• 8:34, Najera already has two fouls. Why wouldn’t Gooden get the start?
• 7:42, Terry is looking for his shot early and often.  Gets the basket and a foul.
• Jason Terry negates a great steal by Kidd when he throws the ball away in the lane.
• Kidd should continue to take advantage of his size against Curry.  Would be nice to see Dallas run some more post up action for him.
• 6:15, Gooden enters the game for the first time tonight.  Nails his first shot of the night from the baseline. 
• Gooden seems to be trying to poke the ball away from Biedrins rather than playing him straight up and making him work.
• 4:10, Howard on the floor, Beaubois gets to come in for Terry.
• 3:48, Marion is the recipient of an excellent pass from Howard.  Howard just needs to relax and let his game come back to him. 
• Maggette gives up on a lay up because he thinks he got fouled (he did not) and Gooden hits on the other end.
• The Mavericks’ bench has brought energy tonight.
• 1:15, Another trip to the free throw line for Gooden.  That was a textbook use of the shot fake.

2nd Quarter:

• Nowitzki gets an easy basket due to the fact that Beaubois raced the ball up the floor.
• 10:50, Barea also pushes the ball up the floor with a long outlet pass to Gooden for the dunk.
• 10:24, Beaubois loves to start his offensive game off with a three.
• The Mavericks are just looking to bury the Warriors (who play absolutely no defense).  I would be extremely worried if this game was even remotely close. 
• Dallas has more ball movement on one possession tonight than they have had in their last three games.  
• 7:44, Gooden’s go-to move tonight is the shot fake at the top of the key and then charging through the lane.
• No way Singleton can cover Turiaf for more than a few minutes tonight.
• 5:02, Terry answers an Ellis basket with a three.  Mavericks are up 15.
• The rest of the Warriors (minus Ellis) look utterly inept on offense.
• 3:00, Marion looks like his old self as he slices to the basket without the ball and gets a lay up.  Marion really should be moving without the ball a lot more in the Dallas offense. 
• Howard has 13 as he heads back to the bench for a rest.  He seems to have taken the recent criticism to heart.
• Curry makes his first shot with 2 minutes left in the second.
• The Mavericks have gone into full on paint-attack-mode.  They haven’t taken a jumpshot in the last two minutes.

3rd Quarter:

• The Warriors are allowing the Mavericks to run up and down the floor due to all the quick shots they are taking and missing. 
• Jason Terry thus far has only taken one three pointer on the night.  He works a lot better in the offensive when he is attacking the paint.
• 7:50, Najera picks up the charge on Ellis.  Someone needs to start tracking how many charges Najera draws this season. 
• Golden State has racked up six turnovers in the 3^rd quarter; they only had seven turnovers in the first half. 
• Najera has drawn two charges on Ellis this quarter.  That seems to be the best game plan for playing Ellis. 
• Rick Carlisle hasn’t taken a lot of timeouts in the game (probably due to the Mavericks play) nor has he made many substitutions.  Each unit is getting to play major minutes together which can only help their timing/chemistry.
• 3:25, Dallas dusts off the 2/3 zone even though they have no need for it.  Warriors still score but at least this time it isn’t Ellis.
• Gooden misses a shot on one end but almost gets a block on the other end as he hustles back down the floor. 
• 2:12, Shawn Marion picks up the foul while guarding Ellis.  He seems to think that there was no foul (looked pretty close on the replay).
• 1:12, Monta Ellis has picked up three offensive fouls in the third quarter alone.  If he goes out of the game the Warriors have no hope.
• The Dallas lead has been cut to six and that’s where it stays to end the third.

4th Quarter:

• 10:47, Mavericks get a fast break bucket for their first score of the quarter.
• 9:42, Beaubois hits the basket as he gets into the lane, picks up the foul as well.
• 9:02, Marion grabs his first basket of the second half.  
• 8:18, Marion equals his season high as his second consecutive basket falls. 
• 7:49, Nowitzki comes back in the game and immediately gets fouled. 
• 7:20, Beaubois drops a pass off to Gooden who gets an uncontested dunk.  Beaubois seems to be executing the offense pretty well.
• Rick Carlisle is still calling the plays from the bench.  Interesting to see Beaubois on the floor without Kidd or Barea. 
• So in the past three games the Mavericks have given up 52 to Andre Miller and have already given up 39 to Monta Ellis.  What is it with point guards versus the Mavericks? 
• 4:02, Howard grabs a huge offensive rebound and Nowitzki hits back-to-back jumpers to put Dallas up by 9.  
• 1:25, Kidd ices the game with the dagger three.  Also can’t ignore the two steals he has had this quarter.  

Some Choice Statistics:

• The Mavericks shot 59% from the floor in the first half. 
• Monta Ellis scored almost half of the Warriors total points in the first half (20 of the Warriors 48). 
• The Mavericks season low on turnovers this year was 4.  It happened in a loss to the Utah Jazz on 1/09/10.

Closing Thoughts:

Although the Mavericks got the "W" it was still a little bit disconcerting to watch as Monta Ellis went for 46 and the Mavericks only pull out a nine point win against a team that plays no defense.  While a lot of things went right this time, things could always be better