Getcha popcorn ready... its about to become a bumpy ride.  The Mavs now take flight from the beloved AAC where they have spent 9 of the last 10 games pounding on the Leastern teams in the league, and not quite being able to finish out close ones against teams with winning records.  Worst of all the leader and anchor for this team went down Sunday... and it couldn't have been at a worse time.

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The first opponent on this 3 game roadie starts off in Denver.  It will be the only visit to Denver for the Mavs this season.  Playoff implications are on the line for the next the next two, that could make us or break us if we let them.  First we (7th seed, 45-26, 15-19 on the road) go head to head vs Denver (9th seed, 43-28), who are just coming off a 5 game road trip in which they went 2-3.  The last time they were at home however, they played Seattle and scored an impressive 168 points in regulation.  The last time we played them, there was no Melo, Devin Harris went down with his ankle, Diop had a career night, and yet it still took back to back threes by the reigning MVP to swing the momentum back into our favor in the 3rd quarter to win the game by 5.  

Denver has one of the best home records in the league (28-7) and probably look a lot like the Mavericks when they play in their own gym vs. out on the road.  I haven't followed them much this year, but I know that Nene has been out most of the season with a bad thumb and a tumor.  Well wouldn't ya know it, but our boys over at Pickaxe and Roll are reporting that Nene might be returning tonight just in time to play the Mavs.  That would be our luck, I wish all the best for Nene, but if he can hold off for one more game so that the rest of the team doesn't win one for Nene... that would be nice.  Needless to say, we haven't seen that much luck as of late...

Key Matchup: A.I. vs Kidd Both A.I. and Melo are going to be a handful, but I see this match-up making the difference.  Seems like every team we play against, that Kidd vs X will have the most impact though doesn't?  Well I originally had Josh vs Melo, but switched it to Kidd and A.I.  Fact is though, that if Kidd doesn't put his back to the basket, post this midget up, and tire him out so offensively he cant do much... we have a chance to shut him down.  Jake pointed out that we cant guard a point guard worth a damn still, so this is going to be a good test for Kidd and Johnson to get things REALLY rolling through Kidd.  Much like we saw with Parker, expect Terry to come in and play some minutes defending him as well, but I hope any time that A.I. switches to Kidd, he backs him down.

X-Factor: Mavs Bench  As much as we needed that last win, and as nice as it was too see the likes of Damp and Josh step up... we got NO PRODUCTION from the bench what-so-ever last game against the Clips.  With the bench only producing 16 points vs. the Clips 29 bench points, it'd be nice too see Terry and Bass especially come in and take a load off the starters.  IMO Bass and Allen should split minutes right down the middle, and Terry should have no less than 25 and no more than 30 minutes off the bench.  Both Terry and Bass went 1-5 on their shooting, lets hope that both look to turn it around tonight to anchor the bench.  X-Factor for Denver will have to be Camby and seeing if he can get Damp off the floor with fouls, forcing us to run their game again.