Blah...
16 fourth quarter points will do that. Here are some random thoughts.
+ Austin Croshere was definitely the surprise of the game. He is a huge improvement over Van Horn in every aspect, and if he plays like he did tonight the rest of the year we'll look at him as the acquisition of the offseason.
+ We Mavs fans already knew Kiki Vandeweghe is an idiot. But he out did himself by letting Francisco Elson leave the Nuggets while giving Nene 60 million. DUMB.
+ I have no idea why Devin Harris, after proving so valuable against the Spurs last postseason, played just 14 minutes.
+ As much as I hate watching players complain to the refs, I think hate stops in the action and dumb technicals even more.
+ I'm not the first person to say this, and I won't be last. Something about NBA officials being past the age of retirement just doesn't seem right.
I don't plan on doing big post game wrap ups throughout the season. There are plenty of those online and most of you watched the game anyway. But I did want to do something. During the season I'll be borrowing an idea from my other passion - soccer. Player ratings (on a scale of 1-10) are pretty standard when discussing futbol, but have never really been used for other sports. I'm not sure why. What better way to judge a player than grading them? I'll be issuing grades for each player based on nothing but observations. No rhyme, no reason - simply Player X was good, Player Y was great, Player Z sucked. Heres tonight scores with quick commentary.
| Rating | Avg | - | |
| Dirk Nowitzki | 7 | 7 | Barely remember seeing him in the second half |
| Jason Terry | 7 | 7 | Not bad, not great |
| Josh Howard | 9 | 9 | Effective - Efficient - yet occasionally out of control |
| DeSagana Diop | 7 | 7 | Great on the offensive glass |
| Anthony Johnson | 5 | 5 | Didn't really do anything |
| Greg Buckner | 6 | 6 | Good on D but nothing in the Box Score |
| Devin Harris | 6 | 6 | Game wasn't at his pace - some tough foul calls |
| Erick Dampier | 7 | 7 | Typically average |
| Austin Croshere | 8 | 8 | Contributed on both ends of the floor |