Sorry if you've had any problems accessing the site this morning. There are some updates being made to the blogging software. Anyway, onto the links...
Eddie Sefko's game recap focuses on Jerry Sloan winning his 1000th game, but there's also a quote from Dirk about where he thinks the teams stands.
Their leader is not impressed with their 14-7 record, considering it's 3-7 without that long streak.
"We knew even when we won 12 games in a row it didn't mean anything," said Dirk Nowitzki, who had a hard-earned 26 points to go with 10 rebounds. "We knew we had a long way to go and it showed. Detroit embarrassed us pretty much at home. We got embarrassed here pretty good.
"There's good halves and good quarters, but we got a lot to work on."
--------------------"We knew even when we won 12 games in a row it didn't mean anything," said Dirk Nowitzki, who had a hard-earned 26 points to go with 10 rebounds. "We knew we had a long way to go and it showed. Detroit embarrassed us pretty much at home. We got embarrassed here pretty good.
"There's good halves and good quarters, but we got a lot to work on."
Price's game recap has some quotes from Josh Howard and Jason Terry who know why they lost.
"We didn't show up like we wanted to," said Howard, who finished with only nine points on 2-of-10 shooting. "We had our opportunities, but we just didn't follow the game plan."
"We've got to come out and we've got to set the tempo early, and we've got to be aggressive," Terry said. "You can't get outworked, and that's what they did to us for four quarters."
----------------------Dwain Price article with reactions from Mavs about new ball getting the axe.
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Boozer is impressed by Diop.
"He's better than what his contract is," Boozer said. "He made a big difference to that team last year, and he's one of the few reasons why they got to the Finals."
"He's a great dude, and he's one of the best guys in the league, and I'm really happy for him," Boozer said. "He's one of their few defensive-minded players -- most of them are offensive-minded.
"He's all defense, and his value is going to continue to go up and up."
--------------------"He's a great dude, and he's one of the best guys in the league, and I'm really happy for him," Boozer said. "He's one of their few defensive-minded players -- most of them are offensive-minded.
"He's all defense, and his value is going to continue to go up and up."
And the decision has officially been made to play Terry more at PF the rest of the season.
Terry will split the ball-handling with Devin Harris. And it's not a temporary change. Johnson likes the way handling the ball forces Terry to be more aggressive at getting into the defensive interior.
"We'll see him on the ball more, period," Johnson said.
That means less of Anthony Johnson and probably a little less Devin Harris as well.
"We'll see him on the ball more, period," Johnson said.