Happy New Year everyone! I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday.
The Mavs had a much needed three day break, and didn't even practice yesterday. Hopefully that rest helps the Mavs against the Warriors tonight more than the rest over Christmas helped them against Utah. Especially since it's Golden State, which as Eddie Sefko wrote about today, is always a big game.
With the Warriors' new reputation also comes the realization that they will never be "just another team" when facing the Mavericks. Not any more. With Nelson's connections in Dallas and the way he coached the Warriors to a 4-2 win in the playoffs last season, there's nothing routine about a game between him and the Mavericks.
Dallas has stepped it up for the big games so far this season that will no doubt be the case again tonight.------------------
Jeff Caplan has an article about Warriors Captain, and felon, Stephen Jackson. It's basically just about how he's Dirk's nemesis etc...
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Caplan also wrote about the Mavs shooting way to many 3's lately -- and with poor results.
Sefko wrote a similar article on Monday and had a quote from Avery that I think most Mavs fans would like.
"I want teams to be more concerned about us getting to the basket," the coach said. "I want teams not to be as concerned about our 3-point shooting. I want us to get to that point where we are much more of a balanced team. Even in some of those games we won, we settled for too many jump shots."
Of course, actually doing that is another story.-------------------
Nobody got to watch their team win more regular season games in 2007 than Mavs fans. Yay!
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This Day in Mavs History
1998 Named Donnie Nelson as director of scouting. [Having reached an agreement with Phoenix (his then employer), Nelson would be named as an assistant coach 2 days later.]