The Mavericks are officially in trouble

March 24th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanE

The whole “Dallas hasn’t won a game against a winning team since the Jason Kidd trade” refrain is getting a little old, but it’s also undeniably true. The Mavericks traded whatever interior defense they used to have to get a balky Kidd, and the returns have been mediocre. More and more, it looks as if Dallas’ window was shut on them in last year’s playoffs, when The Bearded One of Whom We Do Not Speak took Dirk’s confidence and crushed it in his palm.And this was all before the Mavericks lost to the Spurs last night, and lost Dirk in the process.

“I fell awkwardly, and my left leg got caught underneath me,” Nowitzki said in a news release. As Cuban left the locker room toward his suite, he held up two fingers to indicate the weeks Nowitzki is expected to miss.

Working with that rough estimate, the Mavericks will face six or seven games in the next two weeks without their anchor. They are seventh in the Western Conference, two games ahead of ninth-place Denver. Moving up is looking less likely. The No. 6 Spurs are three games up and own the tiebreaker.

While I’d never call into question the accuracy of a Mark Cuban prediction on this Real Time Reporting site, two weeks seems pretty hopeful, given that this might not be an ankle sprain. But it’s not that Dirk’s injured — it’s that even if he wasn’t, the Mavs still look like a team limping to the finish. In this year’s West, Jason Kidd and Josh Howard and an overactive Avery Johnson just aren’t enough.

Quick Avery Johnson addendum: AJ has been accused of overcoaching far too often this year, which, after watching his appearance in Black Magic, is sort of baffling. Johnson’s interview for the documentary discussed about his time at Southern University and how his former coach’s system was free-wheeling and improvisational and fast-paced and still structured, and how much he liked that. After his playing career, Johnson went on to coach under Don Nelson, who is as free-wheeling as they come. So where does this current stuff come from?

I don’t mean this to sound as if Avery Johnson isn’t capable of independent thought, but it’s pretty clear he had to have gone outside of both his college experience and what one would assume was his defining professional mentorship to create his own slow, rigid style. Maybe 90’s basketball players are just destined to slow things down to a crawl. I still don’t get it.

Case of the Mondays: Touch ‘Em All

May 7th, 2007 | Posted by PostmanE

Now that that’s over (I would use a tear emoticon here if that weren’t so emasculating), we can take a look at the weekend that was. I didn’t actually see some of these things thanks to the alcohol and family and friends and really basically just the alochol, but I heard they happened, which means we should talk about them. On we go:

The Bulls got it handed to them: Talk about a different beast. I thought Chicago would have a chance to outpace the Pistons in a manner similar to their demolition of the Heat, and boy was I wrong. I’ll let Matt from Blog a Bull take it the rest of the way here:

It’s tough to believe this Bulls team has a ton of weapons and can survive off nights from some of them. Maybe they can against some squads but not against a team like the Pistons. If Ben Gordon puts in a few more stinkers they’re toast… Nocioni was aggressively awful. In three and a half minutes he had 2 turnovers and 2 missed shots (one was a joke of an attempt that got thrown back into his face by ’sheed), and during that time the Bulls also managed to give up 3 offensive rebounds. Duhon was predictably bad, and the rookies played as such. But while this may just be bias towards the lure of potential, I’d rather see Tyrus and Thabo make rookie mistakes than Noc and Duhon just looking too undersized to do much at all…

Um, not good. Glad I was at dinner during that, and more than happy to delete it from the DVR queue without watching it. I think the best thing to do is just pretend it didn’t happen, and be utterly confused when the Pistons end the series after only three wins.

Dirk Nowitzki Had a Really Bad Day: Speaking of convincing victories, how about the Warriors not just upsetting the Mavericks … but doing it by 25 points? That third quarter absolutely sank the Mavs, cemented the series as the upset of the year, ruined Dirk’s MVP justifiability, and scheduled both Mark Cuban and Avery Johnson for about three years of psychiatry after they wake up every night seeing Nellie in their dreams. Is that on the company insurance, Mark?

The Rockets Got the Early Boot: A shame, because for some reason I can’t really stand the Jazz and I love Yao Ming. (A Sports Illustrated story from a while back - which, of course, I can’t find now - settled it for me.) Also, it’s unfortunate to see Tracy McGrady mired in the “can’t win in the playoffs” muck. Here’s hoping the Rockets go and get some help and McGrady shakes off that title next May.

Floyd Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya Struck Each Other Repeatedly: I saw the last two rounds of this fight at the bar Saturday night, so I can’t really comment, but everyone I talked to that watched the whole thing through said these two things: 1) Mayweather, without a doubt, should have had a unanimous decision, and 2) No wonder boxing is totally lacking in relevancy; the fights usually disappoint. Anyone want to add to that critique?

Fury, But No Sound: Right in the middle of the Kentucky Derby - which Street Sense came from way behind to win - the sound on NBC totally cut out. They didn’t figure this out until after the race, so no one I was with had any idea who won for a decent while after the race was already over. Talk about a sport that absolutely needs sound; for the casual viewer, every horse looks exactly alike. Here’s betting some engineering intern at NBC took a ripping from his superior Saturday.

Best Graduation Gift: Well, besides a very nice new wallet from the girlfriend and money and such from the parents, my roommate can through in the clutch with two incredible selections: The Best American Sports Writing 2006, and To Hate Like This Is to Be Happy Forever, which I’ve been sort of thinking about reading for quite some time now. Here’s to graduation presents, the best thing about the entire process. Well, that, and future earning potential. I suppose that’s OK too.

Postmen Postgame: Mavs hold first serve

June 8th, 2006 | Posted by PostmanE

Well, it wasn’t exactly the prettiest game we’ve seen in the playoffs, but it was, for all intents and purposes, a fair start to what we hope will be a series full of entertaining basketball.

The story of this 90-80 Mavs win was Jason Terry, who just seemed to be everywhere at once - coming up with loose balls, sprinting off screens and hitting shots, flying at Miami defenders in the open court. It was a complete game from Terry, who could use this series as a springboard to true league-wide star status.

Dirk was okay, but not great; he checked out in the fourth (figuratively), but the game was relatively out of Miami’s reach by then.

Wade showed up with 28 despite having fitness problems earlier in the week, but Shaq was held to 17 and ‘Toine had way too much of the ball in his hands in the second half. For Miami, too much ‘Toine is probably going to spell disaster every game.

So Shaq was largely missed and Dirk wasn’t all there. But the most noticable absence from my television throughout the game? David Hasselhoff. What, we’re past that story? Ok, fine. But if Dirk continues to have poor games, Mark Cuban better round up the private jet fleet and go grab David from…wherever it is that he hangs out these days.

Fun with Photography : Dirk Nowitzki

May 17th, 2006 | Posted by PostmanR

If you ever were a reader or subscriber of Sports Illustrated for Kids, then you probably remember having the chance to submit a caption for their ‘silly sports photos.’

We here at the Postmen have decided to start our own version of this fun little game. Here are some captions for this lovely photo of Dirk Nowitzki. As always, your captions are welcome in the comments section.

- Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! (In a distinct Sloth-like moan from the Goonies.)

- Years of praise from Mark Cuban have turned me mentally retarded. Don’t feel sorry for me. It’s okay.

- This is how you cheer in Germany, thank you very much.