Every since blowing a 14-point lead in Game 3 of the 2006 NBA Finals to the Miami Heat and eventually relinquishing a 2-0 series lead, it’s almost as if the Mavericks have became irrelevant in the basketball world.  Now the question is rather or not the Mavericks can ever get over the hill and return to the Finals with this current roster. In my honest opinion, the Mavericks will not be able to get over the hill as long as: 1) The have no real low-post presence offensively and 2) They become mentally and psyhically tougher. Dirk Nowitzki constantly gets man-handled in the paint, forcing him to resort to perimeter play and once he gets rattled, the entire team loses their composure.

Jason Kidd’s arrival was suppose to bring someone who can lead the team to the promise-land and they haven’t reached the Conference Finals under his leadership. With him on the market as a free agent, decisions have to made regarding his future with the Mavericks and if they opt to not bring back Kidd, one would have to wonder if the Mavericks will find themselves in a state of rebuild looking for their point guard, unless they are confident that Jose Juan Barea can lead this team.

David Moore of the Dallas Morning News reports:

The Dallas Mavericks and Dallas Cowboys have joined forces in an effort to bring the NBA All-Star Game to the new Cowboys stadium in Arlington as early as 2010, multiple sources said Tuesday.

No bid has been submitted and executives stress all that has been done at this stage is to explore options. But the unusual alliance has piqued the interest of NBA officials and satisfies divergent goals for the local franchises.

The Cowboys have aggressively pursued a wide range of sporting and entertainment events for their new $1.1 billion facility in Arlington, which opens in 2009. Staging an NBA All-Star Game at the stadium is consistent with that approach and addresses one of Mark Cuban’s biggest concerns.

The Mavericks owner has been reluctant to host the game at American Airlines Center because the league’s corporate obligations would kick season ticket-holders out of their seats. Moving the game to Arlington removes that obstacle.

“It’s important to me to find a venue that can support all of our season ticket-holders and all of the visitors who would come to Dallas for the game,” Cuban said by e-mail. “We are exploring all of our options.”

Moore suggests that while the idea is intriguing, it may also be unformidable:

Phoenix will host the 2009 All-Star Game. No other game has been awarded.

That makes 2010 the first potential date. If the Mavericks and Cowboys are unable to pull that off, it’s unlikely an NBA All-Star Game would return to North Texas before 2012.

The reason: Super Bowl XLV will be held at the Cowboys’ new stadium in February 2011. The NBA All-Star Game is later that same month. It doesn’t make strategic, logistical or marketing sense to schedule two major sporting events that close to each other at the same site.

Posted By: Dustin Chapman

By: Dustin Chapman

DALLAS — Rick Carlisle is ready to let Jason Kidd and the Dallas Mavericks run. And run.

And run some more.

“When you play with Jason Kidd, you have to open it up,” Carlisle said Wednesday. “Our wing guys are going to have to get conditioned to really run. The thing Jason Kidd does better than probably any point guard in the league is push the ball ahead.”

Carlisle was hired over the weekend to replace Avery Johnson, who got the Mavericks to the NBA Finals in 2006 and a franchise-record 67 wins in ‘07 but wore out his welcome with consecutive first-round playoff flops and problems with team owner Mark Cuban.

Johnson was fired two weeks ago Wednesday, the morning after Dallas was ousted by New Orleans. Carlisle quickly moved to the top of the candidate list compiled by Cuban and Donnie Nelson, the team’s president of basketball operations, despite having no connection to the organization. He wound up being the only candidate interviewed.

“I think he embodies all the good things the Mavs are looking to accomplish — hard work, ingenuity, creativity,” Cuban said. “We’re really proud and excited to have him here.”

Carlisle emphasized his ready-to-run mentality in the opening statement at his news conference. He also stressed that while more fun, “it’s a lot of work, a lot of sweat.”

“If you’re going to play at a faster tempo offensively, there’s an unbelievable physical commitment,” Carlisle said. “It’s probably going to be one of the tougher training camps. … The summer our guys have in terms of preparation and conditioning is going to be absolutely critical.”

Carlisle added that he plans to keep the defensive core established by predecessor Avery Johnson, prompting a whisper of “That’s cool” from Dirk Nowitzki, who was sitting with the media to hear what his new coach had to say.

“We’ve got to be passionate and vigilant about what Avery [started] here,” Carlisle said.

Traditionally, Carlisle has enforced a more structured, balanced setting, mainly during his days with the Indiana Pacers. In fact, Indiana’s replacement head coach for Carlisle, Jim O’Brien, has adopted the “run ‘n gun” style with a near-identical roster.

Dallas surely has a cast of athletes that exhibit the tools to succeed in the open court, specifically Josh Howard, Jason Kidd, and Jason Terry. It will be interesting to see whether or not Carlisle is able to adapt to a style that contradicts his former philosophies.

Stay tuned, Dallas. You’re in for a new brand of basketball. Whether it’s for better or worse remains to be seen.

Alrite, Dallas had no reason to be down by 16 points in the third quarter against a .500 team in the Eastern Conference, but the best teams have to win ugly sometimes, too.

 I think Dallas is doing a great job by winning a lot of games, but one game I’m looking forward to March the 1st against the Cleveland Cavaliers. My friend Jay is a huge Cavs fan in Dallas, but I’m also concerned about how Dallas will shut down specific players.

I think Dallas can win this game, and even Cleveland knows that, but Dallas has to work on their three-point defense and they have to use a lot of different defenders on LeBron James to keep him below 25 points.

 All-Star Break is right now, though. I got Dirk winning the 3-point contest and Kobe Bryant winning the All-Star Game MVP Awards. I do, think, however, LeBron or Chris Paul are winning the SKills Challenge, and that Nate Robinson will repeat. Dirk also deserves to start this All-Star game.

Last night, Howard even said Dirk deserved the last two MVP awards, which is a great compliment to Dirk’s game.

Anyway, the Mavs will rest for now, and so will Steve Nash. The Suns are probably going to give up their hopes of winning the first seed to rest their small rotation. They know Dallas has way too much depth for the Suns to intake, so Phoenix needs rest.

Sagar was here!

This is pretty peculiar… we always talk about how great it is when J-Ho scores 20 or more, and Dallas is 10-1 this season in those situations, but ever notice that Dirk averages 23.7 PPG and 11 RPG in those games? Not including tonight’s win over Seattle, Dirk was averaging 23.2 PPG, so maybe it’s the MVP-caliber German, whom even if he goes above his scoring average, makes Howard’s average bump up as well?

Avery Johnson put it best. “Dirk is a warrior.” Can anybody deny that? He plays a day after a sinus injury, after having a horrible shootaround, and for all we know, maybe he’s still nursing that ankle he hurt in that Seattle game. Nowitzki is just a beast. No denying it. He doesn’t care about stats or field goal percentage. Heck, he throws up a prayer even if it’s impossible and knowing that it might lower his percentages. All Dirk cares about is playing in every game, taking the big shots, keeping his teammates happy, and most importantly, winning. You don’t see this much in sports, but Dallas fans should feel lucky with the Flying Dutchman.

Anyway, just wanted to share this about you, since Dallas winning is basically happening almost every night. The summary of the game? Dirk comes back from a sinus infection while scoring 31 and corraling 15 boards. Ray Allen has an 18-point second quarter, but the rest of the quarters were horrible for him. Dallas limits Seattle to less than 35 points in the 2nd half.

Mavs win their 10th strait game…without a sick Dirk.

 Josh Howard was “the man” last night…scoring 28 and adding 17, yeah I said 17, rebounds and just about out dueling AI, who scored 28 himself.

 The Mavs have extended their second longest win streak of the season…and have gone 24-3 since starting the season out 0-4.    That’s an incredible run no matter how you slice it.  Especially with wins over a hot Suns team and beating the Spurs at home a few weeks ago.

Interesting side note:  Avery Johnson now has won his 100th career game…the quickest ever for a first time coach.  Now he was helped by having an all time great player and very good team in place when he took over…but there’s no doubting that Avery has stamped his mark on this team.

I had some computer problems recently, and was even forced to delete my files and all, but hey, you can easily watch and hear about the Mavs on TV, right? If you have UPN, check your schedule for a show called Time Out with Coach Johnson. It has interesting stuff, i.e. pictures of Avery mad or something and Avery having to say what was happening in the scene, etc.

Just wanted to say that the Dirk jumper was very clutch and that the Mavs are a 60-PLUS win team. Mark that down.

The Hornets haven’t beaten the Mavs since the last century…and they’ll continue to wait for that elusive win.

 In fact the Hornets proved no match to the streaking Mavs, trailing by double digits for most of the night in the 94-80 Mavs win.  To be fair though, the Hornets were without several of thier top players, most notably Chris Paul, but also Peja Stojakovic, David West and Bobby Jackson. 

 Jason Terry led the way with 25 points, and Dirk and Josh Howard followed with 17 and 15 respectively.  This is 8th time in the Mavs 9 game win streak that Dirk hasn’t led the Mavs in scoring. 

That’s a good sign for the Mavs, who fell apart in the Finals last season when Dirk basically dissapeared and noone else on the team stepped up to get the Mavs the last 2 wins they needed to win the championship.

Dallas now owns 2 of the longest win streaks in the NBA this season with 12 and now their current 9 game win streak.  This streak probably means a little more since they just got done beating the leagues hottest team, the Suns, last thursday night. 

Dallas leads 59-29 at halftime. Three biggest storylines:

1. Dirk Nowitzki went to the locker room after about 10 minutes in the 1st quarter. Not sure what his status is right now.

2. Josh Howard has done his best impersonification of Dirk by scoring 12 at the half.

3. At a point in the 1st quarter, Harris showed off his jumpshot improvement from the off-season by making two in a row.