Dallas Mavericks Blog – Page 115 – NBA Blog

Players of Week: Wade, Nowitzki

The Miami Heat’s Dwyane Wade and the Dallas Mavericks’ Dirk Nowitzki today were named the Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Week, respectively, for games played Monday, Nov.17, through Sunday, Nov. 23.

Wade led Miami to a 2-1 week, averaging a league-best 32.3 points and added 9.7 assists, 4.3 rebounds and 3.3 blocks. On Nov. 19, Wade joined Alvan Adams as the only players in NBA history to tally at least 40 points, 10 assists and five blocks in a game, when he tallied 40 points, 11 assists and five blocks against the Raptors. Wade’s 38 points on Nov. 22 marked the 100th 30-point game of his career, while his 14 fourth-quarter points helped the Heat overcome a 15-point deficit to defeat Indiana, 109-100.

Nowitzki averaged 27.0 points, 10.3 rebounds and 2.7 assists as Dallas went 3-0 on the week. Ranked fourth in the league in scoring (24.7 ppg), Nowitzki posted two double-doubles, including a 25-point, 10-rebound game against Memphis to give the Mavericks their first home-win this season, on Nov. 21. Nowitzki leads the Mavericks in scoring, rebounding and minutes, and has recorded 30 or more points five times this season.

Other nominees for the Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Week were Boston’s Rajon Rondo, Cleveland’s LeBron James, Dallas’ Jason Terry, Denver’s Chauncey Billups, New Jersey’s Vince Carter, Philadelphia’s Elton Brand and Phoenix’s Amare Stoudemire.

Age is hitting the West

The Rocky Mountain News (Chris Tomasson) reports: “A lot of the teams out West are maybe aging a little bit,” said Minnesota forward Mark Madsen. “If you look at some of the key players on some of the teams that have been historically dominant, not everyone has 20- to 25-year-olds. They’ve got some guys in their 30s.” Teams showing the most age are San Antonio, Dallas and Phoenix, although the Suns’ recent play suggests there’s no immediate plans to move to Sun City, Ariz. Put it all together and a possible West dropoff could help the Nuggets. They’ve been one of the few upper-echelon West teams for which the news in the first month has mostly been positive.

Nov 19: Mavs 96, Rockets 86

The AP reports: The way Jason Terry was shooting, the Dallas Mavericks hardly needed Josh Howard on Wednesday night. The Houston Rockets, meanwhile, sorely missed Yao Ming. Terry scored 31 points, and Dirk Nowitzki added 24 points and 12 rebounds in the Mavericks’ 96-86 victory over the Rockets. Howard, the Mavs’ second-leading scorer, was inactive because of a left ankle injury. Yao, Houston’s top scorer, missed the game because of a sore left foot… Jason Kidd had eight points, nine rebounds and seven assists for the Mavericks, who have won three in a row and 11 of the last 14 meetings with their in-state division rivals. Tracy McGrady scored 16 points and Ron Artest added 14 for the Rockets, who shot 37 percent (29-of-78) from the field, including 6-for-25 from 3-point range. McGrady and Artest, both nursing injuries, each went 5-for-14 from the field.

Yao Ming out tonight

Houston Rockets C Yao Ming will not play tonight against the Dallas Mavericks. Yao is being held out for precautionary reasons after leaving Monday night’s game at Oklahoma City in the fourth quarter due to soreness in his left foot. Diagnostic tests conducted yesterday at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center revealed no structural issues in his foot. He is listed as day-to-day.

Nov 18: Mavs 100, Bobcats 83

The AP reports: Dirk Nowitzki scored 32 points, outscoring Charlotte’s entire starting five, and the Mavericks never trailed in a 100-83 rout on Tuesday night for their second straight win, overcoming any distractions their owner might have presented by toying with the lifeless, undermanned Bobcats… A career-high 21 points from rookie D.J. Augustin was nowhere near enough for Charlotte, which fell behind 15-0 while playing again without top scorer Jason Richardson (knee). The Bobcats didn’t score until nearly 7 minutes had elapsed in a woeful performance that kept them winless all-time against Dallas… With Nowitzki adding nine rebounds and Josh Howard scoring 21 points, the Mavericks led by as many as 23 in a rare blowout after a horrible start to the season, made worse when their famous owner suddenly faced legal trouble.

Mark Cuban charged with insider trading

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Dallas entrepreneur Mark Cuban with insider trading for selling 600,000 shares of the stock of an Internet search engine company on the basis of material, non-public information concerning an impending stock offering.

The Commission’s complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, alleges that in June 2004, Mamma.com Inc. invited Cuban to participate in the stock offering after he agreed to keep the information confidential. The complaint further alleges that Cuban knew that the offering would be conducted at a discount to the prevailing market price and that it would be dilutive to existing shareholders.

Within hours of receiving this information, according to the complaint, Cuban called his broker and instructed him to sell Cuban’s entire position in the company. When the offering was publicly announced, Mamma.com’s stock price opened at $11.89, down $1.215 or 9.3 percent from the prior day’s closing price of $13.105. According to the complaint, Cuban avoided losses in excess of $750,000 by selling his stock prior to the public announcement of the offering.

“Insider trading cases are a high priority for the Commission. This case demonstrates yet again that the Commission will aggressively pursue illegal insider trading whenever it occurs,” said Linda Chatman Thomsen, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement.

Scott W. Friestad, Deputy Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, said, “As we allege in the complaint, Mamma.com entrusted Mr. Cuban with nonpublic information after he promised to keep the information confidential. Less than four hours later, Mr. Cuban betrayed that trust by placing an order to sell all of his shares. It is fundamentally unfair for someone to use access to nonpublic information to improperly gain an edge on the market.”

The complaint alleges that Cuban violated Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. The Commission’s complaint seeks to permanently enjoin Cuban from future violations of the federal securities laws, disgorgement (with prejudgment interest), and a financial penalty.

Jerry Stackhouse fading away

Dallas Mavericks shooting guard Jerry Stackhouse is having a horrible season. In 17.6 minutes per game he’s averaging 5.3 points and 1.9 rebounds on 29.1% shooting and 18.8% three-pointers. Sunday in New York he was in street clothes due to being put on the team’s inactive list. Here’s the Dallas Morning News (Eddie Sefko) reporting:

Stackhouse didn’t want to talk about it after the game, but team president Donnie Nelson said the coaching staff informed Stackhouse on Sunday morning about the decision. Nelson said there is no internal problem with Stackhouse, who is shooting 29 percent for the season. Said coach Rick Carlisle: “He was just inactive. I talked to him about it. I’m going to talk to him [today] and see about the next game. He’s fine. It was matchups and some other stuff. But it’s not a big deal.”

In the league since 1995, Stackhouse has been fading. His last 20+ ppg scoring season was in 2002-03 with the Washington Wizards. A career 41.0% shooter, last season Stack averaged 10.7 ppg. It’ll be interesting to see what happens in the coming few weeks.

Nov 16: Mavs 124, Knicks 114 OT

The AP reports: Dirk Nowitzki scored seven of his season-high 39 points in overtime and grabbed 15 rebounds, and the Mavericks snapped a five-game skid with a 124-114 victory over the New York Knicks on Sunday. Josh Howard added season highs of 31 points and 14 rebounds… They were down 15 in the first half and trailed for almost all the first 48 minutes, then tied it with a furious rally and didn’t allow a field goal in overtime… Jason Terry scored 16 of his 20 points after halftime for the Mavs, who avoided their first six-game skid since Feb. 29-March 9, 2000. Reserves James Singleton and Brandon Bass each added 12… Zach Randolph had 27 points and 18 rebounds in his eighth straight double-double for the Knicks, who were 0-for-9 in overtime and lost for the first time this season when scoring 100 points… Quentin Richardson had 17 points and Chris Duhon added 16 points and 12 assists. Jamal Crawford also had 16 points.

Mavs at Knicks game notes

Sunday evening in Madison Square Garden the New York Knicks hosted the Dallas Mavericks. NY enters the game with 6 wins and 3 losses while struggling Dallas is 2-7. InsideHoops.com presents raw, uneditede game notes taken live in MSG as the game happened.

Gerald Green started at shooting guard for Dallas. And their first sub off the bench was Clippers cast-off James Singleton.

New music clip in the live-game MSG music rotation: Beastie Boys singing “What’s the time… It’s time to get ill!”

The Knicks are hot early, leading 16-9 with seven quick Zach Randolph points plus five from Jamal Crawford. Dirk Nowitzki has six for the Mavs.

The Knicks like to shoot open shots quickly, even if they just came up the floor. Quentin Richardson does this and nails a three putting NY up 10.

Knicks fans don’t get particularly excited when David Lee enters the game anymore. They are just as happy to see Nate Robinson.

Dirk is burning everyone who guards him with outside stand-still jumpers.

Randolph can make open threes. As he just reminded Dallas. And a minute later he pops a deep two.

Mavs players seem to not create for each other. Almost all of Dirk’s shots are from him standing still, facing the defender and simply shooting over him.

End of first quarter: Knicks 35, Mavs 26. The Knicks shot 60%, the Mavs 41.4%. For NY Randolph had 16 points and six rebounds. Jamal Crawford scored seven. Chris Duhon had four assists. For Dallas, Dirk scored 11 with five rebounds. J-Ho had nine with four rebounds.

The Mavs offense looks random. It has sped up now, with guys driving in circles and passing to guys who aren’t really in position to do anything.

The Knicks have 50 and the second quarter is almost half over.

With Kidd back in the faster Mavs movement appears to make more sense but they still trail by eight with a few minutes left in the half. They have energy now, though.

Dirk finally drove. And drew a hack.

The Mavs looked like a real basketball team in the second quarter. They were aggressive and got to the loine more. They need to make a habit of this.

End of first half: Knicks 64, Mavs 57. For NY Randolph has 20 points and 11 rebounds. Crawford has 11. David Lee has 10 with six rebounds. For Dallas Dirk has 26 on 14 shots with nine rebounds. Josh Howard has 13. Jason Kidd has four assists and little else.

Dallas starts the third quarter strong and looks like they should. This with their four usual starters plus Jason Terry.

Q-Rich drives right baseline past a caught-off-guard J-Ho and crams a surprising reverse dunk. However, in general Q does not look as quick as he needs to be.

Standing ovation for Plaxico Buress and Brandon Jacobs of the New York Giants. Earlier in the game Magic Johnson also got love.

Nice left baseline jumper from Brandon Bass. Knicks lead by seven.

Jason Terry hits a three over a slow-moving Q-Rich.

Wilson Chandler has a beautiful, high-arc jumper. He can hit it with a defender on him.

A double on Dirk leaves JJ Barea open and he swishes a deep jumper which ties the game at 86.

Surrounded by defenders down low, Randolph saw Lee start to cut down the middle of the paint and hit him with a perfect pass for a dunk. See folks, Zach can pass, sometimes.

End of third quarter: Knicks 91 Mavs 89. Randolph now has 25 and 17. Crawford has 16. Chandler 14. Chris Duhon has nine assists. For Dallas Dirk has 28 and 11. Jason Terry was hot in the third and now has 18.

In the fourth a Berea three makes it a one point game. His outside shot is legit.

Richardson is doing it from outside. He can launch quickly and drain it. Knicks up 101-96.

Kidd backs Robinson way down near the basket and dishes out for a wide open Howard jumper. And Howard scores again. The Mavs need him to help lead, not follow.

Dirk is trying to do it alone, creating jumpers for himself and missing them.

Richardson keeps swishing threes. His latest gives NY a seven point lead.

Dirk heats up in the final few minutes though. And a Jason Terry slash ties it at 112.

As fans rise to their feet NY is unable to get a good shot. Richardson forces it and misses, Knicks keep it alive but can’t score, and the Mave have it with 9.5 seconds. Timeout.

Jason Terry tries to do it alone and misses a contested jumper. We have overtime.

The Mavs go nuts in overtime and run away with it. Dallas was on something like a 19 to 2 run towards the end of the fourth and in OT. The Knicks missed their final 13 shots. An exciting game in NY despite the loss.
Final score: Mavs 124, Knicks 114 OT.

Nov 14: Magic 102, Mavs 100

The AP reports: “Once you’re in a funk, everything seems to go against you,” said Dirk Nowitzki, who scored 17 of his 24 points in the first half, but hit a tying jumper and a tough go-ahead basket in the final minutes… Dwight Howard, coming off his first career triple-double, had 18 points and 13 rebounds but only two blocks. Two more swats were whistled as goaltending. Jameer Nelson scored 21 points and Mickael Pietrus had 20, including two huge 3-pointers down the stretch. Hedo Turkoglu had 12 before fouling out… Josh Howard scored 25 points and Kidd had 13 points, seven rebounds and six assists. Kidd also had six turnovers and fouled out on the play that sent Lewis to the line for the winning points… Jason Terry scored 20 points off the bench, having been dropped to a reserve while Gerald Green moved into the starting lineup as part of Carlisle’s latest attempt to get this team going.