Dallas Mavericks Blog – Page 53 – NBA Blog

Mavs miss playoffs for first time in a long time

This is unfamiliar, uncomfortable territory for Mark Cuban.

It’s the first full season of his ownership tenure in which the Dallas Mavericks are finished before the playoffs. He hopes it will be the last such season.

“I’ve always said there is one winner and 29 other teams tied for last,” Cuban said via email Thursday morning, hours after the Mavs were officially eliminated, ending a 12-year playoff streak. “Our goal is to win championships, so it’s disappointing to not win. But we will come back and get better next year.”

This will be a big summer for the Mavs, as Dirk Nowitzki has said dozens of times as Dallas’ dozen-year playoff streak neared its end.

So was last summer, but the Mavericks had to settle for essentially constructing a temporary supporting cast of players on expiring contracts or willing to sign one-year deals. That definitely wasn’t the plan when Cuban made the difficult post-lockout decision to let Tyson Chandler and other key championship pieces depart Dallas via free agency.

The ideal situation would be adding a superstar who could take the burden off soon-to-be-35-year-old Nowitzki. When the Mavs opted to create significant salary-cap space for the first time in the Cuban era, they did so with the belief that Chris Paul, Dwight Howard and Deron Williams would all be on the market last summer.

— Reported by Tim MacMahon of ESPN Dallas

Dallas Mavericks sign guard Josh Akognon to 10-day contract

The Dallas Mavericks announced today that they have signed free agent guard Josh Akognon to a 10-day contract.

Akognon (5-11, 185) spent the 2012 preseason with the Mavericks before signing with the Liaoning Jiebao Hunters of the Chinese Basketball Association for the 2012-13 season. In 36 games with the Hunters, he averaged 29.0 points, 3.1 rebounds, 1.9 steals and 34.9 minutes per game.

After going undrafted in the 2009 NBA Draft, Akognon played for BC Kalev/Cramo Tallinn of the Estonian League in 2009-10. He played two seasons for the DongGuan New Century Leopards of the CBA from 2010-12, followed by a brief stint with the Canton Charge of the NBA Development League in 2011-12. Akognon spent the 2012 NBA Summer League with the Sacramento Kings.

A native of Petaluma, Calif., Akognon started his collegiate career at Washington State University before transferring to California State University, Fullerton. As a junior, he led the Titans to a Big West regular season title, Big West Tournament Championship and an NCAA Tournament appearance for the first time in 30 years. As a senior, Akognon was named Big West Conference Player of the Year after averaging 23.9 points per game.

Akognon is expected to join the team in Denver and be available for the game against the Nuggets on April 4. He will wear No. 10 for the Mavericks.

Akognon will replace Justin Dentmon on the Mavericks’ 15-man roster. Dentmon was released from his 10-day contract after appearing in two games for Dallas and logging 4 total minutes.

Tough for Mavericks to make playoffs this season

Mathematically, they remain alive. But after the Los Angeles Lakers controlled them all night for a 101-81 victory, the Mavericks must face the grim reality that their playoff hopes bit the dust at Staples Center.

“We knew we were behind the 8-ball all season,” said Dirk Nowitzki. “This was a game we needed to have if we really wanted to make it interesting.”

The Mavericks fell behind by 16 points in the second quarter and never made it up. Their fight was commendable, but their execution and talent level simply wasn’t equal to the Lakers, who rode Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard and Earl Clark to the win.

The Mavericks lost the season series to the Lakers 3-1 and fell to 36-38, 2 ½ games behind the Lakers and Utah Jazz, who are tied for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

— Reported by Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News

Mavericks recall Jared Cunningham from D-League again

The Dallas Mavericks announced today that they have recalled Jared Cunningham from the Texas Legends of the NBA Development League.

Cunningham (6-4, 194) served two stints with the Legends, averaging 15.3 points, 3.0 assists, 1.2 steals and 34.5 minutes in 15 games (13 starts). He was originally assigned to the D-League on Dec. 11, then re-assigned on Jan. 28.

Cunningham has seen action in eight games for the Mavericks this season and is averaging 2.0 points and 3.3 minutes per game.

Mike James helps Mavericks beat Jazz, 113-108

Mike James didn’t play like a 37-year-old on his last legs in the NBA on Sunday night.

James scored a season-high 19 points, Dirk Nowitzki added 17 and the Dallas Mavericks beat the slumping Utah Jazz 113-108.

The journeyman point guard scored 12 points in the third quarter, including seven in a 20-2 run which bridged the third and fourth quarters.

”I’m like a little kid in the candy store,” James said. ”People don’t understand how much fun I’m having out there.”

The 11th-year point guard is probably enjoying himself more now considering he didn’t even have an NBA job three months ago. James joined Dallas on a 10-day contract on Jan. 8, and the Mavericks signed him for the rest of season three weeks later.

Rick Carlisle inserted James into the starting lineup on March 6, and the Mavericks have gone 8-3 since then to get within two games of the Los Angeles Lakers for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference…

Vince Carter and Shawn Marion each had 15 as the Mavericks improved to 2-1 on a season-long six-game homestand. Dallas has gone 21-13 since dropping 10 games under .500 on Jan. 9…

Enes Kanter scored 17 points as the Jazz lost their ninth straight on the road, Utah’s longest such skid since losing 17 in a row away from home during the 1981-82 season. The Jazz’s last road win was Feb. 13 at Minnesota.

— Reported by David Jimenez of the Associated Press

Mark Cuban says Jason Terry deserves love from Mavs fans

Jason Eugene Terry will be back at American Airlines Center Friday night for the first time since he left the Dallas Mavericks last summer to sign a three-year, $15.675 million free agent contract with the Boston Celtics.

And there’s at least four overzealous Mavericks fans who hope the Jet will receive the royal treatment from the sellout crowd that’ll be on hand when Dallas (32-36) faces the Celtics (36-31) at 7:30 p.m.

“I hope they give him a standing ovation,’’ owner Mark Cuban said. “He deserves it.

“He’ll be a Maverick for life. He’s part of the family.’’

Terry played for the Mavericks from 2004 until last summer when he and Cuban couldn’t agree on a contract that would have kept him in Dallas for what he wanted to be the remainder of his career. Still, the two have remained friends as Cuban has already said he plans to retire Terry’s No. 31 jersey and hang it in the AAC rafters once he retires.

— Reported by Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Lopez, D-Will lead Nets past Mavericks 113-96

Brook Lopez is just like Deron Williams. He enjoys visiting Dallas, too.

Lopez scored 38 points and Williams had 31 in his first visit since spurning his hometown team in free agency, leading the Brooklyn Nets past the Mavericks 113-96 on Wednesday night.

Williams scored 26 in the second half, repeatedly hitting shots and occasionally assisting on baskets by Lopez to prevent a Dallas rally in the fourth quarter.

Lopez matched the 38 points he scored in one of the five games he played last season, when the Nets snapped a 12-game losing streak in Dallas. Both times, he finished one point shy of his career high from two years ago against Detroit.

”The team played well in both games,” Lopez said with a laugh. ”I think that’s the correlation. It just depends on who’s hot. We have so many options on this team.” …

Dirk Nowitzki led Dallas with 16 points and had a team-high six rebounds compared to 22 boards for Reggie Evans of the Nets, who outrebounded the Mavericks 45-34.

— Reported by Schuyler Dixon of the Associated Press

Former NFL player suing Mavericks great Rolando Blackman

A former NFL player and Dallas Cowboy has filed a lawsuit in a Dallas County court against former Dallas Maverick and All-Star Rolando Blackman, who he says convinced the cornerback to invest in a faulty African gold venture.

The former NFL player, Nathaniel Jones, met Blackman and fellow defendant David Mureeba, chief executive of a tech company, through “friends and contacts,” according to the lawsuit filed this week.

Last spring, the two defendants in the suit presented Jones with an opportunity to invest in exploration and refinement of gold through another of Mureeba’s businesses, East Africa Power & Energy. They told him his investment of $150,000 would be used to airlift precious metals from East Africa to Belgium, where the gold would be sold to a refinery, according to the lawsuit.

Mureeba and Blackman guaranteed Jones a 4 percent return on his investment. Mureeba encouraged the former football player to invest more.

— Reported by Christina Rosales of the Dallas Morning News

How Chris Wright found out he had multiple sclerosis

An innocent slip of the foot turned into a life-changing experience for Chris Wright.

That slip, which occurred last March while Wright was playing basketball in Turkey, ultimately led to the 6-1 point guard discovering that he was suffering from multiple sclerosis, a disease which impacts the brain and spinal cord when the protective sheaths around the nerves are damaged.

“I was in practice running sprints and at the end of practice I went down to touch the line and came up and I slipped,’’ Wright said. “My foot gave out and I thought nothing of it.

“I thought I just slipped, but eventually it got worse and I had numbness in my right foot, and then it started the next month to progress to the whole right side of my body. I lost basically all sensation, and I went to the doctor and that’s when they diagnosed me with MS.’’

— Reported by Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Mark Cuban thinks Dirk Nowitzki will stay elite for years

If Dirk Nowitzki put up his post-All-Star break numbers all season long, he probably wouldn’t have been able to take a midseason vacation on a Mexican beach.

Since his 11-year streak of All-Star appearances was snapped, Nowitzki has averaged 18.3 points and 8.8 rebounds per game, shooting 49.5 percent from the floor and 50 percent from 3-point range.

“What we’re seeing now with Dirk is what we can expect to see next year and the year after, if he stays healthy,” Mark Cuban said. “And the year after that.”

Three more years of All-Star caliber play from a power forward who turns 35 this summer?

“At least,” Cuban said.

“I’m not sure about all that,” Nowitzki said. “We’ll just have to wait and see. Hopefully I can finish this season strong and have a good summer like I basically did last year with a lot of lifting and running and hopefully not have a setback with a surgery. We’ll see how consistent I can be again next season.”

— Reported by Tim MacMahon of ESPN Dallas