It really hurts to be placed in the last place. Why is Jones ahead of me?! Why oh why?! the pain!!

  Popovich does seem to be experimenting with the lineups a bit (I think there was an Eric Williams sighting last night) - I can understand him benching Beno against Dallas since he's done that sort of thing before, but it absolutely mystified me that Francisco Elson didn't get a second of playing time defending Dirk in the second half.  My only guess is that Popovich is saving that for the playoffs, and wants Oberto to get as much playing time/experience as possible against the Mavs in the meantime.  Maybe he doesn't want to play his full hand against Avery early in the season.  That kinda makes a twisted sorta sense to me.

After a watching a few more games, I've been much more impressed by Oberto than I thought I would be - especially given his opening night problems with Nowitzki.  Against most of the NBA, he's pretty effective - especially given the tendency to go small over the past two years - but against some opponents, he's just physically overmatched.  Look at his games against Yao and Nowitzki for prime examples.  I'm sure he'd be roadkill against Dwight Howard also.  That's not really a knock against Oberto - he's just not physically able to defend everyone he's going to go up against.  Kudos to Pop for giving him playing time to adjust and learn, but that shit better not carry too far into the playoffs.

Also, where the hell did Andris Biedrins come from?  I want him on our team, dammit.