Game Thread #70 - at Dallas

i wonder if mark cuban is going to excuse avery and ask jason kidd to be player/coach at halftime?

Spurs 95
Mavs 92

Our upcoming contest with the hated Mavericks is being billed on espn.com as "The Rest of the West" (ha, ha, clever) and one gets the distinct impression that the folks over at the WWL in Bristol and quite possibly the Disney execs as well are less than thrilled with the records of the two clubs, especially us.

"It's not bad enough you guys are ratings death every god damn year, but we still schedule you, every once in a while, because it is our contractual obligation to show THE MOTHERFUCKING DEFENDING CHAMPS, so the least you guys could do, would be, you know, to win the occasional game against a +.500 team."

Sorry ABC. I'm sorry you scheduled a so-so matchup between the 6th and 7th seeds and denied our nation their 48th view of the woebegone Miami Heat. A thousand apologies.

Anyway, I think this will be a hell of a match-up. Just as these two teams were eerily similar when they were contenders, now they're eerily similar as would-be contenders. Both teams desperately need a few "quality" wins to feel legitimate, especially the Mavs. If they don't win today, at home against their dreaded rivals, stick a fork in 'em, they're done.

As loathe as I am to admit it, the teams do have a few other similarities. Their leading scorers are floppin' foreign whiteboys. Their coaches are, in different moments, either outright humorless, or sarcastic, gallows-humor narcissists who preach and demand defense out of personnel not necessarily suited for the task.

And both, BOTH, have goddamn annoying owners. Cuban, of course, by now it should be obvious, is hellbent on being recognized as the biggest self-important douchebag since Henry VIII. (I liked "The Other Boleyn Girl" btw, Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson, meow) His blogger boycott, patently hypocritical, ridiculous, and arrogant is right out of the Bush Administration playbook and even the sycchophants at Blogmaverick.com are starting to turn on their master.

Meanwhile, our guy, that lovable cur Peter Holt, isn't really unlikable or anything. He just frustrates his fan base with his frugality. Luis Scola on the Rox? That's Peter Holt's doing. Beno Udrih on the Kings? Holt again. Having to make do with the decomposing remains of RoHo and Findog instead of trying to defend our title with 20-somethings who could perhaps, maybe, I don't know, play? You guessed it.

Cuban, asshole that he is, at least spends money. It'd be nice to have an owner who had a little more net worth, yet wasn't a complete public embarrassment and signpost for bad karma. Is one out there?

C'mon Oprah, buy our Spurs.

Stackhouse starting? Wha?

Fortunately Dallas hasn't done much either.

Sloppy game.

Cuban is wearing a t-shirt supporting Avery. Of course he is.

14-13 Dallas with under three mins to go in the 1st as we head into another commercial.

Kurt Thomas has checked in, so we're big again. But Dallas isn't. Let's see what happens. I'm guessing Tim won't be on the floor when we return and Tony might not be either.

Per Avery on Cuban "I think we have a great relationship."

Also, Avery confessed that he thinks the sun is blue. Must be a Jesus thing.

Manu with nice, albeit dicey feed to Thomas for a lay-in.

My ass. Guys are just missing open shots. Lots and lots of open shots.

Michael Finley has not done anything thus far to inspire me to join his fan club, let's say.

Then again, no one outside of Oberto has played worth a damn.

it ain't going in the hole - pop
i love his sarcasm with the press.

Pop btw for the first time since they started doing these national game interviews at the 1st and 3rd quarter breaks, blamed the team's struggles so far on the offense instead of the defense. I'm shocked.

I thought he walked.

27-22 going into commercial.

AJ update: Likes what his men are doing.

Pop: Wants better transition defense.

I love microphones.

Pop says he wants Duncan to finish with 20 rebounds. Keep playing small and he just might.

Also, are we gonna hear anything about Barry or what?

I'd like to see the big three play together, btw.

I'm ecstatic that Manu actually drove inside. Our defense has been pretty good actually and the Mavs are resigning themselves to taking a lot of jumpers, just like the geriatric, unathletic gang of choirboys we've all come to love.

Except Michael Finley. I hate Michael Finley.

Also, we'll meet Manu Ginobili! Fun.

Manu just made another dicey pass which Tony finished off with ridiculous English for a Frenchman.

Well, them and Finley of course.  

Down four at the break, still in the game, and we actually outscored them in the 2nd quarter. Yay.

Anybody's game in the second half. We can't possibly shoot this bad the next 24 minutes.

Can we?  

40-36 bad guys.

@#%#@%@%@^@#^&$#*$ nab scorekeepers.

ARGENTINA IS NOT IN FUCKING EUROPE YOU DUMB SHIT!!!!

He did not however, to my great disappointment, confess that he is, in fact, a wizard.

I hate Michael Finley.

A coach who nevereverever learns from his mistakes is a doomed coach. We do this lame shit with Finley every 3rd quarter and I'm sick and fucking tired of it.

Start Manu in the 3rd, start Udoka, start Bonner, I don't fucking care.

Michael Finley is fucking death. He is Spurs death.

Parker bricks and Manu puts in an offensive rebound.

Parker hasn't started the half well at all, unfortunately. 0-3 and 4-15 for the game, like Harris never left. It should not be this hard for him.

And Duncan struggling this badly against Dirk and Dampier? For shame.

Udoka looks like somebody you really don't want to fuck with, imo. But it wasn't anything intentional. He hurt his knee blocking Udoka's lay-up attempt.

Tim got the rebound and the score off the confusion. We're up one now, in the midst of a 13-0 run, and Timmy still has a free throw.

Dirk's return to the game meanwhile, looks dubious.

And people hate Dirk....

wtf? double foul?  manu didn't do shit!

Dirty fucking shit. I expect Stack to be suspended when the league looks at the tape.

Meanwhile, thanks to that 19-0 run, we're up 7 going into the 4th, and it looks like Dirk won't play the rest of the way.

We absolutely have to win this game now. Tony and Timmy need to come out incensed and dominate.

We need Timmy to get some good looks here because Tony is making me very nervous with his second half play.

He had that karma coming.

Oh great, a five second violation. Fantastic.

Dallas ball, down four, 34 seconds to go. If anybody besides Manu touches the ball the next trip, I'm gonna lose my mind.  

It'd be nice if we force Dallas to take their time with this possession.

If Dirk's injury is as bad as it looks, then maybe the vile Nuggets just made the playoffs.

I'll have much more to say about this in twelve or thirteen hours. Gotta go to work.

manus team  88
averys team 81

fucking shit! hes not from Europe!!

He said all the right things in the interview as you knew he would. He's so dreamy.

Okay, gotta go. Thanks to all who watched/participated.

I'm kinda happy now. Yay.

And Jerry Stackhouse needs to understand that coming from a country where they kidnap rich people and soccer games end in riots, Ginobili isn't going to be intimidated by some washed-up swingman with thug tendencies.

I wish Dirk and Kidd the best!

we have a little nice winning streak and now I think we might be all right as soon as we get Barry back..which means less of Finley!.

either way, this was a really good win for the men in black.

it owuld be nice to keep the train rolling in orlando tomorrow evening.  that will also be a tough one.

seriously though, the spurs had better find someone to start hitting shots.