Don't forget, the Mavs only nationally (well, TNT) game is
Tuesday night against Portland at 8:00 pm Eastern/7:00 pm Central
on TNT.

Terry Davis was very frustrated after Tuesday's lost to the Miami
Heat.  He sat in the corner of the locker room and cried, saying
he could help the team if they would let him play.  
     "I want to play, bad."  "I'm bored to death.  It's killing
me (to sit) when I should be playing.  I know I can help these
guys."  Terry said.
The Mavs actually responded and told Terry on Friday that he
would be allowed to resume practicing (but not playing) with the
team .
     His response: "Best day to happen to me since the Lord
spared my life."
Some other comments from Terry about the lack of physical play in
games:
     "The Seattle game, we're 30 points down, and I see nobody go
on the floor on the other team.  You've got to put guys on their
(...) in this league, or it's easy to get disrespected.
     "Every time they look at the Mavericks, they're like, 'OK,
they're a bunch of soft guys, we can go in and dunk on them.'  We
don't want that reputation around here.  We want to be known as
an aggressive, hard-nosed, scrappy team."

Greg Dreiling has been starting the past few games.  With Randy
White's possible return in a few weeks, I'm starting to get
concerned about who will be cut.  The player that should be cut
is Donald Hodge, but he still has a multi-year contract (4 years,
I think).  Assuming the Mavs do not Do the Right Thing, Darren
Morningstar might be on the bubble.  Until lately, Morningstar
was the starting center and he is the only Mavs that does not
have a guaranteed contract.  I like Morningstar.  He plays with a
lot of hustle, gets opposing player's mad at him, and could
develop into a solid backup center, especially if he develops
another shot besides his pseudo-hook.  Another possibility, of
course, is that one of the players develops an "injury".

With the signing of Byron Scott, Indiana is no longer a possibility
for trading Derek Harper.  The two teams were talking about
trading Derek Harper, Sean Rooks, and tossing in Terry Davis to
make the salary cap work for Malik Sealy and two other players
(not positive, Sam Mitchell and Ledell Eackles? or LaSalle
Thompson?).  Believe it or not, but the Pacers were the ones who
backed out saying that they weren't quite ready to give up on
Sealy.  Well, the Pacer's management has never been know for its
brains.  

After the Suns game, Buckner went to the Suns locker room. 
Barkley gave him a big hug.  Barkley said that Buckner isn't the
Mavericks' problem.
     "Jamal and Jimmy Jackson have to get out of the funk they're
in.  They've got to step up and be the men.  They share the
franchise.  They (the Mavs) are more talented this year, but the
young players have to step up to the plate."
[I don't know where this comment came from as both Jackson and
Mashburn played good games.]

Some other comments on Buckner and the players:
Buckner seems to have finally figured out that there is a problem
(he had been denying it in the past) and is trying to find a
solution.  There was a team meeting with Buckner on Friday the
3rd where the players vented their qualms and Buckner talked
about some of his in an attempt to reopen communication between
the players and the coach.  Buckner called it a "humbling
experience".  Buckner loosened up on his triangle offense and
allowed the team to run some and the players responded with a
good game against the Bucks.  However, the resurgence only lasted
one game.  After an interview with Jack Ramsey for ESPN, Buckner
asked Ramsey if he could talk with him.  They talked for about 30
minutes that evening.  Whether a solution for the personal and
performance problems the Mavs have will soon be found or Buckner
will continue looking for one or he'll resort back to the
attitude of "it's my team and I'll do what I want with it" is yet
to be seen.

The players are very frustrated.  The Mavs have the talent so
that they shouldn't be compared to last year's team, but have
been performing so dismally that they are being compared to last
year's team.  With Buckner not having the respect of the players,
it is too easy for the players to place the blame for the loses
solely on the coach.  And I do blame Buckner for losing the
respect of the players, but it is a combination of players
getting into mental and physical slumps and poor coaching
decisions that has led to the poor performances.  Until the
players and coach stop passing around the blame and start
focusing on playing basketball and putting the internal problems
behind them, they are going to continue to be the joke of the
league.


patricia