- Tim Thomas has been outstanding for two games now. In fact, he has hit 75% of his 2 point shots in the last two games (18 for 24). He's 0 for his 5 three pointers in those games. Prior to the last two games, he had taken exactly the same number of two pointers as three pointers on the season - 149 of each. But he's a totally different player when he is taking the ball aggressively to the basket. I'm probably the 8 millionth person to observe that about Tim, starting with a bunch of high school basketball fans in New Jersey, followed by college fans in Philly and elsewhere in the Big East, and NBA pundits from New York to Milwaukee to Phoenix. By the way, Thomas even did a respectable job guarding Nowitzki in this game.
- Was it just me, or did the refs have an astoundingly bad game? I get particularly frustrated when refs are suckered into calls by players acting. In the fourth quarter alone, Jason Terry fell down on a Tim Thomas follow shot. What should have been two points and possibly three (since Terry in fact had grabbed Thomas' arm) turned into 1 point for the Mavs on the subsequent technical foul. This was not a difficult call to make.
Seconds later, Juan Jose Barea bated the ref into calling an offensive foul on Dan Dickau.
But there were other strange calls. On a Maggette shot, the original camera angle was right over the shoulder of Jim Clark, the most experienced member of the crew, who had his hand in the air on the shot clearly indicating that the he was awarding the continuation. But no, the other ref waved it off - although I fail to see how one ref versus another can more accurately decide what is ultimately a judgment call. Wouldn't you expect the most experienced guy to make the call? Whatever.
The goal tend called on Dampier was a horrible call - and again, not a difficult call to make.
And exactly how many steps did Nowitzki take before making his pass for the Dampier dunk with 1:48 left in the game? That was a huge no call - it cut the lead from 4 to 2. And I'm sorry, but that was an obvious travel, even by NBA standards.
Not a well-officiated game on either end. Just sloppy.
- I guess they really only want Guillermo Diaz as a practice player. I mean, one of two shooting guards on the roster gets poked in the eye 2 minutes into the game, and Diaz still doesn't get off the bench. Of course, Blanket did play 45 of the 46 minutes after Q was hurt.
- Speaking of Q, I hope he's OK. We never really got an update on him.
- I guess Brevin Knight's leg must be feeling better. He played 24 minute tonight, including all 12 in the fourth quarter. With Sam Cassell breaking out of his slump by hitting 4 of his 8 shots, maybe the Clippers could have used him in the fourth quarter. Just a thought.
- Chris Kaman had 5 blocked shots, but missed his double double by one rebound. As I implied in the recap, I sure would have liked to see him get the ball some more (or at all) in the last five minutes.
- Those fourth quarter Mobley isos sure worked great against Golden State in the first game of the season and against Chicago in the third game. But for the last 30 games, they've been somewhat less effective. Maybe the team needs another play.
- The Clippers actually caught a break for once this season, with Josh Howard unexpectedly missing the game for personal reasons. Fat lot of good it did them.
- This game was almost the exact opposite of the Orlando game. The Clippers built a lead. The Mavs came back to tie it. The Clippers immediately run off 14 straight to build the lead back up. The Mavs come back to take a 2 point lead - the Clippers go on a 13-2 run to take a 9 point lead. Of course, the end result was the same for each game.
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