Mavericks feel equipped to handle O'Neal
Shaquille O'Neal has always given himself colorful, timely nicknames. With his Miami Heat about to open the NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks, here’s a new one he could consider: The Mavs Masher.
He certainly has the numbers to back it up.
In 36 career games against Dallas, O'Neal has averaged 29.3 points. That's his most against any team and it's tops of any player who has faced the Mavericks more than six times.
O'Neal also has averaged 12.2 rebounds against them, which ranks near the top of all Dallas opponents while being only a half board per game above his leaguewide average.
Dooming as it all might sound, the stats come with a disclaimer: Most were rung up against the likes of Shawn Bradley and other helpless defenders. Those guys may have had O'Neal's height or bulk, but none had both and many had neither.
The Mavericks are better prepared this time, with a pure center tandem of DeSagana Diop and Erick Dampier. They won't stop O'Neal, but Dallas coach Avery Johnson is hoping that together they might be able to slow the Diesel.
'You need bodies,' Johnson said yesterday. 'We've got two big bodies now.'
Guard Jerry Stackhouse said the Mavericks can't worry too much about O'Neal. He even supported that contrarian view with a strong reference point: Tim Duncan.
The Spurs forward averaged 32.3 points and 11.7 rebounds against Dallas in the second round, but the Mavericks won the series.
'Shaq's going to get points, he's going to get some easy opportunities, just don’t get discouraged about that,' Stackhouse said. 'We didn't get discouraged by Tim Duncan. Those are just things that can happen. True dominant players are going to find a way to get their numbers. We have to find a way to control the other guys.'
One thing Dampier and Diop must especially avoid is foul trouble. Third-string center D.J. Mbenga is suspended from the first four games, leaving spindly Keith Van Horn or Dirk Nowitzki as the next option.
Pistons want to keep Wallace
Joe Dumars hopes to take his chances at competing for a title next season with the top six players the Detroit Pistons have had the past two seasons.
If Detroit is able to re sign Ben Wallace, an unrestricted free agent, the Pistons president of basketball operations said he expects to keep the team's nucleus intact to make another run after falling short of the NBA Finals for the first time since 2003.
'This window we have right now is not closed by any means, so you have to maximize that as much as possible,' Dumars said. 'You don't do what we did and get to where we got and say, 'We're not good enough.'
Mavs Top Hornets Fifteen Straight Dec. 3
Dirk Nowitzki scored a game-high 30 points last month after averaging 23 against New Orleans last season. Hornets rookie guard Chris Paul led the Hornets with 26.
Both teams shot over 50 percent from the field and 80 percent from the line. The Hornets out-rebounded and outscored the Mavs inside, but Dallas had eight 3-pointers to the Hornets' four.
REPLAY: Less than a month after the Mavs rolled over San Antonio with ease, arguably the top two teams currently in the Western Conference played the kind of game one would expect.
The Spurs slipped out of American Airlines Center with a 92-90 victory as Dirk Nowitzki's shot at the buzzer was partially blocked by Bruce Bowen.
"The guys battled," Dallas coach Avery Johnson said after dropping consecutive games for the first time in his career. "You have to take your hat off to the team that played like a championship team down the stretch."
There were 15 ties and the lead changed hands 26 times, with neither team having more than a five-point edge after the first quarter.
Nowitzki continued to struggle with his shot, scoring 14 points on 3-of-13 from the field. He's 20-of-64 (31 percent) from the field the last three games, and often settled for jumpers against San Antonio despite having five inches on Bowen.
The Mavs were solid defensively for the second consecutive game against San Antonio standout Tim Duncan, who scored only 13 points on 4-of-12 shooting. He had 18 points in the Mavs' 103-84 rout on Nov. 5. Duncan did have a game-high 14 rebounds.
Mavs First Coach of the Month In First Two Months
Avery Johnson was named Western Conference coach of the month for November. Johnson was also named coach of the month in April of last season
He becomes the first coach in league history to garner coach of the month honors in his first two full months coaching. The league began handing out the award at the start of the 1982-83 season.
"Got to have good players," Johnson said of the award. "When somebody recognizes you like that, you've got to win your share of games. We're just trucking along. If guys don't make shots or they don't get defensive stops or win games with your defense, nobody will ever get recognized."
Johnson coached Dallas to a 10-4 mark in November. Along the way, Dallas defeated all four conference finalists from the 2005 playoffs, becoming the first team to accomplish that feat in the first month of the season since St. Louis in 1962-63.
Johnson finished his first 30 games as a head coach with a 25-5 mark. That tied for the second-most wins by a coach in his first 30 games with Chris Ford of Boston in 1990-91. Al Cervi guided the Syracuse Nationals (now known as the Philadelphia 76ers) to a 26-4 start in 1949-50.
--Forward Josh Howard couldn't walk without crutches his first three days after spraining his ankle Saturday, but felt better Wednesday. Howard rode the bike during practice and even got on the court to do a little shooting.
"It's a good sight," Avery Johnson said. "It's a sight for sore eyes, stumbling off the road."
Howard said the moderate sprain is the most serious ankle injury he's ever suffered.
--Recently signed Adrian Griffin and Avery Johnson were Mavericks teammates in 2002-03. Griffin went through his first real practice with Johnson as his coach on Wednesday.
"I'm really impressed with the way he's made the transition," Griffin said. "When I look at him, it's more pride because I saw how he's progressed. Even when I was here, he was helping out with some practices, he would coach some shoot-arounds. I'm real proud of him."
--San Antonio has won the NBA championship three of the past seven years, and Avery Johnson believes it all starts with coach Gregg Popovich.
"Pop had a vision, he stuck with it and he hasn't backtracked from it," Johnson said. "At the same time, you have to have good players and he's had a combination, but they are where they are because of his vision."
QUOTE TO NOTE
"Maybe a little bit, but we all really know that's not really my style out there. I say what needs to be said, what I see during the game, maybe before the game and after the game if I have to. But I'll never be a guy to stand there and hold speeches for 10 or 15 minutes. That will never be me. That's why we have other guys on the team that do a lot more talking. My style is still going out there and trying to play hard every night," -- Dirk Nowitzki, on being more of a vocal leader.
Ex-Mav Great Finley's Replacement Will Retire
The 35-year-old Christie left the team, which was in Miami to play the Heat on Friday night, last week to have his surgically repaired left ankle examined by a personal physician. The team signed Christie to a three-year contract this past offseason, but only $3.15 million in salary was guaranteed.
"We appreciate the effort Doug gave us," Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said Friday by e-mail. "He went through a lot to get back. Unfortunately, it didn't work out."
Christie's agent, Bradley Marshall, did not immediately comment after the team announced its move. "Got to call you back," Marshall said before hanging up abruptly when reached on his cell phone.
Cuban said the team hasn't made any decision yet about replacing Christie on the roster.
"We have nothing planned right now," Cuban said.
Christie averaged 3.7 points and 2.0 assists in seven games, all starts, this season for Dallas. He joined the team after Orlando waived him in August.
"It was a situation where it just didn't work," Mavericks coach Avery Johnson said. "It was just good for everybody to have a chance to move on. Doug came in with the intentions that it was going to work, but it just didn't work and in a lot of different ways."
Christie missed the final 24 games of last season after having bone spurs removed from the ankle. He averaged only 6.6 points in 52 games with Sacramento and Orlando -- his lowest scoring average since being a reserve for the New York Knicks in 1995-96.
He's averaged 11.3 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.6 assists in parts of 14 NBA seasons. Christie played at Pepperdine before being drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers in 1992, was named to the NBA All-Defensive first team following the 2002-03 season and the defensive second team in three other seasons.