Mavs find a little Magic
Last night, NBA fans were treated to a great game between the Mavericks and Magic in which the Mavs came out the winners 100-98, but how did this happen? The Mavs were down by as many as 13 at one point and it looked like Orlando was going to take the game. There are probably 3 reasons why the Mavs were able to win the game.
The first reason is none other than Mavs’ spark plug off the bench Jason Terry. Due to a bet in the All-Star weekend, Jason Terry was supposed to not wear his signature headband and high sock when he faced the magic. Terry followed that bet and struggled until the 2nd half when he put the headband and socks back on. Terry finished with 17 points on 7-12 shooting, 6 boards and 3 assists on a +6 plus/minus rating.
The second reason as to why the Mavs won was that the Magic simply did not take care of the ball especially in clutch moments. The Magic committed 16 turnovers which isn’t really that terrible however when the Mavs went on a run to tie the game up at 89 with exactly 6:10 left in the 4 quarter the magic turned the ball over 6 times during that run, looking as scared as an elementary school basketball team seeing a full court press for the first time.
The third reason is that down the stretch when the game is tied up with less than 1 minute left the Mavericks have a reliable source for points and that source was Dirk Nowitzki. Let’s face it Dirk i0s as clutch as they come and he proved that clutchness not only in the NBA finals last year but also in this game when he hit his signature one-legged jumper from 15 feet over Hedo Turkoglu with 5.9 seconds left only the clock.
When asked if this was a championship caliber performance, Mavericks head coach Rick Carlise said “We’ve got work to do. We have lofty goals, but we’ve got 13 games to go and we’ve got a lot of improvement left.” Does this game mean that the Dallas Mavericks will repeat as NBA champions because they beat the Orlando Magic? …. Probably not but it was a good game and I enjoyed it for what it was a good game.
By: Michael Asiffo
