An Eight-Take Practice Report From The AAC

By Mike Fisher -- DB.com

     Eight Takes from the Mavs’ Friday afternoon practice as they prepare for a weekend visit from the Raptors … and nurse some wounds, of both the physical and mental variety.

    It’s the Mavs Afternoon Drive:

By DallasBasketball.com staff

    Mike Fisher, the long-time DFW radio talk-show host and sportswriter in charge of DallasBasketball.com, has been chosen by 103.3 ESPN Radio to host “Mavs Magazine,’’ the weekend show that focuses on the NBA team.

   The show, a decade-long staple on the Mavs' flagship station, begins airing on Saturday and will run from 10-to-11 a.m. every Saturday through the NBA season.

    Appearing on Fish’s inaugural show: Mavs GM Donnie Nelson, a moment between Randy Galloway and coach Rick Carlisle, game reports from ESPN’s Mike Peasley and an “offbeat’’ visit with Erick Dampier.

And DB.com Has The Hollywood Evidence To Prove It!

By Mike Fisher -- DB.com

    Turns out, Mavs TV play-by-play voice Mark Followill has been lying to you and to me about his assertion that “I’ve never seen the movie ‘Grease.’’

     He issued the outrageous claim during the Mavs-at-Hornets game on Wednesday, and then dared repeat the fib to my face on Thursday night.

     It didn’t ring true. … as I’ve noted, Followill is 38, is a pop-culture person, owns a TV and certainly appreciates The Arts.

     And now DallasBasketball.com has uncovered the truth.

    Not only has Mark Followill seen the iconic musical about the “summer nights’’ involving John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John and the T-Birds and the Pink Ladies, it turns out he was actually in the film!

     Click in for a long lost artifact of when Mark Followill was Hopelessly Devoted To a movie he now pretends to have never seen.

By Mike Fisher -- DB.com

My Notes And Photos From Mavs GM Donnie Nelson's VIP Party In Frisco

By Mike Fisher -- DB.com

   Once the Thursday press conference was over, once the DJ stopped playing, once the hands were pumped and the babies were kissed, once the mayor’s proclamation was proclaimed, once the open bar was about to close, once I shot the bull with Del Harris (at left), I cornered the person who’d just been hired to become the first woman to coach men in an NBA-affiliated league and asked her … the question.

   “So,’’ I said to Hall-of-Famer Nancy Lieberman of her new job as the Mavericks' affiliate in the NBA Development League, “a woman coaching men. … you know … um, how’s that going to work?’’

   Fortunately, Nancy’s answer – and the rest of the historic event in Frisco  – was smoother than my question.

Nancy Lieberman Readies To Run Donnie Nelson's D-League Team

By Mike Fisher -- DB.com

    The GM is one of the most veteran and venerable basketball minds in the world. The president of basketball-ops is one of the smallest basketball superstars in the game’s history. And the head coach of co-owner Donnie Nelson’s embryonic Frisco-based D-League team?

    She’ll be the first female head coach of an NBA-affiliated men’s team in ever.

    Donnie and co-owner Evan Wyly don’t have a team name (there will be a contest to name the “Texas Somethings’’). But they have an arena, an NBA tie (when the franchise begins play in the 2010-11 season, it’ll be the Mavs’ minor-league brother), and they have star power in Del Harris, Spud Webb and, most notably, head coach Nancy Lieberman.

   “Every night, at every game, kids are going to come to these games and meet a basketball legend and end up feeling like basketball celebrities themselves,’’ Donnie tells me.

   And of course, among those "basketball celebrities'' who will be on the scene will be the GM, the ops guy and the head coach.

Dirk Fouls Out? Jet Misses FTs? When's The Last Time That Happened?

By Mike Fisher -- DB.com

   Was it voodoo?

   When was the last time MVP Dirk Nowitzki fouled out of a game? When was the last time career-84-percent free-thrower Jason Terry missed three FTs in a game? When was the last time J.J. Barea (76-percent career) missed two?

   Voodoo is one answer for Dallas 114-107 loss to the Hornets. Plus I’ve got the freakish answers to the above questions as we use statistical research in an attempt to exorcise the Mavs’ New Orleans overtime demons …

By Mike Fisher -- DB.com

    I theorized yesterday that the Mavs might “prove to be out of gas’’ on the second night of a back-to-back – especially when that first night was the demanding 27-point-turnaround win over Utah. I even theorized that if indeed Dallas “proves to be out of gas,’’ “so be it.’’

   Funny how I felt that way in the glow of the Utah win. … but now after a 114-107 OT loss at New Orleans, I’m suddenly less accepting … because of what could have been.

   Donuts. Enjoy them as best you can.

By Mike Fisher -- DB.com

   There is no gentle way to say this: The Mavs gagged away an opportunity in New Orleans, missing three of four free throws in the final 13 seconds that allowed the Hornets to survive and then thrive, 114-107 in overtime.

   Straight gagged.

   We’ll break down this potentially landmark game item-by-item, in increasingly frustrating chronological order:

By Mike Fisher -- DB.com

Here comes tipoff in New Orleans, an 8:30 start (actually, later) for Mavs-at-Hornets ... and we'll discuss that tonight and all the Mavs events of the last 24 hours live on 103.3 ESPN Radio ... It's FISH on ESPN at 7:30 or so, part of the pregame show on the Mavs flagship station, 103.3 ESPN!

By Mike Fisher -- DB.com

   Owner Donnie Nelson’s Frisco-based D-League team doesn’t have a team name, but it’s got names. Donnie and co-owner Evan Wyly have taken three attention-getting swings with three executive hires.

   Get a load of this:

By Misty Mav -- DB.com

Midday Notes Previewing Mavs-Hornets In Back-To-Back

By Mike Fisher -- DB.com

   Are the Mavs spent, exhausted, running on empty?

   Some quickie midday reflections on the effort – meaning minutes – poured into Tuesday’s comeback win over Utah … and how that effort might affect the Mavs in tonight’s visit to New Orleans.

By Mike Fisher -- DB.com

   ESPN? I’m not only a fan; I’m an employee! (In fact, there’s some FISH on ESPN news coming up in the next 24 hours or so). But I could not help but notice how my cousins from Bristol opted to arrange the Wednesday morning SportsCenter: I waited excitedly for highlights, stats, insights and commentary on Dallas’ stunning win over Utah featuring Dirk Nowitzki’s 29-points-in-the-fourth-and-40-points-in-the-game extravaganza.

   I waited … and waited …

By Mike Fisher -- DB.com

    A hot team, a hot time and some hot tickets … we’ve got Mavs tickets, courtesy of MavCowTickets.com … a special that gives DallasBasketball.com readers:

   *A 10-percent discount with the purchase of any Mavs home game made two weeks prior to the game

   *Free shipping within those same guidelines

    *Oh yeah: A simple way to be given two FREE tickets to a Mavs game

    Read on …

By Mike Fisher -- DB.com

By Mike Fisher -- DB.com

   My last-year thesis: The Mavs under coach Rick Carlisle never win when they shoot poorly.

   My this-year thesis: The Mavs are discovering a way to plow through that bad-shooting muck thanks to a personality transplant.

   My last-year fact: When the Mavs shot worse than 42 percent, they were 3-20.

   My this-year fact: After Dallas’ 96-85 victory on Tuesday over the visiting Jazz – a game in which Dirk Nowitzki single-handedly carried his team to a 27-point turnaround – the Mavs have now matched last season’s sub-42-percent total of victories in a year with this year’s three victories in a week. … and are living through their own reality-thriller: When Bad Shooting Happens To Good Mavericks.

    What happens? This year, Good Mavericks win.

By David Lord -- DB.com

By Mike Fisher -- DB.com

And Some Numbers - This Year And Historically - Back Up His Claim

By Mike Fisher -- DB.com

   You have your opinions.

   Erick Dampier has his proof.

   “I hear the talk, but I’ve been through all of this before,’’ the Mavs center tells DallasBasketball.com in an exclusive interview. “The talk … it’s really not a big deal to me. In (2006-07) they decided I should come off the bench and we started the season winless. … then I became the starter again and we ended the season with the best record in the NBA.

   “I think that means something.’’

    The often taciturn Dampier – off to a fine start as the first-team center for the 2-1 Mavs – has more to say about this. .. and again, has the numbers to support his assertions.

    "People who have played basketball, people who know basketball, they know what I contribute here,'' Damp says. “Some people just want to watch the games to see who scores 40 points. But that’s not all basketball is about. There are a lot of things that go into winning a basketball game, and I help my team do those things. Basketball people know this.’’

    Now, to those numbers – 10 of them: