Dirk Nowitzki scored 29 points in the fourth quarter — you read that right — to give the Mavs a 96-85 win over the Utah Jazz. He posted 40 points, 11 rebounds, five assists, five blocks and two steals. He shot 12 of 22 from the field and 15 of 16 from the charity stripe. The Mavs trailed by 16 with 8:17 to play before they made their charge.

After a somewhat surprising loss to the Washington Wizards on opening night, the Mavs beat the Lakers soundly on the road and derailed the Jazz at home, all without Josh Howard. They look like a fringe contender in the West. If they can stay healthy and get a few lucky bounces, they could challenge.

Per ESPN…

Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki was informed Friday that his former fiancée, who was recently sentenced to five years in prison for a probation violation in Missouri, is not pregnant as she has maintained for months.

The test, ordered July 24 by Dallas family court Associate Judge Randall Grubbs, was administered in Missouri. Hart on Friday received the documentation confirming that Taylor is not pregnant.

This was a weird story from the start. Nowitzki can do better than a 38-year-old criminal, so let’s hope he picks a better woman next time.

- SPORTSbyBROOKS details the budding feud between Fran Tarkenton and Marcellus Wiley over what Tarkenton said about Brett Favre.

- As a caucasian baller myself, I could be offended by the tribute that WITH LEATHER posted, but I’m not. It was funny, especially the part about Dirk.

- DEADSPIN has video of some of the cooler kids in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, including one little dude who likes cookies more than Erin Andrews.

- THE LOVE OF SPORTS takes aim at Brett Favre, for obvious reasons.

- SPORTSbyBROOKS.COM has photos of Jets’ rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez’s GQ photo shoot, which should give his new teammates plenty of ammo for pranks this summer.

- THE LOVE OF SPORTS details five ways to sneak into a ballgame, including finding a disgruntled usher.

- DEADSPIN has the details of Dirk Nowitzki’s girlfriend Cristal Taylor, who recently gave her first jailhouse interview since being arrested and confirmed that she is in fact pregnant with Dirk’s child.

- YARDBARKER has video of Terrell Owens in his first crack as a sports anchor. Apparently T.O. still loves himself some T.O. and Buffalo is all about it.

- TONYBLOGS.NET takes a look at tonight’s NBA draft lottery and the odds of a team getting the number one pick.

- With the Preakness’s decision to restrict alcohol in the infield, STEADY BURN fondly remembers the good ol’ days of the Terrorlawn.

- 20 SECOND TIMEOUT provides a nice breakdown of the All-NBA voting.

- SPORTSbyBROOKS informs us that USC head coach allegedly gave $1,000 to one of O.J. Mayo’s handlers after Mayo signed his letter of intent as a high school senior.

- DEADSPIN has a few quotes from former NFL-er Tony Banks, who says he used to date Dirk Nowitzki’s girlfriend/fiancee.

- THE LOVE OF SPORTS lists 10 Guys You Love to Hate, and it’s a good one.

There’s a weird story coming out of Dallas and it involves the Mavs’ best player, Dirk Nowitzki.

Dallas police officers went to Nowitzki’s house to arrest Cristal Taylor after confirming the existence of warrants for her arrest in Texas and Missouri, according to Dallas Police Department spokesman Lt. Andrew Harvey.

Sources close to the situation confirmed to ESPN.com the warrants were discovered when Nowitzki’s team of legal advisers hired a private investigator to research Taylor’s background, amid growing concern among those closest to the player inside and outside the Mavericks’ organization. Two Dallas television stations (KXTA-TV and WFAA-TV) have reported Taylor to be Nowitzki’s fiancée.

Taylor was still in Dallas County Jail on Thursday on $20,000 bond after being taken into custody on warrants accusing her of violating a probation sentence for two counts of forgery and one count of felony stealing in Missouri and a theft-of-service charge for failing to pay for an estimated $10,000 in dental work in Beaumont, Texas.

She was booked into jail Wednesday as Cristal Taylor, but authorities in both states have linked numerous aliases to the 37-year-old, including Crystal Ann Taylor, Christian Julie Wellington, Christian B. Travino, Crystal Nobles, Christy Nobles, Kristi Briana Westerhauf, Cristal Taylor Westerhaus, Christa A. Westerhays, Deborah Jackson, Shana Mancini, Crista Santiago, Crystal Ann Santiago, Crystall Ann Taylor and Kristin L. Rogers.

When pressed about the nature of his relationship with Taylor, after talking to reporters for some seven minutes, Nowitzki said three times that he would not comment further and asked if there were any more “basketball questions” before the interview was halted.

This story has a mug shot of Ms. Taylor/Wellington/Travino/Nobles/Westerhauf/Westerhaus/Westerhays/
Jackson/Mancini…ah, forget it. If you’re expecting her to be a knockout, be prepared for disappointment.

The first thing that jumps to mind — can’t Dirk do better than a 37 year-old, average-looking felon? What’s he thinking here? How does he get into this situation?

The one-two punch of LeBron James and Mo Williams provided 55 of Cleveland’s 99 points as the Cavs routed the Hawks, 99-72. LeBron had an MVP-like performance with 34 points, 10 rebounds, three assists and four steals. The Hawks have the talent to compete in this series, but they didn’t play very well against the Heat in the first round and that trend continued in the second half, where they were outscored 50-28. The Cavs’ defense forced 17 turnovers and held Atlanta to under 44% shooting.

In the late game, the Nuggets continued their march to the conference finals with a 117-105 win over the Mavs. Denver led by three heading into the fourth quarter, but a 9-0 run (including seven points from Carmelo Anthony) put Dallas in a bad spot. The Nuggets were up 19 with 2:50 to play, so the game wasn’t quite as close as the final score would indicate. Dirk Nowitzki did everything he could — 34 points, nine boards, four assists — but the Mavs were without Josh Howard (ankle) and were simply overmatched. The Nuggets had a balanced attack of Anthony (25 points), Nene (25), J.R. Smith (21), Chauncey Billups (18) and Kenyon Martin (12).

Smith in particular is an interesting player. He has a ton of scoring ability, but every so often he makes a bonehead play. I didn’t watch much of this game, but in the 10 minutes or so I did watch, Smith came over to help on Nowitzki at the top of the key and then suddenly left him — Dirk had the ball, mind you — to go cover J.J. Barea (or was it Antoine Wright?). Regardless, you don’t leave one of the league’s best scorers alone at the top of the key with the ball. Then, on the final play of the second quarter, he dribbled the ball around trying to wind the clock down, but then launched a 30-footer with five or six seconds to play. The long rebound bounced out to Jason Kidd, who had enough time to dribble to the other end of the court and get a good look at a three, which he made, cutting the Nuggets’ halftime lead to three.

But I guess when a guy is capable of scoring 21 points on just 10 shots in 25 minutes, you live with the occasional bonehead play.

Every so often, I’ll be sitting at a bar, throwing back a few adult beverages with a buddy or two and I’ll pose the following question:

If you could have one current NBA player to build your franchise around, with the goal of winning a NBA title in the next five years – who would it be?

Since the 2009 NBA Playoffs are in their infancy, it seems to be as good of a time as any to kick around this question. My criteria are simple – a franchise player has to be able to carry his team, while being reasonably young and injury-free.

We’ll count down from #10 to #1. My top nine guys were pretty easy to list, but #10 was a bitch. Maybe you can help me decide. Feel free to provide your own top 10.

HONORABLE MENTION

Yao Ming, Rockets (28 years-old)
I love Yao’s post up game, and he is a skilled passer, but the chances are only 60/40 that he’ll be healthy for any given playoffs and those odds are only going to decrease as time wears on. He’s like Robert Downey, Jr. — he’s great at what he does, but you just don’t know if he’s going to be there when you need him.

Chauncey Billups, Nuggets (32)
He seems to be more responsible than ‘Melo for the Nuggets’ great play this season, but he’s 32 years old. Still, his effectiveness depends more on strength, steady play and good shooting than it does his (somewhat limited) athleticism, so he should be able to play into his late thirties.

Al Jefferson, Timberwolves (24)
Jefferson is one of the few young, back-to-the-basket post players in the league. He averaged 23/11 on a bad team, which leads me to believe he could post 19/10 on a playoff team, and should only get better with age.

Amare Stoudemire, Suns (26)
He’s four years younger than our next guy, but he’s already had two serious injuries in his career so one wonders if this is a trend. He also seems to be a little bit on the selfish side and has a rep for being a bad defensive player.

Read the rest of this entry »

After losing to the Thunder Monday night, Mark Cuban was highly critical of his team.

After the Mavericks were humiliated Monday by an Oklahoma City team playing without its top two scorers, Cuban lashed out, and for the first time indicated that there are no untouchables on the team.

“It’s only one game, which I keep reminding myself of today. But let’s just say I wasn’t happy with our preparation, execution or effort. Not only did it look like we had no idea what we were doing, but we did it without effort. The effort and energy, on both sides of the ball, by each player will decide their future with the Mavericks.

“If each player can’t take the personal initiative to make every game important and play like it, I don’t see them being here next season. The ball won’t always bounce the way we want it to, but every player can control their level of effort. If it’s not important enough to them to lay it out every game the rest of the season, they won’t be back. I don’t care what their contract is. I would rather turn over the roster 100 percent than subject fans to another game like last night.

“This team has the talent to win in the playoffs. But that’s only going to happen if all 15 guys know and execute their assignments and play every possession like it’s important.”

Cuban’s comments are totally justified. The Thunder played without Kevin Durant and Jeff Green, starting a lineup of Russell Westbrook, Kyle Weaver, Thabo Sefolosha, Nick Collison and Nenad Krstic. Ouch.

This is the first time that Cuban has indicated that Dirk Nowitzki might not be untouchable anymore. He’s exactly right about how there are nights when the ball doesn’t go through the hoop or that the other team can’t miss, but the effort should always be there. These guys are making millions of dollars to play a game, and while the rest of the economy is tanking and people across of the country are losing their jobs, the least the Mavs can do is play as hard as they can while they’re out on the court. Anything less is an embarrassment and a slap in the face of their fan base.

The Mavs are on notice.

…and here they are…

East: Devin Harris, Danny Granger, Jameer Nelson, Chris Bosh, Joe Johnson, Rashard Lewis and Paul Pierce

West: Shaquille O’Neal, Chauncey Billups, Pau Gasol, Dirk Nowitzki, Tony Parker, Brandon Roy and David West

When comparing the final rosters to my picks, there were three changes. I didn’t have Allen Iverson on my roster, much less a starter, but he was voted in by the fans. Rashard Lewis replaced Vince Carter, which goes to show that the coaches value team wins more than individual (albeit gaudy) stats. David West replaced Carmelo Anthony, and I think it’s a good call, especially with ‘Melo’s injury. The longer he was out, the better the chances that the coaches would leave him at home. It didn’t help his All-Star stock that Denver has played very well without him.

The only thing that’s really wrong with these rosters is the inclusion of Allen Iverson. There were a host of players in the East — Carter, Tayshaun Prince, Ray Allen, Mo Williams, Rajon Rondo, Caron Butler and Josh Smith — that were more deserving, but there’s no doubt that AI is a very popular player. Unsurprisingly, we can’t really argue with the coaches’ picks. They know what they’re doing.

It’s especially good to see Devin Harris, Danny Granger, Jameer Nelson and Tony Parker get recognized for their fine play this season.