Monday, December 8, 2008

Hey JJ, It's Your Best Week Ever!

The Mavericks have been on a high as of late (no pun intended J-Ho). After Saturday's win versus Atlanta, the Mavericks are now a respectable 11-8 and have a winning record at home after starting the season 0-4 at home and 2-7 overall.

Jason Terry has been clutch in the 4th quarter, racking up big shot after big shot to put opponents away. Dirk has shot a ri-dirk-ulous 52 percent this week. Nowitzki even told TNT sideline reporter Craig Sager after the win against Phoenix that he hasn't shot well this season to this point. Are you kidding me Dirk? Devean George has gotten consecutive starts and has finally started to play up to his potential on the defensive end. Shawne Williams had a career-high 12 rebounds against Phoenix, alongside Erick Damp's pwning of Shaquille O'Neal. Also this week we have seen Brandon Bass finally starting to feel comfortable within Carlisle's system and is back to the Bass we saw last season. Bass even finished off Saturday night's win with back-to-back ferocious slams. Not to mention that all this has been done without the important J-Ho on the floor. While all these players are having a great week...for JJ Barea, it is his Best Week Ever!

To think, just one week ago there were rumors that the Mavs were interested in the exiled Stephon Marbury for the backup point guard role for Dallas. That was before the JJ Barea Show . Following the Clippers game, we here at DallasDedicated praised Speedy JJ on his wonderful game. Little did we know that it was just the beginning of his hot streak. JJ had 15 points and the game-winner that night against the Clips, and he followed that with 18 against Phoenix. Monday night, however, Barea was the best player on the floor. Mike Bibby couldn't keep him in front of him, and JJ was a problem for the Hawks defense all night long. There were 3 pointers, a buzzer-beater to end the 3rd, and a circus-type reverse layup over Zaza Pachulia in the beginning of the final quarter to draw not just the AAC crowd to their feet, but also fellow teammates. There were even traces of "MVP! MVP" as Barea went to the bench in the middle of the 4th quarter.

Have we mentioned that this guy is not even 6 feet in height? ! All of a sudden teams are having to start game-planning against Barea. All of a sudden Barea's slicing and dicing in the lane is making Mavs fans forget that point guard that does similar things in Jersey. All of a sudden the offense no longer looks stagnant without Jason Kidd, who was earlier believed to be the only legit point guard on the Mavs.

This could all be a fluke. Barea's shooting star could burn out once J-Ho gets back into the rotation (who could return Tuesday). Opposing teams might start not ignoring JJ and shut him down. No matter what happens, one thing is for sure...JJ Barea is having the Best Week Ever!

--ND

Coming later: Cowboys. I'm too heartbroken to type anything else...

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