Friday night

["j.hironaka" <j.hironaka@unesco.org>]

ESPN has ranked our next exhibition season opponent, the Dallas Mavericks, 
in its "Elite Four" of top NBA teams for the upcoming season.

In there opening 9-point win over Philly on Monday, the "Cubanos" welcomed 
two familiar faces to Boston Celtics fans (Tim Hardaway and Adrian Griffin).

"Old school" Adrian entered the game for Dallas as the 6th man and stayed 
out there for 28 minutes, 9 points and 7 boards. Adrian had a typically 
efficient game, making 60% of his FGs and 75% of his FTs. Just the way I 
like to remember him.

"Yo Adrian" was certainly a favorite Celtics players over these past years 
to many longtime fans like us. I hope Griffin will have many more 
productive, healthy years in the NBA and get a chance to contribute to his 
team in some big playoff moments (preferably against the Gaykers).

Another key bench substitute, Tim Hardaway, ended the Philly game as the 
Mavs second leading scorer (13 points, 4 assists in 24 minutes) behind Dirk 
Nowitzki. It'll be nice to see Tim out there getting Antoine all fired up. 
Incumbent point guard Steve Nash had 12 points and 6 assists.

The Mavs also gave a lot of bench minutes to free agent pickups Danny 
Manning and Evan Eschmeyer, a Northwestern grad who took down 5 boards per 
game in 18 minutes last season for the NJ Nets.

Gone from last year's bench are Howard Eisley, Gary Trent and Mark Bryant. 
Oh and BTW, where have you gone Zhi Zhi Wang?

Khalid El-Amin is part of a very crowded backcourt, so you guys might not 
get to see him play on Friday night (or at all) for the Mavs. Veteran free 
agent Mugsy Bogues is also fighting for a roster spot as his inspirational 
career winds down.

Superstar Michael Finley (.458 .775 21.5ppg 5.2 rpg 4.4 apg) led Dallas 
last year in steals with 1.44. He's not really an exceptional 3-point 
threat in general. On paper, our own Paul Pierce is closing very rapidly in 
the USA Dream Teamers' rear view mirror.

The other franchise cornerstone, Dirk Nowitzki, led the Mavs in scoring 
(21.8) and rebounding (9.2). But he also averaged 2 assists and 2 
turnovers, so any Larry Bird analogies need to stop right there!! That's a 
little pet peave of mine.

Shawn Bradley (7.4 rpg, 2.8 bpg) and Juwon Howard (7.1 boards, 18.0 ppg) 
are two well-paid Cubanos who will be a big key to the team this season. 
They form a pretty solid starting C-PF duo, but they'll need to stay 
healthy because the Mavs are very thin at that position. Overall, the 
starting Dallas frontcourt averages a freakish 7 feet 1 inches tall or so, 
thanks to Bradley and Nowitzki.

Point guard Steve Nash had a breakout year last season, leading the Mavs in 
FG% (.487) and FT% (.895) while setting career season highs in scoring, 
assists and rebounding.

Basically, the Mavs have a core group in the 27-28 year old range (Finley, 
Nash, Bradley, Griffin, Juwon) complementing Nowitzki. Boston's main talent 
nucleus is a few years younger and quite a bit less experienced.

Last year was Dallas' big coming out party in the NBA, and obviously all of 
us (even "Way" presumably) hope this year or next will prove to be 
Boston's. Like Way, we want the Celtics to *equate* themselves in a 
thoroughly professional manner. ;-)

Friday's game marks Boston's second straight showdown against a 50+ win 
opponent from last season.

The Mavs rolled to 57 total wins last year, to be precise.

The Dallas game also is the first of a weekend B2B for our Boston Celtics 
that will end in Texas against another ESPN "Elite Four" team: the 65-win 
San Antonio Spurs. That's going to be a tough game!

Go Celts Go!


p.s. FWIW, David Robinson reportedly told Bloomberg News that it might not 
be appropriate to refer to himself and Tim Duncan as the "Twin Towers" any 
longer. I guess they could be the "Eiffel Towers" in honor of the new 
French-import Tony Parker, who will be feeding them the ball. Or the 
"Eiffel (into a burnin' ring of fire) Towers" as Johnny Cash would say.

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