Chapter 8 Minnesota's Warm Country
The Mavericks in the 1993-1994 season, guard Jim Jackson and small forward Jamal Mashburn built the team as the core, but the team did not have the right person in the No. 1, No. 4 and No. 5 positions, and last year's conscience Terry Davis missed the team's first 28 games due to a knee injury, and after playing 15 games, the season was reimbursed. He averaged only 3.7 points and 4.9 rebounds per game, and this injury also became a turning point in Terry Davis's career, and Davis, who had performed very well, took a sharp turn for the worse, playing only 74 games in the last two seasons, and then mixed with the Wizards, Nuggets, and disappeared from the NBA in the three seasons after leaving the Mavericks.
Darren Morningstein, a short center with a height of 208 cm, was bought by the Mavericks in the second round of the Celtics this year and became the team's starting center in the new season, used 22 games, played 15 starts, averaged 4.3 points and 3.6 rebounds per game, found it inappropriate, was abandoned, Morningstein played a total of 23 games in his career, and then played four minutes in the Jazz and did not appear in the NBA.
After Morningstein found out that it didn't work, the Mavericks quickly grabbed the Indiana Pacers' water cooler center Greg D'Leeling, who is 213 cm tall and has been playing with the Pacers as a backup center for 7 seasons, basically averaging less than 10 minutes per game, scoring 2 points and 2 rebounds, D'Leelin played 54 games in the Mavericks this season, including 19 starts, playing an average of 13 minutes per game, scoring 2.4 points and 3.1 rebounds.
Puoberje-Jones, 203 cm tall, was the second-round pick of the Rockets last year, but the Rockets have not signed, and was signed by the Mavericks this year and became the team's starting power forward in the new season, playing 81 games in the new season, starting 48 games, averaging 5.8 points, 7.5 rebounds per game, and 3.7 frontcourt rebounds.
The Mavericks started with three consecutive kneeling games, scoring less than 90 points in all three games, except for Mashburn and Jackson, no one could score, and in the fourth, relying on the 36 points of the fourth game of the Marshburn rookie, the Mavericks defeated the Timberwolves and won the first blood of the season. After that, the Mavericks knelt down, kneeled Jazz, kneeled Knicks, kneeled Clippers, kneeled SuperSonics, knelt Trail Blazers, knelt Clippers, knelt Bulls, knelt Spurs...... Twenty consecutive kneeling games broke the team history record for the second consecutive year!
And the Mavericks let the Mavericks kneel for 21 consecutive games, or the Timberwolves, relying on Jim Jackson's 16-of-10 28 points, the Mavericks defeated the Timberwolves 93-89 away, won the second blood of the season, and then another wave of 16 consecutive kneeling, the third victory was based on Jackson and Mashburn combined to score 40 points, and Randy White's 17 points and 14 rebounds to help the Mavericks win the Kings, at this time, the season has passed the halfway point, the first 42 games, the Mavericks only won 3 games, The team's all-time low of 9-72 is happily waving at the Mavericks.
76 people: Come on, be happy, there is a lot of time anyway, come on, be pretentious, there is a lot of scenery anyway......
The Maverick couldn't help but shudder......
Next, it is the Timberwolves who send warmth, only in the second game after the Mavericks defeated the Kings, the Mavericks relied on Mashburn's 26 points to defeat the Timberwolves for the third time, and the Mavericks won four games this season, three of which were sent by the Timberwolves!
Maverick: Lao Tzu is really unlucky this year.
Timberwolves: Lao Tzu is!
After the Mavericks knelt on the Lakers Nuggets for two games in a row, they met the Timberwolves at home!
Maverick: I can change the world, change myself, change cowardice, change stinginess......
Timberwolves: I used to ask when you were going to come with me, but you always laughed at me and had nothing......
After four quarters, the Timberwolves struggled, played overtime, and then knelt in front of the Mavericks......
Four of the Mavericks' first five wins of the season came from a chilly greeting from the city of Minnesota.
The Mavericks, who defeated the Timberwolves, were so demoralized that they pulled the Washington bullets off the horse back-to-back to win their sixth game, and after kneeling three times in a row, in their 52nd game of the season, the Mavericks relied on Mashburn's 23 points to beat the Pistons away from home to tie the worst record in NBA team history with seven wins, and the next thing is to break him.
At this moment, the fans didn't have to wait too long, and after only one kneel, the Mavericks relied on Marshburn to score a season-high 36 points, defeated the Hornets, won the eighth victory, and avoided becoming the team with the worst record in NBA history in the second season! After winning the victory, the Mavericks were relieved, they were all professional athletes, they all wanted to be faced, who was willing to nail themselves to the pillar of shame in history, after the game, Mashburn grinned, gritted his big teeth, and was very happy, as if he had won the championship, but this was the 54th game of the whole season, and the relaxed Mavericks were careless, and then, they knelt for seventeen games in a row! Until the last eleventh game of the season, the Mavericks defeated the Kings and won the 9th victory of the season, and then after kneeling for three consecutive games, the Mavericks relied on the 44 points contributed by Jackson and Mashburn to defeat the Trail Blazers by one point, and in the second game of back-to-back, the Mavericks relied on the 65 points contributed by the only players in the team who were above the average level of the three teams, and defeated the Nuggets by two points, winning two consecutive wins and getting the 11th victory of the season!
After kneeling for three games in a row, in the final second game of the season, the Mavericks once again relied on the 50 points contributed by the new version of the Dallas duo, as well as the 18 points and 10 rebounds scored by Lucas, defeated the Rockets and won the 12th game of the season......
At this time, in the heart of the timberwolf, 10,000 grass and mud horses galloped by......
Maverick: Here comes the old man!
Timberwolves: Life is like a bow, although a woman does it, since you can't hide it, you have to enjoy it......
For the fifth time this season, the Timberwolves fell to their knees in front of the Mavericks......
Five of the Mavericks' 13 wins this season have come from Minnesota, and without the Timberwolves, the consequences would be unimaginable! It is worth mentioning that the Mavericks won the position of the president of the squad this year, and the vice president is the Timberwolves, who have a record of 20 wins and 62 losses, and the Bucks and Pistons take turns to sit on the pile.
After the season, Buckner stepped down, and the Mavericks welcomed back the 64-year-old team's first head coach Dirk Motta back to coach, Motta took a two-season break after his sudden resignation in 1986-1987, and then coached in Saramento for two and a half years, and was fired in the 1991-1992 season because of the 7-18 record at the beginning of the season.
The poor record once again allowed the Mavericks to get the 1995 first-round pick, which they used to select guard from the University of California, Jason Kidd.
Kidd is 193 cm tall, plays the No. 1 position, is undoubtedly a Hall of Fame-level guard, his basketball origins, from another NBA Hall of Fame-level guard Gary Payton, has been playing behind Payton since he was a child, so his style of play has always been the same as Payton, emphasizing passing and defense, high school Kidd met the second Bole in his career, the famous coach Frank Rabert, he planned his own route for the young Kidd, and for more than 30 years since then, Kidd has been following this path, Kidd was named to the All-American Rookie and Pacific Conference All-NBA Team in his freshman season, made NCAA history with 272 assists in his sophomore season, and won the 1992 Naismith Player of the Year Award, after his sophomore season, Kidd decided to participate in the NBA draft, and was selected by the Mavericks who were in need of a vacancy at the top of the list, thus beginning a legendary career.
Kidd's biggest weakness is that his physical fitness is average, singles basically rely on the change of rhythm to export space, like black players who simply rely on speed or explosiveness to get rid of defenders is basically a fool's dream, and the three-point shooting ability is not very stable, and often short-circuited, nicknamed "Ji Bu Attack", (popularize the science of the four super guards of that era - Ji Bu Attack, Na Bu Defense, Long No Shot, Mo Bu Pass) ......
Although Kidd's offensive ability is not considered to play, he has an incomparably smart brain, how many cumbersome offensive tactics, in Kidd's heart is clear, the capture of opportunities on the field is extremely accurate, can cut through the fog, find the best quality offensive players, and Kidd has a very good sense of position, rebounding ability for the role of guard, is considered superior, such a characteristic, so that Kidd to get a triple-double or quasi-triple-double is commonplace, and in most games, what affects Kidd to get a triple-double is the score......
Kidd's arrival, along with Jackson and Mashburn, the new Dallas trio, has become a new hope for the Mavericks, who have been weak for many years. Since the establishment of the team, except for the four players selected in the early days of the team, Aguirre, Blackman, Vincent, and Haber, the other draft picks have basically been wasted, which directly led to the team's serious lack of success in the late eighties and early nineties.
In addition to Kidd, Haber's first-round pick to the Knicks became the 19th pick in the first round, and the Mavericks used that pick to select Chicago's shooting guard, Tony Dumas, who will be a solid backup for the team for the next two years. The team not only relied on the draft this time, but also gained in the free market, 2 years and 2 million signed a forward who played in the Pacers before, George McLeod, McLeod is 198 cm tall, plays the third or fourth position, and is the seventh pick in the first round of the Pacers four years ago, but it has not been played, the shooting percentage has been hovering around forty percent, and he will not pass, he averages two assists per game, he will be accompanied by two turnovers, and he did not get a contract extension from the Pacers at the end of the season, and switched to the Mavericks, this signing, It was also a signing that benefited the Mavericks, and McLeod played well with the Mavericks.
Although the team has joined three strong newcomers, the team's lineup also obviously has a huge shortcoming, that is, the inside, the former conscience Terry Davis after a major injury last season, the state is gone, and the team's former hopeful star, Randy White, who was once expected to grow into "Malone second", was abandoned by the Mavericks after only 18 games last season and never found a job in the NBA again. Another high-pick interior Doug Smith was reused last season, but still didn't show a good performance, this season is basically a semi-abandoned state, played 63 games, averaged only 13.1 minutes per game, got 5 points and 2.3 rebounds, after the end of the season, Smith signed with the Celtics, played 17 games, and disappeared from the NBA.
Lorenzo Williams, 206 cm tall, playing in the fourth or fifth position, is a player with a low starting point, participated in the 1992 draft, but was not selected, after being signed by the Hornets with a base salary contract, he moved to six teams in two seasons, came to the Mavericks before the trade deadline last season, and in the Mavericks, who had no one on the inside this season, Williams officially sat in the team's starting center position, playing an average of 29 minutes per game, With 4 points and 8.4 rebounds, last season's power forward Pauberje Jones is still the team's starting power forward this season, playing at the peak of his career this season, averaging 10.3 points and 10.6 rebounds per game.
Obviously, the Mavericks are Jim Jackson and Mashburn who are mainly on the outside, Kidd is responsible for delivering cannonballs, Jones and Williams are responsible for defense and rebounding on the inside double-basket, and Tony Dumas, Lucios Harris, and Donald Hodge are sitting on the bench.
In the first game of the new season against the Nets, this is how the Mavericks won, the two major attack arrows Jackson scored 37 points, Marshburn scored 30 points, Kidd scored 10 points on 3-of-10 from the field to give 11 assists and grabbed 9 rebounds in the first game of his career, while Puoberje Jones grabbed 11 rebounds, including 8 frontcourt rebounds, Lorenzo Williams grabbed 9 rebounds, and Hodge and Dumas combined for 16 points off the bench.
The Mavericks in the new season showed a good competitive state, the first four games, three wins and one loss, and then the team also received a good news, the former Mavericks' hopeful star, Roy Tapre, successfully detoxified, after passing the NBA physical examination, announced that he would rejoin the Mavericks with 300 a year! Although Tapree has been wasted by time for four years, Tapree is still vigorous when he returns to the NBA, contributing many explosive data of 20 points, 18 rebounds, 21 points and 16 rebounds this season.
In the second game, although Jackson scored 37 points again back-to-back, Jones grabbed 15 rebounds, including 12 rebounds in the frontcourt, but the team still lost to the Nuggets with an 8-point difference, the most classic is the fourth game, the Mavericks beat the Bulls, facing Jordan who was out of the Bulls due to injury, Mashburn was like no one in the whole court, and he was asked for under the basket, Pippen couldn't prevent him at all, and finally Mashburn shot 19 of 31 in the whole process, and in the second year of his career, he scored a career-high 50 points! Jackson played just as well, scoring 38 points on 14-of-26 shooting! The two stars teamed up to lead the Mavericks to defeat the Bulls! Got the third win of the season!
This is a portrayal of the real situation of the Mavericks this season, with Kidd in charge of delivering shells, Mashburn and Jackson slashed points crazily, leading the Mavericks to win one victory after another, Mashburn just won 50+, Jim Jackson did not let much, after six games, the Mavericks played against the Nuggets away, and Jackson shot 17 of 28 from the field and also scored 50 points! set a new career high, Marshburn scored 35 points, and the two of them once again led the Mavericks through an overtime to win the Nuggets! After four more games, the god-like Mashburn returned for the second time, and the Mavericks faced the Washington Bullets, facing Chris Webb, the player who once stole his best rookie, Mashburn breathed fire in his eyes, and scored 45 points on 18-of-28 shooting! But Chris Webb had 23 points and 14 rebounds to take away the game. Three games later, Jackson went on a rampage again, defeating the Celtics 122-113 at home, Jackson shot 13-of-18 and dropped 40 points and 11 rebounds, it is worth mentioning that Jones scored 25 points and 20 rebounds in this game, including a career high in rebounds!
At the beginning of the season, Mashburn and Jackson were on the court, constantly creating one scoring record after another, and the team's record cannot be said to be very good, but at least it is not a character who kneels first before seeing someone, and more importantly, the Mavericks also see the hope of the playoffs.
But all hope for the Mavericks came to an abrupt end on February 24, 1995, when Jim Jackson made a layup in the seventh minute of the first quarter of the game, and after landing a severe ankle sprain, he retired from the game, and then lost a shooting guard who averaged 25.7 points per game on 47.2% shooting, which was second only to Jordan and Olajuwon in points per game on the scoring list that year. Before Jackson was reimbursed, the Mavericks had a 20-30 record, and after Jim Jackson was reimbursed, Jason Kidd, who had a tepid performance in the first half of the season, stepped up and began a plan to save the Mavericks.