Wednesday, February 20, 2008

New Orleans Hornets 104, Dallas Mavericks 93

By Pegasus News wire

The Dallas Mavericks were armed with a new weapon Wednesday night, but it failed to produce the desired result in a disappointing 104-93 loss to the division rival Hornets in New Orleans. Jason Kidd, recently acquired from New Jersey for Devin Harris, DeSagana Diop and two first round picks, played a mostly-awkward first game in his second stint with the Mavs as they lost to the Conference-leading Hornets.

Photo not provided by the Dallas Mavericks

Obviously, the Kidd Era II has been a colossal disappointment

Kidd got a reverse-triple-double, failing to register in double digits in any of the three statistical categories he's made a career of, putting up just 8 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists. Kidd also had a team-high 6 turnovers, although he did manage to collect 3 steals.

The primary beneficiary of Kidd's arrival was undoubtedly Dirk Nowitzki, who scored 31 points on 11-of-21 shooting, while also collecting 8 rebounds and a pair of assists on his own. Dirk seemed to enjoy the relative lack of constant-double-teams, and should benefit from Kidd's ball disbursement abilities for the remainder of the season.

Jason Terry contributed 14 points off the bench, while Dampier --possibly motivated by an endless barrage of unfavorable national media attention following the Kidd trade-- had an efficient game, putting up 11 points on 5-of-7 shooting, 7 rebounds and a pair of steals.

The loss drops the Mavs to 35-19, two full games behind division-leading New Orleans.

Posted by Todd M.

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