Full-Court Press

Who steps up tonight?

Since Jason Terry went down, it's been interesting to see which Maverick steps out of his shell and takes more of the burden on his shoulders. Antoine Wright's done it in two games, and although it was in a losing effort last night, you had to be impressed with J.J. Barea's career-high 26 points against the Rockets last night. He certainly did his part.

Now obviously the Mavs are playing a rough Sacramento Kings team that's last in the West, not a No. 5 seed. But I'm asking this, anyway, well enough ahead of time to get opinions (not five minutes before tip like usual): Who's the man tonight?

-- Tracey Myers

Mavs interested in Lue

According to a league source, the Mavericks are in the mix for veteran point guard Tyronn Lue, who was waived by Sacramento on Friday.

The source said Denver and Phoenix are also interested in the 10th-year player out of Nebraska. Lue, who was acquired by the Kings in the trade that sent Mike Bibby to Atlanta, can sign with another team Tuesday and be eligible for the playoffs because he was waived by Friday’s deadline.

The Mavs have an open roster spot and some minutes available at backup point guard, where J.J. Barea and Devean George have played recently.

Lue, 6-0, 175 pounds, averaged 6.8 points and 1.8 assists in 33 games this season.

— Jeff Caplan

Ager coming up, Barea going down

Avery Johnson said one player currently playing in the D-League -- there's two, Moe Ager and rookie Nick Fazekas -- will be re-joining the Mavs soon to make room for second-year guard J.J. Barea to make his first trip to the Tulsa 66ers this season.

Johnson said Barea needs to get some minutes. If Barea is inactive for tonight's game, it will be the 13th consecutive game in which he has not dressed. It's possible, but not definite, that Ager will join the team when it leaves for Minneapolis on Saturday. They play the T-Wolves on Sunday afternoon.

-- Jeff Caplan

Life at the end of the bench

Limbo is often the state of existence for an end-of-the-bencher kind of guy like Mavs guard J.J. Barea. Will he be active and put on the uniform tonight? Will he be inactive and be resigned to a sport coat?

Or, will he be assigned to the D-League team in Tulsa like teammate Moe Ager was last week. That's certainly not where he wants to be.

"Right now [he'll] keep practicing with the team because he's our third point guard and there are times in practice where we need him here, especially with us having two guys in the developmental league right now," coach Avery Johnson said, noting Ager and rookie Nick Fazekas.

"It's more beneficial for [J.J.] to be here now. That could change down the road."

Gulp. But such is life trying to make in the NBA. Barea really helped this team out earlier in the year through some injuries and other things. He even started four games early on, and came off the bench in a couple of games to provide a spark during that lackluster period the Mavs struggled through.

As for Fazekas and Ager, Johnson didn't have much to say about either one, other than to give them time, play some games and then the coaching staff will evaluate their progress.

-- Jeff Caplan

 

Ginobili will play; JJ might not

Manu Ginobili will play tonight against the Mavs despite a sore left index finger that he hurt in Sunday's game against Portland.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said Ginobili, who was signing autographs (he's lefthanded) minutes ago, wants to play so he sees no reason to hold him out.

On the Mavs' side, JJ Barea, who's garnered more playing time recently, might not be able to go with a dinged-up right shoulder. He hurt it Monday at Chicago when Andres Nocioni pegged him while setting a screen.

JJ's been going through treatment, but during the team's pre-game shootaround a few minutes ago he said it wasn't feeling much better. Good thing that Devin Harris will play despite having hurt his neck in the Chicago game.

-- Jeff Caplan

J.J.'s night not entirely out of nowhere

After J.J. Barea's stellar night, the term "out of nowhere" comes to mind. It's not entirely accurate, though.

Barea was the Colonial Athletic Association Player of the Year in his senior year at Northeastern and is touted as the most exciting player ever to don a Husky uniform. His senior year, he scored 32 on Old Dominion, had 14 assists against Central Connecticut and shot an astonishing 11-14 three pointers against Rider University. He came close to a triple double that season during his first game in which he had 22 points, 8 rebounds and 9 assists against Brown University.

Given, he wasn't playing against world-class competition, but averaging 21 points and 6.3 assists over a four-year college career at a Div. I school is still nothing to shake a stick at.

His successes in the D-League last year are also well documented. When the Mavs sent him down to the Fort Worth Flyers for eight games, he responded by averaging 27.3 points, 7.8 assists and 5 rebounds. He scored 41 in one game and 43 in another, a D-League high for the season. When he was done slashing the lane among the pogo sticks in the D-League, the Mavs brought him back up to the big leagues, presumably to help on the practice squad and play spot minutes.

Given, tonight was one game against a truly stinky Kings team, but he has proven in the past that whatever level of competition he has faced, he steps up and plays much bigger than his slight frame.

Maybe Randy Galloway was onto something with his JJ prognostication a few weeks ago.
-Scooter Hendon, Hoops Nerd