First time here? Subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Ok let me start off by saying that I really don't agree with this but it is what it is. Avery Johnson was fired today as the Mavericks head Coach after their second straight first round playoff loss.

NBA front-office sources told ESPN.com that both the Mavs and Johnson, feeling that a coaching change was inevitable, wanted to come to a resolution quickly so Dallas could begin interviewing other candidates and Johnson could pursue another job.

Johnson leaves with an impressive résumé after three-plus seasons, but Mavs owner Mark Cuban couldn't tolerate a bottom line of being 3-12 in the playoffs since blowing a 2-0 lead in the 2006 NBA Finals.

The Mavericks followed that disappointment by the embarrassment of being ousted by Golden State in the opening round last season in one of the biggest upsets in league history. They were just dumped in five games by Chris Paul and the New Orleans Hornets. Dallas didn't win a single road game against the Heat, Warriors or Hornets, an 0-9 skid that was too much to overcome.

They didn't waste anytime on this one. They just lost last night.

Avery Johnson's regular season record was a pretty impressive 194-70 but in the playoffs he was only 23-24 with a loss in the finals against the Heat in 2006.

I wouldn't say that these losses were Johnson's fault though. I guess they always put the blame on coach no matter what but in this case I think either Jason Kidd or Dirk Nowitzki had to go. Jason Kidd was torched by Chris Paul in their matchup against the Hornets and Dirk Nowitzki is as soft as a feather and gets torched in every playoff series.

So apparently Sportfiends isn't the only ones who have been questioning how tough Dirk Nowitzki actually is. I've been wondering about it for a long time and I guess David West took his chance to test him himself in their game 1 matchup on Saturday.

Check out the play with David West and Dirk Nowitzki in which Dirk ended up taking one in the cheeck from West. Some people called this play dirty but I just think that it was a sign of affection. Regardless, Dirk didn't do anything about it.

So if that wasn't enough, they decided to test Dirk again, and again he failed. After getting a BS foul call, Tyson Chandler gave Dirk a little shove and he flew about 10 feet. It was definitely one of those "you've gotta be kidding me" flops that would've made Manu Ginobili proud.

So what do you guys think? Is Dirk soft or does he just like to stuff peoples faces in his armpit?

A few weeks ago, when the deal for Jason Kidd first went down and they couldn't beat any good teams, I would've told you that it was over for the Mavs but with Dirk back now it looks like they are finally getting on track.

They are now winning close games against elite teams in the West and they have finally clinched a playoff spot with their close win over the Jazz last night.  This was the shot that won it for them with .9 seconds left.  Nice shot Dirk.

Ok so since Dirk Nowitzki went down with an injury he's had a lot of time on his hands.  Apparently he's tryin to get his Bryant Gumbel on by being an play by play guy.  He sounds like a mixture between Bill Walton and David Hasselhoff.  It might work for him though, I mean he's already proven that he can't lead a team to an NBA title so he's gotta figure out something else to do to pay the bills.

Celtics 94 - Rockets 74

If your gonna lose to anyone, it might as well be the best team in the league. Kevin Garnett lead the way for the Celtics in their late second half push with 22 points. The Celtics outscored the Rockets 32-16 the third quarter and didn't look back, beating the Rockets 94-74.

The Rockets 22 game win streak was snapped with this loss. This was their first loss in nearly two months when they lost to the Jazz at home on January 27th.

The Celtics did a good job of stopping Tracy McGrady in this one. T-mac started out with 6 points in the first quarter but had just 2 points for the rest of the game to finish with 8 points, 8 assists and 7 rebounds. Tough game for him but he isn't worried about it. Which he shouldn't be.

After the game, Kevin Garnett shot down the comments of his former GM Glen Taylor.

Pistons 136 - Nuggets 120

There was good news and bad news for the Nuggets last night. Against one of the leagues top defensive teams, they managed to score 120 points. The bad news is that they gave up 136 points. The Pistons topped the Nuggets (which they usually do) 136-120.

If only the Nuggets could play the Sonics every night.

Lakers 102 - Mavericks 100

The Lakers almost managed to blow a 25 point lead in this one but they didn't. Dirk Nowitzki missed the 3 pointer that would've given the Mavs the win at the buzzer. The Lakers won this won 102-100 in the end despite being outscored 62-45 in the second half.

Kobe Bryant scored 29 points in this and had a nifty spinning layup thingy.

Jazz 116 - Mavericks 110

Utah lost one of their starters, and lost a big lead but they still managed to hold on long enough for a win.

The Jazz went on a momentum changing fourth quarter and knocked down all 18 free throws in the fourth quarter, to help them to the 116-110 win over the Mavs at home. This helped them to maintain the best home record in the lead and leave them near the top of the Western conference where they need to be if they want to have a chance to go anywhere.

The crowd didn't appreciate Dirk Nowitzki in the first quarter and the rest of the game after he fouled Andrei Kirilenko hard and took him out of the game. AK47 is ok though, he got X-rays on his hip and they were negative.

Hornets 100 - Knicks 88

This was actually a close game, until late in the fourth when the Hornets went on a 10-0 run to end the game, not a bad way to close out a game.

Chris Paul had a hand in three of the clutch baskets that solidified to Hornets 100-88 victory over the Knicks. Paul scored two of the baskets himself and got the ball to Tyson Chandler for an alley oop.

No one can question David Lee's hustle, but just like a lot of Knicks, sometimes he tends to help out the other team more than his own.

Lakers 108 - Mavericks 104

In the first half Kobe Bryant missed 7 of his first 10 free throws. He went on to hit 15 of 15 in the fourth quarter and overtime to lead the Lakers to a 108-104 victory in overtime over the new look Mavs. Kobe finished the game with 52 points after scoring 30 points in the fourth and overtime.

The Mavs tried all sorts of different defenses to stop him but none of them worked.

"We gave him a single look, then we double-teamed him, then we gave him a triple-team and he split the triple-team and scored,'' Johnson said. "We tried to zone him, we tried to funnel him in the trap for a zone and he went the other way. He didn't cooperate on any of our defenses.

"Obviously he milked the free throw line on us and he just had it all going. He's a great player. He has these (games). Lots of these.''

The game went to overtime when Jason Kidd found Dirk Nowitzki for a game tying three pointer after the Mavs managed to lose the lead they had for most of the second half. Once the game went into overtime, Kobe took over helping the Lakers to a 3 point lead with just second to go. Jason Kidd made a great play by getting a layup and a foul but he folded under the pressure and missed the game tying free throw.

Rockets 103 - Nuggets 89

The Rockets have managed to continue the seasons longest winning streak and tying the longest winning streak that the Rockets have had in franchise history, both years that they had those winning streaks they won the championship, we'll see how that works out for them this time.

The Rockets didn't need the injured Yao Ming to beat the 9th place Nuggets at home last night in their 103-89 win. The Rockets took the lead at the end of the first quarter and they did not look back after that. They led for the rest of the game and by double digits for most of it. Tracy McGrady finished with 22, Shane Battier had 20 and Luis Scola had 18. Dikembe Mutombo even came up big, getting 3 blocks and thouroughly getting on Kenyon Martin's nerves, LoL.

Cavaliers 95 - Bulls 86

For Drew Gooden and Larry Hughes, they finally found out firsthand what many other teams in the league already know, LeBron James and getting better and better, more and more dominant and he is nearly unstoppable in the fourth quarter at this point in his career.

James' former teammates now play for the Bulls and they, like other teams, were not able to stop LeBron when it counted and he took over to finish with 37 including a key stretch in the fourth when he scored six straight points.  His production lead the Cavs to a 95-86 win.

Pistons 116 - Suns 86

The Pistons are a team that always plays better against better competition, so of course they were gonna be ready for Shaq and the Suns but yesterdays game was ridiculous. The Pistons beat the Suns by 30 points in a 116 - 86 beatdown.

"This was a big game for us,'' Billups said. "You know how we are, man, when we play against other elite teams, we lock in. We lock in big-time. I thought everybody played great today - everybody.''

Six Pistons scored in double figures, lead by Rasheed Wallace who had 22 points and completely dominated downlow.

Cavaliers 109 - Grizzlies 89

So apparently LeBron and his new teammates didn't really need much time to get acquainted with his new squad. Now to be fair, they were playing the Grizzlies but it is what it is.

LeBron James finished the game with 25 points and 11 assists and all of the players picked up in the big trade contributed in the Cavs 109-89 win over the Grizzlies.

Ben Wallace, who started at power forward, scored 12 points and 10 rebounds, while Delonte West, the starter at point guard, scored five points with six assists. Joe Smith and Wally Szczerbiak, came off the bench. Smith scored 14 points while Szczerbiak had 10.

Heres some highlights:

Around the league

• The Magic got a huge fourth-quarter effort from their reserves in a 112-93 win over the Kings.
• Paul Pierce scored 30 points and the Boston Celtics rebounded from a slow start to beat the Portland Trail Blazers 112-102 and snap a three-game losing streak.
• Andrea Bargnani had 25 points and Chris Bosh added 17 as the Toronto Raptors rebounded from a loss to New York two days earlier and beat the Knicks 115-92.
• Jason Kidd tied his season high with 17 assists in his third game with Dallas and Dirk Nowitzki scored 29 points to lead the Mavericks to a 99-83 win over Minnesota.
• Tracy McGrady had 24 points and eight assists and the Houston Rockets extended their winning streak to 12 games with a 110-97 win over the Chicago Bulls.
• Kobe Bryant scores 21 points and hands out 10 assists despite missing the final 16 minutes after being ejected in Lakers' 111-91 rout of the Sonics.