After being completely embarrassed by Kobe Bryant last Tuesday, the Mavericks came in looking to earn their third straight victory and reestablish themselves as a Western contender. The same could be said for Indiana, who doesn’t appear to be a serious threat in the East since Artest was suspended. This should have been a game with two powers; instead, we got a 102-80 victory for the Mavs.

If you ever needed a game to really show how important rebounding is, this was it. With 8:30 remaining in the 3rd Dallas was out rebounding on Indiana 32-14, and Erick Dampier had as many boards as the Pacers. The Mavs had a ridiculous 19 offensive rebounds and outscored the Pacers overall 49-30.

The Pacers entered this game eighth in the league in rebounding but were undersized. O’Neal was playing C and Chroshere was playing PF. In the future, they need Harrison, Pollard or Foster to play Center, because today they were annihilated on the glass. No Pacer had more than 4 rebounds. That’s not doing it, as if they hadn’t played bad enough to lose, no Pacer had more than 15 points. At a minimum, you need to be ready to score against the Mavericks. Offensively, they just stood there, giving it to O’Neal, who would take a bad shot and miss.

Dallas saw several players stand out last night: Dirk Nowitzki had 23 and didn’t play most of the 4th. Devin Harris had perhaps the best game of his career off the bench with 20 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists. Jerry Stackhouse contributed 15 in his second game back from injury. Josh Howard had 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Without Artest, the Pacers just aren’t a contender. Losing James Jones, Dale Davis and Reggie Miller was enough to slow them down, but losing Artest is the last straw. They have to pull the trigger soon, whether it’s for Stojakovic or Odom. Jasikevicus doesn’t provide the defensive toughness that Artest provides and has struggled lately as well.

The winning Mavericks are tied with the Spurs for the best record in the West and have held their teams under 100 in their last 3 wins. They are 14-3 against teams that were in the playoffs last year. Indiana’s bench got its starters back, which should never happen. Jeff Foster and Chroshere had 4 rebounds to lead the team; ties the Sonics for the fewest rebounds for the team leader in a game this year (the Sonics lost that game by 27).