Insider Special: Power Outage

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NBA Power Outage: Are the rims

bigger in Big D?

By Terry Brown

Wednesday, November 13 Updated 10:37 AM EST

Pardon the Dallas Mavericks if they fail to box out on the offensive glass from time to time.

Shoot 47.6 percent as a team to start the new season, including 42 percent from three-point range, and 79 percent from the line and score a league-leading 105.6 points per game for the second season in a row, and, well, sometimes you tend to forget that the ball doesn't always go through the hoop.

In Big D these days, pigs fly, chickens have lips and 7-footers averaging 11 boards a game also hit two triples a contest at 46 percent and shoot 51 percent for the rest of the game. The point guard brings the ball up the court, leads the team in assists and scores 17 per game while shooting even better from long range, 57 percent, and almost as good as the big guy a little bit closer, 50 percent. Not to mention the shooting guard who is expected to score the same 20 points he's been for the last five seasons.

But it's not just the points, but rather the back-to-back buckets that turn into runs that turn into routes, one lay-up after another, always hitting the open man, always passing, cutting, spotting one guy up with a scope and a smile. The unselfishness seems scripted by mouse ears. Paging, Emilio. Glover will do. Nellie, though, isn't bad at all.

Counting the preseason, Dallas has had four different leading scorers and six different leading rebounders. If the Mavericks had hit only 14 more of their 578 shots before Tuesday night, they'd have been shooting heads or tails with loaded dice and a rigged deck. Anybody for a shell game?

I mean, how many other teams won by 9 points Tuesday night to remain undefeated and walked off the court as if they had just ran over their puppy because they didn't score triple-digits for only the second time in seven games?

How many teams were six points in the right places from having seven players on the same roster averaging double-digits, a guy who comes off the bench to drill a three-pointer and a half every night at 42 percent and another sub who shoots 65 percent?

How many teams could lose their starting center who was shooting 50 percent and then immediately replace him by another center shooting 59 while his backup shoots 66?

Welcome to Texas, where everything, including the size of the rim it appears, is that much bigger.

I would fill in the names but by the time I got from Nowitzki to Najera to Eschmeyer, forget first names all together, these guys would have scored twice, subbed once and blown three bulbs on their side of the scoreboard.

Need I remind you, last year the Mavs scored just as much and finished the season at 46.2 percent from the field. Currently, they're at 47.6 percent, which is somewhat amazing since only seven of the 29 teams in the NBA started Tuesday night's games shooting better than they did last year.

It's early, I know.

But, then, again, how in the world did the Mavericks score 441 points last week?

BEST OFFENSIVE IMPROVEMENTS

1. Orlando Magic

Difference: +2.6% shooting

Comment: If the grasshopper is scoring 30 a night at 51 percent, then the guy holding the pebble had, at least, shoot 63 percent if he's contributing only 20. And once Tracy McGrady, the former, and Grant Hill, the latter, have finished making a mockery of our boxscore system, then maybe they can tell the rest of us how the third leading scorer on their team, Mike Miller (15 ppg at 46 percent), plays the exact same position as they do. Last year, the Magic shot 44.8 percent from the field. This year, they're at 47.4. Next year, we separate the two and flip to see who picks first.

2. Atlanta Hawks

Difference: +2.4% shooting.

Comment: Glenn Robinson is good. Shareef Abdur-Rahim is better. But the best player on this team may very well be Jason Terry, the shooting guard running the point but racking up numbers like both. These guys isolate on another level. The other four players, I swear, are on the opposite side of the court placing bets amongst themselves on the first one to 20. Double-teams pay twice as there isn't a player on the squad playing 20 minutes or more a night who shoots below 46 percent. Except, of course, Terry. And that's only to humor the other two.

3. Milwaukee Bucks

Difference: +2.2% shooting

Comment: Big Dog . . . who needs him? Not when the other four starters on the team (Allen, Cassell, Mason and Gadzuric) are shooting a combined 48 percent and the first two guys off the bench (Redd and Kukoc) are at 50 percent and 29 points. That's 80 percent of the team's points at nearly 50-50. Last year, with Robinson, the Bucks shot 46 percent. Without him, they're at 48. We'll see if the bark and bite thing lasts, though.

4. (tie) Dallas Mavericks

Difference: +2.2 shooting

Comment: See above.

4. (tie) Los Angeles Clippers

Difference: +1.4 shooting

Comment: Can we help it if last year's assist leader and new point guard gets the ball to the right people, namely Elton Brand (47% FG) or Michael Olowokandi (54%) at the rim, at the right place, Eric Piatkowski behind the arc (55% either side of it), at the right time, Corey Maggette in full stride and steam (50% FG). On average, those four guys owe Andre Miller about 6 percent if their increased success. Take it up with his agent.

WORST OFFENSIVE COLLAPSES

25. Detroit Pistons

Difference: -4.1% shooting

Comment: You can't drag your knuckles across the blacktop for very long without it affecting your jump shot. The Pistons play the miss, force the miss, live for the miss. Witness Ben Wallace shooting 5 percent worse than last year, Corliss Williamson 22 percent worse and Chauncy Billups 4 percent worse than last season's starting point, while the team wins at a higher percentage (75% to 61%) than last year's team that shot 45.2%.

26. Phoenix Suns

Difference: -4.3 shooting

Comment: This may sound funny, but maybe it might be better if Stephon Marbury (down 9 points to 35%) and Shawn Marion (down 5 points to 42%) went back to scoring more and passing and rebounding less, respectively. At least, until they get within range of mediocre. But who, on a team shooting 40.4 percent, could even tell them when they were getting close?

27. Cleveland Cavaliers

Difference: -4.7 shooting

Comment: Their center, you know, the guy closest to the basket, is shooting 34 percent but everybody is afraid to tell him because: A) He's averaging 17.3 points per game . . . B) Who, in his right mind, would jinx a guy who's missed 237 games to injury in the last four years? . . . or, C) The rest of the team, including Zydrunas Ilgauskus, is shooting 40.1 percent.

28. Toronto Raptors

Difference: -6.1% shooting

Comment: Vince Carter, the past, present and future of this franchise, was shooting a miserable 28.9 percent when his knees gave out. Can you blame him? Now allow me to introduce you to his replacements: Voshon Lenard (42%), Alvin Willaims (43%), Morris Peterson (34%) and Lyndsey Hunter (31%). Quite frankly, at 37.3 percent, there is no worse shooting team in the league.

29. Los Angeles Lakers

Difference: -6.6 shooting

Comment: Hello . . . has anyone seen Shaq? You know, the big, bald guy in pajamas who's been leading the league in field goal percentage and finals MVP trophies for the last 1,000 days or so. The guy whose career 53 percent from the line would be welcome relief for a team slumming at 39.5 percent from the field.

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It's amazing how Terry was only worth Travis

best not to long ago and now they are hanging

on his nuts.