Their veteran reserve forward, Jerry Stackhouse, sang the national anthem. Sang it flawlessly. "I usually say a prayer before the game," said Stackhouse's coach, Avery Johnson, "but the way he was singing, he interrupted my prayer.
He has put pressure on all future national anthem singers." And then Stackhouse and his teammates went out and maintained that high note, soundly whipping the Lakers 114-95 to improve their league-best record to 33-8 and put added pressure on all future opponents. Not so fast, said Dirk Nowitzki, the Mavericks' leader and a prime league MVP candidate at the midway point in the season.
"We really haven't won anything yet." And there is no better reminder of that fact than Dallas' next game, Sunday in Miami. It was there that last season's glorious run by the Mavericks unraveled.
After reaching the NBA Finals for the first time and winning the first two games of the best-of-seven series against the Miami Heat in Dallas, the Mavericks lost three straight in Miami and wound up losing four in a row and the series. "We came so close last year, but we just couldn't get it done," said Nowitzki. "That's what motivates us.
" Johnson echoed that low-key approach to Thursday's Lakers win in particular and this high-flying first half in general. "There was nobody really chest-bumping or anything in the locker room," Johnson said. He's hardly a singing novice.
Under the guidance of his mother, Minnie, a pastor, Stackhouse started singing in a church choir and hopes to record a rhythm and blues or gospel CD in the future. But even with that background, did he get nervous when handed the microphone in front of a sellout crowd of 20,446 at American Airlines Center? "Just at the very beginning," he said.
"Then I say to myself, `Okay, I'm on key,' and it's pretty smooth from then on." Were his teammates impressed? "We've heard him sing in the shower," said Notwitzki.
"We know he's got the pipes." There figured to be plenty of singing in the Mavericks' showers Thursday night. After an off-season of singing the blues, they are back at the top of the charts.
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