Tuesday Dallas Mavericks owner and business mogul Mark Cuban sparked controversy when he said that he’d be willing to give 6’8″ Baylor women’s basketball center Brittney Griner either a tryout for his team’s summer league squad or risking a second-round pick on the 22-year-old Houston native. (more)

14-year veteran and last season’s Finals MVP Dirk Nowitzki provided the go-ahead layup in traffic with 5.1 seconds left to lead his Dallas Mavericks past the Boston Celtics 90-85 last night at TD Garden. (more)

Denver Nuggets coach George Karl recently announced that Dirk Nowitzki will start in place of the injured Kobe Bryant in Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game. Dirk was extremely close to earn a starting spot until Spurs forward Tim Duncan beat him out in the last week of fan voting. The Mavericks longtime franchise player has made a total of nine NBA All-Star appearances with 2010 marking his first start. Veteran PG Jason Kidd will also represent the Mavs on the big stage, as he was just named to fill Bryant’s roster spot. Sixers guard Allen Iverson will tend to his ill daughter this weekend, thus not being able to partake in any All-Star festivities. It is likely that Boston’s Rajon Rondo or Atlanta’s Joe Johnson will step up to start for Iverson. Purchase your 2010 NBA All-Star tickets with us at Aceticket.com!

After three quarters of basketball yesterday at the American Airlines Center, Dirk Nowitzki was just 5-for-14 from the field with his team down by 15.  The Dallas Mavericks then rallied for 44 fourth quarter points to defeat the Utah Jazz 96-85. Nowitzki set a franchise record with 29 points himself in the final frame. “It was an ugly game,” said Nowitzki. “We couldn’t get anything going for three quarters. We were slow. We were looking for a spark offensively and I was able to do that tonight.” Dirk finished with a total stat line of 40 points, 11 rebounds, five assists, two steals, and five blocks. Utah’s defensive specialist Carlos Boozer was tied up on the bench with five fouls when Nowitzki went to work on the rest of the squad. Jason Kidd supplied 19 points for the Mavs, including the dagger from downtown to seal the game in the final minutes.  Dallas will next host the Toronto Raptors and Houston Rockets on November 7th and 10th. The Jazz have a pair of home games themselves on the 5th and 7th against the San Antonio Spurs and Sacramento Kings.

After the resounding succeses that were the Las Vegas and Phoenix NBA All Star games, next season’s edition is slated to be bigger and better. The Dallas Mavericks will be hosting the event at the brand new, 80,000 seat Cowboys Stadium. The state of the art new home of “America’s team” features massive 72 by 160 foot LED screens that will ensure that every fan in attendance will have a clear view of the action. The Mavericks last hosted the All Star Weekend in 1986, at Reunion Arena. Mavs owner Mark Cuban had previously rejected an offer for the team to host the event, citing that season ticket holders for host teams generally do not have a chance to attend. The arrangement at Cowboys Stadium will ensure that all season ticket holders will have an opportunity, though premium tickets will still be in high demand. 2010 NBA All Star Game tickets are available now!

The Boston Celtics made a dramatic comeback on Thursday night to finish the first half of the season with a .800 winning percentage. Rajon Rondo had his second career triple double, although his coach Doc Rivers was not there to see it. Rivers was ejected in the third quarter after a heated exchange between Kevin Garnett and Dirk Nowitzki. Garnett racked up three fouls, and River had two technicals for arguing in less than a minute of game time. “It gave us a nice little spark,” Pierce told Stephen Hawkins of the AP. “It can go one of two ways. The coach is gone in the last game before the All-Star break, you can pack it in. But this group is very competitive. We’re going to fight.” That spark took a Celtics team down by 15 to getting their first lead of the game on a Paul Pierce jumper. The Celtics had 30 points in a defensively dominant fourth quarter; only allowing 17 points. The Celtics head into the All-Star Break with a 44-11 record, good for first place in the Eastern Conference. The C’s lead the Cleveland Cavaliers by two games, and the Orlando Magic by four. Boston Celtics Tickets are available now!

With last nights 94-90 victory over the Dallas Mavericks, the Boston Celtics accomplished something that hasn’t been done in seven years. That feat would be the good old fashion ‘Texas Sweep’ or when an NBA team comes in and beats the San Antonio Spurs, Houston Rockets and Dallas Mavericks all in the same road trip. The last team to come into Texas and beat all three of the powerhouses was the Sacramento Kings in November 2001. The win didn’t come easy for the Celtics who trailed the majority of the second half, and even were down with less then one minute to play. Ray Allen nailed a 3-point field goal with :31 seconds left to pull the Celtics ahead 90-88 and they were then able to hold off the Mavs offensive attack for the remaining time on the clock. “This feels good,” said Allen on nba.com, who’d missed three games with a jammed left ankle. “It’s something for the rest of the NBA to watch.” The C’s capitalized on shooting very well from the charity stripe hitting 30 of 35 attempts (85.7%) on the night which helped balance out an ugly performance from the floor where they were only 30 for 87 (34.5%). The PG combination of Rajon Rondo and Sam Cassell combined for a dismal 1-16 shooting display which dragged the teams overall percentage down, but the effort was enough for a win. Paul Pierce had another solid performance recording a double-double with 22 points and 13 rebound. Kevin Garnett had equally impressive numbers with 20 points and 13 boards. Allen finished with 21 points and all the heroics that were needed to secure the victory. The Mavericks were led by PF’s Dirk Nowitzki and Josh Howard who scored 22 and 24 points in the losing effort. PG Jason Kidd was held to only 2 points and Dallas is now 0-7 to teams with winning records since he was traded to the team before the deadline. “We’re just right there in a lot of these games,” said Jerry Stackhouse on nba.com, who scored 17 points. “It’s disappointing to keep coming up short.” The loss was the second consecutive loss at home for the Mavericks, the first time that had happened all year. It doesn’t get any easier for Dallas, San Antonio is in town on Sunday and the Spurs have beaten the Mavericks in their last two meetings. Last night’s win was the Celtics 14th victory in 15 games. They are currently 4-0 on their road trip with one game remaining on Saturday vs. New Orleans. During the month of March they’ve held opponents to an amazing average of only 87 points per contest. During the ‘Texas Sweep’ the Celtics held All-Stars Tim Duncan, Tracy McGrady and Jason Kidd to a total of 20 points, together the trio averages 52. Not bad, right? Not bad at all. The Celtics continue to roll with no plans to stop until a 17th banner is hoisted at the TD Banknorth Garden.

The 2008 NBA trade deadline is over and has left some teams feeling confident about making a run into the playoffs, and left others wondering how long it will take the potential talent they traded for to actually turn into the superstars they were hoping they might become. Sorry Timberwolves fans, but that’s just never going to happen for you. Unlike years past, the league saw some big names relocate from struggling franchises onto playoff contending teams which is not only great for those organization’s playoff hopes, but its great for the NBA as well. Maybe for one month now we can forget about how overpaid Isaiah Thomas and the Knicks are and focus on the fact that there is actually a race going on in the West this year for the top spot in the playoffs, and the best team is the league, the Celtics, are coming out of the East. Who would have thought? A huge winner in this years’ trade deadline has to be the L.A. Lakers. Landing Pau Gasol makes them instantly a Western Conference finalist contender. The Lakers have gone 8-1 since they acquired the big man, and that is without a healthy C Andrew Bynum. Pretty much all they had to do to get Gasol was give up Kwame Brown, yea remember him, first pick in the 2001 draft (HA!). That may go down as the worst first pick in the history of the NBA draft, but regardless, dishing him out to Memphis was brilliant because his contract expires at the end of the year anyway. Another huge trade that was really unexpected, and at this point no one knows how it will pan out for either team, was the Shaquille O’Neal trade to the Phoenix Suns. Shaq is averaging career lows in points and rebounds, hasn’t been completely healthy for two years, and is going to be 36-years old in a few weeks. The Suns gave up former all-star power forward Shawn Marion and a talented point-guard in Marcus Banks to the Miami Heat in exchange for O’Neal. The former league MVP leaves the team with the worst record in the NBA to join the Suns who have the 2nd best record in the West. If neither team makes out in the deal, the person who did was Shaq. Ben Wallace has found a new place to call home… again. The defensive specialist joins Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers after he was dealt from the Chicago Bulls for four players in total including Larry Hughes and Drew Gooden. The Cavs also traded for Wally Szczerbiak, Delonte West and Joe Smith so the team chemistry may be off for a few weeks, but hopefully they begin to click before the playoffs. The moves they made are definitely an upgrade, but you may not see the results this season. The biggest name to move right before the deadline may have been future hall of fame point guard Jason Kidd. Kidd was traded to the Dallas Mavericks in an eight player deal that left the New Jersey Nets hurting…even more then they had already been, but with $3 million dollars more in their pockets. The deal also left the Mavs excited for the second half of the season to get underway with Kidd running the show. Mavericks GM Mark Cuban finally got something he wanted, if he couldn’t buy the Cubs, well at least he could buy Jason Kidd… like Jay-Z really needs the money! Some other moves that were made that wouldn’t be considered blockbuster deals, but are definitely worth mentioning include the San Antonio Spurs landing PF/C Kurt Thomas from the Seattle Supersonics. It’s not a flashy name, but a good move for the Spurs who needed some more size to compete with Shaq and Gasol who they will now be seeing more often playing in the West. Mike Bibby was traded to the Atlanta Hawks which is an upgrade at point guard from Tyronne Lue who is now with the Sacramento Kings, and the move shows that Atlanta still has signs of life in them and wants to try and sneak in the eight and final spot for the Eastern Conference playoffs. They will need to play better basketball on the road where they are currently at a pathetic 6-19, but Bibby’s leadership could help turn that around. So when all is said and done with, who were the biggest winner and loser after this year’s trading deadline? Biggest Loser: The Minnesota Timberwolves – They traded away Gerald Green whom they had just traded for in the off-season when they gave away Kevin Garnett to the Celtics. It seems like this team has been rebuilding for ten years now, and its not going to stop anytime soon. Biggest Winner: The Los Angeles Lakers – Pau Gasol is going to take a little pressure off of Kobe Bryant, help their team defense, and be the spark to drive the Lakers to the top spot in the Pacific Division. They didn’t give up hardly anything, and they became instant contenders with his addition. The final two months of the NBA season are going to be filled with lots of action so make sure to contact Ace Ticket if you want to be there and a part of it all!

After some early snags in last week’s reported trade between the Dallas Mavericks and the New Jersey Nets it appears that Jason Kidd is finally heading back to his old team in Dallas. According to Mavericks owner Mark Cuban the NBA has approved the trade and the deal is now indeed done. Heading to the Mavericks will be Jason Kidd, Malik Allen, and Antoine Wright. The Nets will get Devin Harris,  DeSagana Diop, Trenton Hassell, Maurice Ager and Keith Van Horn.  In addition to the players the Nets will also receive $3 Million in cash from the Mavericks.