Reports indicate that the league is investigating an incident between Cuban and the mother of Nuggets forward Kenyon Martin following their Saturday night game in Dallas, which saw the Mavs lose to go down 3-0 in the series.  Cuban told The Denver Post by e-mail that as he left the court he saw Martin’s mother, Lydia Moore, as a fan was yelling that the Nuggets were “thugs.”  That’s when Cuban added, “That includes your son.”

Martin’s agent, Brian Dyke had a different side to the story, stating that Cuban was not provoked by any comments from fans.  Instead, he flat out told Moore “Your son is a punk.”  this all came after Cuban and Mavs forward Josh Howard were irrate following a no-call that led to Carmelo Anthony’s game-winning shot.

With the series now 3-0 in favour of the Nuggets, it is unlikely that the suspensions will have much of an effect on the outcome, but if Cuban is disciplined, expect it to be a lot quieter in Game 4.  Or, on second thought, maybe not.

That is the drama that is the NBA Playoffs, and the Nuggets 106-105 victory was provided enough of it.  With the Nuggets down 105-103, Carmelo Anthony took the ball on the inbounds play, drove to his right, and after appearing to almost lose the ball along the sideline, he regained control, put up a three, and nailed it to put his team ahead.  The Mavs were incensed with the no call after Antonie Wright intentionally fouled Melo prior to the shot.  the play should have forced the Nuggets to inbound the ball again, but play went on, Melo hit the shot, and the Nuggets now had the lead.  Following the game, the NBA issued the following statement:

“At the end of the Dallas-Denver game this evening, the officials missed an intentional foul committed by Antoine Wright on Carmelo Anthony, just prior to Anthony’s three-point basket.” [HoopsWorld]

After the Mavs missed their final shot, Howard had to be restrained from getting at the refs while an angry Cuban stormed onto the court as well.  As he left the court, Cuban struck CBS cameraman Bill Ellis and Howard had a similar encounter with DMN photographer Tom Fox.  When asked, Ellis stated the following about his incident with Cuban:

“He had plenty of room to go by me.  I wasn’t obstructing his way. He just pushed my arm and yelled, ‘Get the (bleep) out of my way!’” [dallasnews.com]

So now we are faced with another blown call controversy in an NBA playoffs that has been full of them.  We are sure that Cuban will not stop talking about this, and it is rather unfortunate that it came at such a time, likely resulting in the ending of this series.  Up next for the Nuggets?  It looks like a showdown with the Lakers.

Here’s the clip of the final shot from Melo and the ensuing action that followed.

The deal being reported would send Josh Howard, Antoine Wright and DaSagna Diop to the Raptors for former first overall draft pick Andrea Bargnani and Anthony Parker to Dallas.

Josh Howard would fit nicely in the Toronto, with Bryan Colangelo’s uptempo type teams.  A no brainer for the Raptors, especially considering they are in need of a small forward/shooting guard.  The only part of this deal that does not make sense is why would the Dallas Mavericks be interested in Andrea Bargnani.  A similar but underachieving version of Dirk Nowitzki who both play very little defense.

If it were my choice and had this deal on the table, I would definielty throw it out.  I still have high hopes for Bargnani, and he seems to be improving under his new head coach.  Over the last 4 games as a starter he’s averaging 21 points, 6.25 rebounds, and connecting on just over 50% of his field goals (12-21 from three).

The Mavericks killed themselves when they traded away Devin Harris and draft picks for the old man “Jason Kidd”.  Now they are trying to find a quick solution for their mistake.  If I’m the Raptors, I would play hardball and try to stay away from parting with Andrea Bargnani.  Give this kid a couple more years he’ll be a 20 point, 10 rebound man no problem.