Forty is the New Fifty: Mavs' Luka Doncic vs. Dak Prescott's Cowboys?

Luka eyeing 60, Cowboys on verge of 26-year success, Rangers land an ace, Prime Time's past time, and bad decisions lead to good deeds, all in this week's DFW sports notebook.

WHITT'S END 12.9.22:

Whether you’re at the end of your coffee, your day, your week or even your rope, welcome to Whitt’s End …

*There’s no “i” in team. But there are two in “scoring points.”

While DFW doesn’t have any team trophies to boast the last 11 years, we have been treated to a dizzying amount of points. In particular, by the Dallas Cowboys and Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks.

So much so that, at this point, it’s a fascinating race to see who produces the most – rare – 40-point games by year’s end.

Doncic has topped the number five times; the Cowboys three times in their last five. Luka’s Mavs are 4-1 when he tops 40. Dak Prescott’s Cowboys are 3-0, beating the Bears (49), Vikings (40) and Colts (54) since Halloween. Since the start of last season they’ve topped 40 eight times, two more than any other team.

The Cowboys could – should? – make it an unprecedented four times in six games Sunday at home against the lowly Houston Texans. Coach Lovie Smith’s defense is one of the worst in the NFL, giving up 160 rushing yards per game on its way to a league-worst point differential of -99. The Cowboys, who are No. 1 at +127, are favored by a whopping 17 points, most for an NFL game this season.

In their last 15 games, the Cowboys have scored 40+ five times and 50+ three times. Luka has topped 50 only once, with 51 against the Clippers last February.

Who scores 60 in a game first?

*In the wake of Brittney Griner’s release, Micah Parsons is all of us.

Reactionary. Happy. Dissatisfied. Tribal. Ignorant. And in the end, thankfully, introspective.

International prison swaps with communist dictators are dicey, complex undertakings. Insulting that we – I’m looking in the mirror – pretend to understand diplomacy better than our country’s experienced career professionals, based on nothing more than our political leanings and world view in black-and-white as much as red, white and blue.

Like a lot of us, the Cowboys’ defensive maven initially rushed through a range of emotions.

Yay, an American is coming home! But wait, a basketball player over a marine?! Did we just make the worst trade since Amari Cooper for a 5th-rounder? It’s not a perfect day, but a happy one.

Wait nah!! We left a marine?!! Hell nah https://t.co/3AeQx8K9OZ

— Micah Parsons (@MicahhParsons11) December 8, 2022

The reaction to Parsons’ reactions was also, fittingly, reactionary.

After he tweeted “We still not voting for you!” at President Joe Biden, some instantly knee-jerked that Parsons was a MAGA supporter of former President Donald Trump. When he then, only minutes later, admitted he’d jumped the gun and apologized, others reprimanded for letting the “woke mob” back him down.

The last thing I want from my athletes is for them to shut up and dribble, or stick to sports. Parsons is a human. An American. A self-proclaimed “Lion.” He’s not a robot.

Wouldn't it be great if - just for one moment - we paused being tribal and resumed being Americans?

Brittney Griner is far from a hero. Marine Paul Whelan needs to come home.

But Whelan's family is happy about Griner's release. We all should be too.https://t.co/wCrLAMaHEy

— Richie Whitt (@richiewhitt) December 8, 2022

I give him credit for being passionate about his country, and realizing when his passion – like all of ours – needs a heavy dose of information.

Though she shouldn’t be hailed as a hero, we can be happy Griner’s coming home. And even though his family is being unfathomably classy about the swap not including him, we can also be sad that Paul Whelan isn’t coming home.

Both things can be in play at the same time.

*One explanation as to how a feel-good story can be so polarizing: The most-searched Google words of 2022. 1. Wordle; 2. Ukraine. Americans would rather be entertained than informed.

*Luka’s gonna Luka. Dominate the ball. Dominate the stats. Dominate the game. But the more I watch the Mavs the more it becomes clear that their ultimate crunch-time success is as simple as his wide-open teammates making open jumpers. In Denver this week Tim Hardaway Jr. and Dorian Finney-Smith made a couple in the final minute. 

What do you know? W.

*It’s not exactly the half-billion dollar bonanza from a year ago, but not a bad Winter Meetings week-plus for the Texas Rangers. They “won” the MLB draft lottery, moving up to the 4th pick. And Jacob deGrom is the team’s most bona fide ace since Cole Hamels in 2018. deGrom has won two Cy Young awards, something no pitcher has ever done in a Rangers uniform. 

Said deGrom at Wednesday’s introductory at Globe Life Field in Arlington, “That's the goal: winning a World Series. These guys all had that same vision. It lined up with what I wanted to do.” 

Give the Rangers credit. They’re going into 2023 with a pitcher and a manager (Bruce Bochy) who have both been the best in the business.

*Before colleges – and college athletes – fawn all over “Prime Time”, they should check into Deion Sanders’ past time. As in, have we all conveniently forgotten that in 2014 Deion’s DFW charter school – “Prime Prep Academy” – was shut down by Texas regulators over various improprieties and scandals, and that Sanders admitted to physically assaulting the school’s COO? 

Allow me to refresh your memory.

*So I’m sitting in the lobby of a downtown Dallas hotel Tuesday morning when a 20-something woman approaches. With tears in her eyes she asks, “Can you please help me?” 

Her story is that she had a rough night and can’t remember where she parked her car. Straining for some levity, I kinda cock my head and say “How do you know I’m not some weirdo.” Her retort, “How do you know I’m not one?” 

Touché. With that, we tepidly walk to my car and drive around Dallas for 10 minutes, looking for a needle of a car in a haystack of streets. Somehow, we find it. Not the smartest thing I’ve ever done. But one of the most rewarding.

*Staggering stat: The 9-3 Cowboys get to 10 wins Sunday. It will be the first time they’ve won 10+ in consecutive seasons since 1995-96.

*Hot.

*Not.

*The jerk who disrespected the most sacred star in sports is at it again. T.O. is telling OBJ not to sign with the Cowboys, because they aren’t a Super Bowl team and don’t have a “good quarterback.”

*Speaking of OBJ, remember when I wrote about Cowboys fans not wanting Beckham because he would be a bad distraction on a good team? Apparently DeMarcus Lawrence agrees. “It’s fair to say I’m trying to reach a Super Bowl,” Lawrence said this week. “So if he can come and help us do that, yes, I’ll accept him. But if we’re just gonna do the circus, like, no, I don’t. I’m focused on this team.”

*Revel in the Dallas-is-better-than-Houston rivalry edge while we can. Space City owns two of the worst franchises in sports with the 1-10-1 Texans and 7-18 Rockets. Our Mavs + Cowboys, meanwhile, have a combined 22 wins. Oh, and now seems a good time to pretend we have an extremely short memory when it comes to baseball.

*Please stop covering Harry and Meghan and the British Royal Family like we care. Because we don’t.

*Dallas White Rock Marathon this Sunday. I’ve been skydiving. Once went 10 days without food. Endured three marriages. But finishing The Rock in 1990 was probably the most difficult – mental + physical – thing I’ve ever accomplished.

*Mavs’ free-throw shooting has been head-scratching all season. But a miss by Hardaway actually helped them Tuesday night in Denver. Nursing a one-point lead, he missed the second of two with 4.2 seconds remaining. With Denver out of timeouts, it could only grab the rebound and launch a 65-foot unanswered prayer. If he would’ve made the free throws, the Nuggets could have set up a play and gotten off a much better shot.

*Jason Garrett was not a good head coach. And he’s a vanilla-coated yawn as an analyst. I’m obviously in the minority, because this week he turned down a job offer from Stanford to continue his work on NBC.

*Rafael Palmeiro’s Hall-of-Fame chances are going … going … gone. The former Rangers’ slugger got fewer than four votes in last week’s vote by baseball’s 16-man Contemporary Era Ballot panel. Despite 569 homers and 3,020 hits, Palmeiro struck out again because he failed a steroid test after infamously wagging his finger at Congress. 

“That test killed my career,” he says now. “It killed my personal life. It killed my career. It killed my personal life. It killed my friendships. It killed my opportunity to make money. It’s been tough.” He still maintains he didn’t cheat, but merely ingested tainted B-12. Color me skeptical.

*Bad news: Almost two million Georgians voted for Herschel Walker for U.S. Senator. Great news: He lost. Stupid slapped down.

*What is the University of North Texas doing? The tiny team in Denton fired coach Seth Littrell last week despite going 44-44 during his regime and playing in a bowl game six of his seven years. You can really do better than that, Mean Green? Methinks not.

*Don’t fear the Cowboys being favored by 17 Sunday. Last two times an NFL team was this big of an underdog it was the Texans in 2021. They lost 31-5 to the Cardinals and 40-0 to the Bills. Cowboys, by the way, are 7-4 against the spread this season after leading the league at 13-4 last year. 

If you simply bet on Dallas the last two seasons you’d be 20-6 and making a pretty penny. If somehow the Cowboys lose it will rival the 2002 season-opening loss to the expansion Texans as one of the biggest/worst upset losses in franchise history. 

Not to worry. No way.

*This Weekend? Friday let’s mingle old friends with new at a dinner. Saturday let’s attend a birthday party. Sunday let’s watch the Cowboys obliterate the Texans. As always, don’t be a stranger.

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