Doctors discovered that Joy Nelson, Don Nelson's wife, has beast cancer. She will undergo surgery January 21 and Don Nelson with miss the January 21 game vs New Jersey and the January 22 game vs Houston to be with his wife. Donn Nelson will assume the head coaching duties in his father's absence. The cancer was detected very early and it is believed she will have a full recover. Prayers and best wishes to the Nelsons! Michael Finley re-strained his left hamstring during the San Antonio game and is expected to be out for 2 weeks. As such, Dallas activated Shawn Bradley and placed Finley on IR. Bradley is still suffering from a bone bruise in his right knee and did not play in the Denver game and will not play tonight vs New York. Reports are that Dallas will signed rookie guard Charlie Bell to a 10-day contract. Note that tonight's game vs New York has an 8:00 start time (instead of the usual 7:30 start time for a home game). The game is being televised nationally on TNT (but is still local on FOX). After being quiet despite numerous comments from Mark Cuban in the first 2 months of the season, the NBA took action this time and fined Mark Cuban $500,000 for "repeated public criticism of NBA officiating." It is the largest NBA fine ever assessed to an individual (surpassing the $250,000 fine given to Cuban last season for berating the refs and putting a still shot of a blown call on the jumbotron following a game). Cuban, as he always does when fined, matched the fine with donations to charities. This time, he donated $375,000 to cancer research in the name of Joy Nelson and Norris Curtis (his girlfriend's grandfather who died of cancer) and $125,000 to research groups studying mucopolysaccharidosis in the name of Simon Ibell (a 24 year old SMU student). Here's the comment that likely caused the fine: "Ed Rush might have been a great ref, but I wouldn't hire him to manage a Dairy Queen. His interest is not in the integrity of the game or improving the officiating. The No. 1 priority of Ed Rush is maintaining power. There's no question in my mind that David Stern is not the most powerful man in the game. It's Ed Rush." Dallas at New York (January 3) It was a high scoring 1st quarter with both teams shooting very well. New York scored the first 6 points of the quarter and slowly built up a 12 point lead at 24-12 with 5:20 remaining. New York led 35-22 and Dallas scored the next 9 points to pull within 31-35 with a minute to go. A Latrell Sprewell jumper capped the high scoring quarter and New York led 37-31 after 1. Dallas had no interior defense and all of New York's points came within 16 feet of the basket. New York shot 15-22 FG and Dallas shot 12-24 FG. Kurt Thomas had 12 points on 5-5 FG and 2-2 FT and Juwan Howard and Dirk Nowitzki had 10 points each. New York led 44-35 with 10:10 left and Dallas scored the next 8 points to pull within 1 point at 43-44 with 7:55 to go. Dallas tied the game twice, but Latrell Sprewell hit a jumper and a 3-pointer to give New York a 56-51 lead with 4:10 remaining. Dallas then scored the next 9 points to take a 60-56 lead with 2 minutes left. The game stayed close and Dallas led 64-63 at the half. Dallas shot 11-18 FG and New York 10-21 FG in the quarter. Both teams used up all their good shooting in the 1st half and it got ugly in the 2nd half. Dallas opened the 3rd quarter by scoring the first 8 points to go up 72-63 with 8:15 left. Dallas then went ice cold and New York closed the quarter with an 18-5 run as Dallas' last field goal of the quarter came with 5:20 left. New York led 81-77 after 3. New York shot a poor 6-17 FG, but Dallas shot a miserable 3-24 FG. Dallas' cold shooting continued in the 4th quarter as they missed their first 5 shots, making it 16 consecutive misses spanning the two quarters, but New York was only slightly better as they shot 1-3 FG. Greg Buckner hit a bucket ending Dallas' drought with 9:42 left and he also converted a 3-point play to pull Dallas within 82-83 with 9 minutes remaining. The game stayed close and the lead went back and forth as neither team could build more than a 3 point lead the rest of the quarter. An Eduardo Najera dunk gave Dallas a 92-89 led with 3:18 remaining. New York missed on 3 attempts, but Dallas could not score either. Thomas hit 1-2 FT with 1:50 left. Dallas played a game of one-on-one with Howard and Marcus Camby and Howard missed. Allan Houston hit a jumper over Tim Hardaway and the game was tied at 92-92 with 1:13 remaining. Buckner hit a jumper with a minute remaining, but New York went back to Houston and he was fouled. He hit both free throws to tie the game with 45 seconds to go. Houston set himself as Nowitzki drove and Nowitzki was called for the charge as he passed the ball out. Houston missed inside with 4.6 seconds to go and Johnny Newman snagged the rebound. Dallas elected not to call timeout and pushed the ball up the court and Buckner's 3-point heave at the buzzer was no good and we had overtime at 94-94. Dallas only shot 22.9% FG in the 3rd and 4th quarters and was New York only slightly better at 32.3% FG. Sprewell opened the overtime with a 3-pointer and a layup and Camby got a layup to give New York a strong 101-94 lead with 3 minutes left and Dallas could not recover. Steve Nash made it slightly interesting by hitting a 3-pointer with 26 seconds to go to pull Dallas within 101-105, but Houston was intentionally fouled and hit both free throws to seal the game. New York won 108-101. It was a tale of 2 halves and Dallas played like crap in the 2nd half and did not deserve to win this game. Dallas only shot 3-24 FG in the 3rd quarter and 8-24 FG in the 4th. But the 2nd half was much more like I was expecting this game to be like than the 1st half. I would have looked at you like you were crazy if you told me before the game that the score after the 1st quarter of a New York game (any New York game) would be 37-31 - and New York would have 37 points. This from a slow it down team that sometimes has 37 at a half and only scored 58 points in one game last season. But New York went away from the faster paced game after the 1st half and they benefited from it as Dallas went ice cold. I have to question the Dallas coaching at the end of regulation. The biggest thing is that a timeout should have been immediately called after the rebound was snagged with 3.4 seconds left. I understand the logic in trying to get off a shot before the defense is set, but with that little time, too much of the remaining time is spent simply getting the ball to the front court to get anything more than a prayer shot off. The other things was that Michael Finley, who was having a terrible game, sat all but 1 minute of the 4th quarter. He should have been on the court for the last few minutes of regulation - no matter how poorly he was playing, New York would have respected him and played tight defense on him and that might have allowed the defense on other players not to be as tight. Plus, who would you rather have defending Allan Houston - Finley or Tim Hardaway (who also was a donut from the field in the 2nd half)? Not only is Finley a better defender, but he is 7 inches taller. It was not an injury concern as Finley did play in the overtime. New York was led by Marcus Camby's 26 points including 9-16 FG and 13 rebounds including 6 offensive. Latrell Sprewell had the early 5-point dagger of overtime as part of his 22 points. He also had 7 rebounds. 4 of Houston's 19 points came in the last 1:15 of the 4th quarter and the game would not have gone into overtime without his play. Mark Jackson ate the Mavs alive in the 1st quarter by posting up Steve Nash and either kicking the ball out or scoring as he had 4 points on 2-2 FG and 6 assists in the quarter. Jackson finished with only 5 points (missed his next 7 shots), but had an amazing 17 assists and 8 rebounds. 12 (on a perfect 5-5 FG and 2-2 FT) of Kurt Thomas' 15 points came in the 1st quarter. Shandon Anderson chipped in 10 points including 4-5 FG and 6 rebounds off the bench. Dallas was led by Dirk Nowitzki's 30 points and 16 rebounds. Steve Nash chipped in 19 points, 6 rebounds, and 7 assists. Greg Buckner had a nice game starting with 17 points. Juwan Howard was the 4th Mav in double-digits with 12 points and 6 rebounds. Finley only had 8 points including 3-15 FG (and 0-7 FG in the 2nd half) and just 2 rebounds and 3 assists. Hardaway had 7 points including 3-11 FG (and 0-5 FG in the 2nd half) and 7 assists. It was Dallas' first loss this season when they scored 100 points. The team had been 17-0 when breaking the 100 point barrier. The loss also snapped Dallas' 10-game winning streak. Quotes Don Chaney: "Because of how they play - they push it, shoot the long jumper - I thought we did a good job in the 2nd half of stepping up into people." Chaney: "We held in there. Normally, we would fold. That was a good sign." Chaney: "I was happy to see Marcus' game pick back up again. We really need that from Marcus. Hopefully, he continues to play that way." Chaney: "I thought Allan hit some big shots. He is one of those guys who wants to shoot the ball at the end of the game." Allan Houston: "I wanted to do what ever I could do to win the game. I didn't want to come back into the locker room with the same feeling. There was a streak where I was telling [Mark Jackson] to start talking and try to bring some energy, by screaming out there or something. It got to the point where our energy picked up when we came back in the 3rd quarter, and then we just started to try and be the old Knicks, with defensive intensity and getting stops at the end of the game." Houston: "It showed our character. Instead of caving in, we came back fighting. We got out of the hole, fighting and scratching." Houston: "We just tried to be the old Knicks. We couldn't trade baskets with them. We had to make it harder on them." Houston's on Dallas' 1st half scoring: "It was all too easy - 64 points is embarrassing at halftime. It doesn't matter who they have, it's embarrassing. That's what we talked about." Houston: "I don't think they care about defending the way we care. They're better offensively than us. But not defensively." Houston on stepping in front of Nowitzki to take the charge near the end of regulation: "I may make a play on the offensive end, but for someone to recognize I made some defensive key plays is kind of rewarding. If I'm going to be a leader on this team I have to get it done on the court. Those are the things I have to do to help us win." Latrell Sprewell: "We finally got the job done." Sprewell: "We have been in this situation several times before and haven't gotten the job done." Sprewell: "You don't know how good it feels to be on the winning side. It's a relief." Sprewell on Hardaway defending Houston: "Even if Tim was in his prime, that's still an advantage for Allan because of the height difference. I'm sure he was licking his chops." Sprewell on Jackson: "He was on target with all his passes. He just did an excellent job of finding people. Defensively he got after it, got a couple of steals and got assists that way. Mark just had a great game." Marcus Camby on winning: "It feels good. We have been up and down all year. But to get a win over a quality team like Dallas, it definitely feels good. We are 1-0 in the New Year. Hopefully we can keep this going." Camby: "We buckled down and we played aggressive, solid defense. They are a great offense team, they put up big numbers in the 1st half. We were able to lock them down in the 2nd half and win in overtime." Mark Jackson: "We talked about guys stepping up. If you are going to talk the talk, you have got to walk the walk. It was import to initiate the life, the energy, and the passion - the things that have made us win in the past. We have to regain that and I just tried to be a spark plug. It is important for us to not only do this tonight, but to allow this to carry over." Jackson: "We've given away so many games. Being down, we could have folded. But this was a great win against one of the better teams in the league." Jackson on posting up Nash: "I can post up any point guard, that's just my strength. This wasn't one of my better games posting, I missed a lot of chippies. But just being aggressive on both ends of the floor, trying to be a spark plug, that's what it was all about." Kurt Thomas: "It was a great 1st half, but it came down to whichever team played defense. We just prefer to slow the ball down and try to control the game as much as possible." Don Nelson on the end of the winning streak: "It was a good run for us. We knew it had to stop sometime. The game had just about everything; it had all offense in the 1st half and all defense in the 2nd half. I thought the Knicks deserved to win and I didn't think we played well enough to win." Nelson on NY's 37 1st quarter points: "Some of it was the coach's fault. We tried some [defensive] schemes that basically didn't work. Nothing worked in the 1st quarter. We had to start playing straight man-to-man, good solid defense, then we started to play better." Nelson: "We don't mind high-scoring games because we're pretty good at it. But we couldn't sustain it, for whatever reason. Maybe we shouldn't come back to New York." [Dallas has not won in New York since 1990.] Donn Nelson on Finley not playing in the 4th: "The way he was playing - you could see how limited he was because of his leg - we just figured we'd be better off trying to ride out the 4th quarter. The only reason he came back in in overtime was because we were in foul trouble." Donn on not calling a timeout with 4 seconds left in regulation: "We can get up and down with the best of them, and whether it's 4 seconds or 3 seconds we're taught to push. Obviously it wasn't right because we didn't score." Michael Finley on the end of the winning streak [and referring to the end of his iron man streak]: "All good things must come to an end - I should know about that." Finley on his hamstring: "I felt fine. No problem." Finley on not playing in the 4th: "I wasn't really giving the team much." Dirk Nowitzki on the end of the 10 game winning streak: "It was a great streak, we won some great games. Unfortunately, at the end, we did not come up with the big plays. We did not finish shots like we did during the streak. We just couldn't buy a bucket anymore, and they kept on scoring." Nowitzki: "We're not the best defensive team in the league, but evidently we're good enough to win 10 games in a row, and - usually - stop people down the stretch." Nowitzki: "Once they made shots, you got to take the ball out of bounds. They stopped our fast break great." Nowitzki on not calling timeout with 4 seconds left in regulation: "We always look to push the ball, doesn't matter what time on the clock, maybe we thought we could get an easy 3 because we're a good 3-point team, but the game was lost before that." Nowitzki: "I thought I had a couple of good looks, especially at the end. They just didn't fall like they did in the 1st half." Nowitzki: "I'm a shooter. When I miss a couple, I'm going to keep shooting. I'm confident enough to keep going after a miss." Tim Hardaway on not calling a timeout with 4 seconds left in regulation: "That's a coaching situation. The coach was like 'Go, go, go,' and that was that. What can you say?" Hardaway on Dallas missing 16 straight shots: "If we had just made 5 shots in that time, we'd have won by 20." Hardaway on what Dallas needs: "We need a big man down low who can grab 10 rebounds a game and guard, or let me put it this way, attempt to guard Shaq. That's what we need. Someone with size, a rugged, physical player who can bang. Guys like Dale Davis, Antonio Davis, Charles Oakley, whoever. Any of them would be good for this team. If we got one, we'd be right there with anybody. In terms of the playoffs, we've got to show that we'll stand our ground and never let nobody beat you up. It's that old Eastern Conference mentality." New York Knicks 108, Dallas Mavericks 101 OT at New York (January 3) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th OT - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% New York 37 26 18 13 14 - 108 .500 .400 .488 .828 Dallas 31 33 13 17 7 - 101 .417 .280 .381 .870 Halftime: Dallas 64-63 3rd Q: New York 81-77 Technicals: Othella Harrington 9:47 3rd, Latrell Sprewell 8:12 3rd Refs: Steve Javie, Derek Collins, Mark Wunderlich Attendance: 19,763 (sellout) New York Knicks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Latrell Sprewell 50 9-19 2-6 2-2 22 2-7 3 4 4 1 0 Kurt Thomas 29 5-7 0-0 5-6 15 3-6 1 2 5 0 0 Marcus Camby 45 9-16 0-0 8-9 26 6-13 2 1 2 0 4 Allan Houston 38 7-15 0-1 5-5 19 0-5 1 3 4 1 0 Mark Jackson 40 2-9 0-1 1-2 5 0-8 17 2 2 4 0 Shandon Anderson 18 4-5 1-1 1-2 10 1-6 1 2 0 0 0 Othella Harrington 27 3-7 0-0 2-3 8 0-1 0 6 5 1 0 Charlie Ward 13 1-3 1-1 0-0 3 1-2 4 0 2 2 0 Travis Knight 5 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 0 0 1 0 0 Totals 53 40-82 4-10 24-29 108 13-49 29 20 25 9 4 Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Greg Buckner 36 7-12 0-1 3-5 17 2-4 0 1 5 2 0 Juwan Howard 32 6-14 0-0 0-0 12 4-6 1 4 5 1 0 Dirk Nowitzki 50 10-23 3-10 7-8 30 2-16 2 4 5 0 1 Michael Finley 32 3-15 0-1 2-2 8 0-2 3 1 3 1 0 Steve Nash 43 6-15 3-7 4-4 19 2-6 7 2 1 1 0 Tim Hardaway 34 3-11 1-6 0-0 7 0-2 7 3 2 2 0 Eduardo Najera 24 1-5 0-0 4-4 6 3-6 0 1 3 1 1 Johnny Newman 14 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 0-2 0 1 0 0 0 Totals 53 37-97 7-25 20-23 101 13-44 20 17 24 8 2 San Antonio at Dallas (January 5) Michael Finley hit a jumper to open the game and San Antonio scored the next 8 points. The Spurs held a single-digit lead the rest of the quarter. San Antonio scored the last 7 points of the quarter to take a 25-17 lead after 1. Dallas' shooting woes from the New York game continued as they only shot 7-22 FG. Tim Duncan had 10 points and 8 rebounds. Dirk Nowitzki hit a 3-pointer and San Antonio led 31-25 with 9 minutes left, but the Spurs went on a 9-2 run to go up 40-27 with 6:30 remaining. San Antonio led in the teens the rest of the quarter and took their largest lead at 54-37 with 2:10 left. San Antonio led 57-44 at the half. Dallas improved their shooting to 50% FG, but the Spurs shot a great 10-15 FG. Dallas made a couple of small pushes in the 3rd quarter, but could get not closer than 8 points as San Antonio continued to shot well (12-19 FG). San Antonio led 84-72 after 3. Dallas scored the first 10 points of the 4th quarter, capped by a 3-pointer by Tim Hardaway, and the Spurs only led 84-82 with 9:50 to go. Terry Porter answered with a 3-pointer and San Antonio hung on to a single-digit lead. Michael Finley pulled his hamstring driving across the lane and immediately knew what he had done (if you were watching the game, you saw exactly when the injury occurred) - he was called for traveling and headed straight for the locker room, giving a loud, frustrated F-bomb as he left the court. A 3-pointer by Steve Smith gave San Antonio a 101-91 lead with 3:15 remaining, but Dallas went on a 10-2 run, capped by a pretty reverse layup by Eduardo Najera, to pull Dallas within 101-103 with 37 seconds left. Tim Duncan collected his 6th foul on a Nowitzki drive during that run. Porter missed a 3-pointer with 18 seconds left, Hardaway got the rebound and Dallas pushed the ball up the quarter, Steve Nash missed the layup, but Nowitzki got the offensive rebound, missed the layup, but pogo-sticked back up for the put back and it was a tie game at 103-103 with 9 seconds left. San Antonio called timeout and moved the ball to halfcourt. Porter drove with Nash moving in front of him to slow him down and Nash was called for the foul. Nash was bleeding on his forehead and had to get some medical attention while Porter hit both free throws. Timeout Dallas with 5.1 seconds to go. Nash side-stepped his defender and got a good look, his 3-pointer bounced off the front of the rim at the buzzer. San Antonio won 105-103. It didn't look to be for 3 quarters, but it ended up being a very exciting game. From the angles I saw, it should have been a no-call on Porter's drive. I didn't see a foul from the live play (to the side, many rows above the Mavs' bench (play at the other end of the court) or from the replay on the jumbotron (from the other side of the court). Maybe if I had seen a baseline view of the play, I would feel more strongly about if it was a legitimate foul or should have been a no-call. [Obviously contact did occur somehow as Nash was bleeding, but in no way should have the play been an offensive foul on Porter - it was either a no-call or foul on Nash and I lean towards no-call with the angle I had.] However, Dallas did have a shot to tie or win the game and, in a game that Dallas played poorly for 3 quarters, that is more than you can ask for - one call did not decide this game. The Spurs were led, as usual, by Tim Duncan with 29 points on 10-18 FG and 9-13 FT and 12 rebounds before fouling out [and for Spurs fans complaining about him fouling out, he nearly fouled out on a previous play where the ref had choice on 2 Spur players to call the foul on and did not call it on Duncan - Duncan had his hands on his face with the "No, not me!" look and then had a grin when the foul wasn't called on him (same look he had when they did call the 6th)]. Steve Smith was the only other starter in double-digits with 18 points. Steve Nash again abused the rookie Tony Parker and, thus, Parker's minutes were limited to just 18 and he did not play in the 4th quarter. He had 7 points 3 assists, and 3 fouls. But Porter came in for Parker and was a major factor in this game. He had 22 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists. Antonio Daniels got hot in the 2nd quarter with 9 points on 3-4 3-pointers as part of his 13 points. Dirk Nowitzki had another double-double (his 15th of the season) with 28 points, 14 rebounds, and 3 blocks. Nash was solid and really enjoyed when the rookie Parker was on him, especially at one point in the 3rd quarter where Nash scored or assisted (a 3-pointer by Wang Zhizhi) on 12 consecutive Dallas points - Parker sat for the rest of the game after that string. Nash had 17 points and 6 assists. Michael Finley again struggled before his injury - which will keep him out for a while - with just 10 points including 3-10 FG. Juwan Howard only had 9 points and 5 rebounds and Greg Buckner started but only played 14 minutes and had 6 points. Dallas got a nice boost from the bench with 33 bench points. Tim Hardaway had 13 points (7 in the 4th), 5 rebounds (all in the 4th), and 5 assists. Eduardo Najera had a nice game with 10 points including 4-5 FG (7 points, 3-4 FG in the 4th) and 7 rebounds. And Wang Zhizhi chipped in 10 points with 8 of them in the 3rd quarter (3-3 FG, 1-1 3-pointers, 1-1 FT). But in the end, it is a loss. You can't come out flat against a good team like San Antonio like Dallas did. This team is still lacking consistency and will now have to try to find it without one of their best players. Quotes Gregg Popovich: "Obviously this was a great game both ways. Both teams play hard against each other, they really respect each other. They are both good teams, and its going to be like that over and over and over again. It's just a hell of a game for everybody. We were fortunate enough to win, maybe we made one more shot or something." Popovich: "Both games (vs Dallas) have been the same. We're both good teams and nobody's got the upper hand over anybody else. We're just pleased to be able to come here and win." Popovich: "Well, we know its going to be a while for us to get where we want to be with a kid at the point and 3 new starters. It's something where we have to patient. It's going to be a while before we're all on the same page for 48 minutes, so getting a great win against a team like Dallas gives us the confidence that were on the right track." Popovich: "I thought Terry Porter ran the show for us great and really generated a lot of offense for us. We had a good mix tonight between Steve Smith, Tim, and David. Antonio came in and knocked down some shots, you know he's got a dry spell so I was really happy for him to come in and knock down some shots. That's been one of our problems the last 6 games - we've shot pitifully from the perimeter. We just shot a little bit better tonight and that helps a lot." Popovich: "We were better in transition. We've had a little trouble with transition this year, which is kind of odd for us but we did a better job of that. It was really an emphasis in our preparation. If you can get back on these guys you can get back on anybody and they still got shots, they're so damn good at it. They're just a hell of a team." Tim Duncan on the win: "Incredibly important. We needed to turn this around. We hadn't been playing real well over the last 6, 7 games, 8 games. We hadn't been playing good basketball. We played good basketball tonight, not just because we won but we moved the ball well, defensively, I thought we did a good job of getting into people and make them actually miss some shots. In that respect, I think we got better tonight." Duncan on if it was the biggest win of the year: "Absolutely, I believe so. Hopefully this will catapult us into a little streak. We've been kind of up and down over the last 8 games or so. Hopefully this will take us over the hump and get us some confidence and some wins rolling." Duncan on San Antonio's defense: "I thought we did a lot better job of staying on people and not backing off and giving them nice open shots. That's going to be a big thing for us, especially on this East Coast swing we're going on because a lot of perimeter players and guys who do a lot of scoring for their teams. We're going to have to be great on help side defense." Duncan: "Terry Porter's been huge for years now and he did great for us tonight. He's a big-game and a big-shot player and he showed it." Terry Porter: "We couldn't drop it in the ocean last night. Tonight, at times we were a little stretched. Everything we threw at the rim would go in. Overall, offensively I think our spacing was better and guys were getting some good looks and good rhythm early on and it kind of carried throughout the game." Porter on his move that resulted in a fouled called: "I called that 'Trying to Gain Space.' He reached in and I think that's when we bumped heads." Porter on his game winning free throws: "In that situation, I just tend to really focus on my routine. I try to block out the crowd, just make believe that I'm in the gym with nobody, focus on the rim like I normally do. The first one was a little shaky, but it went in. The second one was much better." Porter on Nash's last shot: "I'm nervous whenever anybody gets a last shot in this building or Reunion because we've had them hit so many game-winners on us." Porter on San Antonio's toughness: "That's something we talked about last night after the game. Another thing that hurt us really bad was trying to get some defense every night and obviously tried to step up a little bit with that because Dallas is a very explosive team on the fast break. Nash does a great job of pushing it and they have quite a few guys who can get the rebound and push it up the floor and find open guys in the perimeter so we tried to make sure we got back as best we can and not allow those guys to get a lot of easy opportunities." Don Nelson: "It was a great basketball game. I loved the way battled and came back. I thought it was a very emotional game, it is just too bad that it had to be determined by a referee's call down the stretch. It was unfortunate since it was such a great game, but those things happen and we accept the verdict." Nelson on Dallas' last play: "We had 2 different looks. The first one wasn't open and the second one was Nash and he got a great look for the game winner. I'd take that 10 out of 10 times. Just on his own merit he got the guy off his feet and had a pretty good look at a 3. I have no complaints about the 3 at all. We got the ball in the hands of Steve and that's what we wanted. He had to run a longer route than what we wanted because of the defense. We still got a great look." Nelson on if Dallas has caught up to San Antonio: "I'm not sure. It's still too early. We played them 2 great games. I think we are closer to them than we were a year ago, but that doesn't mean we are better than they are. We'll have to wait and see how the season comes and how we continue to play them. I still don't even have a full roster yet. I had to piece meal it again out there. I thought Wang Zhizhi did a great job and played pretty strong defense along with a great offensive effort. He hustled and did a lot of good things out there. This is prime time and I'm not sure he is ready for prime time. He will be someday for sure." Nelson: "It looks like we lost Mike Finley for a while now. I left him out there for quite a long time because I didn't want him to get cold. I thought once [the hamstring] was warm it would be okay. It wasn't quite healthy, I guess. It's not a terribly serious thing, but he did re-aggravate it." Dirk Nowitzki: "We gave them a great battle in the 4th quarter. We fought to get back into it. Unfortunately, it didn't go our way. I think we left it all out there on the floor. But we lost to a tough team." Steve Nash: "It was unfortunate. We really had a good chance to win and then nothing really seemed to go our way when it really counted the most. Couldn't get a call and couldn't make a shot. It was a tough night." Tim Hardaway: "We were going back and forth a while. It was a good game. We just let them get off to a good start. We gave them some easy shots and easy buckets. We didn't get physical with them at the start." Hardaway: "It was a good game. We let them get off to a good start, we let them get some easy shots, get some easy buckets. We didn't get physical with them when it first started. This team is just not used to that yet." Hardaway on lossing Finley: "We don't need this. It looks like every time we get a guy healthy, someone else goes down. It reminds me of when I played for Miami. But, we have some guys here that work hard and understand our philosophy. Someone has got to step in help now. That's what it takes." Wang Zhizhi: "We had a chance at the end to win the game but we didn't quite make it. I hope that I will get more chances later on to see more playing time at the end. But overall I think I did a good job." Wang on defending Duncan and Robinson: "They are very good players and defending against them is very difficult." San Antonio Spurs 105, Dallas Mavericks 103 at Dallas (January 5) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% San Antonio 25 32 27 21 - 105 .500 .538 .507 .686 Dallas 17 27 28 31 - 103 .431 .429 .430 .793 Halftime: San Antonio 57-44 3rd Q: San Antonio 84-72 Technicals: Antonio Daniels 7:58 2nd, Michael Finley 7:58 2nd Refs: Bennett Salvatore, Monty McCutchen, Scott Wall Attendance: 20,123 (sellout) San Antonio Spurs REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Bruce Bowen 30 2-6 0-0 0-0 4 0-2 1 0 2 0 0 David Robinson 34 2-4 0-0 4-10 8 2-7 0 2 3 1 1 Tim Duncan 40 10-18 0-0 9-13 29 5-17 2 4 6 1 0 Tony Parker 18 3-6 0-1 1-2 7 0-0 3 0 3 0 0 Steve Smith 41 8-15 2-5 0-0 18 0-2 1 0 3 1 0 Terry Porter 30 7-14 2-3 6-6 22 1-7 6 3 4 2 1 Antonio Daniels 25 4-6 3-4 2-2 13 0-2 2 0 3 0 0 Malik Rose 22 1-4 0-0 2-2 4 4-7 1 3 2 1 0 Totals 48 37-73 7-13 24-35 105 12-44 16 13 26 6 2 Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Juwan Howard 21 4-10 0-0 1-2 9 3-5 1 1 4 0 0 Greg Buckner 14 2-4 0-0 2-2 6 0-1 0 0 2 1 0 Dirk Nowitzki 46 9-19 3-7 7-8 28 4-14 4 2 3 0 3 Michael Finley 35 3-10 0-1 4-4 10 1-3 4 1 1 0 0 Steve Nash 40 8-19 0-1 1-2 17 1-4 6 2 5 1 0 Adrian Griffin 5 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 2 0 2 0 0 Tim Hardaway 36 4-10 2-4 3-4 13 0-5 6 1 2 0 0 Danny Manning 3 0-4 0-0 0-0 0 2-2 0 0 0 0 0 Eduardo Najera 22 4-5 0-0 2-4 10 4-7 1 1 5 0 0 Wang Zhizhi 18 3-5 1-1 3-3 10 1-3 0 1 3 0 0 Totals 48 37-86 6-14 23-29 103 16-45 24 10 27 2 3 Denver at Dallas (January 8) Juwan Howard hit 1-2 free throws to open the quarter and that was Dallas' last lead of the quarter. Denver held a 1 to 8 point lead the rest of the 1st. Tim Hardaway hit a 3-pointer with 3 seconds left and Denver led 24-22 after 1. Denver led 30-29 with 10 minutes left and Dallas scored the next 13 points, capped by a 3-pointer by Hardaway, to go up 42-30 with 5 minutes left. Denver then scored the next 9 points to pull within 39-42 with 2:15 to go. It was Dallas's turn to have a run and the Mavs closed the quarter with 10-1 run. Adrian Griffin threw up a prayer from the baseline that bounced up off the front of the rim, but Greg Buckner was able to tap the ball just before the buzzer and it went in. Dallas led 52-40 at the half. Dallas shot 51.3% FG and Denver shot 33.3% FG. Dallas scored the first 4 points of the 3rd quarter to take a 16 point lead and led in the teens for the next 6 minutes. Nick Van Exel stepped up and decided to carry his team on his shoulders as he scored 9 straight points for Denver while Dallas scored 4 points to pull Denver within 60-67 with 3:15 left. Dallas led 72-64 after 3. Van Exel had 12 points in the quarter. Van Exel's stellar play continued as he scored two layups and nailed a 3-pointer to pull Denver within 71-72 with 10:30 remaining. The game stayed close with the lead swinging back and forth. Dallas scored 8 straight points to go up 84-77 with 6:20 to go. Denver hurt themselves by getting called for 2 technicals during that run - a Nugget threw the ball in the air after a fouled was called to collect the 2nd delay of game for Denver and Van Exel got in a ref's ear after he thought he was fouled with no call. But Van Exel again went off and scored the next 6 points and Raef LaFrentz hit a jumper to give Denver an 88-84 lead with 3 minutes left. The teams traded misses and then traded jumpers and Dirk Nowitzki hit 1 of 2 free throws with 1:30 remaining. LaFrentz hit a jumper with 1:15 left to give Denver a 92-87 lead. Eduardo Najera hit a tough reverse layup with a minute to go. Griffin stepped in front of a pass from the corner into the post for the steal and Dallas went running the other way. Steve Nash passed back to Nowitzki, who hit the 3-pointer to tie the game at 92-92 with 33 seconds left. But Avery Johnson came slashing back and drove for the layup with 20 seconds remaining. Nowitzki drove to the middle of the paint, turned and stopped, pump-faked once, his defender fell for it and left his feet, and Nowitzki shot the ball. The whistle blew as Ryan Bowen made contact with Nowitzki after falling for the fake and the shot bounced, bounced, and went in. Nowitzki hit the free throw to give Dallas a 1 point lead with 6.9 seconds remaining. Denver used their last timeout. The ball came into Johnson and he got the ball to Van Exel outside the arc on the elbow. Nash stayed up on him and Van Exel threw up a well contested shot that was an airball. Najera grabbed the rebound and Dallas won 95-94. Yuch. That wasn't pretty. Put it down as a W and go on. Dallas shot a mere 15-37 FG (40.5% FG) in the 2nd half after shooting 51.3% FG in the 1st half while Denver went the other way shooting 33.3% FG in the 1st half and 52.4% FG in the 2nd half. Thank goodness Dirk Nowitzki came through and saved the day. Nowitzki had 27 points, including Dallas' last 6 points, on 7-19 FG, 1-4 3-pointers, and 12-16 FT and 8 rebounds. He had 14 points in the 4th quarter. Juwan Howard had a nice 1st half, but hardly played in the 4th quarter for some reason. He had 15 points and 9 rebounds. Steve Nash was the only other player in double-digits with 10 points. He also had 8 assists. It was pretty balanced scoring as the other 6 players that played had 6, 7, or 8 points. Tim Hardaway hit his first 3 shots and then missed his next 8 shots. Nick Van Exel tried to carry his team to victory and nearly did. He was hitting some incredible and tough shots. He had 31 points including 15 in the 4th quarter (only 4 in the 1st half) and 6 assists, but did turn the ball over 6 times. Raef LaFrentz was limited in the 1st half due to fouls, but did play 35 minutes and had 24 points including 10-15 FG and 11 rebounds. No other Nugget was in double-digits. James Posey did have 16 rebounds, but only 8 points including 3-13 FG. Quotes Don Nelson: "With the last 3 games, I'm not sure I can do another season like that. Let's just be kind and say that we dodged a bullet, a major league bullet. I feel very fortunate that we really did do that and get the win here with the 3-point play at the end." Nelson: "We didn't get a very good performance, I didn't think, from a lot of people. There will be some adjusting, there is no question, while Mike is out which we will have to work our way through. But we really thought that we would do a better job and be crisper than we were tonight, but take nothing away from them - they hung in there and really gave us all we wanted in that 2nd half and more. I'd say we only won 1 quarter, the 2nd quarter." Nelson: "We put in a matchup zone defense yesterday in practice. It was beautiful, they hardly scored against it. I was just uncomfortable doing it in the 2nd half because I didn't want it to cost us the ballgame, but it did really work well in that quarter. Looking back that probably won the ballgame for us because that is the only quarter we won and we won that by a large margin. It is something you'll see more of and I didn't think that I would be using the zone very much, that we play against it enough that we know it's effective at times and it certainly was effective tonight for us so you will see some more of that." Nelson: "Griffin really came through, I thought. He played a heck of a game when I needed him. Everybody played just good enough or just bad enough to make a 1 point win right at the end." Dirk Nowitzki: "We were lucky. They were the better team over a lot of the time. It was an ugly win, but we'll take the win and move on." Nowitzki on Dallas' last play: "Coach said I'd get a postup, so I just came to the middle of the floor, the guy's smaller than me and I shot it over him and did a pump-fake and let it go. I was having a tough time getting the ball in the basket. My postups weren't clicking, I missed free throws, balls went in and out, and I was just fortunate the last 2 shots went in." Nowitzki on Dallas' last play: "In that situation, Mike usually gets the ball. But he's not here so they called a post-up play for me. I knew I had to get to the middle, give a fake, and get the ball up there. We were lucky to win the game." Nowitzki on missing Finley: "It's weird looking over and seeing him on the bench in a suit. It's weird not having him there. I've been playing with him all 4 years I've been here. He's always been there." Greg Buckner: "We found a way to win tonight and it was one of those games where we can't lose, you have to find a way to win. Nick put his team on his shoulders and played excellent in the 2nd half. Steve had to play both offense and defense tonight and that's very tough when a guy like Nick gets it going. Steve did as well as he could on him." Buckner: "Tough games like this can go either way and we're winning them now, but later on in the season we good be losing those games. We just have to find a way to keep fighting until Mike gets back into the lineup and other players have to step up and we have to continue to win games until Mike gets back." Adrian Griffin: "Our zone defense was up and down. In the 2nd quarter we did a great job, but in the 3rd quarter they started to pick their spots and get back into the game. They adjusted to it and that's when they started to come back. We did pretty well with the zone considering we didn't have too much time to work on it." Griffin: "They played great tonight. Nick got on a roll in the 4th quarter and that changed the momentum to their side. We were fortunate to come out with this win. Dirk bailed us out and hopefully we come out and play better on Thursday night. You really can't play like we did in the 2nd half and expect to win in this league. But whenever you have Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki, you always have a chance to win." Griffin on missing Finley: "Mike brings so much to our team and you can tell when he's not out there on the floor with us. There's situations out on the court where we would say Mike would have done this or Mike would have done that, but we have to put that behind us and come ready to play and everyone has to contribute." Mike Evans: "We just couldn't catch a break. We had the ball in the corner and couldn't do anything productive. We got a delay of game call and then the technical and gave the game away. Dirk Nowitzki, being the player that he is, made a big shot. We should have won the ball game. The Mavericks have a very productive offense." Evans on the last shot: "We got the ball where we wanted. It was perfect, except for the finish." Nick Van Exel: "We came up short. I'm not happy with it, not one bit." Van Exel on his 2nd half play: "I just tried to be more aggressive. That is all it was. I was able to get some open looks and knock some shots down." Van Exel on his final shot: "It's pretty much the way we had it drawn up. I just tried to get a shot over him." Van Exel on Nowitzki's 3-pointer play: "We came up short. They've got 2 guys that can really beat you, and one of them got the ball. It's a tough match-up to handle Dirk down in the post." Van Exel on Dallas' last play: "We sort of left Ryan alone in that situation. That's tough, him and Dirk down in the post. We should have come and doubled and gotten the ball out of his hands and made Griffin or Buckner shoot." Raef LaFrentz on losing at the end: "It's kind of a season theme for us, but we played a lot better than we did last night as a team. We played well, but down the stretch it was the same old story: we hit some big shots and they hit some big shots. Dirk, I don't know how many he scored in the last minute of the game, but he ultimately made the difference." Ryan Bowen on defending Nowitzki for Dallas' last play: "I did feel alone out there. Some guys said they were coming. We were talking about it, but it didn't happen. I made a dumb play, and it rolled around and went in." Dallas Mavericks 95, Denver Nuggets 95 at Dallas (January 8) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 22 30 20 23 - 95 .508 .294 .461 .690 Denver 24 16 24 30 - 94 .458 .278 .422 .813 Halftime: Dallas 52-40 3rd Q: Dallas 72-64 Technicals: Denver delay of game 8:06 4th, Nick Van Exel 7:34 4th Refs: Ron Garretson, Tom Washington, Jason Phillips Attendance: 19,617 (sellout) Did not play due to injury: Shawn Bradley (bruised right knee), George McCloud (strained right calf) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Juwan Howard 29 5-10 0-0 5-8 15 0-9 3 3 1 1 1 Johnny Newman 24 4-8 0-1 0-2 8 1-2 0 0 4 1 0 Dirk Nowitzki 38 7-19 1-4 12-16 27 1-8 4 1 5 1 2 Steve Nash 35 4-9 1-4 1-1 10 0-2 8 3 2 0 0 Greg Buckner 27 4-4 0-0 0-0 8 2-6 2 3 2 0 0 Eduardo Najera 23 2-3 0-0 2-2 6 2-5 1 2 1 0 0 Adrian Griffin 22 3-8 0-1 0-0 6 1-2 2 0 1 3 0 Tim Hardaway 25 3-11 2-6 0-0 8 0-2 0 1 1 2 0 Wang Zhizhi 17 3-4 1-1 0-0 7 0-1 0 0 1 0 1 Totals 48 35-76 5-17 20-29 95 7-37 20 14 18 8 4 Denver Nuggets REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Ryan Bowen 33 2-6 0-0 0-0 4 6-8 1 2 6 0 0 James Posey 45 3-13 1-5 1-2 8 2-16 2 2 5 2 0 Raef LaFrentz 35 10-15 1-2 3-3 24 4-11 0 1 3 0 0 Voshon Lenard 30 3-11 1-3 0-0 7 1-5 0 1 0 3 3 Nick Van_Exel 43 12-29 2-8 5-5 31 0-3 6 6 1 1 0 Scott Williams 7 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 2-2 0 0 0 0 0 Calbert Cheaney 20 4-6 0-0 0-0 8 2-3 2 1 4 1 0 Avery Johnson 21 3-7 0-0 2-2 8 0-1 4 1 0 0 0 Zendon Hamilton 6 1-2 0-0 2-4 4 2-3 0 1 1 1 0 Totals 48 38-90 5-18 13-16 94 19-52 15 18 20 8 3 patricia