Dallas did not signed Charlie Bell to a 10-day contract. The Mavs did have him in and did give him a physical, but found out the Bell had previously signed a contract with Fabriano Basket of Italy and, thus, he can not sign with any NBA team until that contract no longer exists (either by Bell completing the contract or the team releasing him). Shawn Bradley, who has been out with a bone bruise in his knee, may play tonight vs Indiana. New York at Dallas (January 10) Dallas led 11-8 with 8 minutes left and went on a 10-2 run to go up 21-10 with 5:45 remaining. New York scored the last 2 buckets of the quarter and Dallas led 29-22 after 1. Dirk Nowitzki had 11 points and Steve Nash had 8 points and 8 assists - Nash had scored or assisted on 24 of Dallas' first 25 points. Adrian Griffin scored the first basket of the 2nd quarter and New York then scored the next 6 points, capped by a 3-pointer by Allan Houston, to pull within 28-31 with 10:30 to go. Dallas then went on 17-3 run, capped by a 3-pointer by Wang Zhizhi, to take a huge lead at 48-31 with 4:50 left. New York went over 6 minutes after Houston's 3-pointer before they scored another field goal. Dallas led in the teens the rest of the quarter and led 59-44 at the half. Dallas shot 56.1% FG and New York shot 41.9% FG and Dallas actually out-rebounded New York 25-18 in the half. Nowitzki had 18 points. Dallas led 61-48 with 10:40 left and put the game away early with a 13-3 run, capped by a fast-break dunk and free throw on the foul by Johnny Newman, to go up 74-51 with 7 minutes remaining. Dallas' lead hovered around 20 points the rest of the quarter. Dallas led 87-67 after 3. Dallas' lead was in the 20s for all of the 4th, except for a brief foray into the 30s (largest at 109-78 with 3:55 left). For some strange reason, Houston and Kurt Thomas played a good chunk of the garbage time. Dallas won easily 109-80. Now this is the type of game I like as a Mavs fan - an easy one. Dallas showed New York what they can do when their shots can find the ocean (unlike the miserable 3rd and 4th quarters in New York last Thursday where Dallas shot 22.9% FG). The Knicks, especially Marcus Camby, looked completely disinterested. Dallas shot 53.1% FG (and that's despite only going 4-20 3-pointers, Dallas shot 63.9% for 2-pointers) while New York only shot 42.4% FG. Add to that Dallas' out-rebounding New York 45-41 and you have a recipe for a blowout. New York's 3-stars of Camby, Allan Houston, and Latrell Sprewell combined for just 29 points including 11-37 FG. Dirk Nowitzki equaled that amount himself with 29 points including 11-18 FG. He also had 13 rebounds as he was really clicking in this game. Steve Nash was also stellar with 14 points and 11 assists in just 25 minutes. Tim Hardaway had 13 points, but should have stopped jacking up 3s as he was only 1-7 for 3-pointers (but was 4-5 for 2-pointers). Hardaway also had 5 assists and 4 steals. The surprise boost came from Wang Zhizhi. Wang continues to show signs of growth. He had one move where he drove baseline, stopped unexpectedly about 10-feet out, and popped the jumper as the defender hadn't expected the stop. Wang had 10 points and 6 rebounds and was a key part of the 2nd quarter run. Name another team that has not just one, but two 7-footers who can shot the 3? Johnny Newman started, but was limited to 14 minutes as he collected 5 fouls while guarding Houston - he got his 6th foul on a double-foul with Othella Harrington (which was also Harrington's 6th). Newman had 9 points on a perfect 3-3 FG and 3-3 FT. Adrian Griffin and Greg Buckner also played good defense on Houston and Sprewell. Griffin had 10 points including 4-5 FG and Buckner had 4 points and 7 rebounds. Juwan Howard got in foul trouble and had 10 points and 5 rebounds. Eduardo Najera only had 8 points and 4 rebounds, but had a great play after he missed a shot but hung back and stole the outlet pass and dunked the ball. All that played for Dallas scored as Danny Manning had 4 points on 2-2 FG in his 6 garbage time minutes. All for New York struggled except for Kurt Thomas and Harrington (who the refs allowed to camp in the paint). Thomas was the high man with 21 points, but only had 4 rebounds. Harrington had 17 points including 6-8 FG and 6 rebounds. Mark Jackson, who was playing with a stomach virus, had 11 points and just 4 assists. His post-up play, that just killed Dallas in the last game, was not effective in this game. Sprewell had 10 points including 4-15 FG, 8 rebounds, and 5 assists. Houston had 12 points (only 5 in the 1st half) on 5-15 FG and 5 rebounds. Camby had just 7 points on 2-7 FG and 3-6 FT and 10 rebounds. Quotes Don Nelson: "We had a real good performance from our team. I thought everyone played well. We didn't have any holes and it was a very good effort on our part. It was needed because I didn't think we had played well for a couple games. We zoned tonight and it was very effective. We've been putting it in the last few days. Tonight I saw a match-up zone. It's a little different than what I am used too. We started looking good against it in practice and we started liking it. For a new thing, it was pretty successful. I think the more we do it the better we will get and it is a nice weapon to have. The energy was really there tonight. Everybody played at a high level. Everybody got a chance to show what they could do." Nelson: "It was a real good performance. Everyone played well and we needed a game like this because we hadn't played well in the last couple of games. Everyone had energy. I don't know, maybe it was because it was the first time they were on national television. Whatever it was, I liked it." Nelson: "It is important just to win without Mike. When you have a special effort like this, everyone has a chance to play well it does wonders for our confidence. When you get your guy back and they continue to play that way, you are deeper and better and everybody benefits." Nelson on the bench play: "It makes my job easy when we have a bench like that." Nelson: "This was a match-up zone. This is totally different and the new rules allow you to do this. It is little harder than doing it in college because you still have to be legal. There is a barrier that you have to work around. It can be very effective when you understand it. You have to attack it as an offensive team. It is very good if you have trouble covering a man or stopping a screen-and-roll. " Nelson on the zone: "I had to go back and read Del Harris' book [Harris wrote a book about the zone many, many years ago]. But I guess what was good 30 years ago is good today. It a nice weapon to have. We've been looking real good in the zone. It's very effective. You can use it if you have trouble stopping a man or a particular play, and for an old guy like me it's intriguing." Nelson: "It's kind of fun for me, an old guy, who's never played zone before." Dirk Nowitzki: "We kind of took them out of this one early. We got the rhythm early and took it from there." Nowitzki: "We played with great energy early. We got the rhythm early, got a couple of easy looks and were able knock down shots." Steve Nash: "I just wanted to be real aggressive and force the issue, and if it didn't go our way, at least it would have set the tone." Nash: "I just wanted to be aggressive. I just wanted to come out an make sure I was really aggressive. If not force the issue, close to it. I wanted to come out and push the ball." Juwan Howard: "This was one of our best performances of the year. The big reason for that was because of our defense. Not too many people have given us credit about our defensive effort, but tonight it was clicking on all cylinders. That's what got us out to an early lead and we got a lot of fast break points off of it. We have a lot to be proud of and hopefully that's something we can build off of." Howard: "Is this game a little revenge from last week's loss at New York. Big time revenge. We felt last game that we gave it away to them." Howard: "Steve and Dirk were hitting on all cylinders and we gained confidence that everything we threw at them worked. It was a big win for us." Adrian Griffin: "Our bench is very deep. A lot of guys came into the game tonight and really helped us out. Nash and Dirk are always performing at a high level and they are definitely the backbone of this team. We all believe in each other and it really shows out there on the court." Griffin: "I was a little surprised tonight because Sprewell and Houston usually really get them going. We focused on them and if you can stop them and make the other players score you have a better chance to beat them." Griffin: "Any time you are playing on your home court regardless of what team you are playing you want to win. These are valuable games because you can rack up some wins at home and they especially mean something at the end of the season." Griffin: "Last game we kind of squeezed one out and it was a little tougher than what we expected. Tonight we came in focused with a lot of energy and that's the key. When you come in with a lot of energy you never know what can happen." Don Chaney: "We didn't show up from the start. We didn't show up and we got killed, that's what happened. I'm really disappointed this time, because I thought our guys gave in. They gave in early. And we can't do that. Even when you're down, you have to compete. And we gave in tonight." Chaney: "I thought our defense [stunk], big time. We let them shoot 50% the whole game. We've got to get into guys, to allow yourself a chance to win. Transition hurt us, we didn't run back hard. It was an accumulation of defensive errors. And we couldn't throw the ball in the ocean offensively. That's a bad, bad combination." Chaney: "We never really challenged them defensively. To give yourself a chance to win you've got to get into people and we didn't get into them. Our transition game really hurt us because we didn't run back hard. Then the accumulation of errors defensively and we couldn't throw the ball into motion offensively, and that's a bad, bad combination. Chaney: "We definitely did not show up. When you don't show up against a team like this with an abundance of shooters who push the ball up the floor, it creates a lot of mismatches. We didn't show up and got killed. That's the bottom line." Chaney: "It's a bad loss and I don't think anyone played well tonight. You win and lose as a team. A lot of times a guy got beat off the dribble and nobody helped. We didn't play well as a team at all tonight, at all. Very disappointing." Chaney on Dallas' fast pace play: "I'm not surprised. I've seen them play a lot. They're a very good basketball team. Up-tempo is their game. They push the ball, they spot up the 3, they have a very good point guard and very good backup point guard as well. Both are capable of pushing the ball hard and making plays off the run and pulling up for the jumpshot. We didn't take anything away from them. That's the thing that is the most disheartening to me, that we never took anything away from them. We allowed them to do whatever they wanted to do. They penetrated, they passed, they posted, they rebounded, they did all the things that it takes to win. We didn't take one thing away them. That's what a big disappointment is." Chaney: "We've got to work harder. I'm not giving up, we've got to work harder." Chaney: "We haven't been burning the league up in terms of the win category. It's not about being backed up against the wall, it's about playing to win and we haven't won. I'm really surprised at the lack of intensity we didn't have, especially on the defensive end. Once again, I think a lot of it has been with the team since I've been with them. A lot of the dictation is how well you shoot the ball, and it shouldn't be that way. If you're not shooting well you still have to play solid D and work hard defensively and we're not doing it." Latrell Sprewell: "When you have myself, Allan, and Marcus, who are the 3 guys that carry things don't do well on offense and they're scoring at will, shooting the way they were and running up and down the court, then it is going to be tough to get back in the game. It is going to be tough to sustain any type of run." Sprewell: "We didn't have guys getting stops. We didn't have the team collectively rotating and doing what we had to do to contain guys. In the 1st half, they had 18 points in transition, shooting 56%, and 11-14 from the line, so we weren't doing anything defensively." Sprewell: "We didn't do anything defensively. It was nonexistent. And against a team like this, if you're not playing well defensively, you're going to get what we got tonight." Marcus Camby: "Coming in here, we knew we had to play close to a perfect game. Those guys are terrific shooters and a great home team. They score a lot of points. It just didn't go our way tonight." Camby: "We care, we just couldn't do anything about it. Those guys were stroking it. When they are hitting shots like that and guys are coming off the bench and hitting bank shots; it was just their night." Dallas Mavericks 111, New York Knicks 89 at Dallas (January 10) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 29 30 28 24 - 111 .639 .200 .531 .840 New York 22 22 23 22 - 89 .444 .308 .424 .684 Halftime: Dallas 59-44 3rd Q: Dallas 87-67 Technicals: None Refs: Ted Bernhardt, Jim Capers, Phil Robinson Attendance: 20,019 (sellout) Did not play due to injury: Shawn Bradley (bruised right knee), Travis Knight (bruised right knee) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Adrian Griffin 30 4-5 0-0 2-3 10 2-4 4 1 1 1 1 Juwan Howard 34 5-11 0-0 0-0 10 0-5 0 0 5 0 1 Dirk Nowitzki 38 11-18 2-7 5-5 29 2-13 1 1 1 1 2 Steve Nash 25 6-13 0-2 2-2 14 0-3 11 2 0 2 0 Johnny Newman 14 3-3 0-0 3-3 9 0-0 0 1 6 0 0 Greg Buckner 28 1-4 0-0 2-2 4 3-7 1 1 0 0 1 Tim Hardaway 23 5-12 1-7 2-2 13 0-0 5 4 1 4 2 Eduardo Najera 23 2-4 0-0 4-6 8 1-4 2 1 1 1 1 Wang Zhizhi 19 4-9 1-4 1-2 10 0-6 1 1 5 1 0 Danny Manning 6 2-2 0-0 0-0 4 1-3 1 1 2 0 0 Totals 48 43-81 4-20 21-25 111 9-45 26 13 22 10 8 New York Knicks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Latrell Sprewell 38 4-15 0-2 2-2 10 2-8 5 4 2 1 0 Kurt Thomas 30 10-17 0-0 1-2 21 1-4 1 1 4 0 0 Marcus Camby 33 2-7 0-1 3-6 7 4-10 0 1 3 1 0 Allan Houston 37 5-15 2-3 0-0 12 1-5 1 2 3 3 0 Mark Jackson 29 5-10 1-2 0-0 11 1-1 4 2 2 1 0 Charlie Ward 15 1-3 0-1 0-0 2 0-0 5 3 4 1 0 Othella Harrington 29 6-8 0-0 5-6 17 3-6 1 2 6 0 0 Howard Eisley 4 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 1-1 0 0 1 0 0 Shandon Anderson 21 3-6 1-4 0-1 7 1-6 2 1 2 1 0 Lavor Postell 4 0-2 0-0 2-2 2 0-0 1 1 0 0 0 Totals 48 36-85 4-13 13-19 89 14-41 20 17 27 8 0 patricia