Dallas signed Charlie Bell to a 10-day contract prior to the Indiana game. He got in the game for the last 13 seconds. Bell sprained his right ankle during practice on Sunday and the Mavs placed him on IR and activated Donnell Harvey on Monday. Indiana at Dallas (January 12) It was a high scoring affair in the 1st quarter with neither team able to build much of a lead. Dallas went on a 10-2 run to go up 30-22 with 1:35 remaining. Travis Best hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer and Dallas led 30-27 after 1. Juwan Howard had 10 points. Dallas missed their first 9 shots of the 2nd quarter and Indiana went on an 8-1 run to open the quarter to go up 35-31 with 8:30 left. Dallas hit their first basket of the quarter with 7:53 remaining and the teams traded leads. A 3-pointer by Steve Nash gave Dallas a 40-37 lead with 6:20 to go, but Indiana scored the next 7 points to go up 44-40 on a 3-pointer by Austin Croshere with 4:25 left. Indiana led 52-47 at the half. Dallas only shot 6-29 FG while Indiana shot 9-19 FG while out-scoring Dallas 25-17 in the 2nd quarter. Al Harrington had 12 points in the quarter. Indiana continued to roll in the 3rd quarter and scored 9 consecutive points to go up 65-50 with 6:25 left as Dallas missed 8 straight shots. Indiana led 75-61 on a 3-pointer by Reggie Miller with 3 minutes to go, but Dallas went on a 9-2 run to pull within 70-77 with a minute left. Indiana led 79-72 after 3. Dirk Nowitzki had 10 points in the quarter. The game was very competitive in the 4th quarter with Dallas battling hard and Indiana working to preserve their single-digit lead. Indiana led 89-82 with 7:30 to go, but Dallas went on a 9-2 run capped by a 3-pointer by Nash with 4:35 remaining to give Dallas a 93-91 lead. The teams traded jumpers, Nowitzki hit 1-2 free throws, and Nash hit a jumper to put Dallas up 98-93 with 3 minutes left. Jalen Rose hit 2 free throws and a jumper to make it a 1 point game at 97-98 with 2:10 remaining, but Nash answered with a 3-pointer with 1:45 left. Rose made a layup, the teams traded misses, and Nowitzki made a layup with 51 seconds remaining to give Dallas a 103-99 lead. Rose missed and Indiana started intentionally fouling. Dallas hit 8-8 free throws down the stretch and Indiana did not score again until a 3-pointer by Miller with 3 seconds left. Dallas won 111-102. Wow. Talk about stealing a game. Indiana was the better team for almost 3 quarters, but the Mavs stepped up in the 4th quarter and pulled out another comeback win. Dallas shot 10-16 FG and 16-19 FT in the 4th while Indiana shot 9-24 FG and 4-5 FT as Dallas out-scored Indiana 39-23 in the 4th. The comeback was led by Steve Nash's 15 points (including 3-3 3-pointers) and Dirk Nowitzki's 11 points in the 4th quarter. Nash finished with 29 points including 5-7 3-pointers and 11 assists and Nowitzki had 31 points and 11 rebounds. Eduardo Najera also had a double-double with 13 points (including 7 in the 4th) and 13 rebounds including 7 offensive. Juwan Howard was the 4th Mav in double-digits with 10 points, all in the 1st quarter. Indiana had balance scoring, but no one stepped up in the 4th. Jalen Rose had 18 points and 8 rebounds. Reggie Miller had 18 points including 5-10 3-pointers. Jermaine O'Neal had a double-double with 17 points and 12 rebounds and rookie Jamaal Tinsley had a double-double with 12 points and 16 assists. Al Harrington was the 5th Pacer in double-digits with 16 points and 7 rebounds. Indiana has to be looking at this game and wondering how they lost. Minor nitpicking: Man, were the refs not calling 3 seconds in this game. And when they finally called one, it was on Dallas - and that right after a Pacer had been camped in the lane for over 6 seconds without a call. I don't have a problem with them called 3 seconds on Dallas, but call it both ways (and call it). The other things was that when Jermaine O'Neal went to the line for the first time, I wasn't paying too much attention, but thought that he was taking a long time at the line. For his seconds attempt, I did a slow count starting when O'Neal received the ball and had reached 15 by the time he released it. He did a little better on his next 2 attempts as I only got to 11 seconds (and didn't count on his last 2 attempts). Players have 10 seconds to attempt a free throw. Quotes Don Nelson: "There are some games where you just don't know how you won and tonight was one of those games. The guys who were playing out there just figured out a way to get the job done. We didn't look good for a long, long period of time. My hats off to Indiana, they played a great game off a back-to-back situation. It was just the luck of the draw that carried us to victory." Nelson: "We put a great deal of effort out there, but we didn't shoot the ball very well and their defense had a lot to do with that. Things weren't going our way for such a long time. We had the big 4th period. We got into a rhythm and flow and shot making that carried us to victory. The game was looking bleak for a while, and then Najera comes to the rescue. Eddie played a huge game. He did a remarkable job on O'Neal. He missed 2 big free throws then came back and made 2 big ones. I am very proud in the way he has elevated his game. Nelson on his team without Finley: "We played well against the Knicks and then struggled for 3 quarters tonight. They have given me everything they've got, whether we win or not. I am real proud of the way the team has come together in Mike's absence. It sure would have been nice to have him tonight, though." Dirk Nowitzki: "We know we can come back. We were down 15 and that's nothing. We can come back from that in 2 minutes." Nowitzki on missing Finley: "It's good to know that we can beat good teams without him." Steve Nash: "I think a big key was that we just stuck with it. I mean we could have easily just gone through the motions and lost this game. Things started going our way. We kinda sorta started playing better." Nash: "For the most part, they played a pretty good game. But we just had too much for them in the 4th." Eduardo Najera: "I thought we came a little bit flat in the 1st half. We missed a few shots and didn't play very good on defense. " Najera: "In the 2nd half, obviously the coaches made the adjustment and we followed the game plan and I thought we did a better job in the 2nd half offensively and that led to open shots and easy baskets." Najera: "I thought we did a better job in the 2nd half defensively, and that led to open shots and easy baskets. But we've been down before, and we knew we just had to play better defense and with more energy." Najera: "Before we just knew that we had to play better defense with more energy and that's exactly what we did and that's why we came back and won it. It'll make a whole different ballgame if Finley was playing. We would've won easily, but unfortunately we have to learn to play without him because he's going to be out a few more games. We're coming along pretty good. Our chemistry is there and we still know who is going to take the shots." Najera: "I tell you what, we just didn't make the shots we normally take and that's just the way it is. We are a shooting team, obviously, and some nights they're not going to be there, but the good news is that one of the guys is going to get hot and bring us back into the game." Najera: "Obviously our confidence is high, beating these kind of teams we get more comfortable as we go through the season. We still have a lot of games and a lot of good teams are going to come in this house and we just have to take care of business." Najera on winning: "We're feeling pretty good right now, we're playing pretty good. Now we have to go on the road and steal few more wins. I think we can get a streak going as long as we play better than we did tonight." Najera on being a fan favorite: "As a player you always want fans to be right with you and it makes it more exciting for me. I think I get motivated and it makes me play harder." Adrian Griffin on the comeback: "Once again it is Nash and Dirk that came to the rescue for us. We have a lot of [bench] guys that can contribute. Dirk made big shots, Steve made some big shots. We turned up the energy on the defensive end and we were able to come back." Griffin on coming back without Finley: "It definitely tells us we are capable of winning and we put our trust in each other. The coaches do a great job of preparing us and they give us the opportunity to go out on the court and win some games - that's all you can ask. I thought it came together in the 2nd half." Isiah Thomas: "I felt my team basically started thinking individuals instead of team and we stopped executing and sharing the ball as opposed to playing together and staying together. I felt that we didn't stay committed to the team for 48 minutes and that hurt us." Thomas: "Obviously had trouble with Nash in the 4th - he broke down the defense. We broke down everywhere. We gave up 39 points in the 4th quarter and it started, I thought, when people started thinking about themselves as opposed to the team. If we're going to win and be a good basketball team, we have to be committed to team, not I. Tonight we weren't committed to team." Thomas on the 4th: "We just stopped executing - we came off and shot the basketball as opposed to being patient, swinging the ball to the other side of the floor and taking advantage of mismatches as we did all night long. All of a sudden it was like my turn to shoot so I'm shooting regardless of what's happening." Thomas: "We had a great 2nd quarter and our defense was good. I think they were shooting 33% at the half." Jamaal Tinsley: "I think when we were up, we needed to keep executing like we had been doing. But I think we started slowing it up." Tinsley: "I think we beat ourselves. We should have been doing the same thing that we've been doing, that got us the lead. Then we started going 1-on-1 a lot, but they made shots down at the end and we didn't." Tinsley: "In an NBA game there is going to be a lot of runs. They made runs, we tried to make runs. They played pretty good defense on us. I think when we were up we need to keep executing like we have been doing, but I think we started slowing it up." Jalen Rose: "You can't give up 39 points in the 4th quarter. That's the key. We had the lead and we found a way to keep them in the low 20s in the 3rd quarter and held them to 17 points in the 2nd quarter. We were doing a good job of playing defense. It wasn't really about the offense in my opinion, it was about the defense. You can't allow a team like Dallas to get on an emotional joyride. Once they start knocking down shots and the crowd gets into the game, Dirk and Nash are hard to stop in that situation. You give up 39 points in the 4th quarter and you are going to lose every time." Dallas Mavericks 111, Indiana Pacers 102 at Dallas (January 12) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 30 17 25 39 - 111 .413 .421 .415 .806 Indiana 27 25 27 23 - 102 .476 .360 .443 .714 Halftime: Indiana 52-47 3rd Q: Indiana 79-72 Technicals: Danny Manning 8:35 4th Refs: Ed Rush, Jess Kersey, Derek Richardson Attendance: 20,071 (sellout) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Juwan Howard 22 5-12 0-0 0-0 10 0-3 1 0 2 0 1 Adrian Griffin 23 1-3 0-0 0-0 2 1-3 2 0 3 1 0 Dirk Nowitzki 48 10-21 2-4 9-12 31 1-11 4 2 2 0 0 Steve Nash 42 10-22 5-7 4-4 29 1-2 11 5 1 0 0 Johnny Newman 20 2-5 0-2 2-2 6 0-2 0 0 1 1 0 Tim Hardaway 24 3-10 1-4 2-2 9 0-3 2 0 0 1 0 Greg Buckner 17 1-6 0-0 3-4 5 3-8 0 0 2 2 0 Eduardo Najera 30 5-9 0-0 3-5 13 7-13 1 0 2 1 0 Wang Zhizhi 7 2-5 0-2 2-2 6 1-1 0 1 1 0 1 Danny Manning 6 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 3 0 0 Charlie Bell 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 39-94 8-19 25-31 111 14-46 21 9 17 6 2 Indiana Pacers REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Jermaine O'Neal 37 7-13 0-0 3-6 17 4-12 0 4 4 0 1 Jalen Rose 33 6-14 1-3 5-6 18 0-8 1 2 3 1 2 Jeff Foster 27 2-8 0-2 0-0 4 5-9 1 1 2 3 0 Reggie Miller 38 6-12 5-10 1-2 18 0-2 3 1 1 0 0 Jamaal Tinsley 38 5-13 1-5 1-2 12 0-4 16 4 5 2 1 Al Harrington 27 7-12 0-0 2-2 16 0-7 1 2 4 1 1 Travis Best 14 1-5 1-1 1-1 4 0-0 1 0 3 0 0 Jonathan Bender 8 1-3 0-0 2-2 4 2-2 1 1 0 0 0 Austin Croshere 18 4-8 1-4 0-0 9 1-4 2 1 3 0 1 Totals 48 39-88 9-25 15-21 102 12-48 26 16 25 7 6 Dallas at Orlando (January 14) It was a close game in the 1st quarter with both teams shooting well and Orlando's largest lead was just 5 points and Dallas briefly held a 1 point lead. Orlando led 25-23 after 1. Tracy McGrady hit a 3-pointer and 2 free throws to give Orlando a 39-34 lead with 8 minutes to go. Orlando held a single-digit lead the rest of the quarter. Orlando led 61-54 at the half. Troy Hudson had 16 points in the 2nd quarter. Tracy McGrady had 20 points and Juwan Howard had 15 points in the half. Orlando shot 10-14 FG in the 2nd quarter. No one for Dallas showed up for the 3rd quarter as Orlando opened the quarter with a 12-0 run to go up 73-54 with 8:45 left - not even the coach showed up as Don Nelson just sat their while his team floundered and did not call a timeout until 6:20 left and Dallas down 56-77. Dallas threw in the towel early and set their sights on the Atlanta game for the next night (back-to-back) as Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki sat for the rest of the game. Orlando's lead continued to bloom and they led a commanding 94-63 after 3. Mike Miller had 11 points in the 3rd. Orlando out-scored Dallas 33-9 in the quarter as Dallas shot just 3-23 FG while Orlando shot 58% FG. The 4th quarter was pure garbage time as Dallas got no closer than the final margin of 26 points. Orlando won 113-87. Dallas simply quit during this game. Orlando made their run to start the 3rd quarter and Dallas folded and said to themselves, "forget about this game; on to the next one." It was brutal. Orlando played great and Dallas did not show up after halftime. It was so bad that Shawn Bradley actually got in the game. He didn't last long as he did something to really tick Don Nelson off (or simply gave Nelson an excuse to blow up at someone after watching his team play so poorly) and Nelson used a timeout to pull Bradley and yell at him. But there was so much garbage time left that Nelson eventually put Bradley back in. Dallas' big guns of Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash did not show up. Nowitzki only had 4 points including 1-8 FG and did not score his first point of the game until midway through the 2nd quarter and all of his points came in the 1st half. Nash only had 4 points on 2-10 FG and all of his points also came in the 1st half. The duo had combined to average 49.2 points including 51.2% FG, 13.4 rebounds, and 12.8 assists in the 5 other games that Michael Finley has missed. In this game, they combined for just 8 points including 16.7% FG, 5 rebounds, and 3 assists. Despite the poor 1st half performances from their available 2 big stars, Dallas was only down by 7 points at halftime. Which makes their 2nd half no-show even more disgusting. The team has shown heart in the past in not getting down when struggling and the ability to keep working and come back, but this night they showed no heart and no interest in playing in the 2nd half after Orlando hit the first few buckets of the 3rd quarter. The only Mav player to really show up was Juwan Howard, who had 26 points including 11-18 FG and 8 rebounds including 6 offensive. Wang Zhizhi (13 points including 4-12 FG) and Greg Buckner (13 points including 5-7 FG) were the only other Mavs in double-digits. Adrian Griffin was probably the 2nd best Mav player with 8 points on a perfect 3-3 FG and 2-2 FT (all in the 1st quarter) and 5 rebounds in just 16 minutes. Orlando was lead by their star Tracy McGrady with 26 points (20 in the 1st half) and 8 rebounds. Troy Hudson was the big spark off the bench with 21 points and 5 assists. Horace Grant played well with 16 points including 6-9 FG and 6 rebounds and Mike Miller had 15 points and 5 rebounds. Quotes Doc Rivers: "Good win obviously. Offensively we were great, we really were. We moved the ball. I was just happy 'cause we moved on offense, we set picks on offense, we played the game on offense. They struggled tonight - sometimes you catch a team like we were, I thought, Friday and Saturday. You catch a team on an off-night, a flat-night. When you hold Nash to 4 points and Nowitzki to 4, you're probably going to be down." Rivers: "The thing we wanted to take away from Nowitzki was his penetration, his speed that he has that advantage over all the forwards. The other thing we wanted to do was make him a post player because he really loves standing behind the 3. We told Tracy that he might hurt you on the post a couple of times but that's the place that he doesn't want to be. He's good down there but that's not where he would prefer to have the ball. I thought Darrell and Troy did a nice job on Nash also. We really wanted to attack him off the dribble on offense because we thought we had a chance to get him in foul trouble." Rivers: "I had a good feeling before the game. I don't know why, but I just had a great feeling. You could see everybody; you saw it as early as the shoot around. I thought the guys were really focused, but that still doesn't mean you're going to win the game. When you play a team like Dallas that still doesn't mean you're going to win the game." Darrell Armstrong: "We knew this team didn't play real good defense and if we let them stay in the game, keep it close, then they would have felt like they could win. We just turned it up in the quarter, got stops, and came out tough on them." Don Nelson: "We left our game in Dallas, but we're going to fly it in. It's going to meet us in Atlanta. Thank goodness it only counts as 1 loss. It wasn't a very good effort on our part." Nelson: "I'm not looking to push blame on anybody. You have these games once in a while. You just hope that you don't have another one down the road." Nelson: "We've dodged about 3 or 4 bullets here in the last 8 games. I suppose you could kind of see this coming. Maybe it's good it happened all at once." Dirk Nowitzki: "Today it was brutal. Nothing really went our way. They were just more aggressive. It's just one of those nights you've got to forget about real quick." Nowitzki: "It was just one of those nights. Nothing really went our way. The ball would go in and out. They were more aggressive. It was brutal." Steve Nash: "They deserve some credit, but you play so many games in the this league that sometimes you don't have it. In the 2nd half, we were just so flat. We had no legs and we started missing everything. It was just one of those nights." Juwan Howard: "I don't know what they said at halftime. They came out fired up and we couldn't respond with any defensive stops." Tim Hardaway: "They were doing whatever they wanted to do on offense and we didn't stop them at all." Orlando Magic 113, Dallas Mavericks 87 at Orlando (January 14) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Orlando 25 36 33 19 - 113 .508 .412 .488 .867 Dallas 23 31 9 24 - 87 .460 .211 .402 .708 Halftime: Orlando 61-54 3rd Q: Orlando 94-63 Technicals: Tim Hardaway 4:21 3rd Refs: Tom Washington, Scott Wall, Greg Willard Attendance: 13,237 (cap 17,248) Orlando Magic REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Pat Garrity 33 3-9 1-3 0-0 7 2-6 3 0 3 0 0 Mike Miller 26 6-10 1-2 2-3 15 0-5 1 1 3 0 0 Horace Grant 26 6-9 0-0 4-4 16 1-6 2 0 1 0 0 Darrell Armstrong 23 4-7 0-0 3-3 11 0-2 2 1 2 1 0 Tracy McGrady 31 8-16 2-4 8-8 26 1-8 3 3 0 0 0 Troy Hudson 30 6-12 3-7 6-6 21 0-2 5 3 2 0 0 Monty Williams 25 1-4 0-0 3-6 5 2-8 4 3 2 1 0 Don Reid 9 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 1-2 0 1 3 0 1 Andrew DeClercq 17 4-6 0-0 0-0 8 4-6 1 2 5 0 0 Jud Buechler 14 1-4 0-1 0-0 2 3-7 1 0 0 1 0 Steven Hunter 6 0-4 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 40-82 7-17 26-30 113 14-53 22 16 21 3 1 Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Adrian Griffin 16 3-3 0-0 2-2 8 1-5 1 1 1 0 0 Juwan Howard 36 11-18 0-1 4-6 26 6-8 2 2 5 1 0 Dirk Nowitzki 23 1-8 0-1 2-4 4 0-4 0 2 2 0 0 Steve Nash 23 2-10 0-3 0-0 4 0-1 3 2 3 1 0 Johnny Newman 34 3-6 1-4 2-2 9 0-1 1 1 3 2 0 Wang Zhizhi 21 4-12 2-3 3-4 13 2-5 1 0 3 0 2 Tim Hardaway 29 2-9 0-5 2-2 6 1-1 4 3 2 2 0 Greg Buckner 19 5-7 1-1 2-2 13 1-3 1 0 3 2 0 Eduardo Najera 17 1-3 0-0 0-2 2 1-1 1 0 1 2 0 Danny Manning 16 1-4 0-1 0-0 2 1-5 0 0 1 0 1 Shawn Bradley 6 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 0 0 2 0 1 Totals 48 33-82 4-19 17-24 87 13-35 14 11 26 10 4 patricia