Dallas signed Charlie Bell for the rest of the season. The NBA named Steve Nash as one of the 8 contestants for the 3-point Shootout for All-Star Saturday on February 9 in Philadelphia. Dallas at Atlanta (January 15) It was an old-fashioned shoot-out as both teams came out gunning and Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry shooting lights out to see which would score more. Dallas mostly held a single-digit lead in the 1st quarter. Terry scored 7 straight points to tie the game at 19-19 with 4:20 left, but Dallas went on an 11-2 run to go up 30-21 with 1:20 to go on a 3-pointer by Steve Nash. Dallas led 32-23 after 1. Nowitzki had 15 points (1st 3 field goals were 3-pointers) and Terry had 14 points. Dallas led 37-27 on a 3-pointer by Nowitzki with 10:45 remaining. But Atlanta answered with a 15-3 run, including 9 by Terry, to go up 42-20 with 6:45 to go. The game stayed close the rest of the quarter with neither team holding more than a 3 point lead. A hook by Nazr Mohammed with 10 seconds left gave Atlanta a 57-55 lead at the half. Terry was up to 30 points and Nowitzki had 24 points. The game still stayed close in the 3rd with the teams trading leads. The game was tied 64-64 with 9 minutes left and Dallas scored the next 9 points to go up 73-64 with 6:45 remaining. Dallas scored 8 straight points while Terry and Shareef Abdur-Rahim sat with 4 fouls each and Dallas led 92-79 with 41 seconds to go. Mark Strickland hit a jumper at the buzzer and Dallas led 94-83 after 3. Nash was the stud in the 3rd quarter with 17 points including 3 3-pointers. Nowitzki joined Nash with a strong quarter and had 12 points as Dallas out-scored Atlanta 39-26 in the 3rd. Terry had 10 points. Dallas led 104-89 on a 3-pointer by Tim Hardaway, but Atlanta had one last rally in them as they scored the next 9 points to pull within 98-104 with 4:25 to go. But two Hardaway 3-pointers surrounded a Terry jumper and Nash drove for a layup to put Dallas up 112-100 with 3 minutes remaining. Dallas won 116-107. That was a real entertaining game to watch (too bad no one in Atlanta showed much interest - the arena was really empty). You had Jason Terry and Dirk Nowitzki unstoppable and Dallas shooting lights out from the outside. Atlanta was using a zone defense most of the game which was clogging the area inside 18-feet so Dallas was happy to pass the ball to the open man and take the outside shot. It was a run-and-gun game. Both teams shot 47.6% FG, but the difference in the game was that Dallas made a 18 3-pointers - tying the team record of makes set back in the crazy 95-96 season where Dick Motta turned the team loose and told the team to shoot 3s and one less than the NBA record of 19 makes. Dallas also attempted 40 3-pointers (but no where close to the NBA and Mavs record of 49 from 95-96) - a few of them were forced, ill-advised shots, including 2 quick ones (one by Tim Hardaway and one by Steve Nash) early in Atlanta's 4th quarter run. The game had a number of stand-out performances. Nowitzki set a regular season career high (had 42 in the playoffs) with 40 points on 12-22 FG, 6-15 3-pointers, and 10-13 FT and 11 rebounds. Nowitzki played all 48 minutes and did not have a turnover. Nash was very hot with 29 points including 10-13 FG and 5-7 3-pointers and 10 assists. Hardaway had 18 points on 6 made shots. Yup, all 3-pointers. He shot 6-13 FG and 6-12 3-pointers. 4 of his 3-pointers came in the 4th quarter. Adrian Griffin shot horribly (4-14 FG for 9 points), but was a thief. He had 7 steals including a couple in the 4th quarter where he simply took the ball away from Terry. Griffin also had 7 rebounds and 6 assists. Juwan Howard continues to struggle with just 10 points and 6 rebounds, but he also had 5 assists. Greg Buckner was limited to 14 minutes due to leg cramps. Dallas could not stop Terry. They called a couple of timeouts to switch defenders on Terry, but he was just on fire. He, thankfully, slowed down in the 4th quarter (only 6 points). Terry had an amazing 46 points on 15-23 FG and 3-5 3-pointers, and 13-17 FT, 5 assists, and 3 steals. And it wasn't a solo act as Nazr Mohammed had a monster game with 21 points including 9-14 FG and 18 rebounds. It is not often that you will find Shareef Abdur-Rahim as only the 3rd highest scorer in a Hawk game. Abdur-Rahim had 19 points and 8 rebounds. Mark Strickland, who is on a 10-day contract, had a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds. But Atlanta's fire-power was no match for the offense-oriented Mavs as Dallas simply out-shot Atlanta to win this game. Quotes Don Nelson: "It was an amazing game. We faced a zone most of the game and as a result we shot 40 3-shots and made a pretty good percentage of them." Nelson: "There were a lot of opportunities for shooters because there were holes in that zone and we found them a lot." Nelson: "We got blown out last night. Maybe it was a positive in disguise because I was able to rest some of my guys. As a result, we could gear up for this game and have some energy." Nelson, joking: "We did a tremendous defensive job on Terry. We held him to 46. I was pretty proud of my team for really rising up and holding him to 46. He had a whale of a game." Dirk Nowitzki: "We like to run and shoot early 3s, and so do they. It was a fun game to be a part of. We knew we had to come out and find our rhythm early and get some open looks, and against their zone we were able to just spot up and find our shooting rhythm." Nowitzki: "It was a fun game. That's how we like to play, up-and-down. They played our brand of basketball and we're just a little better at it. It was not really a defensive battle." Nowitzki: "I think we had a lot more open looks than we had yesterday. Orlando played very well defensively. They were on our shooters the whole time. They just forced the ball out of our hands. Today, we had wide open looks and we found our rhythm. And it was much better today." Steve Nash: "They packed in that zone so much that we had to take some 3s and luckily tonight we made a lot of them. Last night was a difficult loss, so we needed this one." Nash: "More importantly, what we took from last night's game isn't poor shooting. Tonight we made sure we got a win no matter how we did it." Nash: "Yesterday was just one of those nights where nothing was falling for us. Tonight, we made sure we got a win no matter how we did it, just to get that attitude back." Tim Hardaway: "It's a fun game when you're shooting and making it." Hardaway: "That's the way to bounce back after a disappointing game last night. That's what you've got to do and that's what we did. It was the same offense we always run. We just had great looks and everybody made shots." Hardaway: "It's good to come out like this after last night. You get blown out by 30 the night before, you better have all the energy and your shots better be going in." Hardaway: "I was just making some 3s. They kept me wide open. You keep me out there long enough, I'm going to make them. They passed me the ball, they were finding me. I was just making shots." Jason Terry: "The effort was there. That's what we have to have, effort. We may be down a lot of players, but we can go out there every night and play hard and try to make something happen. We didn't get this one, but we have Chicago coming, so now we're going to go after them." Terry: "We're not a very good club defensively, there's no question about that. Their matchups gave us a lot of trouble." Terry on Hardaway's 6 3-pointers: "How do you figure him to make 6? 6? As far as I'm concerned, that was it right there." Terry on their 4th quarter run: "It looked like we were going to make a run there for a second, but they had Tim Hardaway. How would you know that he was going to come out and shoot the lights out in a 2-minute span? He hit back-to-back 3-pointers and that ended us." Terry on his game: "Yeah, but I needed a whole lot more than that. We just didn't have enough firepower to beat that team." Terry: "No matter what the stats read, a win is the only thing that really matters. They pass the ball extremely well. I'm not saying we don't. It's just you can tell the difference." Terry: "It's frustrating just to lose as many games as we are right now, regardless of what the stats say. The only time I'm excited is if I go out winning. It's frustrating. I'm a competitor." Dallas Mavericks 116, Atlanta Hawks 107 at Atlanta (January 15) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 32 23 39 22 - 116 .500 .450 .476 .741 Atlanta 23 34 26 24 - 107 .486 .375 .476 .743 Halftime: Atlanta 57-55 3rd Q: Dallas 94-83 Technicals: Juwan Howard 2:56 1st, Shareef Abdur-Rahim 7:46 3rd, Lon Kruger 7:37 3rd Refs: Joe DeRosa, David Jones, Jim Kinsey Attendance: 8,214 (cap 19,445) Did not play due to injury: Emanual Davis (fractured wrist), Theo Ratliff (bruised right hip) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Greg Buckner 14 2-4 0-0 0-0 4 0-0 0 2 4 0 2 Juwan Howard 32 3-8 0-0 4-8 10 2-6 5 0 2 1 1 Dirk Nowitzki 48 12-22 6-15 10-13 40 0-11 1 0 2 1 1 Adrian Griffin 40 4-14 1-3 0-0 9 3-7 6 1 1 7 0 Steve Nash 43 10-13 5-7 4-4 29 1-3 10 4 5 0 0 Johnny Newman 15 1-5 0-3 0-0 2 0-2 1 2 5 2 0 Eduardo Najera 17 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 2-3 0 1 1 0 0 Tim Hardaway 25 6-13 6-12 0-0 18 1-3 4 1 4 1 0 Wang Zhizhi 6 0-1 0-0 2-2 2 0-2 0 1 1 0 1 Totals 48 39-82 18-40 20-27 116 9-37 27 13 25 12 5 Atlanta Hawks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Shareef Abdur-Rahim 36 7-17 0-1 5-6 19 3-8 4 5 4 0 0 DerMarr Johnson 14 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 0 0 1 1 0 Nazr Mohammed 40 9-14 0-0 3-4 21 8-18 0 4 3 2 3 Dion Glover 19 2-10 0-1 0-0 4 3-3 0 0 2 0 0 Jason Terry 45 15-23 3-5 13-17 46 0-3 5 5 4 3 0 Mark Strickland 34 5-8 0-0 0-2 10 2-11 0 0 1 0 1 Hanna Mottola 10 0-5 0-0 0-0 0 0-2 0 1 2 1 0 Jacque Vaughn 32 1-5 0-1 5-6 7 0-3 6 2 3 2 0 Cal Bowdler 10 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 0 0 2 1 0 Totals 48 39-82 3-8 26-35 107 16-50 15 18 22 10 4 patricia