Prior to the Chicago game, Dallas placed Shawn Bradley on IR with a bone bruise in his right knee. Dallas had an open spot on IR and elected not to activate another player. As Bradley's active roster spot was not filled, Bradley is _not_ required to miss the mandatory 5 games for being put on IR (if the spot is filled, then he is required to miss 5 games - the 5 game count started with the Chicago game). Dallas at Chicago (January 2) Dallas played their 2nd game without Michael Finley and it was an ugly game in Chicago. Dallas went up 9-0 with 9 minutes left as Chicago missed their first 8 shots. Dallas held a single-digit lead the rest of the quarter as Chicago finally found the basket and Dallas joined Chicago in struggling offensively. Dallas led 16-8 with 4:50 remaining and Chicago closed the quarter with a 7-1 mini-run as Dallas missed their last 8 shots of the quarter and went 4 minutes without scoring. Dallas led 17-15 after 1. The game stayed close in the 2nd quarter with Dallas holding on to a single-digit lead, no larger than 5 points. Chicago tied the game at 30-30 with 5 minutes left and again at 38-38 with 3 minutes remaining. A Ron Artest layup with 23 seconds left gave Chicago their first lead at 42-41, but Eduardo Najera picked up the loose ball that rolled out to him after a messy scramble and nailed the jumper at the buzzer. Dallas led 43-42 at the half. Dallas shot 41% FG (and missed 6 free throws) and Chicago shot 35% FG. Dallas was really struggling as not only were they missing Finley, but Dirk Nowitzki had 0 points and only 4 field goals attempted. The play of both teams picked up a little bit in the 3rd quarter, but the game remained close with the teams trading leads and neither team holding more than a 4 point lead. Juwan Howard connected on a layup with 9 seconds to go and Dallas led 71-68 after 3. Nowitzki finally started scoring and had 9 points in the quarter. Dallas continued to hang on to their single-digit lead in the 4th quarter. Tim Hardaway hit a 3-pointer and Nowitzki converted a 3-point play to put Dallas up 82-73 with 7:30 remaining. Chicago cut Dallas' lead down to 3 at 84-81 with 4:30 left, but could get no closer. Greg Buckner scored consecutive buckets to give Dallas a 99-89 lead with 45 seconds left. Dallas won 107-97. Dallas again showed that they can play down to their opponent's level. This game was very similar to the Chicago at Dallas game last Thursday - Dallas going up 6-0 then, Dallas going up 9-0 here; one very ugly quarter of play (then 2nd quarter where teams combined for 25 points, here 1st quarter where teams combined for 32 points); poor shooting in the 1st half; and Dallas pulling away in the 4th quarter. It was not a good performance by Dallas, but again they pulled out the win. The Mavs did play much better in the 2nd half - it helped that Dirk Nowitzki finally showed up offensively. Steve Nash was the high man for Dallas with 24 points, including 11 in the 4th quarter, and 11 assists. Nowitzki had 18 points on 4-13 FG and 9-11 FT (all points in the 2nd half and his 2 missed free throws came in the 1st half) and 9 rebounds (all in the 1st half). Greg Buckner played very well and had 18 points on 9-12 FG and 6 rebounds. Juwan Howard had a quiet 14 points and 8 rebounds. Johnny Newman started and did not score much (5 points on 1-6 FG and 2-4 FT), but was very active defensively in his 24 minutes on the court. Eduardo Najera, as usual, provided hustle and energy and contributed 15 points on 4-6 FG and 7-7 FT (positive in hitting free throws), 6 rebounds, and 3 steals. He jammed his left thumb late in the game, but it is not believed to be serious. Tim Hardaway struggled with his shot and had 8 points (all came in the 4th quarter) on 3-9 FG and just 3 assists. Adrian Griffin, Danny Manning, and Wang Zhizhi only played limited minutes. Ron Artest played very well and had 29 points on 9-16 FG and 10-12 FT, 8 rebounds, and 3 blocks before fouling out with a handful of seconds left. Artest was joined by 4 other Bulls in double-digits: Brad Miller had 14 points and 6 rebounds in 26 foul limited minutes; Ron Mercer had 14 points including 5-16 FG; Greg Anthony had 12 points on 4-5 3-pointers, 8 assists, and 6 turnovers; and rookie Trenton Hassell had 14 points off the bench. Charles Oakley started and physically defended Nowitzki most of the night. Oakley had 6 points and 5 rebounds. Quotes Don Nelson: "It was a game that I don't think we played our best. Of the last 10 games, certainly it doesn't rank up there with one of our better performances, but I want to give [Chicago] the credit for that, defensively. It was a tough game for us. It was a game that we worried about, so I'm very happy to win it." Nelson (joking): "I just wish Nowitzki would be more consistent. He had 9 rebounds or something and no points in the 1st half. And, then no rebounds but points in the 2nd half. Seriously, the Bulls played very well. They hustled and played hard. The reason we didn't play well was their good defensive play. We didn't play our best, but give them credit for a lot of that." Nelson on Chicago: "We noticed on film that they were playing much better. I'm not an advocate of hard fouls, but when you take over a team, you're not going to allow them to give away easy lay-ups. I think it's good for the Bulls to have that mentality. Billy is bringing that out in them and it shows on the defensive end. Tonight, it was like pulling teeth in the 1st half and I didn't know if we were ever going to score." Nelson: "Najera brings that energy for us every night. Buckner was also a big key tonight. He stepped up and scored for us and also defended well. Johnny Newman stepped up big and played well as we really needed him tonight." Michael Finley on sitting out: "I've got the worst seat in the house." Steve Nash: "It was a hard game although we made it that way for ourselves. The Bulls played good defense and have now gotten some confidence, which showed in how hard they played. They really played well and it's unfortunate for them, but they had a chance to win tonight because we were so bad. The key for us was that we made timely shots. We have the confidence in our team that we can turn it up most nights, but we need to play more consistently if we're going to win." Nash: "We survived. We might have taken them lightly, but for whatever reasons we just didn't play well tonight and that happens in this league. It was a hard game, although we made it that way for ourselves. You're very lucky when you don't play well and you get a win, so we're fortunate to win." Nash: "It's unfortunate for them. They had every chance to win tonight because we were bad. But I think, as has been typical of our streak, we made timely shots and that hurt them a lot. It was a lucky one." Nash: "Dirk is a big time scorer. I had to keep going to him even though he was having trouble scoring. It was one of those nights where you have to force-feed him to get him going. Hopefully, we will all have a better performance next game. We also need to get Michael healthy. We have enough fire power on this team but really need both of them to be as good as we can." Tim Hardaway: "We've got that confident feeling we're going to win and we're going to pull it off. Somebody's going to make a shot, somebody's going to make a play." Hardaway: "I love the 4th quarter. I love being there at crunch time." Eduardo Najera: "This was a must-win. We just had to find a way tonight, and we did at the end." Najera: "The Bulls are going through some changes, and we knew they would play well tonight. We didn't play as well as we were playing lately, but we found a way to win." Greg Buckner: "I played well, but I'm not there yet. Not until you can do that in consecutive games. I might play awful in the next game. The only thing that can help now is practice time." Buckner: "I just had to find my niche. No matter if it's 10 minutes or 35 minutes, like tonight, I've just got to find a way to help this team win regardless of how much I play. It's an easy game when you let it be." Bill Cartwright: "That's a good, tough team. When they go small they put us in a situation where we cannot use our bench as much as we would like, especially with getting Eddy Curry in the game or Dalibor if we want to put him out there. Not having Marcus Fizer hurt us because that is another guy we could throw out there as the possibility of a post-up threat. They did a good job. They came own and it was tough for us to handle their pinch-post action because we had to stay home with Nowitzki and then Nash could go ahead and hit the jumper. That bothered us as well. We can take this game and learn from it in that we were right there. It was a lot of the things that we were not doing in terms of taking care of the ball." Cartwright: "19 turnovers is unacceptable. Being smart defensively and keeping them out of the lane is something that we need to learn. I felt walking off the court it wasn't so much what they did, even though they shot the ball well, is the things that we did not do well. Also, we put them on the free throw line a lot and they are a good free throw shooting team. I thought our guys played hard, I am not displeased at the effort. Our zone hurt them early. They figured it out, they adjusted and we had to get out of the zone." Cartwright: "We are a little out of sync because of a lack of practice time. In the next 2 weeks we will play every other day, we have to get better defensively." Cartwright: "Ron Artest was terrific. He is one guy that can hurt them in the post on defensive switches." Ron Artest: "We were down by 6 points down the stretch and I missed a couple of offensive rebounds when the team really needed that." Artest: "We were in it the whole game. We should have won it, but we made too many mistakes at the end of the game." Artest on his play: "I'm feeling better, I'm getting into the flow. I need to stay poised and make my shots." Artest: "My first role is to play defense. I can play offense when it comes to me but my main role is to play good defense." Artest on Hardaway: "He can still play. All this nonsense about his knees being gone is crazy." Greg Anthony: "We really cheated ourselves, shot ourselves in the foot. You can't take anything from them because they took advantage of our mistakes. We could have won this game but it's hard to win when you have 19 turnovers." Anthony: "Today, it was our turnovers. They were able to get into transition and make some easy baskets. We were able to play them well when we contained them in the half-court." Dallas Mavericks 107, Chicago Bulls 97 at Chicago (January 2) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 17 26 28 36 - 107 .492 .368 .462 .778 Chicago 15 27 26 29 - 97 .420 .714 .447 .800 Halftime: Dallas 43-42 3rd Q: Dallas 71-68 Technicals: Brad Miller 10:20 1st, Steve Nash 5:41 1st Refs: Bennie Adams, Jack Nies, Blane Reichelt Attendance: 17,824 (cap 21,711) Did not play due to injury: Michael Finley (strained left hamstring), Marcus Fizer (ill grandmother) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Johnny Newman 24 1-6 1-4 2-4 5 0-1 1 0 4 0 0 Dirk Nowitzki 38 4-13 1-7 9-11 18 1-9 3 3 3 2 1 Juwan Howard 31 6-14 0-0 2-3 14 1-8 4 2 3 1 0 Greg Buckner 35 9-12 0-0 0-1 18 2-6 0 0 4 1 1 Steve Nash 44 8-14 2-3 6-7 24 0-3 11 4 1 1 0 Tim Hardaway 24 3-9 2-3 0-0 8 0-1 3 2 4 1 0 Adrian Griffin 6 0-0 0-0 1-1 1 0-0 0 0 1 0 0 Danny Manning 7 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 0 0 0 0 0 Eduardo Najera 26 4-6 0-0 7-7 15 3-6 0 2 2 3 2 Wang Zhizhi 5 1-3 1-2 1-2 4 0-0 2 0 2 0 1 Totals 48 36-78 7-19 28-36 107 7-35 24 13 24 9 5 Chicago Bulls REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Ron Artest 34 9-16 1-1 10-12 29 4-8 2 3 6 0 3 Charles Oakley 38 3-5 0-0 0-0 6 1-5 4 1 4 2 0 Brad Miller 26 4-9 0-0 6-7 14 1-6 4 2 5 2 0 Greg Anthony 25 4-8 4-5 0-0 12 1-2 8 6 4 2 0 Ron Mercer 37 5-16 0-1 4-4 14 0-2 0 2 1 1 0 Kevin Ollie 23 1-4 0-0 1-1 3 1-4 3 4 3 1 0 Trenton Hassell 23 6-12 0-0 2-2 14 2-4 0 0 3 0 0 Tyson Chandler 18 1-3 0-0 0-2 2 1-6 3 1 5 0 1 Fred Hoiberg 16 1-3 0-0 1-2 3 0-4 3 0 1 0 0 Totals 48 34-76 5-7 24-30 97 11-41 27 19 32 8 4 patricia