Dallas finished the 2001-02 regular season with a record of 57-25. It is the most wins in team history, besting 86-87 when Dallas won 55 games. They had a home record of 30-11 (tied 4th best in team history) and a league best 27-14 on the road (best in team history - old: 25-16 last season). San Antonio defeated Utah to finish with a record of 58-24 - the game ended during halftime of the Dallas-Phoenix game - and won the Midwest Division title and received the #2 seed. The Lakers also had a record of 58-24 and received the #3 seed. Dallas gets the #4 seed and will face #5 Minnesota in the first round. Minnesota should provide a challenge and Dallas should not take them lightly. Minnesota has lost in the first round in each of the past 6 seasons and would love to finally get out of the first round. Plus the #5 seed actually historically has a better record against the #4 seed. Dallas should win this series, but it will take a good showing and they can't have the slow starts that have plagued this team in far too many games. The winner of this series will face the winner of the Sacramento-Utah series. Dallas-Minnesota schedule: Sunday April 21 Minnesota at Dallas 2:00 pm NBC Wednesday April 24 Minnesota at Dallas 8:30 pm TNT Sunday April 28 Dallas at Minnesota 2:00 pm NBC *Tuesday April 30 Dallas at Minnesota TBD *Thursday May 2 Minnesota at Dallas TBD *if necessary The 12-man playoff rosters contains Shawn Bradley, Greg Buckner, Evan Eschmeyer, Michael Finley, Adrian Griffin, Raef LaFrentz, Eduardo Najera, Steve Nash, Johnny Newman, Dirk Nowitzki, Nick Van Exel, and Wang Zhizhi. Tariq Abdul-Wahad, Avery Johnson, and Danny Manning were left off the roster. Johnson is suffering from a bruised left calf (my guess is that the injury was the key reason he was left off the roster - haven't heard Nelson comment on this decision yet). The 12-man playoff roster can not be changed during the playoffs, even if there is an injury. Random comments from the regular season 57 wins!!! Dallas had a winning record each month. Dallas won at least 1 game against each team in the league. Only 2 season records were set, but both of those were very impressive. Dallas shot 80.6% FT as a team, besting the old record of 80.4% FG. Dallas only committed 992 turnovers - an average of just 12.1 per game. Ignoring the lockout season (692, 13.8 average), the old record low was 1,124 (13.7 average). That is also a league record - the old being 12.7 per game. Dallas was the league leader in both fields (FT% 2nd was Minnesota at 79.8% and TO 2nd was LA Lakers at 12.7). The turnover number is just amazing. Michael Finley, Dirk Nowitzki, and Steve Nash were each named Player of the Week once this season. It was Nowitzki's and Nash's first and Finley's 2nd. A Dallas player had been named Player of the Week only 8 prior times. Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash were both selected by the Western Conference coaches as reserves for the All-Star game - the first All-Star apparence for both. Don Nelson was coach of the team due to Dallas having the 2nd best record in the West at that time (Rick Adelman, whose team had the best record, coached the team the previous year and you are not allowed to coach in consecutive seasons). Dirk Nowitzki is now a legitimate rebounder. He averaging 9.9 rebounds and had 4 20+ rebounding games - the firsts of his career. All 4 were also 20-20 games - with 2 of them being 30-20 games and 2 were in consecutive games. Now he needs to working on becoming a better offensive rebounder - only 120 of his 755 rebounds came from offensive boards. Michael Finley's Iron Man streak ended at 492 consecutive games played as he pulled a hammy and missed 13 games. Dallas, amazingly, went 12-1 without Finley, but it was a very weak schedule. Dirk Nowitzki averaged 28.3 points in Finley's absence. Nowitzki missed 6 games himself - the first of his career missed due to injury - with sprained ankles. Dallas went 4-2 without him and Finley averaged 26.2 points. Steve Nash was the only Mav to play all 82 games. And how about Eddie Najera? Here's a guy who was not part of Don Nelson's rotation early in the season, but his play forced Nelson to give him minutes. His energy was a key to a number of Mavs wins and the team was 10-1 in games he started. Dallas made a major trade at the deadline February 21 of Juwan Howard, Tim Hardaway, Donnell Harvey, a 2002 1st round draft pick, and $1 million to Denver for Raef LaFrentz, Nick Van Exel, Avery Johnson, and Tariq Abdul-Wahad. Dallas had a record of 37-17 (68.5% winning percentage) before the trade and a record of 19-8 (70.4%) after the trade (ignoring the 2/21 game). The stats differences between before the trade and after the trade are not much - most have a slight edge to after the trade. Dal pts Oppo pts Dal reb Oppo reb Dal FG% Oppo FG% Before trade 105.0 101.9 41.8 45.1 45.9% 45.4% After trade 105.9 99.6 43.6 44.0 46.9% 44.7% The opponent shot 190 more free throws than Dallas. The most overhyped stat was that Dallas was second worst in the league in allowing the opponent to score 101.0 points. When you factor in that Dallas scored 105.2 points, that's a positive difference of 4.2 points - 4th best point difference in the league. Dallas won 10 straight games 12/11/01 - 1/2/02, the 2nd longest winning streak in team history (longest: 11 in 1988). Dallas also won 8 straight road games 1/15/02 - 2/12/02, besting the old record of 7, set last season. Dallas won December 26 at San Antonio (126-123 OT) despite Tim Duncan's opponent record 53 points. It was one of the best games I've ever seen due to the good play by both teams. Neither team held more than an 8 point lead the entire game and a clutch 3-pointer by Terry Porter with 6 seconds left sent the game into overtime and a clutch 3-pointer by Steve Nash won the game with less than a second left. Rookie Jamaal Tinsley had an amazing 19 assists in a wild 141-140 2OT win at Indiana February 5. Tinsley also played an opponent high 56 minutes. Nowitzki had 38 points and 17 rebounds in that game. Dallas overcame 2 20+ point deficits this season. They were down by 22 points midway through the 3rd quarter at Minnesota December 18 and came back to win 107-103. It was the 2nd largest comeback in team history. The team also overcame a 21 point deficit at Milwaukee March 26. Dallas at Phoenix (April 17) Despite the fact that Dallas did still have a shot of the Midwest Division title going into this game, Dallas came out flat against Phoenix. And Phoenix was pumped as it was Dan Majerle night - it was Majerle's last game as he is retiring. Despite Dallas' poor performance, Phoenix never really made it a blowout. Phoenix went up 8-2 early and Dallas used an 8-1 mini-run to go up 10-9 with 6:30 left. Phoenix answered with a 12-3 run, capped by 2 3-pointers, to go up 21-13 with 4:30 to go. Dallas scored the last 2 buckets of the quarter and Phoenix led 32-23 after 1. Steve Nash played 8 minutes in the quarter and did not play the rest of the game due to a sore lower back. Jake Tsakalidis got a layup to open the 2nd quarter to give Phoenix a 34-23 lead with 11 minutes remaining and Dallas scored the next 10 points, including 2 3-pointers by Nick Van Exel, to pull within 33-34 with 7:55 left. Phoenix was able to hang on to the lead and scored the last 4 points of the quarter to take a 55-45 lead into half time. Phoenix shot 51% FG and Dallas shot just 38% FG. The San Antonio-Utah game ended just prior to the beginning of the 2nd half and the win gave San Antonio the division title. You could tell that Dallas really wasn't interested in the 2nd half, having nothing to play for and looking to rest players. Phoenix led 68-54 with 6:30 left and Michael Finley joined Nash and Dirk Nowitzki on the bench with 6 minutes left. Phoenix led in the teens the rest of the quarter (and it felt like they were leading in the 20s or 30s). Phoenix led 75-61 after 3. Phoenix led in the teens the entire 4th as Dallas' disinterest really showed by playing a lineup of Greg Buckner, Johnny Newman, Wang Zhizhi, Evan Eschmeyer, and Shawn Bradley for a good chunk of the quarter. The only excitement in the game was watching Dan Majerle try to get his 3rd 3-pointer of the game, which would give him 800 3-pointers made as a Phoenix Sun. After missing on 7 attempts, Majerle finally hit one (and an ugly one as it rimmed up, hit the backboard, and bounced in) with 23 seconds left as the Mavs barely defended him and everyone (including the Mavs) cheered [I had a smile on my face]. Phoenix won 89-76. Well, that was a non-event. Dallas played flat for a half (and despite that, Phoenix only had a 10 point lead) and was simply waiting for the game to end after finding out that San Antonio had won the division title. Phoenix out-scored Dallas a non-exciting 34-31 in the 2nd _half_. No Dallas player played more than 28 minutes. As such, only 3 Mavs were in double-digits (Wang Zhizhi with 12 points, Johnny Newman with 11 points, and Michael Finley with 10 points). Phoenix was led by Jake Tsakalidis' 19 points including 9-10 FT, but the night belonged to Dan Majerle who had 10 points including 3-13 FG and 8 rebounds. He did not want to start this game, but relented when his teammates asked him to. Shawn Marion had 14 points, Stephon Marbury had 15 points and 13 assists (and 8 turnovers), and Joe Johnson had 16 points. Thus ends the regular season. Quotes Frank Johnson: "It's always nice to win the last game. Not every team this year gets to say that. Not even the playoff teams. There will be only one playoff team that will say, 'We won our last game.'" Johnson on Majerle: "I was the last coach to coach Dan Majerle. That's something I can take with me. You hate having a guy like that go because the new players do respect his work ethic and what he's done, and how he's changed the game. Every time I see him walk off the floor in practice I think, 'Is he gonna make it?' But as soon as the ball is up, he's ready." Johnson on his coaching situation: "It's kind of wait and see. We'll see what happens in the next few days." Johnson on if he's thinking about 02-03: "No. I'm just thinking about getting off my feet and enjoying this. I'm going to talk to the guys tomorrow. I certainly appreciate everything they have done for me." Anfernee Hardaway on the win: "It's important for a lot of reasons because of pride, for Dan, for the organization and the coaching staff. It was very important because you want to leave on a great note and have something to build on for next year. We showed tonight that we played a playoff team very well. Even though they didn't play their starters in the 2nd half, they kind of got out of it a little early." Hardaway on next season: "I'm just delighted. I think this is a team that almost everybody can come back and build around the nucleus, but you need size. You need big guys. We had a lot of injuries to the big men this year. It's tough. If you can't guard Tim Duncan, Shaquille O'Neal, and those guys, it gets pretty tough. It's not for me to say. I'm sure management knows." Hardaway on if he wants to remain in Phoenix: "Yeah, I do. That's why I signed a 7 year deal here. I still haven't proven to this team or to this organization or to the fans that bringing me here was a good decision. I feel like I'm as healthy as I've been in a long time heading into the offseason. So I will have an opportunity to work really hard on some things this summer and get ready to play next year." Hardaway on changes Phoenix should make: "I'm not sure. It's tough. You can't keep changing players over and over again because you have to stick to something. We just changed our roster a lot the last 2 years so I don't know if you want to do that. It's up to management to see which guys they want to stick with and just go from there. Hopefully, I'll be a part of it." Stephon Marbury: "It was very important for us to go out and win tonight, especially for Dan, hands down. Nothing else beats that. He was great for the team throughout the whole year, and having a guy like Dan Majerle, his leadership and his playing with a whole different bunch of guys, he knows how the locker room feels. He knows when things are going sluggish in the locker room. He knew how to get everybody going. He's just an unbelievable guy. I wish he would still play, but at the same time you can't have what you want. I'm happy to see him happy, sad to see him go." Dan Majerle on the many attempts it took him to hit the 3-pointer that gave him 800 with Phoenix: "Now you can see why I'm retiring." Majerle on what Nelson whispered to him during a break late in the game: "He said if I can't score on Wing Wang whatever his name is, I need to retire anyway. I said, 'You are so right, that's why I am retiring.'" Majerle: "With all the emotions running through the last week or so, I was gassing out there, I was tired. Trying to make that last shot from 35 feet, I didn't have the legs that I wanted to have, but the guys wanted me to make a shot and take a shot. [Marbury] kept on throwing me the ball and Bo kept on hustling and getting it back. Steph said that one was gonna fall and it did, and I don't know how." Majerle: "I didn't know if it was possible to come back after a great 7 years here. I was a different player back then and some people say you can't come home, but it was no different. We obviously didn't have the kind of year we wanted, but the guys on the team were fantastic." Majerle: "It's a great way to go out on top and knowing that I could maybe squeeze in another year or 2, but I don't want to do that. My body isn't where I want it to be and this team has a lot of growing to do and they need to develop some young players and they can do that without me." Jake Tsakalidis: "I hurt my back and my knee. I just came back to play the last 2 games with [Majerle]. He's the reason why I played. I told the guys we have to win for him. It was important. We had a bad season. I feel bad for him, because he's used to playing in big games in the playoffs and we didn't make it. It was important to our team to win the last game." Don Nelson: "We obviously knew the score of the San Antonio game and that had an impact on how we played in the 2nd half. We wanted to make sure we didn't get anybody hurt and rest the guys that need the rest. Steve Nash just isn't feeling good. We wanted to get him some rest tonight. That's why he only played a few minutes. It'll be good for him, these 3 days of rest, hopefully that'll help." Nelson: "I was hoping Utah would have won the game, and I think we could have won the game in the 2nd half. I wanted to stay close enough in the 1st half to have a shot at it and if we needed it to really go after it. But that wasn't the case, and you saw what we did." Nelson on Nash: "He's still feeling tired and stiff. If we can get him 3 days of rest, hopefully that'll help." Nelson on Majerle's last 3-pointer: "I told him if you can't score on Wang Zhizhi, you should retire." Dirk Nowitzki on the playoffs: "We have more experience than last year. We're a better team than last year and we're a year older. Except for today, we've been playing well, so we should be ready. We have a good team this year and we beat pretty much everyone so far. I think we can go deep in the playoffs, but to do that we have to be consistent on the defense." Steve Nash: "Right now our team is primarily focused on trying to prepare for the playoffs and trying to get better each night. Hopefully, we can continue to get better and better once the playoffs start." Raef LaFrentz: "Phoenix played a good ballgame. We might have been looking to the playoffs a bit early." LaFrentz on the playoffs: "It's pretty exciting. This is a whole new experience for me. We just want to soak it all in and learn as much as possible. We just want to play basketball and we're looking forward to the challenge." Phoenix Suns 89, Dallas Mavericks 76 at Phoenix (April 17) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Phoenix 32 23 20 14 - 89 .475 .278 .430 .762 Dallas 23 22 16 15 - 76 .375 .300 .357 .833 Halftime: Phoenix 55-45 3rd Q: Phoenix 75-61 Technicals: Nick Van Exel end of 3rd Refs: Bernie Fryer, Bill Kennedy, Blane Reichelt Attendance: 19,023 (sellout) Phoenix Suns REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Anfernee Hardaway 10 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 1-1 3 1 1 0 0 Shawn Marion 35 5-15 1-3 3-3 14 1-4 1 0 1 2 0 Bo Outlaw 34 3-4 0-0 1-4 7 3-15 5 1 4 1 1 Jake Tsakalidis 32 5-11 0-0 9-10 19 2-6 2 1 1 0 1 Stephon Marbury 42 7-13 1-1 0-0 15 1-4 13 8 0 2 0 Dan Majerle 35 3-14 3-13 1-2 10 0-8 2 0 2 2 0 Joe Johnson 29 7-14 0-1 2-2 16 0-2 1 0 3 2 0 Alton Ford 7 2-4 0-0 0-0 4 2-4 0 0 0 0 0 Milt Palacio 6 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 0 1 1 0 1 Jake Voskuhl 9 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 1-2 0 0 0 0 0 Joe Crispin 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 34-79 5-18 16-21 89 11-47 27 12 13 9 3 Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Adrian Griffin 17 2-4 0-0 0-0 4 0-4 2 3 0 1 0 Dirk Nowitzki 13 2-3 0-0 2-2 6 0-1 1 0 2 0 1 Raef LaFrentz 24 3-8 1-4 0-0 7 1-6 3 1 2 0 2 Steve Nash 8 1-4 1-3 0-0 3 0-0 0 1 0 0 0 Michael Finley 22 5-14 0-1 0-0 10 2-2 3 1 2 1 0 Nick Van_Exel 28 3-11 3-6 0-0 9 0-2 3 2 0 2 0 Eduardo Najera 12 2-2 0-0 2-2 6 1-3 0 0 1 0 0 Greg Buckner 28 2-6 0-1 2-2 6 1-5 2 1 2 1 1 Shawn Bradley 23 1-7 0-0 0-0 2 2-6 1 1 3 3 2 Wang Zhizhi 23 5-15 0-3 2-4 12 2-6 1 0 0 0 1 Evan Eschmeyer 19 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 3-7 1 0 0 0 0 Johnny Newman 23 4-8 1-2 2-2 11 0-2 0 2 0 2 0 Totals 48 30-84 6-20 10-12 76 12-44 17 13 12 10 7 patricia Go Mavs!