Pavel Podkolzin underwent surgery on the stress fracture in his right foot to insert 2 screws. The doctor also performed arthroscopic surgery on Podkolzin's ankle during the operation [don't know exactly what was done, probably something minor and they probably decided to do it since Podkolzin will be out for a while anyways]. He will be on crutches for 6 weeks and is expected to be out 3 to 4 months. Jerry Stackhouse did not travel with the team for the 2 game road trip due to his sore right knee. He is undergoing further analysis on the knee and may be out for a while. Dallas placed Podkolzin, Stackhouse, and Rawle Marshall on the Inactive List, to get the active list down to 12 players. There is no minimum amount of time a player has to spend on IL and the team can change who is on IL up to 60 minutes before game time. Dallas at Phoenix (November 1) The regular season was finally here with a late start in Phoenix. Neither team looked that sharper to open the game and the teams traded small leads in the 1st quarter, none larger than 4 points. Leandro Barbosa got a layup near the quarter's end to give Phoenix a 25-24 lead after 1. Dallas led 28-27 with 10:10 remaining and Phoenix went on a 7-2 mini-run to go up 35-29 with 7 minutes left. Phoenix scored 7 straight points to take their largest lead at 51-38 with 40 seconds left. After Marquis Daniels hit a jumper and Steve Nash got a layup with the shot clock runing down, Jason Terry quickly brought the ball up and passed back to the trailing Dirk Nowitzki and he rose and drained the 35-foot 3-pointer with a little over a second left in the quarter. Josh Howard intercepted the inbounds pass to prevent Phoenix from getting off a last shot. Phoenix led 53-43 at the half. Dallas shot 7-21 FG and Phoenix shot 12-20 FG in the 2nd quarter. Nash had 10 points in the quarter as Dallas still had no answer to the Nash-led pick-and-roll. Phoenix led 57-45 with 11 minutes to go and Dallas went on a 10-3 run to pull within 55-60 with 7:55 left. Dallas got as close as 63-59 with 6:30 remaining before Phoenix scored the next 9 points to go back up by 13 at 72-59 with 1:35 to go as Dallas missed 8 straight shots. A putback layup by Daniels finally ended Dallas' 5 1/2 minute drought with 55 seconds left, and after a Phoenix turnover, Howard hit a jumper. But Barbosa hit another quarter ending shot to give Phoenix a 74-63 lead after 3. The teams traded misses to open the 4th quarter and Howard converted a 3-point play to pull Dallas within 66-74 with 10:45 to go. The teams traded turnovers over the next minute and then Phoenix scored the next 9 points to take a commanding 83-66 lead with 7:45 remaining. But the game wasn't over as Dallas' offense finally started clicking and their defense stepped up a notch as Darrell Armstrong's energy had a positive affect on the team. Dallas went on a come-from-behind 21-3 monster run to take a 87-86 lead with 1:20 left - the run ended with 3 straight 3-pointers by Nowitzki (with a layup by Shawn Marion sandwiched between the 1st and 2nd one) followed by Nowitzki finding Terry for a layup. Nash feed Marion for a layup inside to put Phoenix back up with a minute to go - he was also fouled, but missed the free throw. The see-saw continued as Terry drove for a layup with 38 seconds remaining. Nash missed with 20 seconds left and Terry was intentionally fouled when he brought the ball across halfcourt - Phoenix was in the penalty. Terry hit the 1st one, but missed the 2nd to make it a 2 point game at 90-88 with 15 seconds left. Without calling a timeout, Nash brought the ball up, attacked, and was fouled inside with 4.4 seconds to go. He hit both to tie the game up. After a Dallas timeout, Nowitzki got the ball up high and had to force a fade away fling at the quarter buzzer that missed. Overtime at 90-90. Dallas out-scored Phoenix 27-16 in the 4th quarter. Nowitzki had 11 points in the 4th quarter. Erick Dampier came in for the jumpball (and went out at the next dead ball) - he got the tip, but Nash stepped in and took the ball. A long jumper by Raja Bell opened the OT scoring. At the other end, Terry converted a 3-point play. Marion hit 2 free throws, Terry missed, and Nash hit a jumper to give Phoenix a 97-93 lead with 3:35 left. The teams traded misses and Terry drove and was fouled. But he only hit 1-2 FT. Phoenix's screen-and-roll again found a mismatch and Keith Van Horn fouled Nash. Nash hit both free throws. Terry went to the line and again hit 1-2 FT [he's a 84.5% FT shooter]. Nash missed and Terry again was sent to the line where his clanks continued as he shot 1-2 FT. Phoenix led 99-96 with 1:30 remaining. The teams traded misses and Nash found Boris Diaw for a layup with 36 seconds to go. After a Dallas timeout, Terry drove and sucked the defense in and kicked out to an open Daniels who buried the 3-pointer with 29 seconds left to make it a 2 point game. Dallas did not foul and Nowitzki got switched onto Nash and Nash ran the clock down. But Nash's jumper clanked off the front of the rim and Howard grabbed the rebound and called timeout with 3.3 seconds left. Terry got the inbounds, drove, and his runner rattled in with the buzzer sounding and we had double overtime at 101-101. The teams traded misses to open overtime. Nowitzki hit a jumper, Nash missed, and Nowitzki found Van Horn in the corner and he hit a 3-pointer to give Dallas a 106-101 lead with 3:35 left. James Jones answered with a 3-pointer and Dallas' lead would see-saw between 2 and 4 points over the next minute and a half. Dallas led 110-108 with 2:10 remaining and the offense again stalled as Terry missed, Barbosa missed, Terry missed, Barbosa missed, and Nash turned the ball over. Terry missed with 24 seconds left, but Van Horn got the rebound and was fouled - Marion's 6th foul. He hit the 1st free throw, but missed the 2nd to leave the door open. Dallas played good defense and Phoenix had trouble getting a 3-point look (and a couple of players were reluctant to take the shot) and with time running out the ball was passed back to Nash and he launched the 3-point attempt that bounced off the back of the rim with time expired. Dallas won 111-108. Wow, what a way to start the season. The tough news is that it was the first game of a road back-to-back and the Mavs turn right around and play again tonight. Dallas really had no business being in this game, much less taking it to overtime. Phoenix was the better team for 3 1/2 quarters. Dallas just went nuts while Phoenix fell apart during that last 1/2 quarter and the Mavs were able to send it into overtime. Surprisingly, Phoenix's collapse in the 4th quarter started when Steve Nash was subbed back in with 7 minutes left and he was ice cold. He had shot 10-16 FG up to that point and shot just 1-9 FG (and 4-4 FT) the rest of the 4th and both overtimes. He also had all 5 of his fouls during that span. It won't go down as one of the greatest Mavs games, but Dallas has to be happy that it goes down as a win. And the good news is that team didn't give up and had a scrappy comeback (the bad news is that they dug themselves such a big hole). For the game, Dallas shot 44.7% (42-94) FG including 8-18 3-pointers (6 in the last 17 minutes of the game). Phoenix shot 43.8% (42-96) FG including 7-21 3-pointers. Dallas shot 19-28 FT and Pho shot 17-23 FT. Dallas did improve their rebounding in the 2nd half and finished up out-rebounding Phoenix 55-51 including 14-10 offensive, after being out-rebounded 26-20 in the 1st half. Both teams had turnover problems as Dallas had 22 turnovers and Phoenix had 20 turnovers. The refs held their whistles for most of the game, except for being quick for offensive charge calls, and then started calling things late in the game when Nash and Jason Terry started aggressively driving. It was a lot of one-on-one play for Dallas as the Mavs had just 16 assists in a 2 OT game. Phoenix had 27 assists. Instead of going with the obvious heros first, Darrell Armstrong gets props for providing the spark that got Dallas back in the game. His numbers don't show much (2 points, 3 rebounds, 5 assists in 14 minutes), but it was his insertion on the court that caused the attitude change and got the Mavs going. Dirk Nowitzki was having a quiet outing until he hit those string of 3s and got himself going. 15 of his 28 points came in the last 14 minutes of the game. He shot 4-6 3-pointers and had 15 rebounds (only 1 offensive) and 3 assists, but also had 5 turnovers. Even with the too many missed free throws, Jason Terry gets a nod for his game tying runner at the end of the 1st overtime and for staying aggressive in driving [and we'll ignore his performance in the first 3 quarters]. He had 23 points, but only 3 assists and 3 turnovers. Keith Van Horn also had some key buckets in the 4th and overtimes and finished with 15 points on 3-9 FG and 7-10 FT and 6 rebounds. The work horses of the game were Josh Howard and Marquis Daniels as they were mostly steady throughout. Howard had a double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds and Daniels had 13 points and 5 rebounds. Except for a jumpball appearance by Erick Dampier, those 6 played all the minutes in the 2 overtimes (with Daniels being subbed in for Armstrong a minute and a half into the 1st overtime). Dampier was a non-factor in this game as the Mavs did not do a good job of getting him the ball in the post where he had a mismatch and he had trouble with the fast pace of the game. Dampier had 6 points and 8 rebounds in 21 minutes. Doug Christie started and didn't do much as he was also hindered by Phoenix's fast pace. He missed all 4 shots he attempted and had 2 rebounds and 3 assists in 25 minutes. Devin Harris had a Nash-like layup late in a quarter in getting a flip bucket as he was falling down (but didn't get the foul call). He was limited by foul trouble and had 8 points, 2 rebounds, no assists, and 5 fouls in 18 minutes. DeSagana Diop saw 5 uneventful minutes and produced just 1 rebound and 1 block for his stat line. Until his 4th and overtime slump (mentioned above), Steve Nash was killing Dallas. He'd find himself being guarded by Nowitzki, Van Horn, and even Dampier as Dallas would switch the pick-and-roll and Nash would pull back and then drive and pull up and nail a long shot, drive and dish to an open player, or drive and hit one of his crazy shots - the prettiest being a _high_ arcer from about 5 feet over Dampier. But he wasn't able to carry his team to the finish. Nash had a game high 30 points, 8 rebounds, 9 assists, and 6 turnovers. Raja Bell was an offensive force with 18 points including 7-11 FG. Shawn Marion struggled with his shot, but was solid otherwise. He had 13 points including 5-15 FG, 16 rebounds, 7 assists, and 3 steals. James Jones was the only other Sun in double-digits. He had 13 points. Leandro Barbosa did have 8 rebounds, but only shot 4-11 FG for his 8 points. Quotes Avery Johnson: "If I was out there on that court tonight, I wouldn't quit. I think this team really wants to have some of my personality. They talk to me a lot about that, and it's kind of flattering. But when you really see it, man, these guys, they battled." Johnson: "We got stops at the end of regulation and the overtimes when we needed them. I'm proud of this team. It's one game. You never know what will happen. But you don't know what kind of spark this could be for us, too." Johnson on defense: "Obviously Jason came out strong for us in the 4th quarter, but we got stops. At the end of regulation they had 90 points. We got stops when we needed to. I just thought 2 teams played well and nobody wanted to lose tonight. Take your hat off to them for battling. Our guys showed a lot of character tonight." Johnson on Armstrong: "Well, I thought he was really big tonight. He came out and it is funny I was telling the guys before the game that we may need DA tonight. He has been practicing well, his shoulder is feeling better. He came out, obviously he didn't blow up the stat sheet with anything, but he had 5 big assists in 13 minutes. He was really big for us tonight." Dirk Nowitzki: "That was a special game. To lose this one in double OT would have been really, really tough. To grind it out in the end was great." Nowitzki: "That was a special game, obviously. To lose this one in double overtime would have hurt. It was a gutsy win, that's all there is to it." Josh Howard: "We came through and won the game; everybody played hard." Jason Terry on just before the 4th quarter run: "I mean everybody in the huddle, we stayed together. Guys were saying it's not over, believe, believe, believe and that is our motto. We are not ever out of a game. With the shooters we have and Dirk the leader that he is took it upon himself to get us back into it single-handedly. Defensively we got stops and from there on our energy level was where it was supposed to be." Terry on missed free throws: "It didn't faze me. But I'm a much better shooter than that. I know that. I'll get back in the workshop. Tomorrow is another game, another day. And I'll make sure that I knock them down tomorrow." Keith Van Horn: "I think we showed each other what we're all about. We never give up. But it's a tough way to start a season." Van Horn on Armstrong: "He was really the key to winning this game. He came out and really changed the game defensively. I think we all fed off his energy." Devin Harris on Armstrong: "DA came out and gave us a great lift off the bench. He really sparked us. He really helped us out there on how we played, it kind of picked us up and it got started from there. Dirk got aggressive and everyone seemed to follow from there." Harris: "We showed them defensively on that run, but we got fast when we needed to and we rebounded the ball really well in both overtimes and that was extremely helpful for us." Mike D'Antoni: "17 points up with 7 minutes left to go and we just didn't take advantage of it. We will just have to figure that out. We played pretty well the whole game but we had a breakdown towards the end of the game. Maybe it is newness or maybe it is just me, we will have to figure that out. Overall we played hard and our defense was good. Our 2nd unit came in did a really good job. Eddie House got us up 17 points. [Nowitzki] and Van Horn hit some good 3s and got them back from 17 points down." Steve Nash: "We let them back in it both times [4th quarter and 1st OT], and it hurts. But I think that's going too happen when you have a new team and so little familiarity with that situation. You know, these are growing pains we're going to have to go through to become a good team." Shawn Marion: "It's a real painful loss. It was a great effort though. They came in and played just like we did. It was a toss up as to who was going to win. They just hit a couple of good shots in the 4th quarter and we had some defensive breakdowns. We've got to learn from this game. The more we keep playing together, and deal with these types of situations, the better well handle them. Everybody is starting to get used to each other and for the most part, this was a great game that we just need to learn from." Raja Bell: "That was a battle. You don't really expect to see that the first night of the season. It was just a hard fought game, and we had chances to win it in regulation and both overtimes. This was one I think we should have won, and we understand we let it slip away. In the 4th quarter, I think we took a deep breath at the wrong time, and let our guard down a little bit. They are a team you cant do that against. We just fell apart for 3 or 4 minutes and just let them back in the game." Dallas Mavericks 111, Phoenix Suns 108 2OT at Phoenix (November 1) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th OT 2OT - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 24 19 20 27 11 10 - 111 .447 .444 .447 .679 Phoenix 25 28 21 16 11 7 - 108 .467 .333 .438 .739 Halftime: Phoenix 53-43 3rd Q: Phoenix 74-63 4th Q: 90-90 1st OT: 101-101 Technicals: none Refs: Dick Bavetta, Sean Corbin, Violet Palmer Attendance: 17,961 (cap 18,422) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Jason Terry 37 9-20 0-3 5-9 23 0-2 3 3 4 1 0 Doug Christie 25 0-4 0-0 0-0 0 0-2 3 0 2 0 0 Josh Howard 51 7-15 1-4 1-2 16 2-11 0 3 4 2 0 Dirk Nowitzki 49 10-21 4-6 4-5 28 1-15 3 5 3 1 2 Erick Dampier 21 3-4 0-0 0-0 6 4-8 2 2 2 1 1 Keith Van_Horn 37 3-9 2-2 7-10 15 3-6 0 2 4 0 1 Marquis Daniels 35 5-10 1-1 2-2 13 2-5 0 3 3 4 0 Devin Harris 18 4-9 0-1 0-0 8 0-2 0 2 5 0 1 Darrell Armstrong 14 1-2 0-1 0-0 2 1-3 5 1 3 0 0 DeSagana Diop 5 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1-1 0 0 0 0 1 Totals 58 42-94 8-18 19-28 111 14-55 16 22 30 9 6 Phoenix Suns REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Raja Bell 49 7-11 1-2 3-4 18 0-3 0 0 1 0 0 Steve Nash 45 11-25 2-5 6-6 30 2-8 9 6 5 1 0 Shawn Marion 48 5-15 0-3 3-5 13 4-16 7 2 6 3 2 James Jones 47 4-12 3-6 2-3 13 0-3 2 0 2 2 0 Kurt Thomas 23 3-7 0-0 1-2 7 0-3 1 2 2 0 0 Jim Jackson 28 2-8 1-3 0-0 5 0-3 1 2 5 1 0 Boris Diaw 24 3-4 0-0 1-2 7 1-4 3 4 3 0 1 Leandro Barbosa 17 4-11 0-2 0-0 8 3-8 3 3 2 0 1 Brian Grant 5 1-1 0-0 1-1 3 0-2 0 0 0 0 0 Eddie House 5 2-2 0-0 0-0 4 0-1 1 0 0 2 0 Totals 58 42-96 7-21 17-23 108 10-51 27 20 26 9 4 patricia