Indiana at Dallas (December 26) Keith Van Horn was sent home prior to the game due to the stomach flu and Marquis Daniels missed his 6th out of 7 games due to a strained neck. Indiana was without Ron Artest as they are looking to trade him. The game stayed close in the 1st quarter with Dallas mostly holding small leads. Erick Dampier was very active in the quarter in rebounding (6 boards) and his 4 points came after offensive rebounds. Devin Harris connected on consecutive buckets and Dirk Nowitzki hit 2 free throws to give Dallas a 22-16 lead with 1:50 remaining. Dallas led 26-20 after 1. Josh Howard tweaked his back during the quarter, but continued playing. Dallas opened the 2nd quarter with a 7-3 mini-run to take their first double-digit lead at 33-23 with 9:20 to go. Dallas' lead ranged between 12 and 5 points the rest of the quarter. Dallas led 50-41 at the half. Dallas out-rebounded Indiana 28-13 including 15-5 offensive in the half (which was amazing as Nowitzki didn't have a single board [and Jermaine O'Neal didn't collect his first rebound until less than 4 minutes left in the 2nd quarter]). After a surprising dunk by Adrian Griffin to open the 3rd quarter, Indiana connected on consecutive buckets to pull within 45-52 with 11 minutes left. Dallas then scored the next 9 points to go up 61-45 with 6:50 remaining. Indiana got no closer than 14 points the rest of the quarter. 2 free throws by Nowitzki gave Dallas their first 20 point lead at 76-56 with 1:20 to go. Nowitzki swung the ball to Harris and he hit a long baseliner at the quarter buzzer to give Dallas an 80-61 lead after 3. Dallas opened the 4th quarter with a 9-2 run to take a commanding 89-63 lead with 8 minutes remaining. Nowitzki finally collected his first rebound of the game with 9 minutes left in the 4th. The rest of the quarter was pure garbage time as Dallas' lead got as large as 29 points twice. Dallas won 102-80. It was a very good game for Dallas and a very poor one for Indiana, thus the blowout. Dallas really didn't have an explosive quarter in the game, just 3 strong ones where they steadily built on their lead. Indiana's only lead was at 2-0. Dallas shot 47.4% (37-78) FG including 2-5 3-pointers and Indiana shot 40.3% (29-72) FG including 4-12 3-pointers. The Mavs shot 26-32 FT and the Pacers shot 18-24 FT. Dallas out-rebounded Indiana 49-30 including 19-11 offensives. Dallas had solid efforts from a number of players as 5 were in double-digits, 5 had more than 5 rebounds, and 3 had more then 4 assists. No one for Indiana had a very good game. The most rebounds a Pacer player had was 4 and the most assists was 3. The Mavs had nice schedule break for Christmas with only 1 game in 6 days. Starting Friday, the schedule gets heavy with 3 sets of back-to-backs in 9 days. Erick Dampier was active early and set the tone for the game. He finished with 6 points (just 3-9 FG, though) and 14 rebounds including 8 offensive and only had 3 fouls (didn't collect his first until late in the 1st quarter). Devin Harris was again active coming off the bench and came in late in the 1st quarter to spur the run to end that quarter. He had 20 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists. Dirk Nowitzki was the high man with 23 points including 11-11 FT, extending his streak of consecutive free throws made to 34. He only had 2 rebounds, and probably shouldn't have had those as he got both in the 4th quarter when I thought he should be sitting (don't like seeing stars on the court in garbage time due to the risk of injury). Josh Howard had a poor shooting night, but still had a double-double. He had 12 points including 4-15 FG and 10 rebounds including 5 offensive. Howard also had 4 steals. Jerry Stackhouse had a really nice home debut in his 2nd game of the season with 15 points, including a monster slam that was NBATV's play of the day. The Mavs continue to limit his minutes some and he only played 18 minutes. Jason Terry had a quiet outing with 13 points and 4 assists. Adrian Griffin had 4 points and 5 rebounds. DeSagana Diop didn't attempt a shot and had 7 rebounds and 2 blocks. Jermaine O'Neal joined Nowitzki in only having 2 rebounds, well below his average of 10. He was also well below his points average (22.4) with just 15 points in this game. Stephen Jackson had 12 points and Jamaal Tinsley had 12 points and just 3 assists. Starter Sarunas Jasikevicius only had 6 points (on 3-5 FG), and 4 of those points came in the last 6 minutes of garbage time. Quotes Avery Johnson: "We feel very fortunate to have beaten a very good basketball team tonight, a team who didn't necessarily play its best game. We seemed to have a lot of energy tonight. The team had 2 days off, which is pretty rare. I don't think I will ever do that again in the history of my coaching career. They responded. They managed themselves well during the holidays. We had a tough back-to-back against Sacramento and Seattle and didn't get back until 6 in the morning. I gave them off and they gave me one back by responding with energy and concentration pretty much throughout the whole game. It's pretty rare for us to play that long of a stretch of good basketball. We were real fortunate and had a lot of contributions tonight. Our center position was real active tonight with 21 rebounds between them. Devin was pretty solid off the bench. We feel fortunate to win this game because you didn't see the real Indiana team tonight. We know they'll have a really good season." Johnson on Howard: "He kind of tweaked his back a little bit. He'll be okay. He's a trooper, he's a warrior. He's been dealing with a bunch of little things. We had Keith Van Horn out tonight with the flu. He came in and looked like Dracula so we had to send him home." Johnson on the team responding despite injuries: "Yeah, we just had guys step up. We've been waiting for Stackhouse all year. You saw tonight in his 18 minutes that he was pretty aggressive and made some plays on the defensive end. He had a couple plays where he had some steals. It helps when Stack is in the game and I'm trying to give Dirk a couple minutes of rest and you have somebody you can go to. He'll make plays and hopefully have a couple assists to make his teammates better. It was a balanced effort tonight and we had the chance to play some guys like Josh Powell an DJ Mbenga, who has been doing okay for us." Johnson on Stackhouse's dunk: "I think he wanted to test himself there. Stack goes to the basket hard. They came back and fouled him, which is what they're supposed to do. He went to the basket hard and made a play and that's the kind of stuff we want from Josh, Stack, and Marquis whenever we can get it." Dirk Nowitzki: "We kept the ball out of O'Neal's hands. We rotated and rebounded. It was an especially defensive outing for us." Nowitzki: "It was kind of a weird night. Our centers were great on the boards and we got some fast breaks. There wasn't much left for me." Nowitzki on Stackhouse: "He looked great. It's amazing because he missed so many games. After 2 games he looked like he was back to his old self. He had that amazing dunk out there. We need his aggressiveness. He really knows how to get to the line; that's very important." Jerry Stackhouse: "It felt good to get a good win and be out there with the guys. It was nice to have a run away win like we did tonight, but we know that it's not going to be like that every night. We've got to continue to work hard and get better." Stackhouse on pushing the ball: "Our numbers are off the chart when we move the ball from side to side to side and make the defense move. We pretty much get anything we want any time we want when we do that, so that's what we've got to continue to do. I thought our defense was pretty good tonight." Stackhouse: "The team was in a pretty good flow, a pretty good rhythm. To be out there and add what I do and not disrupt the continuity, that was a good feeling. It felt good to get a good win and be out there with the guys." Stackhouse on his dunk: "I just didn't think about anything. I just attacked the way I used to. It felt good to get back out there in a rhythm and stay with the flow that we had. That's the one thing I worried about. The team has been playing so well, I didn't want to come in and disrupt anything." Stackhouse on his knee: "I felt a lot better. It felt better than that first game and it was good to get the first game out of the way. Tonight, I got into a little better flow. We still have got a lot of work to do. We're going to come in tomorrow and try to get better. It's a great time for me because we have 3 days until our next game and I can really hone in on my drills and my shot. Hopefully this is a start to something really good for me." Stackhouse on his knee: "Truth be told, there's nothing wrong with my left leg and that's the one I jump off of. It did feel good to get out there and get in a rhythm and get knocked around a little bit." Devin Harris: "We really focused for 4 quarters. We didn't have that big of a lapse throughout the quarters and we really followed the game plan to a T tonight." Harris on Indiana: "They've been up and down, but we really did a great job of running our offense and getting the break and keeping our pace up throughout the whole game." Harris: "When we rebound the way we did tonight, a lot of good stuff happens for us. The big guys to a great job rebounding and that starts the break and allows us to get into transition." Harris on his lob pass that went in: "It's happened before. I guess I'm not that good of a lob passer." Erick Dampier: "I was able to get to the boards and the ball started coming my direction. I felt I could get around their guys, and when we rebound it starts our break and gets everybody into it." Rick Carlisle on his team's struggles: "Rebounds and turnovers in the 1st half; then in the 2nd half they came out clicking and we just weren't. We weren't competitive enough and this is really the first time I have thought anything like that since the Charlotte game. We are in a position right now where we need to compete at the very highest level in order to give ourselves a chance to win tough road games like this. I thought we competed in the 1st half and in the 2nd half we struggled. We can't have that." Carlisle: "They played great and we didn't give them much of a game tonight. Our margin for error is slim. We can't have any slippage. Our rebounding was a disappointment. We've got to do better." Carlisle: "They're an elite team. They have a great roster. They've got a superstar player that is one of the very best in the league. You have to be great to have a chance to win against these guys in their building. We just weren't good enough." Carlisle on pulling his players with 7 minutes left: "Partially thinking about tomorrow night. We gave it a shot and we just couldn't get it to less than 25. It was just one of those nights. Give Dallas a lot of credit - they are really playing great. We didn't match the kind of game that they brought tonight, so we have to try and forget about this one as quick as possible and try to get ready for tomorrow night." Austin Croshere on Indiana's struggles: "I can't give an explanation. We had our chances early in the game. They hurt us on the offensive boards right from the beginning. We had turnovers. A team like Dallas that has the ability to get out on the break, you really feed into that when you turn the ball over. It is hard enough when they have to take it out of the basket, but when you are turning it over you really feed into their attack. With the shooters that they have and the weapons that they have offensively you can't give them any extra possessions." Croshere: "It's hard to really build on this one. We have a big character game tomorrow against San Antonio, another great team, off a loss like this. But it is an opportunity to make up for the mistakes we made tonight and we have to take advantage of that." Dallas Mavericks 102, Indiana Pacers 80 at Dallas (December 26) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 26 24 30 22 - 102 .479 .400 .474 .813 Indiana 20 21 20 19 - 80 .417 .333 .403 .750 Halftime: Dallas 50-41 3rd Q: Dallas 80-61 Technicals: Dallas defensive 3 seconds 4:48 2nd Refs: Ed F. Rush, Gary Zielinski, Luis Grillo Attendance: 20,337 (sellout) Did not play due to injury: Keith Van Horn (stomach flu) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Josh Howard 34 4-15 1-1 3-4 12 5-10 1 2 1 4 0 Dirk Nowitzki 34 6-16 0-1 11-11 23 1-2 4 0 3 0 1 Erick Dampier 21 3-9 0-0 0-0 6 8-14 0 1 3 0 1 Jason Terry 28 6-10 1-2 0-0 13 0-1 4 2 1 0 1 Adrian Griffin 33 2-5 0-1 0-0 4 1-5 1 0 3 1 0 Devin Harris 31 8-12 0-0 4-7 20 1-6 5 0 1 1 0 DeSagana Diop 21 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 2-7 0 1 3 1 2 Jerry Stackhouse 18 4-6 0-0 7-8 15 1-2 1 0 1 2 0 Josh Powell 7 1-1 0-0 1-2 3 0-2 0 1 1 0 0 Darrell Armstrong 7 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 0-0 1 2 0 0 0 DJ Mbenga 6 2-3 0-0 0-0 4 0-0 0 2 3 0 1 Totals 48 37-78 2-5 26-32 102 19-49 17 12 20 9 6 Indiana Pacers REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Stephen Jackson 34 5-8 2-3 0-0 12 0-2 1 5 0 0 0 Austin Croshere 21 2-4 2-3 5-5 11 1-4 0 0 2 0 0 Jermaine O'Neal 35 7-17 0-0 1-3 15 0-2 1 0 2 0 2 Sarunas Jasikevicius 22 3-5 0-1 0-0 6 0-1 1 3 2 1 0 Jamaal Tinsley 26 5-11 0-0 2-2 12 1-2 3 3 2 1 0 Jeff Foster 13 0-1 0-0 1-4 1 1-4 1 1 4 0 0 Fred Jones 26 2-5 0-1 2-3 6 2-3 2 0 4 0 0 Danny Granger 23 1-6 0-1 2-2 4 2-3 0 2 2 0 0 Anthony Johnson 15 2-8 0-3 0-0 4 1-3 3 2 3 0 0 David Harrison 13 1-4 0-0 0-0 2 1-3 0 0 1 0 0 Eddie Gill 7 1-2 0-0 5-5 7 0-0 1 0 0 2 0 Scot Pollard 7 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 2-3 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 29-72 4-12 18-24 80 11-30 13 16 22 4 2 patricia