[Finally caught up. I was out of town for the Washington and New Jersey games and didn't get a chance to watch them until the following weekend (and, yes, the Jersey game was really painful to watch knowing the outcome). I guarantee you I won't get this far behind again the rest of the season - of course, there's only 8 games left.] The NBA suspended DJ Mbenga for 1 game for his flagrant foul on LeBron James (Cle) during Wednesday's Dal-Cle game. His flagrant foul was also upgraded from a flagrant level 1 to a flagrant level 2. Mbenga served the suspension by missing the March 31 game vs Orlando. X-rays showed that Keith Van Horn suffered a broken right hand. The injury occurred during Friday's Dallas-Orlando game. He will consult with a hand specialist and will likely undergo surgery. He is also likely out for the rest of the season, including playoffs. Van Horn: "Other than the beginning of this year, I felt like I've never been able to hit a stride because I twisted my ankle, then I did my knee, and now this. It's just unbelievably frustrating. Sometimes you don't understand why things happen." Dallas at Washington (March 17) Dallas was again without Josh Howard, Devin Harris, Adrian Griffin, and Keith Van Horn. Washington jumped out to a 9-2 lead with 9:40 left. The teams traded buckets and then Dallas scored the next 10 points to go up 14-11 with 7:10 remaining. The game stayed close the rest of the quarter with it either tied or Dallas holding a small lead. Antawn Jamison tipped in a miss as the quarter ended. Dallas led 27-24 after 1. Dirk Nowitzki had 11 points. Dallas continued to hold a single-digit lead early in the 2nd quarter. The Mavs led 36-29 with 8:30 to go and Gilbert Arenas hit a 3-pointer and a minute later Antonio Daniels hit a 3-pointer to pull Washington within 1 point. 5 straight points by the Wizards put them up 42-40 with 4:20 remaining. Dallas scored 8 straight points, capped by a 3-pointer by Jason Terry, to go up 52-46 with a minute to go. Washington scored the last 4 points of the quarter. Dallas led 52-50 at the half. Arenas had 10 points in the 2nd quarter. Dallas scored the first 7 points of the 3rd quarter to go up 59-50 with 10:35 left. A 3-pointer by Terry gave the Mavs their first double-digit lead at 67-57 with 7:10 remaining. After a dunk by Brendan Haywood, Dallas scored the next 6 points to take a 73-59 lead with 4 minutes to go. Dallas led 77-69 after 3. Terry had 10 points in the 3rd quarter. Washington scored the first 4 points of the 4th quarter to pull within 73-81 with 11:10 remaining, but Dallas then scored the next 9 points to take their largest lead at 90-73 with 8:10 left. Washington did pull within 86-96 with 4:25 to go, but they could get no closer than 10 points. Dallas won 104-94. It was a good win for Dallas against a team that can get hot. Dallas shot 50% (40-80) FG including 5-11 3-pointers and Washington shot 44.3% (39-88) FG including 5-13 3-pointers. Dallas shot 19-22 FT and Washington shot 11-15 FT. Dallas out-rebounded Washington 45-35 including 18-17 offensive. Both teams were fairly clean with the ball as Dallas had 11 turnovers and Washington had 12 turnovers. Dirk Nowitzki had a double-double with 25 points and 13 rebounds. He also had 3 blocks. Jason Terry also had 25 points including 10-16 FG. He had 6 rebounds and 3 assists. Jerry Stackhouse had 17 points and 5 assists. Marquis Daniels continued to start and had 15 points and 8 assists. DeSagana Diop had 5 points and 4 rebounds and Erick Dampier had 10 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 blocks. Rawle Marshall again started due to the injuries and had 5 points, 3 rebounds, and 2 assists in 16 minutes. Gilbert Arenas was the high man for Washington with 26 points. He also had 6 rebounds and 4 assists. Antawn Jamison had 21 points and 9 rebounds against his former team. Caron Butler had 18 points and 6 rebounds. 10 of Antonio Daniels' 17 points came in the 4th quarter. He also had 6 assists. Quotes Avery Johnson: "We felt that we put together an overall complete game. There are still things that we can work on, but I am really proud of the way these guys battled tonight. We understand the circumstances under which we are playing right now, but they are playing tough, hard nosed defense. This was a high scoring team over their last 5 games or so. Butler, Arenas, and Jamison are a handful, but I thought that our guys took a defensive challenge. We were physical. We gave hard fouls. I thought everybody contributed to the defense and we really moved the ball on offense." Johnson: "Any win in the NBA is a good win at home or on the road, but to come in and play against a team that is one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference, we will definitely take it." Johnson: "We can't afford to lose the rebound game. We just can't afford it. Dampier really helps us in that area. He and DeSagana really did a good job." Johnson: "Jason came out firing, man. That's the Jason Terry that I [like to] see. I sleep good at night when he shoots the ball. I know he's not going to make every shot, but when he's aggressive to score that's one of the ways I sleep good. I don't elbow my wife when he shoots like that so I hope he continues to do that so I can sleep good." Johnson on Stackhouse: "They're booing the man out there, and I'm not sure why that's going on. But he wanted to win, and I gave Stack a big hug after the game, because he tried to beat them with his scoring and his assists and his defense." Dirk Nowitzki on Dallas: "We're defense first. If you look at the champions of the last couple of years, Detroit and San Antonio, I think that's the kind of style you have to play to win these days. You have to be tough-minded on the defensive end and you've got to rebound. We're making a commitment to play good team defense. We've gotten a lot better, but if we want to do better in the playoffs, we've still got some work to do." Jason Terry: "This is a good example of a great system and players executing a game plan. We are like every other team in the league right now with injuries, but you are still a team and still have a lot to play for. We aren't going to back down from anyone. We are playing with a great deal of confidence." Terry: "I was looking to be aggressive. Coach challenged us in the locker room. We weren't playing our best basketball and we were up by 2 points at the half. When you are on the road you have to come out with energy, and you can't let them make the first run. We have a team that wants to make them call the first timeout and they did that. We just continued to keep the pressure on them and it paid off." Terry: "That's fun basketball. Our numbers are out the roof when we're moving the ball side-to-side and getting good looks. Guys are penetrating and making the extra pass, and that's what it's all about - good team basketball." Jerry Stackhouse on being booed: "Yeah, man, that's all good. I guess it's a good thing. Either they miss me or something, I don't know what it is, but I just don't think the fans really understand the dynamics. There were a couple of not-so-great articles, things out of my control, that I couldn't control after I got traded." Stackhouse on being booed: "I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm not really the sentimental type. Either they must miss me or something." Stackhouse on waving at the fans after the game: "Keep it coming, keep it coming. It's all good. Makes me guess the last time I was here they were booing me, I had 29, and I had a pretty good game tonight. Hopefully they'll continue it next year. It makes me feel like the guy again." Marquis Daniels: "It was clicking for us tonight offensively and defensively we played a heck of a game. In the 3rd quarter, we came out and really locked them down defensively and tried to get them from shooting the 3. We buckled down in the 2nd half and that was the difference." Daniels: "It always looks good when you make that extra pass and get a guy an open shot. That is a part of team basketball. We moved the ball very well, which helped us get going offensively." Erick Dampier: "The most important thing for us is to focus on winning." Eddie Jordan: "We were up against a good team tonight. A team that deserves their record. We played hard tonight, but not smart. We turned the ball over and just didn't play as hard as they did. They shot 50% tonight and put the ball in the right players' hands to make things happen." Jordan: "We didn't play as hard as they did. They made shots. They played harder longer. They're just a better team than we are." Jordan: "We just kept struggling to get in a position to win. We were down by 2 at halftime and they came out to start the 2nd half with a 7-0 run. That hurt us and fired them up. Nowitzki and Terry are a great combination. Their role players and big men clogged the middle, and they are just real tough to beat." Jordan: "Dirk played extremely well tonight. We tried some different matchups. It didn't matter if we put a 7-footer or a smaller defender on him. He was just difficult to defend tonight." Jordan on Nowitzki: "Whether we had a 7-footer on him, a 6-9 guy on him, or a smaller quick guy on him, whether we switched or rotated, he hurt us. He's a good passer and the more you pass, the easier it is to score. He was just difficult to defend tonight." Jordan on Arenas, Jamison, and Butler: "The Big 3 got a little bit fatigued. We've got to get some more production off the bench, whether it's rebounds or steals or stops." Antawn Jamison: "We just couldn't get it done tonight. We couldn't get any stops when we needed them. We couldn't put the ball in the basket when we needed to. It was just one of those games where the other team was in a rhythm the whole game. It is hard to beat a team like that - especially with the talent that they have." Jamison: "They were in a rhythm tonight and we couldn't get them out of it. They made it tough for us the whole game." Jamison on Nowitzki: "He is a 7-footer who is able to shoot the ball and put the ball on the floor. It is always tough to defend a guy like that. When you think you have him defended well he shoots right over you." Jamison: "They made big shots. They made open shots. They were in a rhythm tonight and we couldn't get them out of it. They got a couple of 2nd chances and they capitalized on those opportunities. When you are playing a team of that caliber, you have to find a way to limit their extra chances. They did a good job of scoring on offense and getting back on transition defense. They made it tough for us the whole game." Jared Jeffries: "They made shots. With Dallas, you have to hope that you can make a run and hold them to bad shots. Unfortunately, they got into a rhythm and played really well." Jeffries on Nowitzki: "Because of his height and the way he shoots the ball, he is huge matchup problem. You have to really stay into him and make sure that you don't give him any space." Antonio Daniels: "Unfortunately if you have a good matchup somewhere on the floor, they get you with a wild card somewhere else - and a lot of times that wild card is Dirk. They have guys who understand their roles and play to the best of their ability." Daniels on Dallas: "They are 51-14 for a reason. They haven't won 51 games just by sure luck. They are a good basketball team and tonight they showed why." Daniels: "We just have to get off to a better start in the 3rd quarter. We got off to a rough start and got down by double-digits. We were trying to find our way back into the game, but that team is 51-14 for a reason and we couldn't get over the hump." Dallas Mavericks 104, Washington Wizards 94 at Washington (March 17) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 27 25 29 23 - 104 .507 .455 .500 .864 Washington 24 26 19 25 - 94 .453 .385 .443 .733 Halftime: Dallas 52-50 3rd Q: Dallas 81-69 Technicals: none Refs: Joey Crawford, Violet Palmer, Eric Lewis Attendance: 18,954 (cap 20,173) Did not play due to injury: Keith Van Horn (sprained left MCL), Adrian Griffin (strained right hamstring) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Marquis Daniels 43 7-13 0-0 1-2 15 2-3 8 1 3 3 0 Jason Terry 37 10-16 3-6 2-2 25 2-6 3 0 1 0 0 Dirk Nowitzki 43 10-19 0-1 5-5 25 2-13 2 3 1 0 3 Rawle Marshall 16 2-6 0-0 1-1 5 1-3 2 2 0 1 0 DeSagana Diop 24 2-3 0-0 1-2 5 2-4 0 0 2 1 1 Jerry Stackhouse 32 5-13 2-2 5-6 17 2-3 5 2 0 0 0 Erick Dampier 24 4-7 0-0 2-2 10 3-5 0 1 4 1 3 Darrell Armstrong 16 0-3 0-2 0-0 0 2-4 3 1 4 2 1 Josh Powell 5 0-0 0-0 2-2 2 2-4 0 1 2 0 0 Totals 48 40-80 5-11 19-22 104 18-45 23 11 17 8 8 Washington Wizards REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Gilbert Arenas 47 10-19 2-5 4-6 26 0-6 4 4 5 1 0 Jared Jeffries 17 2-4 0-0 0-0 4 1-2 2 3 2 0 1 Antawn Jamison 45 9-22 0-4 3-4 21 4-9 3 1 3 1 0 Caron Butler 44 8-18 2-3 0-0 18 3-6 2 1 3 2 0 Brendan Haywood 17 2-4 0-0 0-0 4 3-5 0 0 0 0 1 Antonio Daniels 31 6-11 1-1 4-5 17 1-2 6 3 1 1 0 Etan Thomas 16 1-6 0-0 0-0 2 3-3 0 0 3 0 2 Michael Ruffin 11 1-3 0-0 0-0 2 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Calvin Booth 8 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 2-2 1 0 1 0 1 Donnell Taylor 4 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Awvee Storey 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 39-88 5-13 11-15 94 17-35 18 12 18 5 5 Dallas at New Jersey (March 19) Dallas was again without the same 4 and it was an early game that Dallas never woke up for. Jason Kidd hit 3-pointer a little over a minute into the game and Dallas spent the rest of the game trying to play catchup. Jason Terry hit a bucket with 10:30 remaining and it would be 6:45 later before Dallas would connect on another basket. New Jersey went on a 15-2 run to go up 18-4 with 4:30 left. After Dirk Nowitzki hit a fade away with 3:45 to go, New Jersey went on an 11-2 run to take a 29-8 lead with 45 seconds left. New Jersey led 29-10 after 1. Richard Jefferson had 10 points in the quarter. Dallas shot just 4-22 FG (1 made basket by 4 different players including 1-8 FG by Nowitzki). Though Dallas' offense picked up some in the 2nd quarter, their defense did not improve and the Mavs would get no closer than 17 points in the quarter. A 3-pointer by Jefferson gave New Jersey their largest lead at 49-24 with 2:50 to go. New Jersey led 53-32 at the half. Jefferson had 17 points including 7-8 FG in the half. A 3-pointer by Nowitzki pulled Dallas within 41-57 with 7:25 remaining, but Vince Carter answered with a 3-pointer on the next possession. Another 3-pointer by Nowitzki pulled Dallas within 50-64 with 4:15 to go, but the Nets scored the next 6 points to go back up by 20 points at 70-50 with 3 minutes left. Nowitzki hit a 3-pointer with 30 seconds to go and neither team scored the rest of the quarter. New Jersey led 77-61 after 3. Jefferson had 11 points and Nowitzki had 19 points including 7-10 FG in the 3rd quarter. Nowitzki got a layup and hit 3 free throws (fouled on a 3-point attempt) to pull Dallas within 70-81 with 7:40 to go. But New Jersey answered with a 13-2 run to go up 94-72 with 3:40 left. The bench came in and surprisingly had a strong run in rattling off the next 13 points, capped by a 3-pointer by Rawle Marshall, to pull Dallas within 85-94 with a minute remaining. New Jersey ran the clock down and Dallas stole the ball and Darrell Armstrong got a layup to make it a 7 point game with 30 seconds left. The Mavs intentionally fouled and Scott Padgett hit 2 free throws. Nowitzki came back in after a timeout and his quick 3-point attempt missed and that was game. New Jersey won 100-89. It was an ugly opening to the game where Dallas' 10 1st quarter points were the team's worst start of a game this season and things didn't get much better the rest of the way as it was just too big of a hole with as poorly as Dallas played. It was a 1-man show for Dallas as Dirk Nowitzki had 37 points and the next highest scorer had just 10 points while 4 of New Jersey's starters each had 15 or more points. Just a really dud of a game for the Mavs. For the game, Dallas shot 40.5% (30-74) FG including 4-14 3-pointers and New Jersey shot 45.1% (37-82) FG including 5-12 3-pointers. Dallas shot 25-28 FT and New Jersey shot 21-25 FT. The rebounds were fairly even with Dallas out-rebounding New Jersey 40-39 and the Nets had a 14-11 offensive rebound edge. The Mavs were also sloppy as they had 17 turnovers which New Jersey converted into 21 points while the Nets had 10 turnovers which Dallas converted into 11 points. Dallas had won 11 straight games vs New Jersey before this loss - it was Richard Jefferson's and Lawrence Frank's first win ever against Dallas and Jason Kidd's first win as a Net against Dallas. Richard Jefferson had a great game with 28 points including 11-16 FG. He also had 5 rebounds. Vince Carter struggled from the field some, but did have 23 points. He shot 7-22 FG and had 6 rebounds. Nenad Krstic had a double-double with 18 points and 13 rebounds. Jason Kidd had 15 points including 6-8 FG and 9 assists. The rest of the Nets combined for just 16 points. Dirk Nowitzki overcame a poor 1-10 FG start to finished 13-18 FG. He had 37 points and 8 rebounds. Rawle Marshall had 10 points including 3-4 FG in 13 minutes. No other Mav had a good performance. Jason Terry had 8 points including 3-10 FG and 5 rebounds. Marquis Daniels had 4 points on 2-9 FG, 7 rebounds, and 5 turnovers. Jerry Stackhouse had 8 points including 3-12 FG, 4 rebounds, and 5 assists. All 7 of Darrell Armstrong's points came in the last 3 minutes of the game. DeSagana Diop had 1 point and 6 rebounds and Erick Dampier had 6 points and 7 rebounds. Quotes Lawrence Frank: "A quality win against a quality opponent. This is the first time in 6 years that we have beaten them. It was a great team win. It says a lot about our guys about their ability to continue to play at a high level and we need to do so. You have to play at a high level to beat elite teams, and that is what we did." Frank: "I think our guys were really focused from the beginning with defense, holding them to 23% in the 1st half and sharing the ball. You have to play at a high level to beat elite teams, and I think that's what we did." Jason Kidd: "We're playing pretty good basketball at the right time - it just happened to be Dallas this afternoon. We came out of the gates well defensively and offensively. You got one of the best teams in the league. If that can't get you excited, then you shouldn't be out there. [The goal] was just to maintain what we've been doing the last 4 games. And we did that pretty well against a team that is also fighting for top seed in the Western Conference." Kidd on Jefferson: "He's starting to get a lot of confidence on the offensive end, but he's also doing it on the defensive end." Richard Jefferson: "I've never beaten the Dallas Mavericks in my career. Maybe the 1 o'clock start helped us. Dirk and the rest of the guys didn't wake up until the 2nd half." Clifford Robinson: "It definitely is a good win for us. And it lets people know what we're capable of doing when we play our style of ball." Avery Johnson: "We can't get in a hole, practically down 20 points, in the 1st quarter. It's hard to hold all 3 of them [Jefferson, Carter, Kidd] in check when Jason Terry doesn't really score for us and look to be aggressive - then we are going to struggle. Our guys overall are competing and you did not see them at their best tonight, but a lot of that had to do with New Jersey." Johnson: "We were climbing uphill from the start. We didn't have it. They did have it." Johnson on the poor starts in early games: "I'm very disappointed about that. We're going to have to try something different for these noon games." Dirk Nowitzki on the 1st quarter: "We just slept right through it. They were aggressive, they came out on fire, and we just couldn't get anything going. We had a couple shots rim in and out, we turned the ball over, so really that's where we lost the game." Nowitzki: "We have to address [the bad starts]. Maybe we get up at 6 o'clock and run around the block, but I don't know what we have to do. We had a noon game 2 weeks ago in Toronto where we were down 24 in the 1st half." Nowitzki: "I felt good, but obviously, everything came together on us. They were making shots they don't usually make and we were dribbling the ball off our feet. But stuff happens like that in the NBA. Obviously, it's going to be better for us when we have everybody back." Jason Terry: "I'm concerned about the next game and coming out Tuesday night. We've got to bounce back. This definitely left a bad taste." Marquis Daniels: "It was just a very slow start. They were making them and we were missing them. We got to find a way to get off to a better start in these early games." New Jersey Nets 100, Dallas Mavericks 89 at New Jersey (March 19) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% New Jersey 29 24 24 23 - 100 .457 .417 .451 .840 Dallas 10 22 29 28 - 89 .433 .286 .405 .893 Halftime: New Jersey 53-32 3rd Q: New Jersey 77-61 Technicals: none Refs: Scott Foster, Ron Garretson, Rodney Mott Attendance: 18,883 (cap 20,174) Did not play due to injury: Keith Van Horn (sprained left MCL), Adrian Griffin (strained right hamstring) New Jersey Nets REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Vince Carter 38 7-22 2-5 7-7 23 2-6 3 1 1 2 0 Jason Kidd 37 6-8 1-3 2-2 15 0-3 9 2 0 3 0 Richard Jefferson 40 11-16 2-2 4-4 28 1-5 3 1 2 0 0 Jason Collins 23 0-3 0-0 0-0 0 4-5 2 1 5 0 1 Nenad Krstic 37 8-14 0-0 2-2 18 5-13 4 1 5 1 1 Clifford Robinson 25 3-8 0-0 0-0 6 2-4 0 1 2 1 0 Zoran Planinic 14 2-7 0-2 2-6 6 0-1 1 1 1 2 0 Jacque Vaughn 12 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 1 2 2 2 0 Lamond Murray 8 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 3 0 0 Scott Padgett 3 0-2 0-0 2-2 2 0-0 0 0 1 0 0 Antoine Wright 3 0-0 0-0 2-2 2 0-1 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 37-82 5-12 21-25 100 14-39 23 10 22 11 2 Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Jason Terry 40 3-10 0-3 2-2 8 0-0 5 2 5 0 0 Marquis Daniels 36 2-9 0-0 0-0 4 1-7 1 5 2 3 0 Dirk Nowitzki 41 14-28 3-8 6-6 37 1-8 3 2 3 1 0 Rawle Marshall 13 3-4 1-1 3-4 10 1-1 0 1 1 0 1 DeSagana Diop 9 0-1 0-0 1-2 1 3-6 1 0 1 0 0 Jerry Stackhouse 31 3-12 0-1 2-2 8 1-4 5 1 2 0 0 Josh Powell 27 0-1 0-0 4-4 4 1-5 1 1 1 2 0 Erick Dampier 23 1-2 0-0 4-4 6 1-7 1 3 5 0 2 DJ Mbenga 15 1-2 0-0 2-2 4 2-2 1 0 2 0 1 Darrell Armstrong 8 3-5 0-1 1-2 7 0-0 1 2 1 1 0 Totals 48 30-74 4-14 25-28 89 11-40 19 17 23 7 4 Houston at Dallas (March 21) The Mavs remained without 4 players, but Houston was also missing 3 players (including Tracy McGrady) and it was the 2nd night of a back-to-back for the Rockets. The game stayed close in the 1st quarter with both teams holding small leads and neither team shooting well. 2 free throws by Luther Head gave Houston a 16-11 lead with 2:25 to go, the largest lead of the quarter. Erick Dampier got a dunk with a couple of seconds left in the quarter to tie the game at 20-20 after 1. Dallas shot 7-22 FG while Houston shot 6-11 FG, but the Rockets had 7 turnovers while Dallas had just 1 turnover [and had me again wishing the league kept track of unforced turnovers as some of them were simply sloppy]. The Mavs found their shooting touch in the 3rd quarter and used a 12-2 run to take their first double-digit lead at 36-26 with 5:40 to go. A bucket by Dirk Nowitzki, 2 free throws by Marquis Daniels, and another bucket by Nowitzki gave Dallas a 44-30 lead with 2:55 remaining. Jerry Stackhouse nailed a 3-pointer at the quarter buzzer to give Dallas a 51-34 lead at the half. Dallas out-scored Houston 31-14 in the 2nd quarter. Daniels opened the 3rd quarter scoring with a jumper 2 minutes in, but Houston then scored the next 6 points to pull within 40-53 with 8:30 left. Jason Terry ended Houston's run with a 3-pointer and DeSagana Diop got a dunk to give Dallas an 18 point lead. A 3-pointer by Nowitzki gave Dallas their largest lead at 65-45 with 4:50 to go. Houston then scored the next 7 points, but could get no closer. Terry go a layup with 13 seconds remaining to give Dallas a 72-56 lead after 3. A layup by Stromile Swift pulled Houston within 64-76 with 7:55 to go, but Nowitzki scored the next 4 points and Houston would get no closer than 14 points the rest of the way. Stackhouse hit 4 consecutive free throws to give Dallas an 88-69 lead with 3:10 left. Dallas won 88-72. It was the easy win it should have been with Houston being a poor team and coming off a back-to-back and Dallas coming off a bad loss. Neither team shot well, but Houston hurt themselves with many turnovers and few offensive rebounds - as a result, Houston only attempted 61 shots. Houston had 19 turnovers (Dallas had 12, with 5 in the 4th quarter) and only had 8 offensive rebounds - and had just 3 points off of those. For the game, Dallas shot 40.5% (30-74) FG including 4-13 3-pointers and Houston shot 41% (25-61) FG including 5-14 3-pointers. Dallas shot 24-28 FT and Houston shot 17-24 FT. Dallas out-rebounded Houston 41-37 including 15-8 offensive. Dallas had just 12 assists, though. Thus ends the season series with Houston, which Dallas swept 4-0. 12 of Dirk Nowitzki's 28 points came in the 4th quarter. He had just 4 rebounds, though. Jerry Stackhouse had an up-and-down game. He had the 3-pointer at the end of the half and drove for a monster slam, but had only 1 other bucket besides those and missed 8 other shots. He did shot 9-10 FT and had 16 points, 4 rebounds, and 5 assists (4 in the 1st quarter). Jason Terry was the only other Mav in double-digits with 12 points. He had just 1 assist. Marquis Daniels had 8 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists. DeSagana Diop had 4 points and 3 rebounds in 20 minutes, Erick Dampier had 9 points and 9 rebounds in 23 minutes, and DJ Mbenga missed his only attempt and had 2 rebounds in 5 minutes as the 3-headed center assigned with sticking with Yao Ming. Rawle Marshall again started and had 4 points including 1-4 FG and 3 rebounds in 17 minutes. Josh Powell had 6 points and 5 rebounds in 22 minutes. Darrell Armstrong played 11 minutes, missed his only attempt (a 3-pointer late in the game), and had 4 rebounds. The Mavs' defense focused on Yao Ming and actively sent double-teams at him when he got the ball. It was effective as he shot 2-10 FG in the 1st half and just 1-1 FG in the 3rd quarter. He did get going a little bit in the 4th quarter when he got deep posting and/or the double was late arriving. Yao did finish with a double-double with 13 points and 13 rebounds, but his string of 14 straight games with 20+ points came to an end. Luther Head was Houston's high man with 16 points. He also had 7 rebounds, 3 assists, and 5 turnovers. Rafer Alston had 13 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, and 5 turnovers. Juwan Howard had 11 points and 5 rebounds. Stromile Swift was almost it for the bench production as he had 10 points and 5 rebounds (and the other 5 bench players combined for just 3 points, 1 rebound, and 1 assist). Quotes Avery Johnson: "We were glad to get out of here with a victory. It was a tale of 2 halves for us. We thought our defense and offense was good in the 1st half, but in the 2nd we struggled. We had 1 turnover in the 1st and 10 in the 2nd half. That is something we will take a look at." Johnson: "The Rockets stepped up their defense in the 2nd half and we didn't respond with moving the ball as well as we should. Under the circumstances, we did some good stuff overall. I am still pushing this particular team we have in uniform to the next level and we are not there yet." Johnson: "I think there's another level for us to go to. We did some good stuff. We did some bad stuff." Johnson: "I thought our assistant coaches, led by Del Harris, did a really good job getting this team prepared yesterday when the head coach was not there. They did a good job of teaching the double-teams vs Yao because we struggled [in the last game vs Houston]. So I want to thank my assistant coaches for doing a really good job of getting our defense set and getting it organized at practice." Johnson: "We had some key contributions tonight. Damp got a double-double tonight and that was very important. I thought Stack took the ball to the basket hard. Probably harder than he has taken it in a while. I thought Josh Powell was okay in the 1st half." Dirk Nowitzki: "We did a nice job defensively after we had a defensive breakdown Sunday." Jason Terry: "Mentally, we are a very tough team right now. We don't let injuries or anything set us back. I credit [Avery] for that, keeping us strong mentally. We're always prepared." Terry: "We wanted to get [Nowitzki] involved early. He definitely had a mismatch with whoever was guarding him. He did a great job of knocking down shots." Terry on double-teaming Yao: "That was the game plan. We put a lot of bodies around him. Every time he would catch the ball, we had a double-team on him to get the ball out of his hands. He's been playing well of late and we definitely didn't want him to put up 30 like he did last week." Erick Dampier on defending Yao: "We played him pretty good in the 1st half. Every time he caught the ball we wanted to double and make him make a pass and make someone else make the play. He kicked the ball out a lot in the 1st half, but in the 2nd half they looked to re-post him a lot and that's why he was able to get some shots in the lane. He's a big guy and when he's that deep you just try to contest his shot and see if he'll miss or make it." Dampier: "Getting stops is the key to our defense. If we come out and play good defense each and every night, we're going to give ourselves a chance to win. We had a good practice yesterday and that carried over to the game tonight." Dampier on injuries: "We don't want to make excuses. Even though those guys are out, we have to put 5 guys out on the floor. I think this team is good enough and deep enough to still go out there and compete and win a lot of games. The young guys are learning a lot and getting the opportunity to get some minutes and using it as a learning experience." DeSagana Diop on defending Yao: "Every time he tried to get to the post. We didn't want to give him anything easy." Josh Powell on defending Yao: "We just had to scramble and rotate when he got the ball down low and everybody was talking and it worked out well for us. Yao's a great player and you have to commend our big men and the team for focus in and making sure that we all did the job on Yao tonight." Powell on his playing time: "It's a good opportunity for me. I just want to make sure that I follow through with the game plan and just bring energy off the bench. I just want to be aggressive and make sure I do what is asked of me." Jeff Van Gundy on Dallas' defense on Yao: "They double-teamed him hard and well. They did a good job." Van Gundy on how Dallas' defense on Yao differed from other teams' defense: "Better, quicker athletes. Longer. 3-headed centers." Van Gundy on the 2nd quarter: "I played my bench too much in that quarter." Yao Ming: "We were not quick enough passing the ball or me re-posting the ball in the middle. Whatever they did, we did not act quickly enough to counter. Dallas had their whole team playing quickly on defense double-teaming and then getting back into position. We just need to act quicker, whether it's me re-posting or making a pass back out." Yao: "We were too hesitant when making decisions, when passing the ball out. They were looking for me to re-duck in or make a drive. Whatever decision they make, it's all right. Just make a quick decision. Dallas was just in Houston. That's why they could get the double-team back to the position they need. Whatever decision we make, just need to make it quick. The man comes to the double-team, when they run out, we have a chance to penetrate or shoot or re-post, whatever we do. I think that's experience. This team ... the chemistry is not [good]. I think it's pretty funny to say that at almost the end of the season." Yao on Dallas' defense: "They put a lot of pressure on me." Rafer Alston: "We had great energy in the 1st quarter. Then the 2nd quarter, when they came out with their bench, they were able to get out and running and cause little mismatches all over the court." Alston on what Houston needs to change defensively: "I'd say attention to detail. We copy practice and go over our schemes and go over what we're trying to do against opponents' team plays and then we think we have it down pat, we screw it up. I think sometimes we have good effort on the initial play, but when they're swinging the ball and making 2nd and 3rd moves, I think we're just stopping." Keith Bogans: "We're playing a good team, they're a great team. When you make a mistake, they come down and they're going to score 5 or 10 points real fast on you. When we didn't score, they did to open the game up." Bogans on Dallas' defense on Yao: "I think they were doing a good of throwing more than 1 defender on him. They were putting 2 or 3 guys on him and forcing him to take the shot, shots other than what he's comfortable taking. They did a good job that they had big guys trying to push him out. Then when he was trying to make a move they were right on top of him." Bogans: "We've got to make the shots when they double-team Yao. That's what it comes down to." Dallas Mavericks 88, Houston Rockets 72 at Dallas (March 21) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 20 31 21 16 - 88 .426 .308 .405 .857 Houston 20 14 22 16 - 72 .426 .357 .410 .708 Halftime: Dallas 61-34 3rd Q: Dallas 82-56 Technicals: none Refs: Bennett Salvatore, Derrick Stafford, Jason Phillips Attendance: 20,283 (sellout) Did not play due to injury: Keith Van Horn (sprained right MCL), Adrian Griffin (strained right hamstring) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Marquis Daniels 40 3-8 0-1 2-2 8 3-7 4 2 3 2 1 Jason Terry 38 5-12 2-6 0-0 12 0-1 1 2 2 1 2 Dirk Nowitzki 36 10-21 1-3 7-9 28 2-4 1 3 1 2 0 Rawle Marshall 17 1-4 0-0 2-2 4 2-3 0 0 2 1 0 DeSagana Diop 20 2-2 0-0 1-1 5 0-2 0 0 4 0 3 Jerry Stackhouse 26 3-11 1-2 9-10 16 1-4 5 2 0 1 0 Erick Dampier 23 3-8 0-0 3-4 9 4-9 0 1 3 0 1 Josh Powell 22 3-6 0-0 0-0 6 1-5 0 0 4 0 0 Darrell Armstrong 11 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 2-4 1 0 1 0 0 DJ Mbenga 5 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-2 0 1 2 1 0 Totals 48 30-74 4-13 24-28 88 15-41 12 12 22 8 7 Houston Rockets REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Luther Head 45 4-10 2-4 6-6 16 2-7 3 5 3 1 2 Rafer Alston 41 4-10 2-6 3-4 13 1-4 4 5 4 0 0 Keith Bogans 39 1-6 1-3 3-4 6 0-2 7 1 3 1 0 Juwan Howard 32 4-8 0-0 3-6 11 1-5 1 3 3 0 0 Yao Ming 38 6-15 0-0 1-2 13 1-13 0 1 3 1 1 Stromile Swift 17 5-8 0-0 0-0 10 3-5 0 1 2 0 0 Richie Frahm 8 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0-1 1 1 1 0 0 Rick Brunson 7 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Dikembe Mutombo 4 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 1 0 0 Ryan Bowen 4 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 0-0 0 0 2 0 0 Chuck Hayes 3 0-0 0-0 1-2 1 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 25-61 5-14 17-24 72 8-37 16 19 22 3 3 Golden State at Dallas (March 23) The same 4 were still out and Golden State was without Baron Davis. Dallas scored the first 6 points to go up 6-0 with 9:45 to go. A bucket by Dirk Nowitzki gave Dallas an 18-9 lead with 6 minutes remaining, but Dallas' lead would stay in single-digits. Dallas led 28-20 with 1:15 left and Golden State scored the last 6 points of the quarter. Dallas led 28-26 after 1. Nowitzki had 12 points. A bucket by Will Bynum and 3-pointer by Monta Ellis gave the Warriors their first lead of the game at 31-18 with 11:20 to go. Golden State would hold a small lead the rest of the quarter, no larger than 6 points though. Golden State led 57-54 at the half. Nowitzki had 12 points in the 2nd quarter. For the half, Dallas shot 56% FG, but hurt themselves with 13 turnovers. Golden State shot 46% FG and had 3 turnovers. The teams traded leads early in the 3rd quarter. Nowitzki converted a 3-point play to give Dallas a 73-67 lead with 6:25 remaining, but Golden State scored the next 11 points, including 2 3-pointers, to go up 78-73 with 3:30 left. Jason Terry ended the run with a 3-pointer, but the Warriors would hold a single-digit lead the rest of the quarter. Golden State led 92-85 after 3. Jason Richardson went nuts and was unstoppable and had 20 points in the 3rd quarter while Nowitzki was consistent and again had 12 points. Dallas hit 4 straight free throws to pull within 93-94 with 9:30 remaining, but Golden State scored the next 4 points. Nowitzki then scored the next 5 points to put Dallas up 98-97 with 8:20 to go and the game stayed close the rest of the way. A layup by Mike Dunleavy put Golden State up 103-100 with 6 minutes remaining. Darrell Armstrong hit a 3-pointer and Nowitzki hit a 3-pointer to put Dallas up 106-103 with 5 minutes left. Dunleavy got a putback on the Warriors' 4th attempt and after Dallas missed, Derek Fisher hit a jumper to put Golden State up 107-106 with 3:45 to go. Nowitzki hit 2 free throws to give Dallas back the lead. The teams traded turnovers and Nowitzki hit a jumper to give Dallas a 110-107 lead with 2:30 remaining, and it also gave him 50 points in the game. DeSagana Diop got a block, Nowitzki missed, and Dunleavy was called for a charge. Terry got a bucket to put Dallas up by 5 points with 1:20 to go. After a Golden State timeout, Richardson nailed a 3-pointer. Nowitzki found Terry for a jumper to give Dallas a 114-110 lead with 55 seconds left. Richardson missed and Darrell Armstrong was intentionally fouled and he hit both free throws with 35 seconds remaining (and Dallas hit their first 30 free throws). After a Golden State timeout, Fisher hit a quick jumper. Dallas used a timeout and Nowitzki was fouled after the inbounds with 28 seconds left. He hit the first and missed the 2nd. Fisher missed inside, but Nowitzki could not control the rebound and Troy Murphy got the ball, got the layup, and Jerry Stackhouse fouled him. Murphy converted the 3-point play to pull the Warriors within 115-117 with 18 seconds remaining. Dallas again used a timeout and Armstrong was fouled after the inbound. And he hit 1-2 FT. Golden State used their last timeout. Instead of letting the Warriors attempt a 3-pointer, Dallas intentionally fouled and Richardson hit 2 free throws to pull the Warriors within 117-118 with 9 seconds remaining. Dallas again used a timeout and then Stackhouse was intentionally fouled after the inbound. But he hit both free throws. Fisher brought the ball up and was fouled just over halfcourt and he turned and flung the ball in, but the ref had waved the shot off before he even turned. Fisher hit both free throws with 5 seconds left. Terry was intentionally fouled and he only hit 1-2 FT to make it a 2 point game with 4.7 seconds to go. Richardson quick brought the ball up and raised and launched a 3-pointer from a foot behind the arc and it swished in as the buzzer sounded. Golden State won 122-121. Dallas gave Golden State a gift and the Warriors were happy to take it. Yup, Jason Richardson hit an incredible shot to win the game, but Dallas' poor play in the last minute is what allowed Golden State a shot at the win. Dallas was a perfect 30-30 FT before missing 3 of their last 8. Dallas' 20 turnovers in the game helped Golden Stave attempt 18 more shots (they only had 2 more offensive rebounds). The Mavs shot better than the Warriors, but the Warriors attempted more shots. Golden State shot 46.7% (43-92) FG including 11-24 3-pointers and Dallas shot 54.1% (40-74) FG including 6-15 3-pointers. Golden State shot 25-28 FT and Dallas shot 35-38 FT. Dallas out-rebounded Golden State 43-32, but the Warriors had a 13-11 edge on offensive rebounds. The Warriors had active hands and had 15 steals. Rant: I really, really hate how the Mavs simply look to call a timeout to advice the ball when the other team needs a steal or intentional foul. They don't even stop to look to see if there is an open player to pass the ball in to. They simply turn to the ref and call timeout. You have 5 seconds to try to inbound the ball in which you can still call a timeout, why not use 4 of them? Especially when the other team is out or low on timeouts, why give them a free opportunity to setup their next offensive set? It drives me nuts. My other rant: I hate intentionally fouling when you are up. I know the stats say it's a good strategy, but I don't like giving the other team points and I've seen Dallas twice _lose_ (not go to overtime) with that strategy. Jason Richardson was on fire, hitting even well contested shots. He had 40 points including 14-23 FG and 5-10 3-pointers. Mike Dunleavy played well and had 21 points, 8 rebounds, and 5 assists. Derek Fisher had 17 points including 4-16 FG, 5 rebounds, 7 assists, and 6 steals [more than the entire Dallas team had (4)]. Monta Ellis kicked in 12 points off of the bench. Dirk Nowitzki was a stud and it's a shame that his great game went to waste. He was steady throughout the game with 12 points in each of the first 3 quarters and 15 points in the 4th quarter. Yup, that's a total of 51 points, the most by a Mav in a non-overtime game. He also had 9 rebounds and 5 assists, but turned the ball over 5 times. Jason Terry had 29 points and 7 rebounds. Marquis Daniels had 12 points on 6-8 FG, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists. Darrell Armstrong chipped in 10 points including 3-4 FG and 3 assists in 23 minutes. DeSagana Diop had 2 points on 1-1 FG and 9 rebounds and Erick Dampier had 2 points on 1-6 FG and 10 rebounds including 5 offensive in 21 minutes. Rawle Marshall had 8 points. Jerry Stackhouse missed all 6 shots he attempted and hit 4 free throws. Quotes Mike Montgomery: "I think our players deserved that [win], I really do. We've been through so many games where at the end we haven't made a play and now Jason steps up, which was appropriate, and hits a huge shot. They don't miss free throws until they miss the 2 at the end. Nowitzki was unreal. We didn't really have the answer for him. Jason [Richardson] was unreal the 2nd half. They didn't really have an answer for him. So what I would say is, how about the foul now. It works both ways, my point." Montgomery on Golden State vs Dallas: "Maybe our styles are similar enough. I mean, my goodness, we score 122 points which is pretty unusual and they score 121, so it's a lot of points to lose." Jason Richardson on his game winner: "We were down by 2 but I thought we were down by 3. I didn't know, I was just trying to get a shot up. When it went in I just thought we were going to overtime, then realized that we had won. It was a shocker. I was excited about it." Richardson on his game winner: "It was huge. I get the shot off and it was a big game, probably the best in my career. To win a game like this was huge for this team. We really needed it." Richardson on Golden State's success in Dallas: "It's a great place to play. The fans are into the game, you're playing against the top power forward in the league, there's a lot of things about this arena that make us like playing in it." Derek Fisher: "They shot 100% from the free throw line for 47 minutes and 30 seconds and then missed 3 in those last 30 seconds. You have to just keep playing basketball and eventually the ball will bounce your way." Fisher on not getting continuation near the end: "We knew they were going to foul. As an offensive player you can guess right or you can guess wrong. And I felt like I guessed right that he was going to have to foul. I heard Avery telling them if he makes it [free throw] and we're up 3, to foul. They had just done it the possession before. Sometimes if you jump up try to hurry up and shoot it and they don't foul you, now you've taken a bad shot. So I felt like I guessed right on time as I saw them going to reach for me. But we got it back at the end with J-Richardson, so I wouldn't trade that ending for anything else." Fisher on his free throws with 5 seconds left: "I thought about [missing it on purpose]. I really did, but we didn't have any timeouts and I didn't want to miss it and them get the rebound and be able to put us in a position where the only thing we were going to be able to do was have to make a 3. I went ahead and decided to make it, but I think because of my thought process, it still kind of hit the rim a little bit and then it rolled in." Mike Dunleavy on Richardson: "He's taken a lot of big shots for us over the years. He thrives in those situations, so I wouldn't expect it out of him, but we're not surprised when he does." Dunleavy on Nowitzki: "When he's making those jumpers, he's near impossible to guard. The guy's 7-1. You just tip your hat to him. He's a hell of a player. Fortunately for us we got the win." Avery Johnson: "We are all disappointed with this lost. You have a team that has a lot of character and they are very competitive. We are just disappointed with the way we finished this game. Our defense wasn't very good tonight. We gave up 65 points in the 2nd half. We had a lot of things go wrong defensively tonight." Johnson: "We're all disappointed. It would take me an hour to talk about all the different areas we had failures in. If you'd have told me we'd shoot 54% and score 121 points, I'd take it. But we had a lot of things go wrong defensively." Johnson: "We had Jason Richardson pretty much under control in the 1st half, but he came out and played some great basketball in the 2nd half. Our guys didn't quit, they didn't give up, they hung in there. We had a few balls that didn't bounce our way towards the end. We missed a rebound and they got a 3-point play. We were shooting the free throw really well, but missed a few at the end. This was a disappointing loss and a tough shot that he made at the end." Johnson: "We couldn't get any space between us and them, and they didn't quit. And then we could only make 5 of our last 8 free throws. Just a very disappointing night." Johnson on Terry: "He has meant a lot to this team. He had an incredible half and he is really special. He is a competitor." Dirk Nowitzki: "It's a very disappointing loss. We had a terrible defensive outing. Really after the first couple of minutes in the 1st quarter where we came out firing, it was a terrible defensive outing after that. We still should have won the game. We missed some big free throws down the stretch. DA [Armstrong] missed 1, I missed 1, and JT [Terry] missed 1. We were up 5 and I had the rebound and I don't know what I was thinking but I tried to dribble the ball out of the pack and they got a 3-point play. Everything kind of went wrong that last minute that could of gone wrong. It's just a heartbreaker." Nowitzki: "We let the game come down to a shootout tonight and you've got to give them credit. Richardson got hot and he made some unbelievable shots and I just knew when he spun around I kind of sensed that it was going in." Nowitzki: "My shot felt good. I felt good in warm-up. I hit my first couple of shots and then I stayed aggressive, but obviously numbers don't mean anything in a loss. I'd rather score 10 points and get the win." Nowitzki on 51 points: "The numbers don't mean anything in a loss. Whether I score 5 points or 60, a loss is still a loss." Jerry Stackhouse: "That's a tough game to lose. We did enough things to win the game, but it just was a tough shot. We needed to make our free throws when we needed them. I thought we tried to out-think the game a little bit by fouling to make sure they didn't get a 3-pointer, but we weren't in a position on the very last play to do that. You have to give them credit too because they made the plays when they had to. It wasn't like we were trying to give it to them." Stackhouse on the poor defense: "Yeah, we had a real bad stretch from the middle of the 1st quarter to the end of the half. It was all-around not one of our better efforts, but we still had a chance. It's just disappointing." Stackhouse on Nowitzki's 51 points: "I know he would gladly take all of his points away too have just 1 more point to win this game. It's just a tough loss. We shot 54% and had enough points on the board to win the game, but just didn't get it done on the defensive end." Marquis Daniels: "Strange things happen in this game. There were a lot of things going on and we let them hang around for too long. Then everybody started making shots." Darrell Armstrong: "You're going to win games you aren't supposed to win and lose games you aren't supposed to lose. We weren't supposed to lose this game." Armstrong on Richardson's game winner: "We had it in our hands and then he makes a spin move, double-pumps, goes under me, and shoots a 3 - off-balance, on one leg - and makes it. Congratulations." Golden State Warriors 122, Dallas Mavericks 121 at Dallas (March 23) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Golden State 26 31 35 30 - 122 .471 .458 .467 .893 Dallas 28 26 31 36 - 121 .576 .400 .541 .921 Halftime: Golden State 57-54 3rd Q: Golden State 92-85 Technicals: Avery Johnson 8:59 4th Refs: Dick Bavetta, Derek Richardson, Zach Zarba Attendance: 20,165 (sellout) Did not play due to injury: Keith Van Horn (sprained left MCL), Adrian Griffin (strained left hamstring) Golden State Warriors REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Jason Richardson 41 14-23 5-10 7-8 40 1-3 4 1 1 3 1 Derek Fisher 38 4-16 2-6 7-8 17 2-5 7 3 3 6 0 Mike Dunleavy 41 8-17 1-4 4-4 21 3-8 5 2 5 0 0 Troy Murphy 28 2-5 1-1 3-3 8 0-3 2 0 4 0 0 Adonal Foyle 24 2-8 0-0 2-2 6 3-5 0 0 3 0 0 Monta Ellis 25 5-11 2-3 0-0 12 0-3 4 2 4 3 0 Will Bynum 14 2-4 0-0 0-1 4 0-0 3 1 1 2 0 Andris Biedrins 11 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 2-3 1 0 3 0 0 Ike Diogu 11 3-4 0-0 2-2 8 1-1 0 1 3 0 0 Mickael Pietrus 7 2-3 0-0 0-0 4 1-1 0 1 3 1 0 Totals 48 43-92 11-24 25-28 122 13-32 26 11 30 15 1 Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Jason Terry 33 10-18 2-7 7-8 29 0-2 7 3 5 1 0 Marquis Daniels 29 6-8 0-0 0-0 12 1-4 3 3 5 0 0 Dirk Nowitzki 41 16-24 3-4 16-17 51 3-9 5 5 3 2 1 Rawle Marshall 26 2-4 0-1 4-4 8 0-3 1 1 1 0 1 DeSagana Diop 21 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 1-9 1 0 2 0 1 Jerry Stackhouse 28 0-6 0-1 4-4 4 0-2 2 2 1 0 0 Darrell Armstrong 23 3-4 1-2 3-4 10 1-2 3 2 3 1 0 Erick Dampier 21 1-6 0-0 0-0 2 5-10 2 3 4 0 2 Josh Powell 13 1-3 0-0 1-1 3 0-1 0 1 1 0 0 DJ Mbenga 5 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 0 0 0 0 2 Totals 48 40-74 6-15 35-38 121 11-43 24 20 25 4 7 Dallas at Atlanta (March 25) Keith Van Horn returned to action after being out since March 3. Josh Howard, Adrian Griffin, and Devin Harris remained out. Jerry Stackhouse was inserted into the starting lineup. The game was tied at 8-8 with 7:20 remaining and Dallas scored the next 12 points to go up 20-8 with 2:40 remaining. Dallas led 24-10 after 1. Atlanta shot just 4-26 FG in the quarter. Dallas opened the 2nd quarter with a 9-3 run to go up 33-13 with 9:25 to go. The Hawks finally realized that there was a game going on and scored the next 8 points to pull within 21-33 with 7:10 remaining. But Dallas would still hold a double-digit lead the rest of the quarter. Dallas led 51-35 at the half. Both teams went scoreless over the first minute of the 3rd quarter and then Atlanta scored the next 5 points to pull within 40-51 with 10:30 left. Dirk Nowitzki answered with 3 straight buckets to give Dallas a 57-40 lead with 9 minutes to go. Dallas led 65-46 with 5:45 remaining and a 3-pointer by Al Harrington kicked of 10 straight Atlanta points to pull the Hawks within 56-65 with 2:35 to go. Jason Terry converted a 3-point play and then got a putback at the quarter's end to put Dallas up 76-61 after 3. Joe Johnson opened the 4th quarter with a jumper, but Terry then hit on consecutive 3-pointers to give Dallas an 82-63 lead with 10:30 remaining. Atlanta got no closer than 16 points until the final bucket. Dallas won 98-83. Well it was the easy win that it should have been. Atlanta's sluggish start killed them and they never recovered. Atlanta only shot 35.2% (31-88) FG including 3-12 3-pointers in the game. Dallas shot 44.4% (36-81) FG including 3-8 3-pointers. Atlanta shot 18-25 FT and Dallas shot 23-26 FT. Atlanta did have the rebounding edge at 48-42 including 17-8 offensive. Dallas was really clean with the ball with just 6 turnovers. Atlanta was fairly clean with 12 turnovers. Jason Terry enjoyed visiting his home town and had 26 points including 10-15 FG and 4 steals. Dirk Nowitzki had a double-double with 27 points and 13 rebounds. Jerry Stackhouse struggled with his shot in shooting 4-12 FG, but did have 16 points. DeSagana Diop had 2 points, 3 rebounds, and 5 blocks and Erick Dampier had 10 points on 5-6 FG, 10 rebounds, and 3 blocks. Rawle Marshall again started and had 3 points on 0-3 FG and 3-4 FT and 4 rebounds in 18 minutes. Marquis Daniels had 14 points and 5 rebounds off the bench. Al Harrington was the high man for Atlanta with 19 points. He also had 5 rebounds. Joe Johnson had 17 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 assists but also had 7 turnovers. Josh Smith had 11 points, 4 rebounds, and 5 assists. Marvin Williams had a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds. Quotes Avery Johnson: "We thought our defense really set the tone. We worked on a lot of stuff this morning and we're fortunate that we had some carryover. We know they missed some shots, but I thought we were really active defensively tonight. We didn't win the rebound game, they beat us by 6 on the boards with 17 offensive rebounds. But they got quite a few of those early in the game." Johnson: "The defense was better than it was the last game. We just threw out that last game before the game tonight and just talked about what we had been doing defensively before that point. Offensively, I thought we really took the ball strong to the basket. I thought inserting Stack into our [starting] lineup really gave us a boost. Marquis gave us a boost coming off the bench. Damp gave us a boost coming off the bench. We're going to continue to need that type of production." Johnson: "Our 1st quarter defensively really set the tone. We worked on a lot of stuff this morning. They missed a lot of shots, but the defense was better than it was in that last game. We just threw out that last game." Johnson: "I thought overall we were attentive to detail. We took better care of the ball and we executed offensively and we were in the right spots at the right time." Johnson: "Offensively we really took the ball to the basket. Overall we were really attentive to details. That's a team that has beaten some good teams this season." Dirk Nowitzki: "Avery gave us an earful after the defensive outing against Golden State. We scored 121 points and lost the game. That was a step back for us. We had a meeting yesterday and an intense shootaround this morning and that got us fired up." Nowitzki: "We let one slip away against Golden State with the horrible defensive outing. We moved the ball and we were aggressive. We won with our defense." Jason Terry: "Defensively we really locked down [in the 1st quarter]. We were controlling the boards, blocking some shots, and we were able to get out and get some easy baskets." Terry: "We stuck to our defensive game plan and we stuck to our system. And it showed. We are going to play good, solid defense when we do that." Terry: "Our main thing is sticking with the system and executing the game plan. We were so sick just watching replays from that last game on SportsCenter over and over again." Terry: "It was very friendly confines. I spent many hours and nights in this gym, playing hard and shooting late. So I'm very used to the surroundings." Jerry Stackhouse on Terry: "JT hooped. He's been balling for us all season. It was good to see him come back home and play in front of fans that cheered him for a long time and play well. That's always a good feeling to come to where you played before and play well." Stackhouse: "It was a good defensive effort for us. We made them shoot the ball from the outside and they struggled a little bit early getting outside shots. They're a young team, they're talented, but right now they're still learning the game, learning how to play together. I think in a couple of years, they're going to be a team in the East that no one's going to want to play. Because top to bottom they have guys that have talent." Stackhouse on starting: "I'm just focusing on doing whatever it takes. Just sometimes coming right out of the warmups and going out after you've been making shots. ... I hadn't been hitting shots in the game, but I don't really feel that I've been struggling with my shot." Keith Van Horn on his return to action: "The knee felt good and my wind felt good. It's just my timing [was off] and just getting back in the flow of the offense." Mike Woodson: "I like their team but I think we've played tougher teams. I'm not taking anything away from them, because they played extremely well. They're tough because they have a bunch of offensive weapons. We dug a hole so early again tonight. I thought we out-played them the 2nd half because we out-scored on them and out-rebounded them on the stat sheet. A good team like that that's fighting for playoff position, you just can't get down early in the game like we did." Woodson: "I thought Dampier and Josh [?Powell?] really caused problems early altering our shots. We got a little hesitant going in there and that happens. We still had our opportunities, I think it was cut to 10 going into the 4th quarter and we just couldn't get over the hump. Woodson on Johnson and Harrington: "We're still running the same plays that got them off a month ago. We kind of tinkered with our offense a little bit. The same things that they were scoring a month ago, we're struggling with now. Maybe I need to change up a little bit offensively. We had good looks but we just couldn't make any shots. You have to give their defense credit as well. I thought their interior defense really bothered us." Al Harrington: "They played well. Defensively, I guess you could say they took us out of it. They are playing much better defense they have in the past. With a team like that, with so much offensive firepower, you can not get behind. That was the main thing I was telling guys before the game is that we can't have a bad start. If we have a bad start we'll be in for a long night. We still fought back but it was hard trying to get back into it. Harrington: "It seems like were trying to take too many jumpshots. Because we shoot so many Js in the beginning in the game, if we're making them then it's all perfect. If we're missing, then it seems like teams are coming back and getting layups. We have to find happy median. We have to try to get to the basket, try to get open shots and knock them down, that's the biggest thing. Harrington on Terry: "JT is cold, man. He's a very, very underrated point guard. And he's going to be a big reason why they go as far as they do in the playoffs." Royal Ivey: "We got down early in the 1st half and it's kind of hard playing from behind. They hit shots, we didn't hit shots. They defended us, we didn't get up in it and defend them. That was difference in the game." Ivey: "They are athletic and interchangeable. Marquis Daniels is a versatile player and you got Dirk who can play inside and out. Then you got Diop and Erick Dampier taking up space, blocking shots, and rebounding. They have great role players and you can't key on any 1 guy." Dallas Mavericks 98, Atlanta Hawks 83 at Atlanta (March 25) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 24 27 25 22 - 98 .452 .375 .444 .885 Atlanta 10 25 26 22 - 83 .368 .250 .352 .720 Halftime: Dallas 51-35 3rd Q: Dallas 76-61 Technicals: Dallas defensive 3 seconds 10:15 4th Refs: Tim Donaghy, Ken Mauer, Matt Boland Attendance: 18,729 (cap 19,445) Did not play due to injury: Adrian Griffin (strained left hamstring), Salim Stoudamire (sprained right elbow), Tyronn Lue (sprained right elbow) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Jason Terry 39 10-15 3-5 3-3 26 1-3 3 2 2 4 0 Jerry Stackhouse 34 4-12 0-2 8-8 16 0-3 2 1 2 1 0 Dirk Nowitzki 41 11-24 0-1 5-5 27 1-13 2 0 2 0 0 Rawle Marshall 18 0-3 0-0 3-4 3 0-4 1 1 4 1 1 DeSagana Diop 23 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 1-3 2 0 4 0 5 Marquis Daniels 34 5-11 0-0 4-6 14 1-5 3 0 2 1 0 Erick Dampier 23 5-6 0-0 0-0 10 4-10 0 1 2 0 3 Keith Van_Horn 12 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 1 2 0 0 Darrell Armstrong 9 0-4 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 1 0 0 0 0 Josh Powell 5 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 0 0 1 0 0 DJ Mbenga 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 36-81 3-8 23-26 98 8-42 14 6 21 7 9 Atlanta Hawks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Joe Johnson 41 5-13 1-3 6-6 17 1-7 5 7 3 1 2 Royal Ivey 20 4-8 0-0 0-0 8 1-3 0 1 4 0 0 Al Harrington 37 7-16 2-4 3-6 19 1-5 0 0 2 1 0 Josh Smith 36 5-17 0-3 1-1 11 2-4 5 1 4 0 4 Zaza Pachulia 31 2-9 0-0 3-4 7 4-8 1 2 4 1 1 Josh Childress 35 1-7 0-1 4-4 6 4-8 2 1 4 0 1 Marvin Williams 30 6-16 0-1 1-4 13 3-11 1 0 3 0 0 Esteban Batista 5 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 1-2 0 0 0 0 1 John Edwards 3 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 1 0 0 Donta Smith 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 31-88 3-12 18-25 83 17-48 14 12 25 3 9 Dallas at Detroit (March 28) Dallas was without Josh Howard, Adrian Griffin, and Devin Harris. Jerry Stackhouse started for the 2nd straight game. Dallas led 8-4 with 8 minutes to go and Detroit used 3 3-pointers to go up 13-10 with 5:30 left. The game stayed close the rest of the quarter. Dallas led 24-23 after 1. A dunk by Dirk Nowitzki and a 3-pointer by Keith Van Horn put Dallas up 29-23 with 10:30 remaining. Stackhouse scored 8 points in 2 minutes to help give the Mavs their largest lead at 39-30 with 7:30 to go. Detroit then went on a 12-3 run, capped by a 3-pointer by Rasheed Wallace, to tie the game at 42-42 with 3:20 left. Detroit scored 6 straight points to take a 50-44 lead with a minute to go, but Dallas answered by scoring the next 6 points. 2 free throws by Chauncey Billups with a couple of seconds left capped the quarter scoring and Detroit led 52-50 at the half. The teams combined to score just 12 points in the first 5 minutes of the 3rd quarter. A 3-pointer by Billups put Detroit up 63-56 with 5:55 remaining, but they were unable to get their lead larger than 7 points. A 3-pointer by Stackhouse pulled Dallas within 64-65 with 2:45 to go. A 3-pointer by Tony Delk gave Detroit a 6 point lead with 30 seconds left, but Van Horn answered with a 3-pointer. Detroit led 72-69 after 3. A 3-pointer by Van Horn tied the game at 74-74 with 11 minutes left. It was a tight 4th quarter and the game rotated between a tie and Dallas holding a 2 point lead over the next few minutes. A layup by Jason Terry put Dallas up 84-80 with 7:15 left. Detroit then scored the next 4 points and the game again went back and forth between a tie and a 2 point Dallas lead. Dallas was called for defensive 3 seconds and Billups hit the technical free throw and followed that up with a 3-pointer to give Detroit a 92-88 lead with 2:45 remaining. Nowitzki got a bucket on Dallas' next possession. Erick Damper blocked a shot, but Terry missed at the other end and Nowitzki got the rebound and missed a forced shot 3 seconds later and there was a minute left. After a Detroit timeout, Billups hit a shot to put Detroit up 94-90 with 45 seconds to go. Stackhouse turned the ball over under the Dallas basket and Tayshaun Prince was intentionally fouled with 22 seconds remaining. He hit 1-2 FT. Nowitzki missed with 17 seconds left and 2 free throws by Billups capped the scoring. It was a heck of a game that the league can be proud of. Neither team held a double-digit lead in the game and there were 7 ties in the 4th quarter. Unfortunately Dallas was the team that simply did not produce in the last few minutes of the game. The Mavs had a 24 second violation after a forced airball with 3:05 left (and that was after a timeout to set up a play), defensive 3 seconds with 2:55 left, a turnover with 30 seconds left, and shot 1-5 FG in the last 3:10 of the game. Detroit was white hot from the arc and hit their first 8 3-pointers. For the game, the Pistons shot 43.8% (35-80) FG including 9-12 3-pointers. Dallas shot 49.3% (35-71) FG including 5-15 3-pointers. Detroit shot 18-27 FT and Dallas shot 15-16 FT. Detroit was really clean with the ball and only had 6 turnovers while Dallas had 15 turnovers. Dallas out-rebounded Detroit 38-37, but the Mavs gave up far too many offensive rebounds as Detroit had 15 offensive rebounds (Dallas had 9 offensive rebounds). As usual, it was mainly a 5-man team for Detroit. 10 of Chauncey Billups' 31 points came in the 4th quarter. He shot 11-12 FT and had 4 rebounds, 11 assists, and 3 steals. 8 of Rasheed Wallace's 21 points came in the 4th quarter. He shot 3-4 3-pointers and had 10 rebounds. Richard Hamilton had 14 points. Ben Wallace had 8 points (including 0-4 FT), 11 rebounds including 5 offensive, and 4 assists. Tayshaun Prince had 7 points including 2-8 FG. Antonio McDyess had 7 points and 6 rebounds and Tony Delk had 7 points off of the bench. Including those 2, the Detroit bench had just 16 points, 7 rebounds, and 2 assists. Dallas had good performances from 3 different players. Dirk Nowitzki's shot was a little off in shooting just 9-23 FG, but he did have a double-double with 25 points and 11 rebounds. Jerry Stackhouse enjoyed playing against his former team and had 25 points including 11-18 FG. Keith Van Horn had a solid outing in his 2nd game back from injury with 18 points including 7-9 FG in 26 minutes. He got winded in the 4th quarter and did not get reinserted after asking for a rest 4 1/2 minutes into the 4th. Jason Terry couldn't shoot straight, but did rebound and pass the ball. He had 11 points on 5-14 FG, 4 rebounds, and 7 assists. DeSagana Diop had 2 points and 9 rebounds and Erick Dampier had 7 points and 7 rebounds. Marquis Daniels was plagued by foul trouble, including a bogus call 2 minutes into the 2nd half for his 4th, and only played 12 minutes due to the fouls. Rawle Marshall again started and had 1 rebound, 1 block, and 1 foul in 10 minutes in front of his college hometown. Quotes Flip Saunders on the end of the game: "As Sheed said in the locker room, we turned the heat to about 220 degrees. We got active, we started busting through screens - we just got very active and got aggressive." Saunders: "This was a 3-game swing. We get an extra win and they get an extra loss. This was a big game for both teams - they're fighting San Antonio to try to win their division and we're fighting to make sure we maintain and keep our rhythm." Saunders: "Both teams played hard - a very entertaining game. I thought there were a lot of great shots made by both teams. We did a pretty good job defensively as far as contesting shots. They made about 10 or 11 unbelievable shots and we made some unbelievable contested shots. We shot the ball so poorly early, I thought we finally got back to playing how we play." Saunders: "I told Avery after the game that I'd like to see him 7 more times, starting in about 2 or 3 months." Saunders on Detroit's defense on Nowitzki: "We made him take a lot of tough shots." Saunders on having Ben Wallace defend Nowitzki towards the end of the game: "I told Ben after, I had been in the Western Conference for a lot of years and I have coached against Dirk many times. I don't think I had seen as good a job of playing a guy 1-on-1 as that. Dirk made some shots, but he really had to work. We wanted to make him a volume scorer - and 25 points on 23 shots, that's pretty good." Chauncey Billups: "We got stops. That's the bottom line. I felt we had a great team effort today. Everybody stood up to the challenge. Shots were going for us. Sheed got it going. He was unstoppable in the paint and we kept going to him. I was getting some good looks. It was a collective effort." Billups: "I wanted to be aggressive early because the team gets better when I do that. The Mavericks and Phoenix are 2 teams that really try to jump on you early, so I wanted to be aggressive to keep them from getting on top of us." Billups: "That was a definite playoff game. From start to finish, the crowd was great. Their intensity the whole game was unbelievable. Every possession was huge. It was a playoff game. I miss that and I can't wait to get back to that." Billups: "This is a very big win, but we won't know just how big for a while. It might be huge or it might just end up as another victory." Billups on if the game affects home court advantage: "I don't know. It's a big win, but I don't know. We'll see. It was one that we needed to get and I'm sure that they felt the same way." Rasheed Wallace: "It's a lot of fun, especially when you're going against one of the better teams in the NBA." Wallace on Stackhouse: "I wish he would have gotten it going against somebody else - it would have been more fun to watch him. But Stack did his thing. When you put him in the starting lineup, he's been getting his buckets. You can't deny that." Wallace on Billups: "Chauncey hit some big shots. He did a good job. He hit some real big shots when we needed it." Wallace on the paint: "We knew that it would be difficult for them to guard us with Ben, myself, Dice [McDyess], and Dale [Davis] in the post. We just went on and attacked them." Ben Wallace on Detroit's defense in the last few minutes of the game: "That just shows the makeup and character of our team. That's what we hang our hats on - getting stops." Wallace on Nowitzki: "Dirk is always a challenge. We just try to keep a body on him and keep him out of his sweet spots. Basically all you do is stay in front of him and hope he has a bad night." Avery Johnson: "We thought we had a chance to win this game, but they executed better than we did down the stretch. We put ourselves in a bind in the 1st half by giving up 11 offensive rebounds, 6 of which they had in the 1st quarter. When you hold the Pistons to 37% shooting in the 1st half, you wouldn't think that they would score 52 points. They got those 52 points because of their offensive rebounds, which lead to about 9 points on 3s." Johnson: "We battled, we fought. This was a playoff atmosphere. We wish we would have matched their intensity down the stretch, but we didn't. They were in a bounce back mode and they bounced back. We definitely gave ourselves a chance to win, we just didn't execute down the stretch." Johnson: "We fought. This was a playoff atmosphere. We wish we'd have been able to match their intensity down the stretch, but we didn't. We just did not execute. We were hesitant. We didn't get to the foul line. We didn't deserve to get there. We didn't make strong enough moves." Johnson on Stackhouse starting: "We needed to jump-start him a little, and I'm open to doing whatever works. Now, we just need to get that on a consistent basis. He was intense and wanted to play well. Now we just have to get that same effort and intensity against Cleveland on both ends of the floor." Dirk Nowitzki: "We got pounded on the [offensive] glass in the 1st half. That's something we have to address if we want to do something in the playoffs. It's been a problem for us all season long. It's everybody's fault." Jason Terry on the end of the game: "They scored, we didn't. They got stops and we didn't. That's what it boils down to. We have to learn how to execute better, especially in the last 3 minutes of the game." Terry on the playoff atmosphere: "All the games at this point seem very interesting. This was one game we would of definitely liked to have won. We have to bounce back tomorrow and go hard." Jerry Stackhouse: "That's as good as it gets in this league. But we're going to look at this film and we're all going to be [mad], because we had the game. We didn't play smart and that cost us the game." Stackhouse: "That's as good as it gets in this league. It was a live feeling in the building. And we were right there. We're much better than we showed tonight. We normally close games out a lot better than we did. I just think we didn't play smart. That cost us the game, as well as offensive rebounds throughout the game." Stackhouse on the end of the game: "I'd like to say their pressure forced us into a lot of things, but I think we just didn't play smart. That's what cost us the game, as well as offensive rebounds throughout the game. The reason why we lost are things we can correct, things we have to correct, so I guess that's the positive." Stackhouse: "Our focus is getting our guys back healthy and trying to get whole. They're whole right now; that's who they are. We're missing some pieces. That being said, we feel we should have won the game." Stackhouse on the Palace: "Obviously, I'm quite familiar with these rims. And this was a competitive atmosphere. If you can't get up for that game, something's wrong." Detroit Pistons 97, Dallas Mavericks 90 at Detroit (March 28) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Detroit 23 29 20 25 - 97 .382 .750 .438 .667 Dallas 24 26 19 21 - 90 .536 .333 .493 .938 Halftime: Detroit 52-50 3rd Q: Detroit 72-69 Technicals: Dallas defensive 3 seconds 4:57 1st, Chauncey Billups 3:50 1st, Detroit defensive 3 seconds 0:25 2nd, Dallas defensive 3 seconds 2:56 4th Refs: Bernie Fryer, Ron Olesiak, Bill Spooner Attendance: 22,076 (sellout) Did not play due to injury: Adrian Griffin (strained left hamstring) Detroit Pistons REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Chauncey Billups 37 8-14 4-4 11-12 31 3-4 11 1 2 3 0 Richard Hamilton 35 6-14 1-2 1-3 14 2-4 2 0 3 0 0 Tayshaun Prince 41 2-8 0-0 3-4 7 0-1 2 1 0 1 1 Rasheed Wallace 40 8-16 3-4 2-2 21 3-10 1 0 1 0 0 Ben Wallace 35 4-9 0-0 0-4 8 5-11 4 2 2 2 2 Antonio McDyess 19 3-8 0-0 1-2 7 2-6 1 0 1 0 0 Tony Delk 13 3-6 1-2 0-0 7 0-0 1 0 2 0 0 Carlos Delfino 7 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 0-0 0 1 2 0 0 Lindsey Hunter 6 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 0 1 1 0 0 Maurice Evans 4 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Dale Davis 3 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 1 0 0 Totals 48 35-80 9-12 18-27 97 15-37 22 6 15 6 3 Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Jason Terry 41 5-14 1-5 0-0 11 1-4 7 2 2 0 0 Jerry Stackhouse 37 11-18 1-2 2-2 25 0-1 3 3 2 0 0 Dirk Nowitzki 43 9-23 0-2 7-7 25 2-11 1 4 0 0 1 Rawle Marshall 10 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 0 0 1 0 1 DeSagana Diop 27 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 4-9 1 0 3 1 1 Keith Van_Horn 26 7-9 3-5 1-2 18 0-2 1 2 1 0 0 Darrell Armstrong 24 0-2 0-1 0-0 0 0-2 3 1 2 0 0 Erick Dampier 19 1-1 0-0 5-5 7 2-7 1 0 4 0 2 Marquis Daniels 12 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 0-1 0 1 6 2 0 Totals 48 35-71 5-15 15-16 90 9-38 17 15 21 3 5 Dallas at Cleveland (March 29) It was the 2nd night of a back-to-back for Dallas after a good game (but a loss) vs Detroit. Jerry Stackhouse again started. Dallas was again without Josh Howard, Devin Harris, and Adrian Griffin. Dallas scored 7 straight points to go up 13-6 with 5:30 remaining. Cleveland scored 6 consecutive points to pull within 16-17 with 2:20 to go and Dallas would hold a small lead the rest of the quarter. Dallas led 24-22 after 1. LeBron James had 10 points. The Cavs opened the 2nd quarter by scoring the first 6 points to take their first lead of the game at 28-24 with 9:45 left. A 3-pointer by Sasha Pavlovic gave Cleveland a 36-29 lead with 7:20 to go. Cleveland led 41-34 with 5:35 remaining and Dallas scored the next 9 points to go up 43-41 with 3:40 left. The game stayed close the rest of the quarter and Dallas led 49-48 at the half. Jerry Stackhouse had 11 points on a perfect 3-3 FG and 5-5 FT and Zydrunas Ilgauskas had 10 points and 9 rebounds in the 2nd quarter. Cleveland opened the 3rd quarter by scoring the first 9 points to go up 57-49 with 9:55 remaining. A jumper by Jason Terry and 2 free throws by Dirk Nowitzki pulled Dallas within 53-57 with 9:10 to go, but Cleveland then went on an 11-2 run, capped by a 3-pointer by James, to go up 68-55 with 6:20 remaining. Another 3-pointer by James gave the Cavs a 76-60 lead with 2:35 left. James converted a 3-point play as the quarter ended to give Cleveland an 83-65 lead after 3. James had 19 points in the 3rd quarter as the Cavs out-scored the Mavs 35-16 in the quarter. Dallas shot just 5-17 FG in the 3rd quarter. James opened the 4th quarter with a layup to give Cleveland their first 20 point lead at 85-65. Dallas didn't have a rally left in them and got no closer than 15 points until near the end of the game. Cleveland won 107-94. It was an ugly performance by Dallas, especially coming after such a good game the night before. Cleveland was playing with some motivation for this game, though, as they wanted to avenge their disappointing blown 19 point lead to the Mavs on March 14 and a win would clinch the Cavs their first playoff berth since 1998. But Cleveland's motivation was no excuse for Dallas' poor play. Dallas did not play much defense and simply looked dead in the 2nd half. After shooting over 50% FG in the 1st half, Dallas only shot 35% FG in the 2nd half. For the game, Cleveland shot 46.3% (37-80) FG including 9-19 3-pointers and Dallas shot 43.3% (29-67) FG including just 2-14 3-pointers. Cleveland shot 24-27 FT and Dallas shot 34-41 FT. Dallas' rebounding was lax as no player had more than 6 boards. Dallas did have a slight edge on over-all rebounds at 36-35, but Cleveland out-rebounded Dallas 16-12 on the offensive boards. The Cavs killed Dallas inside by out-scoring Dallas 42-18 in the paint. Both teams were fairly clean with the ball as Cleveland had 10 turnovers and Dallas had 11 turnovers. Dallas only had 13 assists. LeBron James was a stud. He hit many shots, including non-dunks, that were amazing and the Mavs could do nothing to stop him. In the 2nd half alone, he scored 34 points including 12-18 FG. For the game, James had 46 points on 16-23 FG, 4-7 3-pointers, and 10-13 FT. He also had 5 rebounds and 4 assists. James reached the 6,000 career milestone during this game. It was basically a 1-man show, though as the next high scorer was Zydrunas Ilgauskas with 13 points. Ilgauskas only shot 4-11 FG. He also had 9 rebounds including 5 offensive and 3 blocks. Donyell Marshall was the only other Cav in double-digits with 12 points. Drew Gooden had 9 points and 7 rebounds. 10 of Dirk Nowitzki's 29 points came in the 4th quarter. He shot 9-12 FT and had 5 rebounds. Jerry Stackhouse had 23 points including 7-7 FT in his starting role, but he had just 2 rebounds, 1 assist, and 4 turnovers. Jason Terry was the only other Mav in double-digits with 17 points. He had 5 rebounds and 4 assists. DeSagana Diop didn't attempt a shot and had 3 rebounds and 3 blocks in 18 minutes and Erick Dampier missed 3 shots and had 6 rebounds in 17 minutes. Marquis Daniels had 7 points and Keith Van Horn had 4 points. Rawle Marshall continued to start and had 4 points on 2-2 FG, 2 rebounds, and 2 assists in 20 minutes. Quotes Mike Brown on clinching a playoff berth: "It's a testament to all the guys in our locker room. It's a testament to the fans that we have here in the city of Cleveland and the surrounding areas, including the city of Akron. It's a testament to our ownership group, who have done a heck of a job providing us with the resources that we needed to try to get this team headed in the right direction, and our management staff with Danny Ferry, the rest of our coaches, and sports staff. The one thing that I know that we believe in that our goal this year was not to just make the playoffs. We'll feel good about it tonight and tomorrow and then we got to get back to work because the next team coming in here is the Miami Heat. They are a very good ball club. That's a game that we want to win." Brown: "Yes, it does feel good to make the playoffs. It's a testament to all those guys in the locker room. The one thing I believe in is our goal this year was not just to make the playoffs. It will be great for the organization and the fans. It will be great for the city of Cleveland. As a group, we have our eyes set on a bigger goal. For us, it's another ball game we want to win. If the city or the fans want to celebrate, it's fine." Brown: "The first person that I have to talk about is LeBron James. I say it night in and night out, this guy is amazing. When I got this boxscore and looked at it and he had 46 points, I was amazed. How do you score 46 points shooting 16 of 23 from the field? That is mind boggling. LeBron came to play tonight just like he does everyday in practice and in every single game. Saying that, I thought that everybody gave us a lift at different times. Stackhouse kind of had a big 1st half. He kind of had his way with us. I thought that Ira [Newble] came off the bench and did a solid job defending him. I thought Z [Ilgauskas], Drew [Gooden], and Donyell [Marshall] were a physical presence in the paint tonight. Eric Snow and Damon Jones were great on the perimeter, not only defending the ball, but on the other side of the floor, moving the basketball from side to side and attacking the rim. It was a complete team effort tonight." Brown: "They are an excellent ball team. They have an excellent coach in Avery Johnson." Brown on the rest of the season: "It's simple for us. We take this thing 1 day at a time and 1 game at a time. We have a lot of room to improve. We are not Dallas, Miami, Detroit, or San Antonio. We hope to get there one day. But we feel confident in our abilities and our game, so we feel that anybody that steps on the floor with us, we have a chance to win." Brown: "It was a physical game. Similar to people questioning LeBron's ability to hit the last shot, people have questioned our ability to be a physical team. I know what I see in practice and I know what kind of guys that I have in the locker room. We feel like we can play any style. If we have to go up and down, we can score some points. If it has to be a grind-out game, we can figure it out. If it goes down to the wire, we will execute our steal-foul game in order to give ourselves a chance to win. I think both teams tried to show and have a physical presence. It was a great game to watch and a great win for us." Brown on James taking a hard foul: "The thing that I like is that young guy set the tone for this team. He went in there and got hammered, and what did he do next time? He went back to that hole. When your leader is doing something like that, everybody else better step up on that bench and play just as hard and just as physical." LeBron James on Ilgauskas not being in the playoffs for 8 years: "I'm happy for him. I'm glad to have Z come back and to sign another deal. It's all worked out for him. It's worked out for us, and I'm very excited for him. I'm very excited for our team." James on the hard fouls: "The opposing team doesn't realize that I am a football player first. I can take those hits. I'm going to lie down and regroup for a little bit then I am going to get right back up. Those hits don't hurt me. It's been a while since I've played [football], probably my junior year. They are nothing compared to those football hits." James on the rest of the season: "We just have to do what we have done that last 6 or 7 games. We just have to keep playing hard offensively and defensively. We just have to keep executing down the stretch and everything will work out for the best." James: "I've always felt since I was drafted here that I was going to light it up like Vegas. I said that on day 1 once I got drafted. It's been slow progress, but it takes a few years to put a building up in Vegas too. It's working out nice." Zydrunas Ilgauskas on clinching a playoff berth: "It feels great. Myself personally and this franchise have been through a lot of struggles in my years being here. It was cloudy here for a while and then the sun came up with LeBron and started shining. What can I say, we had an up and down year with injuries and such with Larry [Hughes], but these guys came through. A lot of guys expected us to fall like we did last year, but we didn't. We fought back and got key wins. Now we are in the playoffs." Ilgauskas on the hard fouls on James: "The way that LeBron drives to the basket every time, they are not going to just let him in. They are not trying to hurt him, but they are going to put him on his behind. That's the way it is. We have to make sure that we do the same when they take the ball to the hole. We got our revenge by winning the game." Ilgauskas: "We did come in with a focus to get this win in front of the fans. We wanted to get this out of the way. We are not done we want to get the [4th playoff] spot. We want to get the home court advantage throughout the 1st round. That is our goal right now. We are looking good so far." Donyell Marshall on James: "Before the game started I pulled him to the side and said, 'Tonight you solidify your legacy. A lot of people say he's not going to be a legit star until he makes the playoffs. You clinch it tonight what else can they say. Only thing they can hold him to now is a championship." Marshall on the hard fouls: "When the playoffs come, there are going to be hard fouls. They called technicals and flagrants on them tonight, but in the playoffs, they probably won't call that. When I played in the playoffs for Utah, if there was no blood, there was no foul." Damon Jones: "We learned from our mistakes. We understood that they were going to come in and try to jump the game up a little bit. We were able to execute. What can I say, King James had a hell of a game on both ends of the floor. He really did some great things out there and that is why he is the reigning 2-time Eastern Conference Player of the Week." Jones: "I think this basketball team has matured over the season. We have been through a lot of ups and downs and a lot of adversity. I don't think we have to talk about maturity at this point and time because we have been on some long losing streaks and on some long winning streaks. I think this team has grown up and we understand that for us to make some noise in the playoffs we have to continue to get better. That's what we are going to do. That is going to be our focus." Jones on James: "He's an inspiration on and off the floor, the way he carries himself. He's been a professional all year long. He's been [criticized], even though he's scoring 30-some points a night, people are still not satisfied. Because of it, he's prepared his team for the playoffs. I want to see what the kid is capable of." Avery Johnson: "They really deserved to win this game. We thought we were doing a pretty decent job in the 1st half, but we seemed to run out of gas. We just didn't have it at the start of the 3rd quarter. That set the tone for the rest of the game. It's hard to explain, but we just didn't have it. We couldn't get into our sets, we missed layups, we missed shots, they kept penetrating on us - pretty much all night long - and we couldn't get our defense and our feet set. So, take your hats off to them. We tried to drive the ball a little bit more and I liked the way we got to the free throw line. But, we didn't get much else going." Johnson on James: "LeBron really is a special player. Boy, he put on a performance. He was just aggressive. He looked strong, he looked like he was a rested player. They had not played since Sunday, so he looked like he had a good 2 day dose of rest." Johnson: "We looked like we were a little tired. But, our guys have been battling. I really love coaching this team through thick and thin. I'm on the train with them, whether it gets rocky or not. And I told them that after the game. I think we have a heck of a team, I think we can still turn this into a special season. But, right now, we're just sputtering. But, that doesn't mean our season is over, it doesn't mean we have don't have the same goals. We have all of those things. We learned a lot about ourselves since these 4 guys have been out. We're still competitors, we still compete hard, we don't give in and we'll be getting some of those guys back soon. But I'm proud of the guys and the job they've done while all 4 of those guys have been out. The guys are trying. Josh Powell has been trying, Rawle Marshall has done a nice job for us starting. Now you bring him in here and he has to guard LeBron James tonight after he was playing in the NBDL a month ago against guys hoping to get a 10-day [contract]. It's great that these guys never quit. We've won some games, we've lost some games during this stretch, but I'm hoping that we can look back on this stretch and say that everybody hung in there with each other. Nobody pointed fingers." Johnson on lossing 2 straight games for only the 2nd time since he's been head coach: "It was unusual when I played. That's some of the things that we talked about when we played. We don't like losing 1 in a row, so you can only imagine how 2 in a row feels. But these guys are warriors and they battled tonight. Really and truly - and you may not believe this - they gave me what they had. They just didn't have anything else. They gave me what they had." Johnson on the hard fouls: "I've been asking for that all year. There's no way in the world we were trying to injure anybody. But I wish we could get more of those. That's what I'm hopeful for." Dirk Nowitzki: "If there's an injury, for a couple games you can have guys step in. But for a long period of time, it always catches up with you." Jason Terry on if Dallas was tired in the 2nd half: "No excuse. They had a lot more energy than we did in the 2nd half. I thought we were in it for a stretch and I still thought we had a chance in the 4th. We just didn't get enough stops. They seemed to take the momentum and put us away." Terry on James in the 3rd: "He attacked the basket aggressively and got 3 or 4 and-1s. That kind of propelled their run." Terry: "The game went to the aggressor tonight. But it's not over for us by any means. We're going to come out with a lot of energy Friday and try to finish this trip off good before we go home." Jerry Stackhouse: "We know we're better than what we're playing right now. But we can't focus on nothing but playing better by the time the playoffs roll around. It's been good to talk about the race with San Antonio, but at this point we have to worry about getting back on track. And it's hard to play to your capabilities when everybody is dead tired." Stackhouse: "It's hard to play up to your capabilities when everybody's just dead tired. But I think the concern is when we lose 3 [in a row]." Erick Dampier on the hard fouls: "If a guy gets to the basket and we can't block it, you want to make it a hard foul. Now is the time to do it, when we're getting close to the playoffs. We can send a message to these teams that we're not going to allow easy baskets." DeSagana Diop on James in the 3rd: "He was being LeBron, you know. He's hard to guard, man. He's strong and he took the game over. That's why he's an All-Star. He scored 46 points, doing a lot of things for his team, rebounding, passing. He was doing his thing." Diop: "It was a tough loss. In the 2nd half, they came out strong." Cleveland Cavaliers 107, Dallas Mavericks 94 at Cleveland (March 29) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Cleveland 22 26 35 24 - 107 .459 .474 .463 .889 Dallas 24 25 16 29 - 94 .509 .143 .433 .829 Halftime: Dallas 49-48 3rd Q: Cleveland 83-65 Technicals: Damon Jones 3:42 2nd, Dirk Nowitzki 10:09 3rd, Donyell Marshall 6:23 4th Flagrant fouls: Erick Dampier 4:59 3rd, DJ Mbenga 7:35 4th Refs: Scott Foster, Ron Garretson, Derrick Collins Attendance: 19,401 (cap 20,562) Did not play due to injury: Adrian Griffin (strained left hamstring) Cleveland Cavaliers REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Ronald Murray 27 2-8 0-0 4-4 8 0-1 1 2 3 0 0 Eric Snow 22 0-5 0-0 2-2 2 0-3 5 2 3 1 0 LeBron James 43 16-23 4-7 10-13 46 0-5 4 2 3 3 0 Drew Gooden 24 4-7 0-0 1-1 9 4-7 0 0 1 0 0 Zydrunas Ilgauskas 34 4-11 0-0 5-5 13 5-9 3 0 2 1 3 Damon Jones 32 3-7 2-4 0-0 8 0-0 4 1 1 1 0 Donyell Marshall 29 4-9 2-5 2-2 12 0-2 1 2 4 1 0 Sasha Pavlovic 10 1-4 1-3 0-0 3 1-1 0 0 2 0 0 Ira Newble 9 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 2-2 0 0 2 0 0 Anderson Varejao 7 3-5 0-0 0-0 6 3-4 0 0 5 0 0 Alan Henderson 2 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1-1 0 0 0 0 0 Stephen Graham 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 1 1 0 0 Totals 48 37-80 9-19 24-27 107 16-35 18 10 27 7 3 Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Jason Terry 36 6-12 0-3 5-6 17 0-5 4 0 2 1 0 Jerry Stackhouse 34 8-15 0-2 7-7 23 0-2 1 4 2 1 2 Dirk Nowitzki 39 9-18 2-4 9-12 29 1-5 3 2 2 2 0 Rawle Marshall 20 2-2 0-0 0-0 4 1-2 2 0 0 0 0 DeSagana Diop 18 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1-3 0 0 3 2 3 Marquis Daniels 23 2-6 0-0 3-4 7 0-2 0 1 2 0 0 Keith Van_Horn 19 1-4 0-2 2-2 4 1-4 1 1 3 1 0 Erick Dampier 17 0-3 0-0 1-2 1 3-6 0 1 2 0 0 Darrell Armstrong 13 0-4 0-3 4-4 4 2-3 2 0 1 0 0 Josh Powell 12 1-1 0-0 2-2 4 2-2 0 0 1 0 0 DJ Mbenga 8 0-2 0-0 1-2 1 1-2 0 1 3 0 0 Totals 48 29-67 2-14 34-41 94 12-36 13 11 21 7 5 Dallas at Orlando (March 31) Josh Howard returned to action after missing 13 of Dallas' last 14 games. Devin Harris and Adrian Griffin remained out, Marquis Daniels sat out with a strained neck, and DJ Mbenga missed the game due to serving a suspension. Orlando scored the first 6 points of the game to take an early lead a minute and a half in. Dallas scored 6 straight points to go up 18-15 with 4:55 remaining. Dallas held a small lead, none larger than 6 points, most of the rest of the quarter. Orlando scored the last 7 points of the quarter to go up 29-27 after 1. Hedo Turkoglu had 12 points and Dirk Nowitzki had 10 points. Orlando scored 10 consecutive points to go up 41-29 with 5:10 left as Dallas missed 6 straight shots. A 3-pointer by Jameer Nelson gave the Magic a 56-40 lead with a minute to go, but Dallas scored the last 4 points of the quarter. Orlando led 56-44 at the half. Nowitzki had 11 of Dallas 17 points in the 2nd quarter. For the half, Orlando shot 58% FG and Dallas shot 43% FG. A 3-pointer by Nowitzki pulled Dallas within 49-57 with 10 minutes left. Orlando scored 7 straight points, capped by a 3-pointer by Turkoglu, to go up 70-53 with 6:10 remaining. The Magic's lead stayed in double-digits the rest of the quarter and they led 87-70 after 3. The Mavs' defense got worse in the 3rd quarter in allowing the Magic to shoot 13-18 FG. 2 free throws by Carlos Arroyo gave Orlando a 90-72 lead with 10:25 left. Dallas finally decided to show up and the Mavs went on a 13-1 run, capped by a 3-pointer by Nowitzki, to pull within 85-91 with 6:45 remaining. Orlando led 95-85 with 5 minutes left and Jason Terry got a layup and 3-pointer to pull Dallas within 92-97 with 4:25 to go. The teams traded 2 free throws and then traded misses. Turkoglu hit 2 free throws with 2:50 left to make it a 7 point game. A layup by Jerry Stackhouse pulled Dallas within 97-103 with 1:15 remaining, but Nelson answered with a layup and Dallas could get no closer than 6 points. Orlando won 108-99. It was a poorly played game by Dallas and they deserved the loss. You can't just show up for 1 quarter. Coach Avery Johnson shared my disgust with the Mavs in this game and lashed out at the team in the locker room after the game, including calling out Erick Dampier and Jason Terry for their performances. Orlando did play well in the game, but they were not challenged much by Dallas' lack of defense. For the stats, Orlando shot 55.7% (39-70) FG including 5-12 3-pointers and Dallas shot 44.4% (36-81) FG including 6-26 3-pointers. Orlando shot 25-30 FT and Dallas shot 21-25 FT. Dallas had 1 more rebound than the Magic (34-33), but Orlando had an 8-3 edge for offensive rebounds - getting just 3 offensive rebounds is a sign of Dallas' lack of aggressiveness. The loss was Dallas' 3rd straight - the first time Avery Johnson has lost 3 straight as a coach. Dallas finished the month of March with a dismal 9-8 record. Jameer Nelson led the way for the Magic with 27 points including 10-15 FG and 4 assists. Hedo Turkoglu had 25 points and 5 rebounds. Dwight Howard had a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Carlos Arroyo had 12 points off of the bench. Dirk Nowitzki was the only Mav to show up for the entire game and had 38 points and 15 rebounds. He had 12 points and 7 rebounds in the 4th quarter. No other Mav deserves to be mentioned. Quotes Brian Hill: "This is just the type of win that this team needed over one of the elite teams in the league. I thought wed been playing really good basketball. I thought we kind of succumbed to fatigue the other night in Minnesota, but they just did a great job tonight. Came out right from the beginning of the game. Even though Nowitzki got 38 and 15, I thought Tony Battie and Darko [Milicic] and those guys made him work for every one of them. I thought we did a good job defensively and kept our composure even when they drained some 3s at the end there and just came back and made some big plays when we needed to. Got big games offensively from Jameer [Nelson] and Hedo [Turkoglu] which was a huge plus tonight." Hill on leading by 18 points and substaining the lead: "Take your pick. It's a tough team to get up 17 on but I guess I'm more impressed with us keeping our composure when they made their run because a team like that, you know they're going to make their run. They're not going to lay down and die on you. They're going to come back. And when they knocked down some 3s, I thought our guys just did a good job. We continued to attack the basket with pick-and-rolls. We put Hedo in a couple of pick-and-rolls and of course we made our free throws. Dwight [Howard] made 3 huge ones down the stretch. We were 25 of 30 from the line so if you want to beat good teams you have to shoot the ball well from the free throw line. We shot and made more and we out-rebounded them by 1. It's a heck of a win and I'm real proud of our guys." Hill on Nelson's leadership: "I think that's what he's all about. He did that for 4 years in college. If you look at his play ever since the all-star break, first of all, he's got a 4-1 assist to turnover ratio since the all-star break which is pretty exceptional. He's picking and choosing his spots on when to attack and when to get the ball to other people. He does a good job of running our basketball team. There's a lot of teams that have scoring points and I have not problem with him having the ball in his hands at the end of the game." Hill on the point guards: "I thought Carlos [Arroyo] came in and did a great job also. 12 points in his backup minutes. He had a couple of turnovers out there but other than that he made some big shots and he got the ball to people also. I think our guard play in general was just really critical tonight." Hill on Orlando since the trade: "I think we've come a long way. I think that makes us 10-12 from the all-star break and 10-11 since the final trade and one of our goals is from that point on to try and have a winning record. One of the things we wanted to accomplish down the stretch also was a win over an elite team. We have Dallas, San Antonio, and Detroit and I guess Miami that you guys would probably all consider elite teams. We got the first one tonight so that was a big step for us." Hill on if it feels like a different team: "Night and day. Night and day. Just the whole atmosphere around these guys. The way they pull for each other. Right now nobody cares who gets the credit, it's just about getting the job done every night that we go out on the floor. The guys that have been coming off the bench since the trade deadline, all these guys have done a great job. Carlos, Darko, Trevor, Keyon giving us huge games off the bench. They gave us a huge lift tonight. They just come in and play hard. Nobody's worried about anything else. Getting credit or stats or any of that other stuff." Hill: "I think were moving in that direction. I think were becoming a basketball team rather than a collection of individuals. To me it's just very rewarding to see how at this stage in the season, how hard these guys are playing and playing unselfishly with each other and playing hard." Hill: "Well thats the nice thing about having some depth. Like you said, we're getting it at least 1 guy every night and then we've had some of those nights where we get them from 3 or 4 guys off the bench. I think there's no question that the bench has been huge in this run. The contributions that they've made to our team." Dwight Howard: "It was real big. Coach said before the game that we've got 3 good teams coming up in Miami, Dallas, and San Antonio and we want to get all 3 teams and start off tonight with a good win. We just came out, fed off his energy, and we got a win. We've got confidence in each other, and Coach has confidence in our players, but that's all it takes. Jameer stepped up tonight and hit some big shots tonight and that's what got us going." Jameer Nelson: "Everybody goes on runs. It's a game of runs; you've got to withstand other team's runs. And our run was too big for them in the 1st half, so going down by 17, 18, it was hard for them to get out of that hole." Nelson on the win: "It was real big. We had them down at their place and you know, we had confidence going into the game. We knew we had a chance, an opportunity to beat this team, but we had to confident, not over-confident, come out here and be aggressive with them. It shows you that we have a good team, especially when were at home. We've got to continue to progress. We've been doing it well as a team and at the end it's going to come. It's going to come, it's going to take time and we've got to stay focus." Nelson: "Every win counts, every loss hurts. But other teams like Philly or Chicago are right there. We've got 19 games left and we're right on their backs." Nelson: "We kept our composure, we were poised. We know, we're professionals, we know all teams are going go to on runs and you've got to withstand their runs. I've been saying that all year. We've been doing a poor job of it all year. But lately, after the changes, we've done a great job of it." Nelson: "We saw an opportunity with their pick-and-roll defense. You know they play great defense, but their pick-and-roll defense, our guards are quick enough and strong enough to get to the hole and create for our team. And that's what me and Carlos did." Nelson: "It's not about the starting 5 or second 5. It's about team. We've got so many weapons on this team, you don't know where the scoring's going to come from." Nelson on Nowitzki: "Dirk is a great player, an All-Star. He's one of the best Europeans to ever play in the NBA. I'm not taking anything away from anybody else, but there's got to be a best and he's probably the best at what he is." Carlos Arroyo: "We're playing great right now. Our commitment to helping each other on the other aspects is there and helping each other on every thing. It's amazing; we're playing as a team." Avery Johnson: "A very disappointing loss. A disappointing end to our road trip. We played a short stretch there in the 4th quarter a little bit. But other than that, we didn't play well at all again tonight and that's what concerns me. They had a lot of energy, they were playing loose. And their point guards destroyed us. It's that simple. Their point guards destroyed us. We, again, made silly mistakes down the stretch. And thats something well have to keep working on." Johnson: "We're not playing any defense. They shoot 55% from the field, we start the game off soft, they score 56 points in the 1st half. You're not going to win many games in this league playing like that. We've definitely taken a step back in that area and that's something I'll have to address." Johnson on changes that will be made: "Again, that's my job. We have to correct it. Again, we need some energy, we need some accountability from within the ranks and were not getting that right now. I'll ask them to give that to each other, to hold each other accountable because were just not doing that right now." Johnson on Howard's return: "I thought Josh was okay. Obviously, we hoped he could of gone back in the game, but we didn't take any steps backwards. He was okay." Johnson: "Josh Powell gave us some energy. We needed that energy. I thought he was much better in the 2nd half then the 1st. Sometimes you just don't know what you're going to get but I thought he competed in the 2nd half." Dirk Nowitzki: "Obviously, we're facing some tough times right now, the toughest times of the year so far. We got to find a way out of it. Defensively, we're just not getting the job done right now. We're really getting lit up lately. And finally in the 4th quarter, we decide to play some defense with some sense of urgency. If you lose 2 in a row, you better come out with that kind of mindset. It's a little frustrating, but we got to stay together as a team. We have to set the tone defensively. Otherwise, we're just fooling ourselves for the playoffs." Josh Howard: "It is pretty bad. We just have to get back to practicing and get back to the drawing board. We have to start over with Denver, who is going to come in ready to play us pretty hard. We are going to have to turn this thing around to have a good showing in the playoffs and get to where we want to." Jason Terry on Johnson yelling at the team: "You see your team not playing as it should - everybody's sick right now. Not just him. We're all in this together. We got to end this right now. This is something we haven't faced all year - 3 losses in a row. We've gone too far in this season to take steps backward." Terry on if Johnson lost his cool: "I don't think he lost it at all. He's challenging each and every one of us to step up, and it starts with me." Jerry Stackhouse: "I think we are just sputtering right now and struggling a little bit in all the areas. It is not just one thing in particular. People probably look at it as our defense, but a lot of the things with our defense comes from our offense and vice versa. We just got to play better. Everybody has to fight through fatigue and fight through this disappointing trip. We have had too many highs and too many good things happen during our season to let a little bump in the road change our focus on what we are trying to do. A good win and a string of a few of them together before the end of the season, no one will remember these 3 losses." Erick Dampier: "It was a number of things. I don't want to say it was one thing in specific. Being down and trying to dig your way back out is one thing. We just didn't play the way we were capable of tonight. They played good tonight. They hit shots. They got calls. They got a lot of calls going to the basket. They did what they had to to get the win tonight." Darrell Armstrong: "First of all, it isn't always going to be roses, flowery, and going our way all the time. Right now we are going through a little something and I have never seen a team not go through something during the season. Some teams find a way to get out of it and some teams don't. Now it is time for us to get out of it. We are going back home and we have a big game because Denver is playing really good basketball. It is going to be a challenge because we need a win. Right now it is not crumbled. We did not look good as a team tonight and that's all of us. I am not talking offense, I am talking defense." Armstrong on the Orlando hustle: "Yeah, you got the best one in Bo Outlaw. I thought he came in and really did a great job of changing the pace. He was trapping and picking up the ball. That is the way he has done it all of his career. He makes it easy on the guards when you have a big man that can do that. They are playing good, but there is no pressure for them anyway because they are not in the playoffs. They are fighting for the last spot, but you have to give them credit because they hit shots tonight." Armstrong on Orlando: "They are basically in the same boat as we are in with a lot of injuries at the beginning of the year and without Grant [Hill] for basically the whole year." Orlando Magic 108, Dallas Mavericks 99 at Dallas (March 31) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Orlando 29 27 31 21 - 108 .586 .417 .557 .833 Dallas 27 17 26 29 - 99 .545 .231 .444 .840 Halftime: Orlando 56-44 3rd Q: Orlando 87-70 Technicals: Dallas defensive 3 seconds 4:13 1st, Avery Johnson 0:20 2nd, DeShawn Stevenson 0:00 2nd, Dallas defensive 3 seconds 10:34 3rd, Jerry Stackhouse 0:00 3rd Refs: David Jones, Ed Malloy, Ely Roe Attendance: 17,283 (sellout) Did not play due to injury: Marquis Daniels (strained neck), DJ Mbenga (suspended) Orlando Magic REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Hedo Turkoglu 33 8-13 3-5 6-7 25 0-5 1 1 3 1 2 Dwight Howard 38 6-9 0-0 2-4 14 2-10 1 2 5 0 1 Tony Battie 29 2-5 0-0 2-2 6 0-2 0 2 3 0 1 DeShawn Stevenson 32 3-7 0-1 0-0 6 0-2 1 3 3 1 0 Jameer Nelson 32 10-15 2-5 5-6 27 0-2 4 1 2 2 0 Darko Milicic 22 2-6 0-0 1-2 5 1-5 2 0 3 0 2 Keyon Dooling 16 2-5 0-1 1-1 5 0-1 1 1 2 1 0 Carlos Arroyo 17 4-6 0-0 4-4 12 0-3 2 4 2 0 0 Trevor Ariza 16 2-4 0-0 4-4 8 0-1 0 0 0 2 0 Bo Outlaw 6 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-3 1 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 39-70 5-12 25-30 108 3-34 13 14 23 7 6 Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Josh Howard 27 3-8 0-1 4-4 10 1-5 1 0 2 0 0 Dirk Nowitzki 44 15-27 3-10 5-7 38 4-15 4 3 2 0 1 DeSagana Diop 27 1-2 0-0 1-1 3 1-4 0 0 6 3 4 Jerry Stackhouse 40 6-13 0-3 2-2 14 0-2 5 3 4 1 0 Jason Terry 39 6-15 2-8 9-10 23 0-1 3 1 2 2 0 Rawle Marshall 5 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 1 0 2 0 0 Keith Van_Horn 11 1-6 0-2 0-0 2 0-0 0 0 1 1 0 Erick Dampier 20 2-4 0-0 0-1 4 1-2 0 3 2 1 0 Darrell Armstrong 15 1-3 1-2 0-0 3 0-1 3 2 1 0 0 Josh Powell 12 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 1-3 0 0 1 0 0 Totals 48 36-81 6-26 21-25 99 8-33 17 12 23 8 5 Denver at Dallas (April 2) Adrian Griffin and Devin Harris remained out and Marquis Daniels again joined them with his strained neck. In addition, this was the first game for Dallas after finding out Keith Van Horn has a broken hand. Dallas scored 8 straight points to go up 12-4 with 6:15 remaining. A jumper by Jerry Stackhouse and 3-point play by Dirk Nowitzki gave Dallas a 24-12 lead with 1:45 to go. Stackhouse was fouled attempting a 3-point and hit all 3 free throws with 2 seconds left, but Andre Miller answered with the shot of the night in nailing a 3/4ths court shot that went in at the quarter buzzer. Dallas led 29-18 after 1. Nowitzki had 10 points. Dallas shot 61% FG and Denver shot 33% FG in the quarter. After Josh Powell hit a bucket a minute into the quarter to give Dallas a 13 point lead, the Mavs got sloppy in committing 3 turnovers and missed the next 5 shots, which allowed Denver to score 12 straight points to pull within 30-31 with 6:45 left. Dallas then scored the next 11 points to go up 42-30 with 3:45 to go. And it was then Denver's turn to rally as they scored 10 straight points, including 2 3-pointers by Carmelo Anthony, to pull within 40-42 with 1:25 remaining. A jumper by Nowitzki was all that was scored the rest of the quarter. Dallas led 44-40 at the half. Dallas shot 6-18 FG and Denver shot 13-23 FG in the 2nd quarter as the Nuggets out-scored the Mavs 22-15 in the quarter. After Jason Terry hit a jumper to open the 3rd quarter, Denver scored the next 7 points to take their first lead at 47-45 with 10 minutes to go. The game was tied at 51-51 with 8:15 remaining and Dallas went on a 16-3 run, capped by a 3-pointer by Nowitzki, to go up 69-54 with 3:20 left. Josh Howard hit a jumper near the quarter's end to give Dallas a 73-58 lead after 3. Dallas opened the 4th quarter with a 9-2 run to take a commanding 82-60 lead with 9:15 to go. Denver pulled within 74-90 with 4:45 left, but Dallas put the game away by scoring the next 11 points to take their largest lead at 101-74 with 2:10 remaining. Dallas won 103-79. It was a needed win for Dallas and a good performance on both ends of the court. Denver came into the game averaging 101.1 points and shooting 46.3% FG and had just 79 points and shot 38.7% FG in this game. The Nuggets had scored over 95 points in each of their previous 14 games. Dallas played well and had 5 players in double-digit scoring. Dallas shot 52.1% (37-71) FG including 3-10 3-pointers and Denver shot 38.7% (29-75) FG including 4-16 3-pointers. Dallas shot 26-32 FT and Denver shot 17-24 FT. [And I shared Mark Cuban's dissatisfaction with the inconsistent and whistle happy officiating in this game]. Dallas out-rebounded Denver 42-30 including 10-9 offensive. Both teams were sloppy as each team had 19 turnovers. And neither team shared the ball much as Dallas had 16 assists and Denver had a season low 12 assists. Dirk Nowitzki was a stud with 30 points, 12 rebounds, and 4 assists. Jason Terry had 21 points including 9-16 FG, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists. Josh Howard looked good in his 2nd game back and had 20 points and 5 rebounds. Jerry Stackhouse again started and he had 14 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists. DeSagana Diop didn't do much with 2 points on 1-1 FG and 2 rebounds before fouling out in 16 minutes, but Erick Dampier played really well and had a double-double with 10 points including 4-5 FG (and 2 nice putbacks) and 10 rebounds including 6 offensive. Carmelo Anthony had 25 points, but shot just 9-24 FG including 4-12 FG in the 1st half. Andre Miller had 14 points and 3 assists. Ruben Patterson had 14 points including 6-7 FG. Kenyon Martin had just 6 points and 5 rebounds in 20 minutes and Marcus Camby had just 4 points on 2-6 FG and 4 rebounds in 28 minutes. Quotes Avery Johnson: "We're excited about the outcome of this game. We thought we were pretty good defensively, for the most part, against one of the tougher teams in the Western Conference. We knew we had to be physical. We came out and tried to rebound the ball the best we could with them because they are a terrific rebounding team. We were pretty consistent throughout a game. We had a couple of lulls but, like I said, we were playing a good team and you're going to be put in a bind sometimes. Fortunately, we were able to score the ball in both halves, except for the 2nd quarter. I thought our guys got to the free throw line - they made aggressive moves and were rewarded for those moves. We just felt like overall we were the aggressor and you have to try to be scrappy against the Nuggets because of their style of play." Johnson on if Dallas regained some confidence: "Yeah. We did some things to clean up and get back to the basics of close outs, foot position, body position, and checking off - just a lot of the things we had been doing for the better part of the season. I'm so happy we went through that little period that we went through because it seems to have brought our team closer together. Nobody pointed fingers. At the same time, we played against some really good basketball teams that were really hot." Johnson on if the game was a must win: "We kind of look at all games as must wins. I think Detroit was a must win, Cleveland was a must win, and so was Orlando. The next game will be also. I think it's more perception in how other people respond and what they think is happening with our team. If we had lost this game today, we still would have 8 more games left and still would be going to the playoffs. The thing we're focusing on more than anything is getting healthy and you saw a guy in Josh Howard, who's a pretty good player that we've been missing. We've done a great job of trying to weather that time of having 4 guys out of our 8 man rotation." Dirk Nowitzki: "I think we had a lot more sense of urgency coming out. We got back to the basics and what we've been doing all season long. We wanted to stop the bleeding." Nowitzki: "We had a lot more of a sense of urgency early on. Our defense was actually really solid today." Nowitzki: "Offensively, we were really moving the ball. We were finding the open guy and really attacking the basket too on penetrations. If it wasn't there, we moved it and the next guy was in attacking mode. We were just aggressive tonight on both ends of the floor. If we come out like that, we give ourselves a great chance to win the game." Nowitzki on defending Anthony: "We just tried to make it hard on him. We contested every shot. If he caught the ball we sent a double-team. He's very aggressive on the low block and we wanted to get the ball out of his hands, make him find their shooters, and make them make plays on the weak side. We did a pretty decent job on him overall. He was still pretty aggressive and still got to the basket some." Nowitzki on the chants of MVP : "That's something special. But I've said it all season long, that's not really a big concern of mine. I want to get my game ready for the playoffs because I had a little disappointing run in the playoffs last year." Josh Howard: "It was real important to get this win today. We put a lot work tonight on the defensive end especially against Carmelo. We had a tough practice yesterday, played a lot of man-to-man defense and carried that over to tonight's game. We did a good job of communicating out there. Everyone was talking and we did a great job. Our defense created a lot of our offense today." Howard on if he's 100% healthy: "Yeah, I'm getting there. I'm about 90 to 95% right now. The more repetitions I get the better I'm going to play." Howard: "The first game back I felt rusty out there. I felt a little rusty handling the ball and just trying to finish around the basket. I missed 2 layups today that I normally make. The more reps I get the better I feel." Howard: "The 3 game losing streak showed us that we can get beat even though we're a great team. I think it opened our eyes to a lot of things that we were doing wrong and coach corrected a lot of that stuff in practice yesterday." Jason Terry on the losing streak: "That's what I love about our team we can't stand losing. The bus was quiet the last 3 games going back to the hotel. And getting on the airplane was just a funky atmosphere around the team. We had to get back to winning now so we can get that swagger back." Erick Dampier: "After losing 3 in row and coming back home, we needed a win just to get things going back in the right direction for us. We came out with a lot of intensity and played good defense and just went out there and had fun. It's amazing when you go out there and have fun, run up and down the floor, score easy baskets, sharing the ball, and getting everyone involved - that's fun. We just have to carry that over to the next game. Dampier on if the losing streak concerned Dallas: "No, I don't think so. It was just a bump in the road for us. Every team goes through this at some point in the season. We've got that behind us now with the win today. This is a new start for us and we'll take it from here. Dampier: "Whenever they call my name I just go out there and do whatever I can. Whether it's rebounding, playing defense, or scoring. Whenever I get the opportunity, I just try to make the most of it. If the team doesn't have the intensity to get it going, sometimes that gives us a boost while we're out there." George Karl: "We never got offensively into the game. I thought we fought hard defensively 2 or 3 times to get the game even and actually took the lead in the 3rd quarter. Our offense just lacks energy on the road. You have to have some confidence to score points. We fought hard defensively until the end of the 3rd, start of the 4th. We couldn't figure out their zone. We got good shots and didn't make any. We were 4-18 at halftime on open shots. The stars were with Dallas; they had lost 3 in a row on the road and they came home for us. They are a team that has a lot of pride and they played like it tonight. We fought and battled, but I thought we just didn't have enough confidence in our offense to fight anymore." Karl: "We were so bad offensively. Defensively they found all the answers. We simply lost confidence in our offense." Karl: "[The game] had a playoff-type defense to it. We did not pass the ball well enough to win. Ever since I came to Denver, I've been preaching the pass. ... We didn't play very together basketball." Karl on defending Nowitzki: "I think we did a pretty good job. At the end of the 3rd quarter and early 4th is when Dirk exploded. We had him at 16 or 17 points until the end of the 3rd quarter, but we went to more trapping which gave him more rotation open looks." Carmelo Anthony: "Against a team like that you have to hit shots. They sat in a zone and we couldn't do much." Anthony : "Their defense was solid. They stuck with their game plan to take me out of the game and force me to take tough shots." Anthony: "I was missing shots I normally make around the basket - midpost, little short mid-range jump shots. I was making them the previous games. Today, they weren't going in." Anthony: "We had 3 assists at halftime, which is terrible. I think we were passing the ball. We just weren't making any shots." Andre Miller: "That's a tough team to play in their building. I thought we played solid for a half. I think our defense kept us in the game. In the 2nd half, they slowed the game down and started knocking down shots so we weren't able to get into our transition game." Miller on Denver's offensive struggles: "I think we lost our rhythm. We are used to getting up and down the court, let our defense create our offense. Tonight we had to play half court offense and we could really get the ball moving against the zone and they took advantage of that." Marcus Camby: "It was a bad game. We didn't come out with the intensity and effort we needed to win a big game on the road." Dallas Mavericks 103, Denver Nuggets at Dallas (April 2) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 29 15 29 30 - 103 .557 .300 .521 .813 Denver 18 22 18 21 - 79 .424 .250 .387 .708 Halftime: Dallas 44-40 3rd Q: Dallas 73-58 Technicals: Denver defensive 3 seconds 5:26 1st, Dallas defensive 3 seconds 4:47 1st Refs: Danny Crawford, Leroy Richardson, Rodney Mott Attendance: 20,251 (sellout) Did not play due to injury: Adrian Griffin (strained right hamstring), Marquis Daniels (strained neck) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Josh Howard 33 6-14 0-0 8-9 20 0-5 1 4 4 2 1 Dirk Nowitzki 41 10-19 2-4 8-8 30 3-12 4 2 1 1 0 DeSagana Diop 16 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 1-2 0 1 6 1 0 Jason Terry 38 9-16 1-3 2-2 21 0-2 4 1 3 2 2 Jerry Stackhouse 35 4-9 0-3 6-7 14 0-4 3 4 1 1 0 Erick Dampier 26 4-5 0-0 2-6 10 6-10 0 2 4 1 2 Rawle Marshall 11 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 0 0 1 0 1 DJ Mbenga 7 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 0 1 1 0 1 Josh Powell 18 2-3 0-0 0-0 4 0-2 1 1 1 0 0 Darrell Armstrong 14 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 0-3 3 1 2 0 0 Totals 48 37-71 3-10 26-32 103 10-42 16 19 24 8 7 Denver Nuggets REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Kenyon Martin 20 3-8 0-0 0-0 6 2-5 3 0 4 1 0 Carmelo Anthony 37 9-24 2-7 5-6 25 1-3 0 4 5 0 1 Marcus Camby 28 2-6 0-0 0-0 4 0-4 1 1 3 2 2 Ruben Patterson 27 6-7 0-0 2-6 14 1-3 0 6 4 1 1 Andre Miller 35 5-8 1-1 3-4 14 0-1 3 2 1 1 0 Greg Buckner 31 2-8 1-6 0-0 5 1-3 2 0 4 1 0 Reggie Evans 24 0-3 0-0 4-4 4 2-5 0 1 3 1 0 Eduardo Najera 12 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1-3 0 1 3 1 0 Howard Eisley 17 1-7 0-1 0-0 2 1-1 2 3 2 0 0 Linas Kleiza 5 1-3 0-1 1-2 3 0-2 0 1 0 0 0 DerMarr Johnson 4 0-0 0-0 2-2 2 0-0 1 0 1 0 0 Totals 48 29-75 4-16 17-24 79 9-30 12 19 30 8 4 patricia