Game 2: Phoenix at Dallas (May 26) Raja Bell did not play in game 2. Rumors were floating that he has a partial tear of his left calf muscle - if that is the case, he is likely out for a while as that is not an injury that you can play through without risking a more serious injury. Josh Howard was able to play and did start despite the bone bruise on his right ankle. Avery Johnson made a lineup change in starting Keith Van Horn in place of Erick Dampier. Leandro Barbosa started in place of the injured Bell and Shawn Marion was able to play despite a tweaked ankle. Phoenix jumped out to a 10-3 lead with 7:30 left as Dallas opened the game shooting 1-7 FG. DeSagana Diop came in for Van Horn (who hadn't done much) and the Mavs started playing better and getting some stops - Diop started wearing a face mask to protect his broken nose, but he discarded it after a few minutes and played the rest of the game without it. A 3-pointer by Steve Nash gave Phoenix a 15-7 lead with 5:50 to go. Phoenix then went through a shooting drought in missing their next 9 shots and Dallas scored the next 14 points to go up 21-15 with 1:40 remaining. A bucket by Boris Diaw ended Phoenix 4 1/2 minute shooting drought. Dallas led 22-17 after 1. Dirk Nowitzki had 13 points. Phoenix shot just 7-23 FG in having their lowest scoring 1st quarter of the playoffs and regular season. Jason Terry opened the 2nd quarter with a 3-point play to give Dallas a 25-17 lead with 11:35 left. Phoenix then scored the next 6 points, capped by a 3-pointer by Eddie House, to pull within 23-25 with 10:20 to go. The game stayed close with Dallas still holding a single-digit lead. A 3-point play by Nowitzki and jumper by Howard gave Dallas a 39-31 lead with 7 minutes remaining. Barbosa collected his 3rd foul with 6:15 to go. A jumper by Terry ended a minute and a half scoreless period by both teams, but Phoenix then scored the next 10 points, capped by consecutive 3-pointers by Tim Thomas, to go up 50-45 with 35 seconds left. Phoenix led 52-47 at the half. Diaw had 10 points in the 2nd quarter. Phoenix out-scored Dallas 35-25 in the 2nd quarter. Both teams shot 49% FG in the half. A bucket by Van Horn (his first points of the game) and 3-pointer by Howard tied the game at 54-54 with 10:45 remaining, but Barbosa answered with a 3-pointer to give Phoenix back the lead. Another 3-pointer by Barbosa [but those were 2 of the just 3 shots he made in this game] gave Phoenix a 62-56 lead with 8:30 to go. Phoenix led 64-58 with 7:35 left and Howard went on a 6-2 run and Nowitzki drove for the dunk to tie the game at 66-66 with 5:55 remaining. It got ugly as each team scored just 6 points over the next 4 1/2 minutes. Phoenix led 77-75 after 3. Howard had 13 points in the 3rd quarter. Dallas shot 8-12 FT and Phoenix shot 1-2 FT in the 3rd [Dallas was called for 5 fouls and Phoenix was called for 6 fouls]. Jerry Stackhouse nailed a 3-pointer to give Dallas a 78-77 lead with 11:30 to go, but Shawn Marion hit jumper and a 3-pointer [surrounding 2 missed free throws by Devin Harris] to give Phoenix an 82-78 lead with 10:45 left. Nowitzki responded with consecutive buckets to again tie the game. Terry went on a 6-2 run to put Dallas up 90-84 with 6:15 remaining, but Thomas ended the mini-run with a 3-pointer. A jumper by Diaw pulled Phoenix within 89-91 with 4:10 to go. The teams traded missed and Stackhouse drove for a layup and was fouled and hit the extra free throw. After Marion missed up close, Howard hit a floater to put Dallas up 96-89 with 2:45 remaining. Diaw converted the sweeping hook 15 seconds later. The teams traded possessions, Nowitzki drove for the pretty reverse layup, Diaw hit 2 free throws, and Nowitzki hit 2 free throws to give Dallas a 100-93 lead with 1:15 left. Barbosa's 3-point attempt went in-and-out with 1:05 left and Terry's back foot was out of bounds when he attempted a shot with 48 seconds to go. Phoenix called timeout and Thomas nailed a quick 3-pointer to make it a 4 point game. Phoenix started intentionally fouling. Stackhouse hit 1-2 FT to put Dallas up 101-96 with 38 seconds left. Phoenix called timeout and Thomas missed a 3-point attempt. Nowitzki hit 1-2 FT and Thomas missed another 3-point attempt with 22 seconds remaining. Nowitzki again hit 1-2 FT and Barbosa missed a 3-point attempt with 13 seconds left. Stackhouse hit 2 free throws and Nash hit a meaningless jumper with 3 seconds left - Nash's only attempt in the 2nd half. Dallas won 105-98. The series is tied 1-1. Dallas played a lot better than they did in game 1 and Phoenix played much worse and their shots weren't falling. Phoenix shot just 4-12 FG in the last 5 1/2 minutes of the game (including a meaningless bucket with 3 seconds left). The Mavs were helped getting back to a better defensive form with the play of DeSagana Diop. The points in the paint were much lower for both teams as Dallas had 48 points in the paint and Phoenix had 46 points in the paint [compared to the ridiculous 74 and 72 in game 1]. And the fastbreaks points were much lower for Phoenix with 21 fastbreak points as the Mavs' transition defense was much better (though they did have a few lapses). Dallas had 11 fastbreak points. For the game, Dallas shot 47.5% (38-80) FG including 4-11 3-pointers and Phoenix shot 44.9% (40-89) FG including 10-23 3-pointers - including 3-10 3-pointers in the 4th quarter. Though the free throw numbers were even in the 1st half (both attempted 7), Dallas had a huge advantage in the 2nd half in shooting 19-29 FT (including 8 attempts from intentional fouls) and Phoenix shooting 3-4 FT. For the game, Dallas shot 25-36 FT and Phoenix shot 8-11 FT. Dallas continued their perfect record in having the rebounding edge in each game of the playoffs in out-rebounding Phoenix 48-39 including 11-7 offensive rebounds. Both teams were very clean with the ball as Dallas had 8 turnovers and Phoenix had 9 turnovers. Dallas' largest lead was 9 points and Phoenix's largest lead was 8 points. Game 3 is Sunday at 7:30 pm in Phoenix. [Interesting note: this was the first game since game 4 in the San Antonio series that a technical foul was called on either Dallas or their opponent.] Injured ankle? What injured ankle? Josh Howard played great and the Mavs remain a perfect 22-0 when Howard scored 20+ points. In a game the Mavs didn't know if he was going to be able to play, Howard had 29 points, 7 rebounds, and 2 blocks in 40 minutes. He also had a new smile as Howard had his braces removed. Dirk Nowitzki had another great all-around game. 12 of his 30 points came in the 4th quarter. He shot 12-21 FG and had 14 rebounds and 6 assists. DeSagana Diop didn't score much, but his impact on the game was unquestioned by anyone who watched the game. Diop had 4 points on 2-3 FG, 11 rebounds, and 2 blocks in 32 minutes [after not playing, coach's decision, in game 1]. 7 of Jason Terry's 18 points came in the 4th quarter. He also had 4 rebounds and 4 assists. Jerry Stackhouse overcame a poor 1st half (missed 2 shots and had 2 turnovers) and had key 3-point play in the 4th quarter. Stack had 11 points and 7 rebounds. After a great game 1, Devin Harris was very quiet with just 9 points, 1 rebound, and 2 assists in 24 minutes. Keith Van Horn started, but was a negative for the 1st quarter. For the game, he had 2 points on 1-2 FG, 1 rebound, and 2 assists in 16 minutes. Adrian Griffin played 12 minutes and had 2 points and 2 offensive rebounds. Marquis Daniels played just 1 1/2 minutes and Erick Dampier did not play, coach's decision. Without Raja Bell, Mike D'Antoni only played 7 players - which has to be a concern the longer the series goes on. Steve Nash disappeared in the 2nd half where he only attempted 1 shot - and that was with 3 seconds left in the game - and had 3 assists. He had an assist with 6:13 left in the 3rd quarter and his next assist didn't come until 40 seconds left in the game. For the game, Nash had 16 points and 11 assists. Shawn Marion had another solid outing with 19 points and 19 rebounds. He also had 3 steals. Dallas still had no answer for Boris Diaw (but at least he didn't have a career high this night). Diaw had a team high 25 points including 10-17 FG, 10 rebounds, and 6 assists. Tim Thomas had 20 points including 4-10 3-pointers before fouling out in the waning seconds of the game. Leandro Barbosa struggled mightily in his start with 8 points on 3-15 FG and 2-6 3-pointers. He did have 4 assists in his 39 minutes. James Jones had 3 points, 3 rebounds, and 6 blocks in 23 minutes. Eddie House had 7 points and 2 rebounds in 14 minutes. Quotes [Johnson's (except the last one), Nowitzki's, Howard's (except the last one), D'Antoni's, and Nash's quotes transcribed by me] Avery Johnson: "Tonight, obviously ,it was a good win for us overall. We'll take it. We had some pretty good performances from a couple of individuals. Obviously having Howard back tonight meant a lot to us, on both ends of the floor. Diop coming off the bench giving us a big lift was huge for us. Stack in the 2nd half was good. JET made a couple of key contributions for us and, obviously, Dirk is playing on an MVP type of level. But we still have another level to go to. Not real excited about how we finish the game. And we, you know, unfortunately lost 1 game here at home. But we'll keep getting better and better as this series goes on. It's a 7 game series and we won game 2, they won game 1. That's pretty much what's going on here. So we'll get back to work in Phoenix and hopefully have some energy and be able to compete with them on their court." Johnson on Howard: "Well, he was really attacking the basket and he mixed in his 3-ball at the right time. He took the ones that were there. And he just mixed in his game. And obviously when he mixes in his game like that, we're a much better team. We had a much better tempo because he was in the game, and that helped us out offensively to have kind of our tempo." Johnson on if Marion was tired: "No, I don't know. Shawn Marion is a great player. We haven't been able to guard him too well. And we still haven't solved Diaw. But again, we made some stops when we needed to get some stops. They went on a tremendous run in the 2nd quarter and we were really discouraged by the run they went on. But that's going to happen against this team sometime. So again, I thought defensively we took a little bit more of a challenge. We're still not quite where I want us to be. But obviously I'm feeling better about 1-1 than I would have about 0-2. We're a good road team. We have homecourt advantage in this series and all we have to do is keep grinding it out, grinding it out, and see if we can play well in Phoenix." Johnson on Diop: "Well, I didn't know he was going to be a factor like that because the pace of the game is so quick. But we were able to get him in positions where he could get back on defense and we covered for him. We didn't cover for one another, they had a layup drill; it was like the first game they were playing against themselves, you know. It was 5 Suns out there on the court and no Mavericks. And that was really disappointing. So we had some Mavericks in most of the plays tonight, which I thought was a key for us, at least to try to make it difficult on them." Johnson on playing Diop more: "Yeah, his play. And again, this team burns any team that plays big 5s. They've been doing it all year. It's not just us, you know. And hopefully now I can stop getting all those how to stop Steve Nash messages from my concerned people. Nobody's solved Steve Nash, all right. You watch them play us, any of the top 4 or 5 teams in the league have had trouble guarding this team. It's no easy task. So we're mixing things up and we were embarrassed by our defensive performance in the 1st game. We still haven't quote unquote haven't solved anything yet, but again, I thought we had a better effort over all. Dirk made some tremendous plays in the 4th quarter." Johnson on Diop: "He's getting better. He's a young player. Fortunately I guess since he had some rest in the 1st game since the coach decided not to play him, I guess he was trying to prove a little point that he wanted to play a little bit more. So we need his interior defense because when they get to the basket we got to have somebody back there sometime that can have a chance at getting the block for us" Johnson on Nash's 1 FGA in the 2nd half: "Well, we were just trying to contain him. And I think the guys who were on him took a little bit more of a one-on-one challenge and tried to contain him and fortunately, you know, some of his shots didn't fall. But I think, you know, guarding Barbosa tonight was just as important as guarding Nash because the last time Raja Bell was out, Barbosa had a career night, if I can remember. So it's not just Nash. Nash obviously is the head of the snake, but Barbosa and Diaw and Marion and Thomas, they make Nash better just as much as he makes them better. So we just got to do a better job of containing them. They still got away from us in a couple of situations. So again, now we got 2 games on film and we can continue to try to adjust and evaluate." Johnson on Howard's treatment: "I want to give Dr. Souryal a big assist for this win. He did some cutting-edge stuff to get Josh ready, and he and our training staff deserve a huge assist." Dirk Nowitzki on his inside game: "Well, I think I learned a lot over the years, you know, be efficient down there and, you know, you learn angles and you learn how to attack better. You know, when I first got into the league, I was basically only a spot-up shooter and over the years guys have taken my shot away. You got to find other ways to be productive and help the team win, and post-up is something that I had to learn. And, you know, I still think it can get better a lot, but, you know, I just try to attack the rim a little bit. It was pretty decent and at least we won the game." Nowitzki on Howard: "Actually, I had no idea even before the game that he was going to play. And when we had our meeting with 40 on the clock, he still had some shorts on that weren't game shorts. So I really didn't really know what was going on, but he did have a heat pack on, which was kind of odd. So I was hoping he was going to play. And, man, he came through. He was aggressive, you know, early on and taking it to the basket. He was shooting it well. He shot the in-between shot well and we really needed him tonight and I thought we really missed him in the 2nd half of game 1. You know, he's one of our best perimeter defenders. He's very long, he's active, and he was big tonight. So hopefully his ankle will feel great tomorrow." Nowitzki on the tempo: "Obviously, they really did embarrass us in the fastbreak game in game 1. You know, we had made a shot or made a layup and 3 seconds later they made a layup too. And we wanted to make sure to get back. We had a couple good drills yesterday where we, you know, just can't have in this area 3 or 4 guys go to the offensive glass, because they rebound and they run out and the next thing they have a layup. So I think we figured that out a little better. We got back, took some fastbreak points away, but they still had 20 some fastbreak points there. They're just so good at it and so athletic in the open court, but we did a much better job as we did in game 1. But still they were right there. They made some big shots to stay in the game and to be them up in the game in the 3rd quarter. They're a tough team and, you know, we're going to have to have our hands full, I think. Especially if we go in there now on the road, they're going to make a lot more shots than they did tonight. So we got to come out a lot more aggressive than we did the first 2." Nowitzki on his 4th quarter: "Well really, I just wanted to make some stuff happen and going to the basket some and not settling for just jumpers. You know, I think Shawn Marion is a great defender on the perimeter. He's long, he's athletic, and then he's really contesting my shots. So I was trying just to attack the rim. They don't really have a lot of shot blockers out there, maybe get to the line some, and it was pretty decent. But you know, saying all that, we played pretty good and it was still of right there. So it's going to be a long series." Nowitzki on Nash not shooting in the 2nd half: "Well, you know, I thought we tried to get the ball out of his hands a little more than we did in game 1. But still he had some opportunities where we were still right there and made him pass the ball. But his teammates kept making shots and Boris has been unstoppable in this series, so we got to find a way to slow him down a little bit. But, you know, it's going to be a long series and so far it's been fun." Josh Howard on when he knew he was going to play: "Well, as far as that, I kind of waited until I got to the game, did my pregame rituals, and see how it went. It was all right. It was sore, but I was able to keep playing. And came out and decided to play." Howard on how the ankle affected him: "I mean, not much. Like I said, I had some pain cutting, in and out, but for the most part I fought through it." Howard: "We knew we didn't want to go to Phoenix down 0-2, you know what I'm saying, it's a difficult situation and they have a great homecourt team and we have to be ready to step up and take the challenge." Howard on how healthy he is: "I mean numbers are so hard to say, 'cause everybody has their own view of numbers. But me personally, I think I'm 95." Howard on if he tested his ankle early in the game: "Na, I did all that in my little pregame ritual. Once I got out on the court I knew it was game time and I wanted to start off the game like I did in game 1." Howard on the tempo: "Yeah, we just got into our game plan. Went out there and played great ball. Gana Diop came in and played a hell of a game for us, and we're going to need him to do that night in and night out." Howard on starting: "Na, usually when I come back from injuries, that's my normal role. I only came off the bench one time coming back from injury, and that was against Phoenix. So, it wasn't no question. I knew I was going to start." Howard on Dallas being 22-0 when he scores 20+ points so why doesn't he shoot more every game: "Na, that's not me, know what I'm saying. Yeah, I've heard that all year. I just take the shots that are given to me, and if I get up to 20, we usual win." Howard on 22-0: "It's a blessing that I can do the things I do, you know what I'm saying. Helping my team win is what I always want to do, that's my number 1 priority. And I'm going to go out there and do it." Howard on his first game without braces: "[laughs] It's nice. Lot of people still haven't noticed it yet, but I've got some compliments." Howard on Nash in the 2nd half: "I think the plan was to play defense on everybody; Steve, Tim, Diaw, whoever we could stop, we was going to do it. And I guess tonight it was Steve's night, even though he was out there real aggressive. I think he had 12 assists, but we contained him and that's what we want to do." Howard on his treatment: "I've been up since 8 o'clock. I was at Dr. Souryal's office, then with Casey [Smith, trainer], then back to the doc's office. Then I got to the game. It was a strenuous thing to go through. But we got results." Jason Terry: "We were just better at getting back defensively." Terry: "For me, it's about staying aggressive and attacking at all times. But in this series, I have to pick my spots based on the way [Phoenix] plays. I sort of play like them. At times, it can be fools gold." Terry on Howard: "But leave it up to Josh. He's one of the toughest players we have on the roster, and he came out and showed his toughness." Jerry Stackhouse: "It came down to making plays at the end of the game. We didn't do that in game 1." Stackhouse: "The whole thing was about how we handled the last 3 minutes. If we handled the last 3 minutes of the last game like this game, we're up 2-0." Stackhouse: "It's not always about points with this team, sometimes guys have to do different things to help us out. JET made a few plays for us, and he just did all the little things we needed him to do. And he made a couple of big shots on the break." Stackhouse on the defense on Nash: "We mixed it up. We tried to force him down and try to rotate to the shooters and not play 2-man basketball." Stackhouse: "Diop played great. He showed he's going to be a factor. He showed Avery and everybody that he's not going to be a weak link out there." Stackhouse on Howard: "I'm proud of Josh. He could have easily said, 'My ankle's hurt, I've got to sit out tonight.' He sucked it up for his team. That's what being a big time player is all about." Devin Harris: "We definitely got back in transition and tried to cut off their fastbreak points and we got some big stops in that 4th quarter." Harris on making Nash work: "JET did a great job of moving up and not letting him get open looks off that screen-and-roll. We just forced him to find other people. We did a great job of making it look crowded in the lane and fanning out their shooters." Harris on Howard: "Big effort by Josh. He really came out aggressive, attacking the basket and he just really, really gave a good effort." Harris: "We made a lot of mistakes at the end of the game of game 1, but 1 stop and we win that game. We definitely made some proper adjustments, especially late in the game, to get those stops." DeSagana Diop: "Coach wanted me to get back on defense. They had a lot of layups the last game. Avery didn't want us to give up any more layups. I think I did all right." Diop on his assignment in the game: "Get back on defense. Be big in the paint and [stop] Diaw. He hit a couple of jumpers, but we can live with that. It's the layups. Layups kill you." Diop: "I felt I could help by running the floor and playing defense." Diop on taking the face mask off: "I didn't like that mask. I couldn't even breathe like that. If I break [the nose], I break it again." Keith Van Horn on Howard: "That was his best game of the season." Van Horn: "When they ran the pick-and-roll, DeSagana came in and was really long. He made the middle appear to be clogged up. We weren't giving up the layups like we were in the 1st game, and our transition defense for the whole game was better." Van Horn on Diop: "DeSagana did a very good job of handling the pick-and-roll. He handled it better than Damp and I did in the 1st game. Give Gana a lot of credit. He really helped out tonight." Mike D'Antoni: "That was a great game. We had shots to win, and about the 2 minute mark, 3 minute mark, where we had about 3 3s that I thought we could have put the fear into them and we didn't knock them down. And give them credit, they came down and executed and we just didn't quite get it done." D'Antoni on if they shot too many 3-pointers late in the game: "Now that we missed, we would of. If you would have told me before, no. I don't think - we play our game and we're not going we're not going to question what we do and we're going to keep going forward and, you know, those are good shots and they're good shots from guys that usually knock them down. And for us to win, we need to knock them down." D'Antoni on Barbosa: "Well, he just didn't make the shots. He'll make the shots. He'll be fine. He'll settle down. He'll have a good series. And, you know, bottom line is we came here and we won 1 game. And now we have homecourt advantage and we got to hold serve and if we're good enough, we'll do that." D'Antoni on if they can survive with Nash only taking 1 shot in the 2nd half: "Let me see. 105-98, nope. It's right there, it's right there. You just play the game and we had great shots. And what we don't do is 'Oh, this guy only got 2, this guy only got 4 shots, this guy got 10 points, this guy got 20.' We don't play that way. That ball moves, it finds the guys open. If the guy's open, got to knock them down. That's why we have 5 guys that are skilled on the floor because that's how we play. Today the guys that found the ball open didn't knock them down enough times. So we play a pretty simple game and then we don't question it. And we gave everything we had, and we had them on the ropes for a while. We controlled most of the game. We're happy with leaving Dallas with 1. We let 1 slip away but you could also say we got lucky the last game because we came from 9 down. So we're in pretty good shape. We're going to go to Phoenix and hold serve. If we do that we win the series." D'Antoni on Howard: "No, I'm not surprised that he plays well. The guy can play. If he's going to be out there, you know he's going to be 100%. So, no, he did a great job. And that's someone we'll have to address. He did a super job." D'Antoni on Nash only attempting 1 shot in the 2nd half: "It's their strategy. You know, they doubled him and he kicked to the guys open, shoot. We could have said don't double him and let him shoot, but they didn't listen. And that's just the way the game is. And if we have our, you know, Leandro Barbosa is the 2nd leading, or 3rd or whatever, field goal percentage shooter from 3s, I got to say, 'Leandro, take the shot.' Don't pass it up and then try to find Steve somewhere. We don't play that way and we're not going to play that way." D'Antoni on Nash sitting: "No, it's 2 minutes. I take him out at 2:30 and I get him back in at about the 11 minute mark. No way. I'm not that stupid. I'm pretty dumb, but not that bad. He's playing. I mean, what did he have - 39 minutes, that's still too many minutes, even then." D'Antoni if fatigue was a factor: "No. No." D'Antoni on free throw difference: "I mean, 10 of them was at the end of the game, 10 was at the end of the game when we were struggling. It would be nice if we'd get more foul shots, but didn't shoot many during the regular season. And we don't need to foul them, we need to play a little bit better defense. And we'll do a better job." D'Antoni on Diop: "I don't know. Let me see - gave them 4 points, got 11 rebounds. I'm not worried about that. That's not where we - you know, he played well and they're a good team and they're a great team. Again, we missed our shots. We had a chance to beat them. We led a lot of the way, led at halftime. We came down the last 5 minutes, we had all open shots, we missed them. Games over. No, let's go home and we'll go to Phoenix." Steve Nash on his 2nd half: "Yeah, you know, in hindsight, yeah, I would have maybe tried to be a little more aggressive. But, you know, I kept feeling like I was making the right play. You know, I was drawing 2 guys and passing to the open man and that's the type of player I am. I try to make the right play. And when the right time comes, you want to be really aggressive. But, you know, the time never really came where I got the opportunities to be aggressive. You know, I'll just have to be conscientious next time to learn from what happened today." Nash on Howard: "Yeah, we didn't do a great job on Josh. I think he had a really big game. He was really aggressive, he rebounded, and at least some critical moments, and made some plays. He made some 3s tonight. And played a good game. We really just need to match his energy and not give him anything easy." Nash on missing Bell and fatigue: "You know, I don't think fatigue was really a factor; you know, maybe depth. You know, it'd be nice to have his abilities out there, obviously. He gives us more talent and depth. But, you know, we still had a great chance to win this game. We didn't play great down the stretch. We missed some layups, some shot jumpshots, then we missed some 3s. And, you know, if you're going to win, you got to make the shots when it counts and we just didn't make them tonight." Nash on Nowitzki in the 4th: "I mean, he's typical. Dirk's one of the best players in the game. So, you know, we expect that from him. And you know, I think he's going to play a similar game to this in most games in the series. It's a matter of how we play. We got to just continue to try to improve and tweak what we do and get better at what we do, and that's how we're going to win games." Nash on too many 3-pointers late in the game: "I don't know. We shot 43.5%, so it's tough to say. Yeah, maybe we could have taken it to the basket a couple of times, but you know, we're the type of team that we make a couple of those. And if you make 2, it's like making 3 layups. So, it's a tough call, especially when we were kind of down 5 or 6 points most of the time. So, it's hard to 2nd guess that." Nash on the series being 1-1: "Yeah, obviously a split is a pretty decent result here. But we were disappointed not to win this one. We felt like we had a great 1st half, particularly a great 2nd quarter. And a decent 3rd quarter and then just didn't play great in the 4th. Still mission somewhat accomplished to get 1 of these. And hopefully we'll play a little better at home." Shawn Marion on Dallas: "They made runs. They are on their homecourt. We knew we had to come out there and leave it on the floor because they didn't want to go down 0-2 going to Phoenix." Marion: "We let a couple offensive rebounds, toward the end, get away from us. I thought, primarily, we did a good job on the boards tonight. We just have to make a little more effort toward the end and come up with some critical stops." Boris Diaw: "We thought we were going to come back. We've been there before and did. We've got to learn you don't play that dangerous game." Tim Thomas on his 3-pointers: "They were big. Coach turned to me and asked if I could hit the 3s and of course I am going to say yes. He drew up a play for me, and I hit the first 1, so he just kept them coming. I was trying to knock them down, but they didn't go." Thomas on Dallas' lineup: "He went with a huge lineup; used Diop, used Van Horn. They were trying to control the paint. For the most part, we did a good job of sticking with our game plan and giving ourselves a chance to win. We almost did and now it is on to the next one." Thomas: "We gave ourselves a chance to win and that's all you can ask for. We wanted to be greedy and get 2. We go back to the desert to do it all over again." Thomas on Nash: "Steve was fine. He was being himself. It's just nature: You get doubled, you give the ball up. That's what point guards do. He relied on his teammates and we just didn't hit shots." Leandro Barbosa on missing shots: "I don't know what's going on. When you feel good and things don't go well, you get frustrated." Game 2: Dallas Mavericks 105, Phoenix Suns 98 at Dallas (May 26) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 22 25 28 30 - 105 .493 .364 .475 .694 Phoenix 17 35 25 21 - 98 .455 .435 .449 .727 Halftime: Phoenix 52-47 3rd Q: Phoenix 77-75 Technicals: Phoenix defensive 3 seconds 0:56 1st, Josh Howard 2:39 3rd Refs: Jim Clark, Joey Crawford, Joe DeRosa Attendance: 20,934 (sellout) Did not play due to injury: Raja Bell (strained left calf), Kurt Thomas (stress fracture right foot) IL: DJ Mbenga (Dal), Amare Stoudemire (Pho) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Devin Harris 24 4-7 0-1 1-4 9 0-1 2 1 0 1 0 Jason Terry 42 6-15 0-1 6-7 18 0-4 4 1 1 0 0 Dirk Nowitzki 44 12-21 0-0 6-8 30 2-14 6 1 0 1 0 Josh Howard 40 10-19 3-5 6-10 29 2-7 0 2 4 1 2 Keith Van_Horn 16 1-4 0-2 0-0 2 0-1 2 0 0 0 0 DeSagana Diop 32 2-3 0-0 0-0 4 2-11 0 0 5 1 2 Jerry Stackhouse 29 3-7 1-2 4-5 11 2-7 2 3 0 0 0 Adrian Griffin 12 0-2 0-0 2-2 2 2-2 1 0 2 0 0 Marquis Daniels 1 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 1-1 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 38-80 4-11 25-36 105 11-48 17 8 12 4 4 Phoenix Suns REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Steve Nash 39 6-10 2-2 2-3 16 0-2 11 4 4 0 0 Leandro Barbosa 39 3-15 2-6 0-0 8 0-2 4 1 5 1 0 Shawn Marion 42 9-20 1-3 0-0 19 4-19 2 1 3 3 0 Tim Thomas 40 8-18 4-10 0-0 20 0-1 0 1 6 1 0 Boris Diaw 43 10-17 0-0 5-6 25 2-10 6 2 2 1 1 James Jones 23 1-2 0-0 1-2 3 1-3 0 0 3 0 6 Eddie House 14 3-7 1-2 0-0 7 0-2 0 0 1 0 0 Totals 48 40-89 10-23 8-11 98 7-39 23 9 24 6 7 patricia Go Mavs!