Game 5: Portland at Dallas (April 25) It was another ugly start to a game with Portland getting a layup 40 seconds into the game and then missing their next 4 shots with a turnover mixed in. Dallas didn't hit their first shot until 1:20 into the game as they opened the game shooting 1-5 FG and 0-2 FT with 2 turnovers mixed in. A jumper by Dirk Nowitzki gave Dallas their first lead at 4-2 with 8:40 left and the game remained either tied or a Dallas 2 point lead over the next 5 minutes. A jumper by Jason Terry gave Dallas a 15-12 lead with 3:10 remaining, but Portland scored the last 8 points of the quarter (with the first 6 coming in the paint) as Dallas missed their last 3 shots and had 2 turnovers. Portland led 20-15 after 1. Portland shot 10-21 FG and didn't get to the line once and Dallas shot 6-16 FG and 3-6 FT. Dallas had 7 turnovers in the quarter, but did have 12 rebounds including 5 offensive. Dallas opened the 2nd quarter playing zone defense. It didn't work well to start as Rudy Fernandez opened the quarter with a 3-pointer to give Portland their largest lead at 23-15 with 11:20 left. But the zone then did work as Portland missed their next 6 shots, including a 24 second violation. Dallas then went on a 12-4 run to tie the game at 27-27 with 7 minutes to go. A 3-pointer by Terry and a 3-pointer by Peja Stojakovic surrounded a jumper by Andre Miller to give Dallas a 33-29 lead with 6 minutes left. But, after the teams traded jumpers, Portland went on a 12-2 run to take a 43-37 lead with 2:15 remaining. But Dallas scored the last 7 points of the quarter to take a 44-43 lead at the half. Dallas out-scored Portland 29-23 in the 2nd quarter. Dallas shot 10-19 FG (including 2-3 3-pointers) and 7-8 FT and Portland shot 10-21 FG (including 3-6 3-pointers) and 0-1 FT - Portland only attempted 1 free throw in the 1st half. Dallas got their turnover problems under control and only had 1 turnover in the 2nd quarter. Dallas held a small lead, from 1 to 5 points, to midway through the 3rd quarter. 6 straight Dallas points gave the Mavs a 62-55 lead with 4:45 remaining. Dallas led 67-60 with 2:30 to go and then went on a 6-1 mini-run to take a 73-61 lead with 35 seconds left. Dallas led 75-63 after 3. Dallas out-scored Portland 31-20 in the 3rd quarter as Dallas shot 13-17 FT while Portland shot 6-10 FT. Dallas shot 9-22 FG and out-rebounded Portland 14-9 including 8-2 offensive. Portland shot 7-16 FG in the quarter. Dallas again kept the turnovers down with just 1 turnover while Portland had 5 turnovers on which Dallas shot 9 points. And a very telling stat, Dallas had 7 assists while Portland did not have a single assist in the quarter. Nowitzki had 11 points in the 3rd quarter. After Brandon Roy hit a jumper to open the 4th quarter (his only field goal of the game), Dallas went on a 9-2 run, capped by a driving layup by J.J. Barea, to give Dallas an 84-67 lead with 6:30 left as the zone was remaining effective in disrupting Portland. A 3-pointer by Stojakovic gave Dallas their largest lead at 89-69 with 4:25 to go. After a dunk by Terry on a break put Dallas up again by 20 at 91-71 with 3:15 left, Portland did score the next 9 points, but that still left them down by 11 points with a minute left. 2 free throws by Jason Kidd and 2 by Chris Johnson capped the scoring. Dallas won 93-82. Dallas leads the series 3-2. Yeah! We had the correct answer to the Game 4 question - was it just one loss or a series changer, and the answer was just one loss. Homecourt remains the key to the series as each game has been won by the home team. Dallas will try to change that streak for Game 6 while Portland must hold homecourt to remain alive. Dallas made an adjustment for Game 5 in pulling out their zone defense for a good chunk of the game (the team used the zone a lot early in the season, but hadn't used it much in the past month or so) and it was effective in disrupting Portland's offense - a number of times I cheered for the good Dallas D during the game. Another key factor was Dallas, and specifically Tyson Chandler, being monsters on the offensive rebounds. They had 20 offensive rebounds for the game and 13 of them came in the 2nd half, where Dallas took control of the game, and Dallas had 12 2nd chance points in the 2nd half. Dallas also got their turnover problem under control and just had 6 turnovers after the 1st quarter (where they had 7 turnovers) while Portland had 11 turnovers after the 1st quarter and Dallas scored 17 points on those turnovers. For the game, Dallas shot 41% (32-78) FG including 3-17 3-pointers and Portland shot 43.2% (32-74) FG. Like Game 4 did for Portland, Dallas had some homecooking in shooting 26-35 FT while Portland shot just 14-19 FT (and a mere 0-1 FT in the 1st half). Dallas out-rebounded Portland 49-37 including 20-9 offensive. Dallas had 22 assists while Portland had a mere 13 assists (and 3 of those came in the last 4 minutes of the game). Dallas had a number of strong performances in this game and it was a team win as zone defense requires team work to be effective. Dirk Nowitzki had a game high 25 points including 9-11 FT and 8 rebounds. Jason Terry chipped in 20 points in 33 minutes. Tyson Chandler was the rebounding monster with 20 rebounds including 13 offensive [though his 20th rebound was really stretching it]. He also had 14 points on 3-4 FG and 8-12 FT. He and Brendan Haywood also played good defense on LaMarcus Aldridge. Haywood's stats weren't much with just 3 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 blocks in 13 minutes, but he had a nice affect on the game. Shawn Marion had 14 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, and 4 steals. Jason Kidd only shot 1-7 FG including 0-5 3-pointers (and 2-2 FT), but he controlled the game and had 14 assists and 7 rebounds with just 2 turnovers. In case you didn't notice, Kidd had more assists than the entire Portland team. Peja Stojakovic had a couple of timely/crowd cheering 3-pointers and had 9 points in 25 minutes. J.J. Barea only had 4 points, but both were layups (always drives the opponents fans nuts when the short Barea gets a driving layup). DeShawn Stevenson missed 3 shots and had a foul and a turnover for his only stats in 13 minutes. Brian Cardinal, Corey Brewer, and Ian Mahinmi played less than a minute of game time and had no stats. Andre Miller continued to enjoy Dallas with 18 points and 7 assists. But Brandon Roy continued to struggle in Dallas with just 5 points including 2-7 FG - Roy had 2 points in Games 1 and 2 in Dallas and 40 points in Games 3 and 4 in Portland. LaMarcus Aldridge had his first poor outing of the series with just 12 points and none in the 4th quarter (where he missed his 2 attempts). He also had 9 rebounds. Gerald Wallace had 16 points, but 6 of those came after Dallas was up by 20 with 3 minutes left. Wallace also had 9 rebounds. Starters Marcus Camby had 4 points and 8 rebounds and Wesley Matthews had 8 points (with no rebounds or assists). Nicolas Batum kicked in 12 points and 4 rebounds off the bench in 31 minutes. Rudy Fernandez had 5 points including 1-4 FG in 12 minutes and Chris Johnson had 2 points and 2 rebounds in 6 minutes. Patrick Mills, Armon Johnson, and Earl Barron got in for the last minute of the game and had no stats. Quotes Rick Carlisle: "At the beginning of the game, both teams were so jacked, neither team could even run a play. Hey, when guys are playing that hard, it's just playing basketball and making plays. Tyson was the recipient of some stuff and it was great." Carlisle on Roy: "We know how important he is to them and we did a better job. We needed to be more aggressive. We obviously played a lot of zone tonight and our activity in the zone was terrific." Carlisle on Chandler: "His offensive rebounding was phenomenal. Every time he tips one out and we get it back, the crowd gets into it." Jason Terry: "The fans had it rocking in here from the jump and we came out and set the tone early, and we were able to finish them off in the 4th quarter. We were really anxious to get to this game and we wanted to go out and prove to everyone that we let that game slip away, and it was not going to happen on our homecourt and it's not going to happen again." Terry: "Some people questioned our mental toughness, but we're a different type of team, a veteran ballclub. Tonight wasn't a letdown. The way we attacked the game, we were much more physical." Tyson Chandler: "Coming out tonight, I knew my team would need me. After a bad loss, a lot of times it can carry over. Tonight, I wanted to bring energy and hope my teammates would feed off it, and they did." Chandler: "I was just trying to be aggressive. Tonight was a big game for us and we didn't want to go back to their place down in the series. We wanted to go up there up in the series and try to finish the job. We did whatever it took to win this game and we were able to knock down shots when we needed to." Chandler on offensive rebounds: "I know how bad it feels [not to get a defensive rebound] because it's tough when we're playing defense and you give up an offensive rebound because now you know you have to play another 24 seconds. And it's tiring in the playoffs. And a lot of times, when you give an NBA team a 2nd shot, most of the time they're going to make it." Chandler: "From start to finish tonight we played aggressive. We did the same thing in Portland, but only for 3 quarters. Tonight we did it for 4 quarters." Shawn Marion on defending Wallace: "I've been watching Gerald. I know Gerald. He's a competitor. But you can make it hard for them. You take away easy buckets and you make them take contested shots. You can make them have a rough night. The one thing I've learned about the NBA game is you can't just have a guy have free range at you. Because if not, he's going to have a big night." DeShawn Steveson on Marion: "I think he's a heck of a defender. He does everything on the court. He's a warrior. He's been in the playoffs, the Western Conference Finals, and he's a person on this team that we're going to need. I think he did a great job on Gerald [Wallace]. I don't want to speak nothing to get anybody fired up, but I think he's just done an awesome job so far on whoever he guards." Nate McMillan: "We didn't deserve to win this game tonight. They were the aggressors." McMillan: "They basically just dominated the boards. Tyson on the boards and Haywood was on the boards. Tyson with 13 offensive boards and really those boards leads to fouls and also allowing them to get into the penalty early." McMillan: "They just dominated the free throw line, 35 free throws to 19. I think we had 1 free throw at the half and that an illegal defense that we missed. So, they got to their tempo defensively when we missed [shots]." McMillan: "The adjustment was a change in defense. They went zone and the zone worked for a few possessions and they stayed with it. If we score once or twice, they probably get out of it." LaMarcus Aldridge on the defense on him: "They did a good job of doubling when I got deep. I never got a rhythm in the 2nd half. I thought that was a smart move by them." Brandon Roy: "They played like they wanted it more than we did. They played harder than we did. I thought they played a little tougher than in the first 4 games. They had more of a sense of urgency. Now it's our turn to show that same sense of urgency." Gerald Wallace on the offensive rebounds: "It's exhausting. The first 2 or 3 offensive rebounds really don't bother you, but when it gets up to 15 and 20 and it's a reoccurring fact, it kind of drains the life out of you. That's what it was doing tonight. It seemed like every time we got it going and got a great defensive stop they got an offensive rebound and it sucked the air out of us." Marcus Camby: "We're still feeling confident. The only thing they did was hold serve on their homecourt. Now we have to go out and do the same thing next ball game. But we can't rely on being home as being the cure-all. We know we have to play a whole lot better." 2011 Playoffs - First Round: Game 5 Dallas Mavericks 93, Portland Trailblazers 82 at Dallas (April 25) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 15 29 31 18 - 93 .475 .176 .410 .743 Portland 20 23 20 19 - 82 .483 .250 .432 .737 Halftime: Dallas 44-43 3rd Q: Dallas 75-63 Technicals: Dallas defensive 3 seconds 9:55 2nd, Portland defensive 3 seconds 1:31 2nd, Nate McMillan (Por) 1:09 3rd Refs: Scott Foster, Tom Washington, John Goble Attendance: 20,837 (sellout) IL: Dallas - Caron Butler, Dominique Jones, Rodrigue Beaubois Portland - Greg Oden, Elliot Williams, Luke Babbitt Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Shawn Marion 32 6-14 0-0 2-2 14 2-4 3 1 2 4 2 Dirk Nowitzki 37 8-18 0-1 9-11 25 3-8 3 3 1 2 0 Tyson Chandler 35 3-4 0-0 8-12 14 13-20 0 2 4 0 0 DeShawn Stevenson 13 0-3 0-2 0-0 0 0-0 0 1 1 0 0 Jason Kidd 36 1-7 0-5 2-2 4 1-7 14 2 4 0 0 Jason Terry 33 8-18 1-5 3-3 20 0-2 1 2 2 1 0 Peja Stojakovic 25 3-7 2-4 1-2 9 0-1 0 0 2 0 0 J.J. Barea 15 2-6 0-0 0-0 4 0-2 1 1 1 1 0 Brendan Haywood 13 1-1 0-0 1-3 3 1-5 0 0 2 0 2 Brian Cardinal 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Corey Brewer 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Ian Mahinmi 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 32-78 3-17 26-35 93 20-49 22 13 19 8 4 Portland Trailblazers REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Gerald Wallace 34 5-11 0-2 6-6 16 0-9 2 4 4 2 2 LaMarcus Aldridge 41 6-15 0-0 0-0 12 4-9 2 1 2 2 2 Marcus Camby 20 2-4 0-0 0-0 4 3-8 0 1 4 0 1 Wesley Matthews 36 3-7 0-2 2-4 8 0-0 0 1 4 0 0 Andre Miller 32 8-14 1-1 1-2 18 1-1 7 2 2 0 0 Nicolas Batum 31 5-12 2-7 0-0 12 1-4 0 1 2 2 2 Brandon Roy 26 2-7 0-2 1-2 5 0-3 2 1 4 0 0 Rudy Fernandez 12 1-4 1-2 2-3 5 0-1 0 1 1 0 0 Chris Johnson 6 0-0 0-0 2-2 2 0-2 0 0 1 0 0 Patrick Mills 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Armon Johnson 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Earl Barron 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 32-74 4-16 14-19 82 9-37 13 15 24 6 7 Go Mavs! patricia ---- Patricia Bender pbender@eskimo.com For Trianglons puzzles: http://www.trianglons.com For NBA stuff: http://www.eskimo.com/~pbender/index.html For Mavs stuff: http://www.eskimo.com/~pbender/mavs.html