Sunday's game vs Minnesota is TV broadcast delayed until 7:00.  The game
can be heard realtime at 2:30 on the radio at 570 KLIF.  The game is being
delayed due to NBC's exclusive NBA TV rights.

Congratulations to Hubert Davis for his fine performance in the 3-point 
shootout!  Hubert scored 15 points in the first round to advance to the 
semi-finals and scored a very impressive 24 points (including making 11 
shots in a row) in the second round to advance to the finals.  He only 
scored 10 points in the finals as Jeff Hornacek (Uta) defeated Hubert by 
scoring 16 points.  His mistake was in electing to shoot first (he won the
coin toss) instead of making Hornacek, who had to compete in a 24 second 
tie-breaker shootout to make the finals, shoot first.  Hubert's 24 points 
tied the second highest total in the contest's history. 

Dallas received an injury exemption to have 4 players on IR and placed
Samaki Walker on IR.  The Mavs now have a roster spot available to sign a
player to a 10-day contract [or to make a 1 for 2 player trade].

Hubert Davis did not play in the New Jersey game due to a stomach virus
which he attributed to bad meat he at on Monday.  Michael Finley is still
playing with a pulled groin muscle.  It really seemed to be bothering him
in the New Jersey game, especially late in the game when he was visibly
limping on the court and after the game was over when he was severely
limping walking to the locker room.  It did not seem to bother him as much
in the Philly game.  With the injury, he is rarely drives to the basket
for the explosive dunk or layup (if he does drive, he'll often pull up for
the short jumper) and most of his baskets are coming from jumpers.  As
such, he is not getting to the line much.

The games
New Jersey 90, Dallas 81  at New Jersey  February 10
This is one of the few games that Dallas' game plan was the boring stall
ball.  With stall ball, the Mavs hold the ball until only 7 or 8 seconds
are left on the shot clock before implementing their offense.  Stall ball
requires the team to have accurate shooting and few turnovers to be
effective.  The score after one quarter was surprisingly high for stall
ball with Dallas leading 25-20.  The Mavs were shooting well and built
their lead up to 34-25 midway through the 2nd quarter.  New Jersey then
went on a 22-10 run to take a 47-44 lead at the half.  Michael Finley led
the way for Dallas by scoring 18 points on 9-11 FG (almost all outside
shots) in the half.  Dallas shot 60.6% FG in the half.  Unfortunately, 
their shooting touch left them in the 2nd half and they only shot 41.7% FG
the rest of the game.  The game stayed close and was tied 65-65 with 1
minute left in the 3rd quarter.  New Jersey closed the quarter by scoring
the last 4 points and led 69-65 after 3.  New Jersey continued their run
behind Sam Cassell and Keith Van Horn and built up a 76-67 lead.  They
pushed their lead up to 86-73 with 2 and a half minutes left and won
90-81.  After Finley's great 1st half, he only scored 8 points in the 2nd
half as he seemed to be in pain - he was visibly limping and also said
that he hurt his lower back when he fell on it in the 1st quarter and his
back was bother him.  Cassell did the opposite of Finley and had 8 points 
in the 1st half and caught fire and had 18 points in the 2nd half.  
Cassell shot 12-18 FG for the game.  Van Horn had 17 points and 9 rebounds
and Jayson Williams had 15 points and 13 rebounds.  Khalid Reeves had a 
good outing with 24 points and Shawn Bradley, still not scoring well but 
contributing in other ways, had 10 points, 16 rebounds, and 6 blocks.

Philadelphia 91, Dallas 90  at Philadelphia  (February 11)
Dallas started the game poorly but started clicking midway through the
quarter.  The game was tied 26-26 after 1.  The game stayed pretty even 
the first half of the 2nd quarter with both teams shooting poorly.  Philly
picked up their shooting some and Dallas did not and Philly had a 10 point 
lead with 2 minutes left in the half.  But Dallas scored the last 10 
points of the half to tie the game at 44-44.  The game was tied again at 
58-58 with 3:47 left in the 3rd quarter.  Dallas led 69-63 after 3.  
Dallas started the 4th quarter well and built their lead to 85-71 with 
5:43 left.  Then they fell to pieces, as usual.  They stopped playing 
their game and started playing stall ball.  If you are playing stall ball,
you have to hit your shots.  Dallas did not.  With the large deficit, 
Philly turned the game over to Allen Iverson and he responded.  Philly 
went on an 11-0 run, with 9 points by Iverson, to cut Dallas' lead down to 
85-82 with 3:44 left.  Dallas led 88-84 with 53 seconds left.  The teams 
traded two points and Michael Finley hit a tough 18-foot fall-away jumper 
over Jim Jackson with 26 seconds left to put Dallas up 90-86.  Iverson 
answered with a layup and Shawn Bradley stupidly called timeout instead of
inbounding the ball to a wide open Erick Strickland with 9.6 seconds left.
It was Dallas' last timeout.  The Mavs moved the ball to half court for 
the inbounds and Dennis Scott committed the turnover when he tried to 
inbound the ball with the 5 second inbound count running out and threw it 
right at Theo Ratliff (Scott couldn't call timeout instead of forcing the
inbounds as the Mavs didn't have any left).  Eric Snow quickly moved the 
ball up court and passed it to an open Iverson behind the 3-point line who
nailed the shot with 2.9 seconds left.  With no timeouts left, Dallas 
quickly got the ball to A.C. Green who tried to put up a shot from about 3
feet inside the half court line, but was hacked across the arm with no 
fouled called and the ball rolled on the ground over to Finley who picked 
it up and swished the 3-pointer, but the ref ruled that the shoot came 
after the buzzer.  Game over, Philly 91, Dallas 90.  Finley's shot was too
close to call, but there unquestionably should have been a foul called on 
Ratliff and Green should have been shooting free throws.  Granted Dallas 
did not deserve to win with the way they played in the last 5 minutes of 
the game, but a foul that prevents a shot attempt should be called even if 
the free throws will determine the outcome of the game.  Making that call 
is not the ref deciding the outcome of the game, it is the player who 
committed the foul who made the mistake.  The refs screwed up and it cost 
Dallas a chance to win the game.  Iverson finished the game with 27 points
(of which 16 came in the 4th quarter) including 10-16 FG and 4-4 
3-pointers and had 9 turnovers and Jackson had 19 points.  Finley had 17 
points on a poor shooting night (6-17 FG) and Dennis Scott had 24 points.


patricia