Don't forget to cheer for Hubert Davis tonight in the 3-point shoot out. An MRI on January 31 revealed that Samaki Walker has a stress fracture in his right foot (Samaki did not play in the Utah game either). He will be wearing an air cast (no surgery) and will be out 3 to 4 weeks. Samaki's foot has been bothering him for some time and it kept getting worse. Michael Finley suffered a pulled groin muscle during Monday's Vancouver game. He has been playing through the injury. Hopefully it will heal over the All-Star break. The day after I wrote that the Mavs would not likely trade anyone, Don Nelson revealed that Dennis Scott is not part of the Mavs' long term plans (and, thus, won't be given a big contract in the summer) and is on the trading block. Like with Harper last year, Nelson has given Scott veto power over any trades. Nelson says that he would like a player also in his last year of his contract in return for Scott. Scott has given his list of teams he would like to be traded to: Atlanta, Washington, Portland, or the LA Lakers. If a trade does not happen, then the Mavs would be happy to keep Scott for the rest of the season - no bad blood. Scott says he appreciates knowing the situation and understands. The trading deadline is February 19. One of the things that makes me laugh about Michael Finley is what he does whenever he has/had the ball and hears the whistle blown - he immediately makes a shooting motion, even if he already had passed off the ball. It is quite funny. Several teams have been taking advantage of one of Shawn Bradley's weaknesses lately. If he has the ball in the post, they will double team him as soon as he starts his dribble. This often results in a steal and, after a couple times of posting Bradley up with a turnover as the result, the Mavs will stop running this play. For Bradley to become a successful postup player, he needs to learn how to handle this situation better (being aware the double team is coming and that the doubling man may go for the steal, not using as high of a dribble, making the quicker move/shot, not putting the ball down before shooting, and/or making the quicker pass to the open man). The games (and a ref story) Utah 104, Dallas 94 at Utah (January 30) It wasn't a blowout (the Mavs have never won in the Delta Center) as Dallas was still in the game in the 3rd quarter. The game was close in the first half as Dallas led 22-18 after 1 and Utah led 46-44 at the half. Dallas had their last lead at 57-55 with 8 minutes left in the 3rd. Utah led 78-70 after 3 and pulled away in the 4th quarter. Utah held a 15 point lead with under 4 minutes left in the game and Nelson pulled the starters 2 1/2 minutes left. I was amazed that the Mavs were able to stay in the game, much less hold leads, with their atrocious offensive rebounding in the first half. If there even was a Mav somewhat near a basket after a Mavs shot, he was outside of a ring of Utah players. The Mavs only had 1 offensive rebound at halftime and both teams were shooting poorly at around 40% FG. To obtain their lead in the 3rd quarter, Utah got hot and shot 60% FG, though Dallas did shoot 52.6% FG. An 11-2 run in the 4th quarter by Utah put the game away. Karl Malone led the way with 29 points and John Stockton pitched in 17 points including 7-11 FG and 10 assists. For the Mavs, Michael Finley had 27 points and 6 rebounds and Hubert Davis had 19 points. Denver 110, Dallas 98 at Denver (January 31) I had a bad feeling about this game and I was right. Dallas had a 23-18 led after 1 and led 37-31 with under 7 minutes left in the 2nd quarter before the game fell to pieces. Denver ran the ball and Dallas had very poor transition defense as Denver went on a 17-5 run. Denver led 50-44 at the half. Denver shot 68.2% in the 2nd quarter and had 8 layups or dunks. Denver maintained their lead in the 3rd quarter, but could not pull away and led 77-70 after 3. Dallas pulled within 1 at 80-79 with 8 minutes left, but Denver went on a 20-5 run that included 4 layups or dunks. Pathetic. Bobby Jackson had 20 points including his first NBA dunk and 11 rebounds, Tony Battie had 19 points and 7 rebounds, and Johnny Newman had 21 points. Michael Finley had 38 points and 6 rebounds, Dennis Scott had 17 points, and Hubert Davis had 16 points and no other Mavs reached double digits. Denver shot 53.4% FG and Dallas shot 41.4% FG and Denver out-rebounded Dallas 51-36. Dallas 104, Vancouver 90 at Dallas (February 2) At least there is Vancouver. The Mavs have beaten Vancouver the 3 times they have face each other this season (and have won 10 out of 11 in Vancouver's history). Dallas was in control of this game from midway in the 1st quarter on. Dallas led 36-33 5 minutes into the 2nd quarter and went on a 11-0 run and led 51-43 at the half. Dallas led 77-61 after 3 and held a double-digit lead the entire 4th quarter. Two keys to this game: the shutting down of Shareef Abdur-Rahim and the excellent Dallas guard play. Thanks to A.C. Green's solid defense, Abdur-Rahim (who is averaging 22.9 points per game) had only 9 points. Michael Finley, as he has been of late, was awesome. He had 30 points and a career high 12 rebounds. Erick Strickland was hot - he hit a couple of extremely difficult shots that had no business going in - and scored 21 points. Hubert Davis also contributed 18 points. Shawn Bradley had very poor offensive game, but contributed with his good defense, blocking, and rebounding. The highlight of the game was when Bradley stole the ball and made a half court lob to Finley for the alley-oop slam. The ref story: With about 2:30 left in the 3rd quarter during a timeout, the Mavs listed the free throw situation for the game. I knew it had been one sided and the numbers proved it: Dallas 3-4, Vancouver 12-14. I shook my head and then my dad and I noticed two of the refs standing on the court together looking up at the jumbo tron. The jumbo tron also lists the team fouls for the quarter and, at that point, Dallas had 4 and Vancouver had 1. After looking at the jumbo tron, the refs talked to each other. We then had fun the rest of the game (Dallas had a double digit lead when the timeout occurred) watching the calls go against Vancouver and several fouls committed by Mavs not called (though a few were). It was a big change from first 30 minutes of game time when a lot of Vancouver fouls weren't called. For the game, Dallas shot 19-22 FT and Vancouver shot 16-19 FT. That's 16-18 by Dallas and 4-5 by Vancouver in the last 14 minutes of the game after the refs saw the lopsided free throw stats. Boston 110, Dallas 99 - at Boston (February 4) With Dallas having no true point guard, Boston's press destroyed the Mavs. There were more turnovers by Dallas in the first 15 minutes of the game than there were in the entire Vancouver game. Dallas did have leads in the 1st and 2nd quarters, but Boston led 52-45 at the half. The teams played even in the first few minutes of the 3rd quarter, but then Boston got _hot_ and pulled away. They started hitting outside shots and led 81-66 after 3. They continued to build on their lead and Nelson pulled the starters about 4 minutes into the 4th (in prepartion for the game vs Toronto the next night) with Boston up by about 18 points. Dee Brown went nuts in the 4th quarter and hit 6 of his 8 3-pointers in the quarter. Brown finished with 32 points on 12-15 FG and 8-10 3-pointers. Despite the pulled groin, Michael Finley led the Mavs with 18 points and had 9 rebounds. Another solid defensive job by A.C. Green was wasted. Green held Antoine Walker (who is averaging 22.1 points) to 8 points and Green also grabbed 14 rebounds. I had heard about how Boston's opponents attempt so many more free throws than Boston and, after watching this game, it was very clear why. Boston commits a ton of fouls with their pressing defense. Toronto 101, Dallas 93 at Toronto (February 5) The Mavs still can't win on the road, even against two teams at their level. With the Toronto loss, Dallas has lost 20 consecutive games on the road - the 2nd longest road lossing streak in team history. In the 1st quarter, the game looked to be a blow out of a different kind. Dallas started with a 7-0 lead and pulled away from there as Toronto looked totally inept. Toronto shot 19% FG for the 1st quarter and Dallas led 27-13 after 1. Shawn Bradley had 6 of his 7 total blocks in the quarter. He was a major factor in the 1st quarter and wasn't the rest of the game. Dallas led 27-13 after 1. Toronto shot 19% FG and Dallas shot 47.8% FG in the 1st quarter. Toronto started hitting some of their shots in the 2nd quarter and cut into Dallas' lead. Dallas led 47-39 at the half. Then came the 3rd quarter. It was pathetic as Dallas showed no defense and allowed Toronto to score 40 points. Dallas led 51-44 a minute and a half into the 3rd quarter before Toronto went on a 27-9 run. Toronto led 79-68 after 3 and Dallas never had a shot of winning after that. Toronto shot 65.2% FG in the 2nd half. Damon Stoudamire had 21 points, 7 rebounds, and 8 asssits and Oliver Miller, citing his desire for revenge against Don Nelson cutting him last season, had 17 points and 6 rebounds. Despite the pulled groin, Michael Finley had 19 points and 8 rebounds. No other Maverick performance is really worth mentioning. Hopefully the team will regroup over the All-Star break and figure out a way to win on the road - they have 4 road games next week (at New Jersey, Philadelphia, Indiana, and Minnesota). patricia