With the loss to New Jersey March 14, the Mavs have been officially mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. Injury notes: The injury bug continues to ravage the Mavs. Cedric Ceballos was the latest victim. Ceballos suffered a bone bruise to his right knee and a slight tear of the meniscus cartilage early in the 2nd quarter of the Phoenix game March 15 when Danny Manning shoved him on a layup attempt (Manning was assessed with a flagrant foul). Ceballos underwent arthroscopic surgery on the knee to repair the cartilage Friday and will be out 4 to 5 weeks - thus, the rest of the season. Also definitely out for the rest of the season are Samaki Walker and Robert Pack - both have themselves said that they will not return this season. Ceballos and Walker are still on the active roster, though the Mavs do have league permission to place one on IR (Pack, Kurt Thomas, and Ace Custis are already on IR). The Mavs are looking like they will simply continue with only 10 players available to play. A note on Ace Custis: I've heard that he has been cleared for practice (he suffered a torn right ACL before the season started) and he was out shooting around before one of the recent games (first time I've seen him on the court), so there is a slight chance (though not likely) that he could be activated before the season ends. Erick Strickland did not play in the New Jersey or Phoenix games due to a twisted right knee. Chris Anstey injured his right thumb early in the 3rd quarter of the New Jersey game and did not return. He did play in the next game (though his thumb was still bothering him). Former Mavs update: saw a note that the CBA La Crosse team signed Tony Dumas and Ed O'Bannon is playing for a minor league team in Italy. Dumas was released by Cleveland in January and O'Bannon was released by Miami before the start of the season. The games: The final score of the New Jersey at Dallas game on March 14 was deceiving. It was a close game until midway through the 4th quarter. The Mavs led 63-58 with 5 minutes left in the 3rd quarter and the game was tied 72-72 after 3. This was one of the games that Don Nelson was playing for experience, not for the win as Michael Finley and Cedric Ceballos were only on the floor at the same time for 4 minutes in the 2nd half. Also a sign of Nelson' coaching style for the game was that Martin Muursepp played 23 minutes and Bubba Wells played 26 minutes. The Mavs were up by 1 at 86-85 with 6:13 left when New Jersey went on a 10-0 run to go up 3:41 with 3:41 left. New Jersey won 108-93. Turnovers killed the Mavs - 23 Dallas turnovers resulted in 30 New Jersey points. The Mavs lost despite out-rebounding New Jersey 49-32. Chris Gatling had 24 points on 8-9 FG and 8-10 FT and 7 rebounds, Kerry Kittles had 20 points, and Sam Cassell had 17 points and 10 assists. Finley had 18 points on 9-13 FG (no free throws attempted) and Ceballos had 17 points. Once Cedric Ceballos went down with his knee injury early in the 2nd quarter of the Phoenix game on March 15, it became yet again a Nelson learning experience game for the younger Mavs. Bubba Wells and Chris Anstey (despite his sore thumb) played significant minutes. [Muursepp committed 3 mistakes in his 1 minute of play, so he sat the rest of the game.] Phoenix had a good lead most of the game, but was never able to really pull away. Phoenix won 100-90. Jason Kidd had his second triple-double against Dallas with 20 points, 13 rebounds, and 12 assists. Antonio McDyess and Danny Manning chipped in 17 points each. Michael Finley had 20 points, 6 rebounds, and 12 assists and Anstey had 19 points and 5 rebounds. No one likes to play Boston on St. Patrick's Day, but Dallas' colors include green and we have a Green too. It looked to be a Boston blowout as they went on a 17-3 run to go up 52-35 with 2 minutes left in the 2nd quarter. Martin Muursepp had a great anticipation steal and a 3-pointer at the half buzzer to pull Dallas within 54-46 at the half. The Mavs continued their rally in the 3rd quarter by scoring the first 13 points to take a 59-54 led. The Mavs held on to the lead and led 92-69 after 3. Chris Anstey had 10 points in the 3rd as Dallas out-scored Boston 26-15. It was a close game in the 4th with the score tied at 75-75, 79-79, and 81-81. Kenny Anderson scored the next 5 points to put Boston up 86-81 with 5:40 left. The Celtics led 91-87 with 2:20 left. Bubba Wells hit 2 free throws and Finley got his own rebound and the dunk to tie the game at 91-91 with 1:30 left. The teams traded 2 points and it was tied at 93-93 with 1:20 to go. Finley hit a baseliner and Boston missed. Finley hit 1-2 free throws with 30 seconds left. Ron Mercer missed with 18 seconds left and Finley hit 1-2 free throws to give the Mavs a 97-93 lead with 14 seconds left. Two Khalid Reeves free throws set the final score at Dallas 99-93. Anstey scored 16 points in the 2nd half and Finley scored 6 of the Mavs' last 8 points. Finley had 16 points, 8 rebounds, and 11 assists, Anstey had a career best 26 points including 11-15 FG and 8 rebounds [Kelvin who?], and Reeves had 21 points on 5-6 FG and 10-11 FT and 6 assists. Antoine Walker had 23 points and 8 rebounds and Anderson had 16 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, and 5 steals. The Golden State game on March 19 was another ugly, ugly game. The bench players (with Shawn Bradley instead of Chris Anstey) played all of the 4th and overtime. Michael Finley only played 29 minutes and Anstey (who struggled offensive) only played 28 minutes. Bradley played the most minutes at 36 and Eric Riley (who had his best game as a pro) was the only other Mav with 30+ minutes at 34. The Mavs held the lead most of the way, but never was able to pull away. The bench players blew a 10 point lead at 78-68 with 2:45 left in regulation to allow Golden State to tie the game and send it into overtime at 78-78. Neither team played well and when the game ended in a tie after regulation, I dreaded having to watch 5 more minutes of the two teams play (of course, my being sick probably didn't help my attitude). And the overtime was ugly. The two teams shot 3-18 in overtime and Golden State only had 2 points in the extra period until Jim Jackson hit a gimmee layup with 2 seconds left. Dallas won 88-82. How ugly was it? For the game Dallas shot 38.6% FG and Golden State shot 33.7% FG. Riley had 16 points and 6 rebounds, Bradley had 18 points, 10 rebounds, 6 blocks, and 6 turnovers, and Finley had 14 points and 6 assists in 29 minutes. Erick Dampier (who is the cover boy for the Warriors for the game program) had 18 points, 10 rebounds, and 5 turnovers and Jackson had 18 points including 8-23 FG, 12 rebounds, 7 assists, and 6 steals. Despite the bench players seeing a lot of minutes (including at the end of close games), the Mavs have won 6 of their last 11 games. patricia