After a big scare, Daria Harper is going to be okay. On Tuesday April 7, Derek Harper's 15 month old daughter fell into the family swimming pool and CPR was performed by her mother and then by parametics. She was breathing with the help of a ventilator for about a day. Her status was upgraded from critical to fair on Wednesday and upgraded to good on Thursday. There was no permanent damage and she is going to be fine. The Harpers took her home on Saturday. I forgot to mention in my last report that the Mavs signed Shawn Respert to a 2nd 10-day contract on April 8. Respert's 1st 10-day contract actually expired April 5 and the Mavs waited two days to sign him to a 2nd contract (thus Respert missed the Portland game, but he had a mildly sprained ankle and would have likely missed it anyways) so that the contract would cover the rest of the season. If they had signed him on the 6th, they would have had to sign him for the rest of the season to cover the last two games of the season and the team did not want to do that as he would have counted $272,500 against Dallas' salary cap and they wanted to keep as much flexibility as possible going into the draft for possible trades [though I doubt $272,500 would affect anything, but I guess you never know]. The Mavs do like Respert and he will get a strong look at this summer and probably an invite to training camp. I doubt they'll sign him to a guaranteed contract during the summer, but they might if other teams show interest in him. Also for next season, I heard word that the Mavs will likely sign free- agent-to-be and oft injured Kurt Thomas to a 1 year contract this summer. Chris Anstey strained another ligament in his left middle finger during the 2nd half of the Seattle game and will miss the last 4 games of the season due to the injury. With his game versus Portland last Tuesday, Shawn Bradley joined a select group of players. 20 points, 20 rebounds, 10 blocks performances Player Pts Rebs Blks Team vs Opponent Date Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 39 23 10 at LA Lakers vs Atlanta OT 11/2/75 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 29 21 11 LA Lakers at Detroit 12/3/75 Elvin Hayes 22 27 11 Washington at Detroit 3/3/78 Hakeem Olajuwon 24 21 12 at Houston vs Utah 11/11/89 Hakeem Olajuwon 32 25 10 at Houston vs Orlando 12/17/89 Shaquille O'Neal 24 28 15 Orlando at New Jersey 11/20/93 Shawn Bradley 22 22 13 at Dallas vs Portland 4/7/98 [the league started keeping track of blocks in 1973-74] Another shocker from Shawn Bradley. Before missing his 2nd free throw attempt in the Laker game [I think I jinxed him as I shared this info with others], Bradley hit 27 consecutive free throws. Before his free throw streak started March 25, Bradley was shooting 66% FT. Funniest thing (IMHO) from the past few games: before the Denver game, the Mavs had the following ad on the jumbotron: Kleenex - The Official Sponsor of the Dallas Mavericks. [Yes, I made my own jokes when I saw it - you have to have a sense of humor to be a Mavs fan.] Games For some reason Dallas plays Seattle really well and April 9 was no exception. Dallas led 27-21 after 1 behind 8 points by Shawn Bradley. The Mavs actually built up a 13 point lead early in the 2nd quarter at 38-25. Dallas led 44-33 with 5:10 left in the 2nd when Seattle went on a 19-4 run to take the lead at 52-48 and led 52-50 at halftime. Gary Payton had 16 points in the half. The 3rd quarter was a close game with 5 ties. The game was tied at 65-65 with 4:30 remaining when Dallas scored the next 6 points. Dallas led 77-73 after 3. Seattle opened the 4th quarter with a 20-8 run to go up 96-85 with 4:25 to go. Seattle led 100-89 with 2:50 left, but the game was not over. Erick Strickland and Michael Finley rallied the team back into the game. Finley hit 2 free throws, Strickland stole the ball and got the layup, and Finley got a layup and coverted the extra point to cut Seattle's lead down to 100-96 with 1:45 left. Payton missed and Strickland hit the short jumper with 1:20 to go. Dale Elis, enjoying his usual revenge against his former team, sanked a 3-pointer with 1:10 left as Seattle led 103-98. Bradley made layup with 57 seconds left. Ellis missed and A.C. Green was fouled on the rebound. He hit 1-2 free throws with 43 seconds left. Ellis missed everything as the shot clock was running out and it was a 24 second violation with 19 seconds left. Timeout Dallas. The Mavs ran the clock down trying to get an open shot, Strickland drove to the basket and kicked the ball out to a wide open Finley in the corner whose 3-pointer bounced off the back of the rim with less than a second left. Seattle won 103-101 and Seattle was very happy that this was the last time they would face Dallas this season. Gary Payton after the game in the locker room: "Let's get outta here!" Detlef Schrempf had 22 points, 11 rebounds, and 7 assists, Vin Baker had 16 points and 8 rebounds, Ellis had 16 points, and Payton had 28 points, 5 rebounds, and 10 assists. Bradley had 14 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 blocks, Finley had 27 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, and 6 turnovers, and Strickland had 14 points (12 of which came in the 4th quarter). Going from extreme to the other, Denver came to town April 11. It was a close game in the 1st quarter and Denver led 24-23 behind 15 points by Danny Fortson. That was the last lead Denver had. The Mavs had Shawn Bradley on Fortson in the 2nd quarter and Fortson was completely intimidated by 7-6 Bradley. Fortson: "I don't have anything for a 7-6 guy. It's hard to go to the hole and shoot the ball over a guy who's twice as tall as you." He had 1 point the rest of the game. Dallas went on a 12-4 run to go up 36-27 with 7:22 remaining and led 51-42 at the half. Bradley had 10 points in the 2nd quarter. Dallas had about a 10 point lead most of the 3rd, but was not able to pull away. Dallas led 69-62 after 3. The Mavs opened the 4th with an 11-4 run to go up 81-66 with 6:30 to go. Dallas held a 12 point plus lead the rest of the game. The Mavs fans had some excitement at the end of the game, though. A.C. Green blew out his shoe when he was pulled with 2 minutes remaining and took it off and threw it into the stands as he was heading towards the bench. When he got to the bench, he took the other shoe off and started teasing the fans that he was going to throw it to them. After a minute of showing the fans the shoe and the fans in the area going nuts (the game was still going on) he threw it to the fans. Don Nelson, of course, went over to the shoeless Green and jokingly told him to get back into the game. The other excitement for the fans was that the Mavs have had a promotion for the past few games that if the Mavs win and score 100 points, everyone gets a free pizza. The Mavs had the ball with 16 seconds left and had 99 points. Shawn Respert did not know about the pizza as he brought the ball to the front court and was running out the clock. With everyone screaming at Respert to shoot, Khalid Reeves went over to him and got the ball. Reeves' 10-foot runner missed at the buzzer. After the game, Respert jokingly blamed Reeves for not getting the fans free pizza. Dallas won 99-81. The play of the game was when the loose ball was heading out of bounds, Bradley went flying after it and flung the ball back to Erick Strickland. Bradley ended up in the laps of the first and second row fans and Strickland nailed the short jumper. Michael Finley had 15 points, 8 rebounds, and 7 assists, Bradley had 18 points including 7-11 FG, 14 rebounds, and 4 blocks, and Strickland had 18 points and 3 steals. Fortson had 16 points and 8 rebounds and Anthony Goldwire had 15 points. Unfortunately the Mavs don't compete as well against the Lakers as they do the Sonics. The Mavs have only won 4 games against the Lakers in the 90s and lost to them by 16 points and 22 points this season. April 15 was the Mavs last home game of the season and BLAH. Instead of mourning that this was the last game I'll see live in quite some time, I was hoping the game would end soon. The Mavs actually did have a lead in this game. A 3-pointer by Hubert Davis gave Dallas an 11-8 lead 4 minutes into the game. Well, that was fun. The Lakers, shooting lights out at 58% FG, led 32-25 after 1. Shawn Bradley collected his 3rd foul 2 1/2 minutes into the 2nd quarter and sat for the rest of the half [I had made the easy prediction that he would get in early foul trouble]. Despite not collecting their first rebound of the quarter until midway through the 2nd quarter, Dallas only trailed 57-64 at the half. Shaquille O'Neal had 22 points in the half and the Lakers shot 57% FG for the half. Despite the temptation, the lopsided officiating can not take much credit for the 3rd quarter as the Mavs played pathetically. The Lakers opened the 3rd with a 16-3 run to build a 20 point lead at 80-60 with 6:10 left. The Lakers led 87-70 after 3. The closest the Mavs got the rest of the was was the final score. The Lakers won 111-95. Not surprisingly, the Lakers out-scored the Mavs 72-34 in the paint and out-rebounded Dallas 56-35. Michael Finley got his first career triple-double, how ever it was a cheap one as he got is final 2 assists in the last 3 minutes of the blowout. O'Neal had 34 points including 15-22 FG and 7 rebounds, Derek Fisher had 17 points, 8 rebounds, and 9 assists, and Kobe Bryant had 19 points. Finley had 23 points including 8-22 FG, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists and Bradley had 13 points and 6 rebounds. The Mavs play in Golden State on Thursday and in LA vs the Lakers on Friday and that is it for the 1997-98 season for Dallas. patricia