Prayers go out to Derek Harper's family. 15 month old Daria Harper fell in the family pool Tuesday afternoon and CPR was performed before she was taken to the hospital. She was breathing with the help of a ventilator and was in critical but stable condition this morning. Her status has been upgraded to fair and she is breathing on her own and has been able to recognize people. Chris Anstey finally returned to action vs Portland on April 7 after missing 8 games with a sprained middle finger on his left hand. Bubba Wells did not play in the Seattle or Portland games due to a ligament strain in his right ankle. Eric Riley played limited minutes in the Sacramento game due to spraining his right ankle in warmups. Game notes: There was no doubt that Seattle was going to take Dallas' visit April 2 seriously with Dallas having won the first two meetings. Michael Finley, playing with the flu, scored 4 consecutive points to give Dallas a 38-37 led with 4:43 left in the 2nd quarter. Seattle went on a 12-4 run to end the half to go up 49-42 at halftime. The Mavs scored the first 5 points of the 3rd quarter to pull within 47-49 a minute into the quarter. Seattle then went on a 17-2 run to pull away at 66-49 with 6:40 left. No miraculous rally for the Mavs this time as Dallas never got closer than 13 points the rest of the way. Seattle had their largest lead at 97-74 with 5:04 left. Seattle won 107-86. Detlef Schrempf had 16 points and 8 rebounds, Gary Payton had 22 points and 6 assists, and Greg Anthony had 13 points and 6 assists. A.C. Green had 21 points including 7-9 FG and 9 rebounds and Erick Strickland had 16 points including 4-6 3-pointers, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists. Finley struggled and only had 10 points on 5-14 FG, but also had 5 rebounds and 5 assists. The Mavs were in Portland on April 3. Dallas built a 19-12 lead midway through the 1st quarter before Portland went on a 15-3 run. Portland led 27-24 after 1. Shawn Bradley opened the 2nd quarter with frustration. A mere 20 seconds into the quarter he collected his 3rd foul. 20 seconds later he picked up his 4th foul and not a second later his frustration showed as he barreled over Damon Stoudamire. Thus, Bradley was a non-factor in the game (amazingly he did not foul out despite playing 12 minutes in the 2nd half). The game stayed close in the 2nd quarter with 4 ties and 4 lead changes. Portland, behind 19 points from Rasheed Wallace, led 54-51 at the half. Portland steadily pulled away in the 3rd, building up a 10 point lead with 7 minutes left. Dallas played them pretty even the rest of the quarter and Portland led 85-76 after 3. The 4th remained even as Portland's lead was 8 to 13 points most of the quarter and Dallas was not able to produce a strong run. Portland won 109-102. The game was won in the paint as Portland dominated Dallas scoring 62 of their points inside (compared to Dallas' 32 points in the paint). Wallace had 27 points including 11-14 FG and 6 rebounds, Brian Grant had 20 points including 9-12 FG and 20 rebounds, Stacey Augmon had 18 points and 5 rebounds, and Stoudamire had 18 points and 10 assists. Michael Finley had 32 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists, A.C. Green had 12 points on 6-9 FG and 10 rebounds, and Hubert Davis had 25 points including 4-9 3-pointers and 5 assists. Arvydas Sabonis did not play in the game. It was another closely contested game as Dallas visited Sacramento April 5. The game was tied 29-29 with 7 minutes left in the 2nd quarter. The Mavs slowly built up their lead and led 51-45 at the half. Dallas led 63-56 with 7 minutes remaining in the 3rd quarter when Sacramento scored 6 consecutive points. Sacramento led 78-75 after 3. The Kings built up an 11 point lead with 7 minutes to go and again led by 11 at 99-88 with 2:18 left. The Mavs scored the next 5 points on a bucket by Shawn Respert and a 3-pointer by Hubert Davis to add a little excitement. Otis Thorpe scored Sacramento's last 6 points of the game to help preserve the Kings' win. Sacramento won 105-99. The Mavs were again dominated inside as Sacramento scored 56 points in the paint while Dallas scored 30. Corliss Williamson had 14 points including 4-13 FG and 8 rebounds, Billy Owens had 15 points and 14 rebounds, Thorpe had 22 points and 15 rebounds, and Chris Robinson had 22 points. Michael Finley had 23 points, 7 rebounds, 9 assists, and 5 steals, Martin Muursepp had a career game with 16 points and 14 rebounds, and Erick Strickland had 17 points. Mitch Richmond did not play in the game. It started as a blow out, we had a game in the middle, and it ended in a blow out. Portland was in Dallas April 7 and again Arvydas Sabaonis did not play. It was an ugly, ugly, ugly start for Dallas as Portland openned with 4 consecutive (well, 2 free throws in the middle there) slam dunks. Portland had a 15-2 lead with 8:28 left. The Mavs finally decided to show up and went on a 24-7 run to lead 26-22 after 1. The game was tied at 32-32 with 7:30 remaining when Portland went on a 15-5 run to go up 47-37 with 2 minutes left in the half. Portland led 51-41 at the half. Despite the score, the talk of the half was Shawn Bradley who had 10 points, 11 rebounds, and 7 blocks in the half. Portland maintained an about 11 point lead for the first part of the 3rd quarter. A 9-3 Portland run allowed them to pull away at 73-56 with 2:30 left in the 3rd. Portland led 75-60 after 3 and built their largest lead at 96-72 with 5:15 left in the 4th. The only excitiment for the remaining fans was rooting for Bradley to collect his 10th block to complete a triple-double. He did so with about 2 minutes. The Mavs went on a 19-3 run to make the final score respectible. Portland won 99-91. Rasheed Wallace had 17 points and 8 rebounds, Brian Grant had 17 points and 7 rebounds, Kelvin Cato had 16 points and 12 rebounds, and Isaiah Rider had 26 points including 11-17 FG, 6 rebounds, and 4 steals. Shawn Bradley had a monster game with 22 points including an incredible 10-10 FT (he was a 68% shooter before this game), 22 rebounds, and 13 blocks. Michael Finley had 24 points including 8-12 FT and Hubert Davis was the only other Mav in double figures (11 points). Chris Anstey returned to action after missing 8 games with a sprained middle finger and looked very rusty. He shot 2-10 FG and finished with 5 points. patricia