You can vote on-line for the All-Star starters at http://allstar.nba.com/Ballot as well as at the games and at selected theaters. Be sure to vote for Michael Finley. Finley is currently averaging 22.5 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 4.9 assists. With the first release of the standings for the voting, Finley was 10th in the Western guards behind Jason Kidd, Gary Payton, Kobe Bryant, Jason Williams, Anfernee Hardaway, John Stockton, Damon Stoudamire, Steve Smith, and Steve Francis. Vote and vote often. You can vote once a day at nba.com. Get your friends and co-workers to vote for Finley. Voting runs through January 10. Leon Smith is due in court today (Dec. 23). He has been in a Dallas psychiatric ward for a few weeks and is expected to be in Chicago for the court date. He faces a number of misdemeanor charges for threatening his ex-girlfriend, damaging his ex-girlfriend's mother's car, violating a court order to stay away from his ex-girlfriend, and violating bond by leaving Chicago. It is still unclear if the arrest warrant still exists for Smith violating bond by leaving Chicago - comments from Smith's lawyer were that he was working with the court to clear it up or make arrangements to turn Smith over to the Chicago police, but there was never word that the warrant was rescinded or blocked by another court order. Smith is on Dallas' suspended list. Injury update: Gary Trent returned to action in the San Antonio game. It was his first game of the season after suffering a torn left hamstring in the pre-season. He's shown some rust in his first games back (definitely sucking wind at points in the game). He has also shown that he has figured out how to handle the new 5 second count for backing the ball down in the post - instead of backing the ball down in the post, he often turns and faces the basket. (BTW, I have yet to see the 5 second count called this season.) Steve Nash had the cast removed from his sprained right ankle and replaced with a walking cast. He's still expected to be out at least until January 3. Erick Strickland is improving much faster than the expected 6 to 8 weeks and will likely be back early. He's been shooting left handed lately (he suffered a sprained left shoulder). He'll still be out until at least after the new year. And what would a Mavs report be without a new injury to report - and, of course, to a guard. Robert Pack drove to the basket, elevated, and was taken down by a flagrant foul by Larry Johnson in the New York game. It was very scary to see as he landed face first. The fall was so hard that he was just greatful that nothing was broken. However, it has taken him out for at least 2 weeks. He suffered a sprained left wrist, a sprained right foot, a bruised right knee, and a welt over his left eye. The ankle turned out to be the most serious of the injuries as it is a 2nd degree sprain. As a result of the injury, the Mavs activated Randell Jackson and placed Pack on IR. The day after activating him, the Mavs released Randell Jackson. Jackson only played in 1 minute of 1 game for Dallas. With the release of Jackson, the Mavs now have an open roster spot. The Mavs have until January 1 to get back to 12 activate players on the roster. No word on how that Mavs are going to fill the open roster spot. With the injuries to Pack, Nash, and Strickland, the Mavs only have Damon Jones as a somewhat true point guard (and Jones has too much of a shooters' mentality to be considered a true point guard). Hubert Davis has been getting a lot of minutes at the point. Dallas went 1-4 on the 5 game home stand. They are on the road for 3 games starting tonight. San Antonio at Dallas (Dec. 14) The Mavs started the game well and had a very early lead of 9-2 with 9:15 left. A 12-4 run by San Antonio gave them a brief 20-19 lead with 2 minutes left. Dallas led 25-24 after 1. Cedric Ceballos had 11 points and Tim Duncan had 12 points. The Spurs took over maintaining small leads throughout the 2nd quarter. San Antonio scored 6 straight points to take a 47-38 lead with 2:15 remaining. San Antonio led 51-46 at the half. The Spurs scored 6 consecutive points to go up 59-48 with 8 minutes left, but Dallas was hanging in the game. Dallas pulled within 5 points 3 times and San Antonio led 74-68 with 1:45 left. The Spurs closed the quarter with an 9-2 run capped by a dumb mistake by Robert Pack where he missed a shot with 5 seconds left (and no shot clock) which allowed Chucky Brown to get a slam dunk on the break at the buzzer. San Antonio led 83-70 after 3. Brown had all 12 of his points in the 3rd on 6-6 FG. The Spurs scored the first 4 points of the 4th quarter to take a comfortable 87-70 lead with 11 minutes left. Dallas pulled with 79-93 with 5:15 to go, but Jerome Kersey scored the next 5 points and it was garbage time the rest of the way. San Antonio won 111-93. San Antonio shot 50.6% (45-89) FG and Dallas shot 40.9% (36-88) FG. Tim Duncan had a monster game with 29 points and 12 rebounds. Avery Johnson had his expected 3 drives for a layup (he _always_ has at least 3 of those against Dallas) as part of his 16 points. Michael Finley struggled as San Antonio focused on him and had 15 points including 5-15 FG, 5 assists, and only 2 rebounds. Gary Trent showed flashes, but looked very rusty in his 23 minutes and had 12 points and 4 rebounds. Dirk Nowitzki also struggled and had 8 points including 3-9 FG. He 8 points broke a string of 17 consecutive games in double figures. Cedric Ceballos had the big game for Dallas with 27 points and 10 rebounds. Quotes Gregg Popovich: "That sort of relationship has been missing - the good coordination between inside and outside. That seemed to come back to us pretty well." Popovich: "I thought we showed a little bit of hunger at the defensive end of the court. We tried to make some stops and generate some offense with the rebounding and the fast break. That's what we've been trying to do and what we've been missing a little bit." Popovich: "We showed a little bit of hunger and really tried to execute at the defensive end. That's what we've been missing for a little while. We controlled the tempo real well because of our defense. You can talk till you're blue in the face and watch film until everyone falls asleep, but wins really get people going." Popovich on Chucky Brown: "I tried to take him out twice [in the 3rd quarter]. Each time I tried to take him out, he'd score another bucket. Him and Tim were taking turns in that quarter, so we decided to leave him in the whole time." Popovich on Trent: "Gary was a little rusty tonight, obviously. But they're going to be a much better team when they get everybody back and everybody healthy." Avery Johnson: "The main thing is we scored the basketball a lot and it took a lot of pressure off our defense. We've been choking our defense with the way we haven't been able to put the ball in the basket. And that's why we only have two guys averaging in double figures. That's not a good sign. If Tim gets 26 and Dave gets his average - 13, 14, 15 - and everybody else stays under 10 points, we're not very good. We need more offense. And we got it tonight." Johnson: "We scored better and that took a lot of pressure off our defense. We've been under pressure on defense because we haven't been putting the ball in the basket." Mario Elie: "This was fun basketball. I don't see why we don't run more. It helps get everybody involved. In the half-court offense, the big guys are always getting the ball." Chucky Brown: "They were double-teaming the low post and we were swinging the ball to me. I was just knocking down the open shot." Brown: "I just got some good looks, got a couple of baskets in transition, got an easy layup on the baseline and was able to hit for the most part. It wasn't anything special. They left me open a little more in the 1st half. They were wide open looks and everything was going good for me tonight." Tim Duncan: "We were moving the ball a lot better. We were shooting the ball a lot better. Even when we weren't shooting, we were rebounding and getting some more shots." Duncan: "We're on the way back up. We went down for a little while, and we hadn't been playing real well. We had a couple of film sessions and a couple of practices, and we're on our way back to where we want to be." Duncan: "We're on the way back up. We were down for a little while but we're headed back where we want to be. We moved the ball better, shot better and were a better rebounding team tonight." Duncan: "We're on our way back to where we want to be. We're moving the ball better, we're shooting the ball better. Things just happen at the right time. It helps our confidence, we're just trying to get our flow back. We lost it for a while there." David Robinson: "This gets us thinking about winning again. Our defense came together and that gives us confidence on the road." Don Nelson: "They are the world champs. This will be one of those adjustment games that we will be going through. We have to fight out way through it." Nelson on Finley: "He had an off night. I thought they played him real well. They crowded him and made him be a passer, and he tried to make good passes. When he did have some shots, they just didn't go. He didn't have many good looks, but when he did, he struggled." Michael Finley: "They're one of the top defensive teams in the league. It showed tonight. They strive on the defensive end. They're defense sometimes generates their offense. That was the situation tonight." Cedric Ceballos: "I don't think they were mad or angry at all. I just think they dug down and did the things it took to win the basketball game, and we didn't have all of our players at full strength shooting very well. They are the world champs, and they did the things they needed to do in the stretch to win the basketball game." Robert Pack on Chucky Brown: "He surprised us with those jump shots. He got some easy ones on the breaks, but also was able to hit some shots from 15 feet that really dug a hole for us." Pack: "We were playing a very tough team. We played hard but we didn't do a lot of things particularly well." Pack: "We came and we played hard. We didn't do a lot of things particularly well mentally, but we played hard. We just have to go back to practice tomorrow and hopefully come back against New York and have a better effort." Gary Trent: "I had some flashes of what I'm capable of doing. Then I had some flashes of, 'What am I doing out here - passing the ball to people that's not there, and not holding guys off of post-ups on plays?' I think I got a little tired in the 4th quarter, because I was starting to embarrass myself. The guys are 5, 6 steps ahead of me. I'm trying to catch up." Trent: "But overall, I felt all right. I got a little tired in the 4th, and I think Nellie might have seen that, and that's when he sat me down, because I think I started to really embarrass myself with some of those things I was doing out there." Trent: "I just wanted to come back and get a feel. I'll give it a few weeks, go to practice tomorrow and work on some things and come back Thursday and give it another try." Trent: "As far as my injury, I felt 100% on that, or I wouldn't have come back. I never come back until my injury is all the way healed. I never rush myself, because it wouldn't do me any good to come back early on a half healed injury. That would set me back another 6 to 8 weeks, so that wouldn't be good for me or the team." San Antonio Spurs 111, Dallas Mavericks 93 at Dallas (December 14) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% San Antonio 24 27 32 28 - 111 .532 .333 .506 .773 Dallas 25 21 24 23 - 93 .390 .545 .409 .833 Halftime: San Antonio 51-46 3rd Q: San Antonio 83-70 Dallas' largest lead: 10-2 9:14 1st Dallas' last lead: 25-24 end of 1st San Antonio's largest lead: 107-86 2:13 4th Technicals: Gregg Popovich 9:30 1st, Mario Elie 6:38 1st, Jerome Kersey 8:08 2nd, Don Nelson 6:47 4th Refs: Mike Mathis, Tom Washington, Leroy Richardson Attendance: 13,685 (cap 18,187) Did not play due to injury: Steve Nash (sprained right ankle) San Antonio Spurs REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Tim Duncan 40 11-23 0-0 7-8 29 5-12 4 4 2 2 2 Chucky Brown 22 6-6 0-0 0-0 12 1-1 1 0 1 1 0 David Robinson 22 4-8 0-0 2-2 10 3-9 1 3 5 1 0 Avery Johnson 31 8-15 0-0 0-2 16 0-4 5 1 0 0 0 Mario Elie 23 1-6 0-3 1-2 3 2-6 1 0 0 0 0 Jerome Kersey 14 3-7 0-0 1-1 7 1-3 1 0 4 1 2 Jaren Jackson 29 3-6 3-5 0-0 9 1-6 7 1 3 2 0 Malik Rose 17 2-6 0-0 4-4 8 1-3 1 1 4 0 0 Terry Porter 17 2-5 0-2 2-3 6 0-3 2 2 1 1 0 Samaki Walker 17 4-5 0-0 0-0 8 0-4 0 3 1 0 0 Steve Kerr 4 1-2 1-2 0-0 3 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Antonio Daniels 4 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 1 0 0 1 0 Totals 48 45-89 4-12 17-22 111 14-51 24 15 21 9 4 Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Cedric Ceballos 38 10-18 3-3 4-5 27 3-10 0 2 2 0 0 Gary Trent 23 6-14 0-0 0-0 12 1-4 1 3 2 0 0 Shawn Bradley 35 3-8 0-0 0-0 6 2-9 3 2 6 2 6 Michael Finley 42 5-15 1-2 4-5 15 0-2 5 1 2 0 0 Robert Pack 34 5-15 0-1 4-4 14 1-5 8 2 3 2 0 Dirk Nowitzki 29 3-9 0-1 2-2 8 0-2 2 1 4 1 0 Hubert Davis 21 0-2 0-1 0-0 0 0-1 2 0 1 2 0 Sean Rooks 5 2-3 0-0 0-0 4 0-2 2 1 1 0 0 Damon Jones 7 2-3 2-3 1-2 7 0-1 3 0 0 1 0 Rick Hughes 4 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Bruno Sundov 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-2 0 1 1 0 0 Totals 48 36-88 6-11 15-18 93 7-38 26 13 22 8 6 New York at Dallas (Dec. 16) New York score the first basket of the night and then Dallas rattled off the next 11 points to take an early 11-2 lead with 7:45 left. New York cut Dallas' lead down to 15-14 with 3:30 left, but Dallas pushed their lead back up and led 25-18 after 1. Dallas led 31-20 and New York went on a 17-2 run with 11 points from Marcus Camby to take a 37-33 lead with 4:15 remaining. The teams traded leads and were tied 43-43 at the half. Dallas took a brief 46-45 lead a minute into the 3rd quarter, but New York scored the next 9 points to go up 54-46 with 9:30 left. New York held a single digit lead the rest of the quarter and led 75-70 after 3. New York shot 11-17 FG in the quarter. Robert Pack was driving to the basket with 2:30 left in the 3rd when he was taken down by a flagrant foul by Larry Johnson. He landed hard and left the game after shooting the free throws and did not return. New York went on a 9-0 run that was keyed by Camby to go up 84-74 with 6:30 to go. Dallas scored 8 straight points to pull within 2 points at 86-84 with 4:10 left. Allan Houston answered with 2 jumpers. Dirk Nowitzki hit a 3-pointer and Michael Finley nailed a short jumper with 1:35 remaining to pull Dallas within 89-90. Houston hit a jumper and Nowitzki missed a 3-pointer with a minute left. Houston hit another jumper and Finley missed with 40 seconds left. Patrick Ewing hit 2 free throws to seal the game at 96-89 with 36 seconds to go. New York won 100-93. The heros for New York were Marcus Camby and Allan Houston. Camby had 17 points, 12 rebounds, and 5 blocks. Houston hit the key baskets down the stretch and had 31 points including 14-23 FG and 5 rebounds. Dirk Nowitzki had a solid offensive game with 24 points and had 7 rebounds. Michael Finley put up good numbers with 20 points, 5 rebounds, and 7 assists, but could not hit the big baskets at the end or stop Houston. Duh of the night: About an hour before the game, the net on the visitor's side was damaged and the players took it down and continued shooting around without a net. One of the ushers noticed and called into dispatch to have it fixed. Usher: "One of the nets on the court needs to be replaced." Dispatch: "What court?" Quotes Jeff Van Gundy: "I didn't like our start, but these are the type of games, if you can get, make a big difference in your season, grinding it out and finding a way to win." Van Gundy on Dallas: "The have a good offensive team. They have good quickness. They have good players. Good players always give you trouble. Nowitzki is good. Finley is a good player. Bradley changes the game. Ceballos has got some good skills. They have a nice team. They need to try and get healthy obviously and stay healthy." Van Gundy: "Marcus was tremendous. He protected the lane, he gave us some timely scoring. He helped us with that unit to get back in the game in that 2nd quarter when it looked like we were stuck in mud." Van Gundy on Houston: "He did a good job of finishing the game tonight by making big shots. When he gets to the point where he plays well even when he doesn't shoot well, then he will have reached his potential." Van Gundy on Houston: "He made the big shots and shot well for us in the 4th quarter. He i sour best 4th quarter shooter the last couple of years." Van Gundy: "The hardest shot to guard late is the pullup. You can get it off before help gets there. Not many guys have a great pullup jumper. He's got a great one. He's been our best 4th quarter shooter the last couple of years." Allan Houston: "I just want to win games - it doesn't matter who's guarding me, I just want to make sure I do my job. I don't really look at it in terms of who I'm facing." Houston: "I want the ball, I want us to win. I felt like I had my legs under my shot, I had good balance, I was getting a good chance to make shots. So I felt good about getting it at that point. It's a matter of getting the right shot for you. If they're going to call my play, you have to give yourself the best opportunity to get the shots I like to get." Houston: "That's always been one shot I felt like I was effective with, and so, I just went to it tonight. When you're in those kinds of situations, you want to go with what's best for you." Latrell Sprewell: "[Houston] was shooting the ball really well and he just had it going. When a guy has it going like that, there's pretty much nothing you can do as a defender. You can try getting a hand in his face, but that wasn't working either." Patrick Ewing: "Allan played a great game. He had it going on offense, and he also did a terrific job on defense." Ewing: "Marcus came in and did a fantastic job. He was getting boards, running the break, getting offensive rebounds and putting them back in. He had a fantastic game." Marcus Camby: "Their tempo [helped], without a doubt. I could find my spots and make plays. And at the defensive end, rebound and block shots. I'm trying to get back to where I was before I got hurt. Hopefully I can build on this." Camby: "I knew I was due. All I had to do was stay out of foul trouble. It was crazy at first - I picked up 2 fouls, and I was like, 'Aw, here we go again.' But Jeff left me in there, and I just said to myself I'm not going to pick up any more, just play." Kurt Thomas on being booed: "It doesn't really concern me. I don't have that many friends. If you've really done your homework on me, I only have about 10 friends. That's all I need, and I probably have too many." Don Nelson: "It's a little disappointing individually for [Allan Houston] to be able to make the same move 4 straight times. It's easy for me to say, but it's hard to carry out. I have no complaints about the effort Mike gave." Nelson: "Our theory was not to let [Houston] stand and shoot, not to let him dribble and shoot, but make him go to the basket. Then we were going to have our shot blocker waiting for him. Unfortunately, our strategy didn't work, because it wasn't carried out. It's just one of those things." Nelson: "I have no complaints about the effort that Mike gave. We should have been tighter on [Houston], not even let him get the shot off. We just didn't do that. So you give a great player some space, he's going to make great plays. That's what happened." Nelson: "That's a great player that did that - Houston made great shots. That pretty well did us in." Nelson: "I have no complaints about the game. They played extremely hard. We knew it was going to be difficult to score against them because they are the best defensive team in the league, or right up there. Our effort was great. Houston stepped up and made 4 big shots. That's a great player that pretty much did us in." Michael Finley on Houston: "He could have closed his eyes and threw it up there, and it would have gone in. And we just couldn't get anything back at the other end, from me, from the team, but definitely from me." Finley: "He got hot at the right time. He could have had his eyes closed and just thrown it up there. It was going in. He got in a good flow. His teammates got him good position using screens and things like that, and he just got into a groove, and it was easy for him." Finley: "We had a great opportunity to win tonight. It just came down to us stopping them and scoring on the other end. Neither one was working for us down the stretch." Hubert Davis: "We lost. We felt like we would have definitely like to win this game. I thought we had momentum, but then Allan just stepped up. And it's their defensive stops. They just stopped us." Robert Pack was taken down by a flagrant foul by Larry Johnson with 2:30 left in the 3rd quarter. He suffered a sprained left wrist, a bruised right knee, a sprained right foot, and a welt on his head. X-rays were negative. Robert Pack: "I just went to the basket and made an aggressive play. When I came down, I think I was horizontally, and I fell right on my shoulder, wrist, knee, ankle - just pick one. It was a hard fall. Fortunately, nothing was broken, so hopefully I'll be back soon. I might be taking an MRI tomorrow to see what happened." Pack: "I know it sounds funny, but I've had softer falls and had to have surgery. Nothing is broken, so I'll take it." Pack: "I think I have enough [injury] highlights for my grandkids. I'm going to start working with Hubert on my floater in a couple of weeks." Pack on if he'll miss games: "Things are pretty tender right now. It's hard for me to put pressure on my ankle. With my wrist, I just have to see. I'm an aggressive player and I'm going to continue to be aggressive. But I will be working with Hubert on my floater from now on." Nelson on Pack: "Man, did he take a hard fall. It's just unfortunate. There's a guy who's playing great for us. It's been that kind of a year. What can I tell you?" Larry Johnson when informed of Pack's injuries: "He did all of that on that play? Naw, he hit his head. My bad, man. I wasn't trying to do that. I thought he hit his head; that's what I was worried about." New York Knicks 100, Dallas Mavericks 93 at Dallas (December 16) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% New York 18 25 32 25 - 100 .514 .364 .494 .842 Dallas 25 18 27 23 - 93 .432 .200 .416 .800 Halftime: 43-43 3rd Q: New York 75-70 Dallas' largest lead: 31-20 9:52 2nd Dallas' last lead: 46-45 11:14 3rd New York's largest lead: 86-76 5:42 4th Lead changes: 6 Technicals: Dallas Illegal D 7:49 2nd Flagrant fouls: Larry Johnson 2:30 3rd Refs: Joey Crawford, Ron Olesiak, Michael Smith Attendance: 13,796 (cap 18.187) Did not play due to injury: Steve Nash (sprained right ankle) New York Knicks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Larry Johnson 34 1-10 0-2 0-0 2 2-4 2 2 3 0 0 Latrell Sprewell 35 4-10 1-2 6-6 15 0-6 2 4 3 1 0 Patrick Ewing 24 4-8 0-0 6-7 14 3-7 0 3 3 0 0 Allan Houston 42 14-23 0-3 3-5 31 0-5 4 3 1 2 0 Charlie Ward 23 4-4 3-3 0-0 11 0-8 5 2 2 0 0 Marcus Camby 34 8-13 0-0 1-1 17 3-12 1 1 4 0 5 Kurt Thomas 23 3-7 0-0 0-0 6 1-4 0 0 2 1 0 Chris Childs 25 2-6 0-1 0-0 4 0-1 5 1 2 0 0 Totals 48 40-81 4-11 16-19 100 9-47 19 16 20 4 5 Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Michael Finley 46 10-22 0-3 0-0 20 1-5 7 1 4 0 0 Gary Trent 27 4-12 0-0 3-3 11 1-3 0 1 1 0 0 Dirk Nowitzki 43 8-19 2-6 6-7 24 0-7 3 1 5 1 1 Robert Pack 29 4-8 0-0 3-4 11 0-5 7 2 1 1 0 Hubert Davis 36 2-6 1-3 4-4 9 1-4 0 1 2 1 0 Shawn Bradley 27 4-5 0-0 0-2 8 3-10 0 0 2 0 4 Cedric Ceballos 27 4-14 0-3 0-0 8 3-5 2 3 5 1 1 Damon Jones 5 1-3 0-0 0-0 2 0-0 0 1 0 0 0 Totals 48 37-89 3-15 16-20 93 9-39 19 10 20 4 6 Minnesota at Dallas (Dec. 18) It was a close 1st quarter with 8 ties and the Mavs having small leads. Terrell Brandon hit a jumper with 5 seconds left and Andrae Patterson stole the ball and took it in for a layup at the buzzer to give Minnesota a 26-24 lead after 1. The 2nd quarter remained close with the lead going back and forth. Neither team had a lead larger than 3 points over the first 8 minutes of the quarter. Minnesota scored the last 4 points of the quarter to take an 63-56 lead at the half. Minnesota shot 16-22 FG and Dallas shot 12-23 in the quarter. Minnesota held 10 point leads 3 times in the 3rd quarter, but could not get their lead any higher. Minnesota led 83-78 after 3. Dallas scored 6 straight points to pull within 1 point at 86-87 with 9:45 left. The game stayed close over the next 7 minutes with Minnesota unable to build on their lead and Dallas unable to take the lead. Cedric Ceballos tied the game at 99-99 on a layup with 2:30 to go. Sam Mitchell hit a jumper and the teams traded misses. Ceballos picked up his 6th foul with 1:20 left (the Mavs weren't in the penalty) and picked up a technical foul from the bench 15 seconds later. Terrell Brandon connected on the technical free throw to give Minnesota a 102-99 lead with 1:06 left. Michael Finley missed a 3-pointer with 45 seconds left and Malik Sealy nailed a jumper on the break. Gary Trent was fouled with 23 seconds left, but missed both free throws. The Mavs immediately fouled and Sealy returned the favor by missing both free throws with 21 seconds left. Finley missed another 3-pointer with 14 seconds left and Kevin Garnett sealed the game by hitting 2 free throws. Minnesota won 108-104. Well, the good news is that the Mavs finally out-rebounded a team. The Mavs out-rebounded Minnesota 42-41 - it was the first game this season for Dallas to out-rebound at team (they did tie Sacramento in November). The bad news is that it was a game the team could have and should have won. The win ended an 8 game lossing streak for Minnesota. Kevin Garnett had 27 points including 11-18 FG and 14 rebounds. The rookie Wally Szczerbiak had a nice game with 18 points and 10 rebounds. And Terrell Brandon came out of his slump to contribute 20 points and 6 assists. The Mavs wasted strong performances from Michael Finley and Hubert Davis. Finley had 26 points, 10 rebounds, and 7 assists. Davis had 25 points including 4-7 3-pointers. Quotes Flip Saunders: "It's been awhile. We did some things. We shot the ball well. We played better defense at times. This clears the guys' minds a little bit. It enforces what we've been doing. We'd been playing well and had nothing to show for it. Tonight we played in spurts and we've got something to show for it." Saunders: "We played the way we played early in the year. We were a lot more aggressive defensively." Saunders: "Our guys have worked hard and it's paid off. We played well in Atlanta, we played well in Charlotte, we played last night against the Lakers. We've been playing well, but we didn't have anything to show for it. Tonight we came in and played well in spurts. Now we got something to show for it." Saunders on Szczerbiak: "He is just now starting to get into the flow. Tonight he shot the ball well. He shot it right away, as soon as he got it. He was very aggressive and rebounded better." Kevin Garnett: "It feels good to break the streak. Hopefully we can start a winning streak. In games we've been losing, we haven't been that aggressive. Tonight we were. Of course, when you win, everything is right." Garnett: "Going through this losing, that showed who's going to stand in there, who is going to fold, who is going to turn their back. I think it was a great test of our team, how we stayed together, shows a lot of character on our team." Garnett: "I don't mind doing whatever I have to do to help my team win. I would have probably been a lot more miserable if I played 30-35 minutes and we lost. If I'm not dying and my heart's not jumping out of me, leave me out there." Terrell Brandon: "It feels good, we don't want to say it doesn't. We're disappointed that it had to come to something like this. Hopefully at the end of the year, we can go back to this time and kind of laugh about it. It'll strengthen our team, but there's no way we want to go through something like this again." Sam Mitchell: "It's been tough with all the criticism and finger pointing that comes with losing. Hopefully we have our tough stretch of the season out of the way." Wally Szczerbiak: "We've got to just build on this victory and make sure we know how to close our games like we did. Once we do that, we can put some games in the win column." Don Nelson: "It's just been one adjustment after another here. We've learned to play with a point guard, that goes along for a week. Then we start doing pretty well. So we'll learn to play without a point guard. Now that we've brought our power forward back we've got to make adjustments. This guy is out - that guy is in - it's probably been pretty hard for the fellows in there." Nelson: "This game was lost in the 1st half. Our defense intensity was non-existent. The intensity was better he 2nd half - we did pick it up. We did get back into the game. But the game was lost in the 1st half. We didn't deserve to win the game the way we came out. And we didn't win the game. It's as simple as that." Nelson: "This game was lost in the 1st half. Our defensive intensity was non-existent. This is the worst I've seen any of my teams play in a long time on the defensive end. And I'm very tired of it." Gary Trent: "We played like [bleep] in the 1st half. The 1st half was so bad, it made the 2nd half look good." Trent: "I'm not in any kind of flow. My minutes are erky-jerky, my rotation is erky-jerky. I'm a player that has to play with a lot of energy and intensity, and I can't play the level of basketball that I play with the kind of wind that I have right now." Michael Finley: "We keep shooting ourselves in the foot. And instead of getting over it, we keep reloading the gun and keep shooting ourselves in the foot." Cedric Ceballos: "We have to finish games off. We either finish it in the 1st half or finish it in the 2nd half. We have to collectively get together as players and come out and do it." Ceballos: "You have to play together. If only 1 or 2 players are playing well, we aren't helping at all. Tonight is a great example with Mike and Hubert - they played a great game, but nobody else helped." Minnesota Timberwolves 108, Dallas Mavericks 104 at Dallas (December 18) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Minnesota 26 37 20 25 - 108 .539 .500 .538 .800 Dallas 24 32 22 26 - 104 .487 .333 .462 .789 Halftime: Minnestoa 63-56 3rd Q: Minnesota 83-78 Dallas' largest lead: 14-8 6:42 1st Dallas' last lead: 49-48 4:04 2nd Minnesota's largest lead: 79-69 5:20 3rd Lead changes: 13 Technicals: Minnesota Illegal D 5:21 2nd, Dirk Nowitzki 0:25 2nd, Don Nelson 0:25 2nd, Minnesota Illegal D 8:45 4th, Cedric Ceballos 1:06 4th Refs: Luis Grillo, Rashan Michel, Tony Brothers Attendance: 13,702 (cap 18,187) Did not play due to injury: Joe Smith (flu), Steve Nash (sprained right ankle) Minnesota Timberwolves REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Wally Szczerbiak 42 6-11 0-0 6-6 18 3-10 3 0 4 0 1 Kevin Garnett 40 11-18 1-2 4-6 27 2-14 5 7 4 2 2 Radoslav Nesterovic 15 1-5 0-0 0-0 2 0-2 0 1 5 1 0 Anthony Peeler 18 4-7 0-0 0-0 8 0-0 2 1 1 1 1 Terrell Brandon 36 6-13 1-1 7-7 20 0-4 6 0 2 0 0 Malik Sealy 30 5-7 0-0 2-4 12 1-4 2 0 5 0 1 Tom Hammonds 12 2-4 0-0 0-0 4 1-3 0 1 1 0 0 Sam Mitchell 27 6-10 0-0 1-2 13 0-1 1 1 3 0 1 Andrae Patterson 6 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 0-0 0 1 1 1 0 Bobby Jackson 12 1-3 0-0 0-0 2 1-3 2 0 1 0 0 William Avery 2 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0-0 1 1 0 0 0 Totals 48 43-80 2-4 20-25 108 8-41 22 14 27 5 6 Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Gary Trent 23 5-12 0-1 0-2 10 2-4 1 1 4 1 0 Dirk Nowitzki 39 5-10 0-0 2-2 12 0-6 0 1 6 0 0 Shawn Bradley 35 5-13 0-0 2-2 12 5-10 3 0 1 0 2 Michael Finley 45 10-19 0-2 6-7 26 1-10 7 4 2 2 1 Hubert Davis 46 8-16 4-7 5-5 25 1-3 2 3 1 0 0 Cedric Ceballos 32 7-16 0-1 0-1 14 3-7 1 3 6 0 0 Damon Jones 17 1-4 1-4 0-0 3 0-1 4 1 1 0 0 Rick Hughes 3 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 1-1 0 1 1 0 0 Totals 48 42-91 5-15 15-19 104 13-42 18 14 22 3 3 Miami at Dallas (Dec. 20) The 1st quarter saw Miami maintaining single digit leads through most of the quarter. Dallas closed the quarter with a 10-3 run capped by a tip in by Rick Hughes at the buzzer to give Dallas a 28-27 lead after 1. Gary Trent had 12 points and P.J. Brown had 12 points. Miami scored the first 7 points of the 2nd quarter to go up 34-28 2 minutes in. Dallas pulled within 2 points at 34-36 with 6:30 left, but Miami responded with a 13-0 run to go up 49-34 with 3:45 left. Miami led 57-45 at the half. Brown had 22 points. The Mavs were struggling as Cedric Ceballos only had 1 point and Michael Finley had 4 points on 2-10 FG. Miami led 63-48 with 10 minutes left and Dallas scored the next 8 points to cut Miami's lead down to 63-56 with 6:45. Dallas cut Miami's lead down to 71-67 with 2 minutes left, but Voshon Lenard drained a 3-pointer and hit a jumper. Finley's short jumper at the end of the quarter made it Miami 76-69 after 3. Miami scored 5 straight points to go up 88-78 with 7:45 remaining, but Dallas scored the next 6 points to pull within 84-88 with 4 minutes left. Dan Majerle nailed a 3-pointer with 3:30 left. Ceballos hit 2 free throws with 2:50 left and Dirk Nowitzki nailed a 3-pointer with 1 minute left to cut Miami's lead down to 91-89. Anthony Carter missed a jumper, but there was a jump ball on the rebound, which Miami controlled. Lenard threw up an airball and Dallas called timeout with 22 seconds left. Inexplicably, Damon Jones drove to the basket, didn't pass the ball out, and attempted a short runner which Alonzo Mourning easily blocked with 10 seconds left. Brown hit 1 of 2 free throws with 4.6 seconds to go and Dallas had one last shot to tie the game. But Nowitzki's 3-pointer was short and to the right. Miami won 92-89. It was a pretty ugly game. With as much as Michael Finley (13 points, 5-17 FG), Cedric Ceballos (12 points, 4-9 FG), and Dirk Nowitzki (12 points, 5-15 FG) were struggling, I was amazed that the Mavs were even in this game. I guess that tells you how much Miami was struggling. P.J. Brown carried Miami in the 1st half and finished with 25 points and 13 rebounds. Alonzo Mourning had 18 points, 11 rebounds, and 3 blocks. Gary Trent had a solid game with 22 points including 9-14 FG - he needs to get more rebounds, though, as he only had 2 boards. Shawn Bradley had is 2nd nice game in a row with 11 points, 10 rebounds, and 6 blocks. Quotes Pat Riley: "We had enough to win the game, and I think that's the first step. Hopefully, we can build on this." Riley: "We held on. I just thought the difference was we played harder. We didn't play much better." Riley: "I was still a little bit disappointed in the execution and our end of game smarts. I just don't think we handled the situations well at all but we held on defensively for 3 or 4 possessions." Alonzo Mourning: "With 2 of our guys out, any win we can get is important for us. But we can't continue to struggle." Mourning on his block at the end of the game: "I saw him coming. I was determined they weren't going to get anything going to the hole. If they were going to beat us, they were going to have to heave up something from the outside." Mourning on Brown: "Shawn Bradley was in my lap, and if they weren't going to guard P.J., I told him he had to be a threat and shoot the ball. We've got 50% of our offense out. Somebody's got to fill the void. Tonight different guys stepped up and made themselves more of a threat." P.J. Brown: "I shot the ball pretty well tonight, the best I've shot the whole year. They were dropping off on Zo. I just took the shot. The shot presented itself and I felt good tonight. Hopefully, I can continue to do that." Brown: "A week and a half ago we beat Portland and Sacramento on the road and we were on top of the world. Then we were 0-4 and it was the end of the world. We wanted to end it right here." Brown: "We needed a win badly and that's what's its all about. It's not about points and scoring or rebounds. It was all about getting the win tonight. That's all I cared about and I think everyone on this team, too. Hopefully, this'll give us a spark that will get us back on track." Don Nelson: "The players stepped up and we actually get into a defensive battle with one of the best defensive teams in the league. We held our own. It's one of those games where we needed to make shots when we were open and we just didn't make the shots." Michael Finley: "Good teams, we play well and come up short. Bad teams, we play down to their level. With us, we don't know what we're going to get - the team that plays Miami down to the wire or that plays Minnesota and embarrasses itself." Damon Jones on his blocked layup near the end: "My defender was 2 steps behind and Alonzo was one step behind. I'll take that matchup any time." Jones: "We played well enough to win this basketball game tonight and down the stretch we didn't make the plays. We'll go back to the drawing board and get ready for a good Phoenix team." Cedric Ceballos: "If we could piece it all together, we would have a great game. Sometimes we're on fire offensively. Tonight I thought we had a real good defensive effort." Miami Heat 92, Dallas Mavericks 89 at Dallas (December 20) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Miami 27 30 19 16 - 92 .426 .667 .466 .762 Dallas 28 17 24 20 - 89 .394 .636 .429 .696 Halftime: Miami 57-45 3rd Q: Miami 76-69 Dallas' largest lead: 26-24 :38 1st Dallas' last lead: 28-27 end of 1st Miami's largest lead: 63-48 10:13 3rd Lead changes: 4 Technicals: Dallas Illegal D 9:00 4th Refs: Dick Bavetta, Sean Corbin, Marc Davis Attendance: 14,049 (cap 18,187) Did not play due to injury: Jamal Mashburn (sprained left ankle), Steve Nash (sprained right ankle) Miami Heat REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Mark Strickland 14 1-2 0-0 2-2 4 0-3 2 0 2 0 0 P.J. Brown 33 10-17 0-0 5-8 25 5-13 3 2 4 0 0 Alonzo Mourning 36 8-17 0-0 2-2 18 4-11 2 4 5 0 3 Dan Majerle 41 4-7 4-5 2-4 14 0-7 3 1 1 3 0 Anthony Carter 27 0-4 0-0 0-0 0 1-3 7 2 3 0 0 Voshon Lenard 33 6-13 4-6 1-1 17 1-2 1 1 2 0 0 Clarence Weatherspoon 21 1-4 0-0 2-2 4 1-7 3 3 1 2 0 Otis Thorpe 22 3-4 0-0 2-2 8 0-1 0 2 3 1 0 Rex Walters 12 1-4 0-1 0-0 2 0-1 2 0 2 0 0 Rodney Buford 1 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1-1 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 34-73 8-12 16-21 92 13-49 23 15 23 6 3 Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Gary Trent 33 9-14 0-0 4-6 22 1-2 4 1 2 0 0 Dirk Nowitzki 38 5-15 2-3 0-1 12 1-6 2 2 4 1 1 Shawn Bradley 37 4-9 0-0 3-4 11 1-10 0 2 4 2 6 Michael Finley 42 5-17 1-2 2-2 13 2-8 4 4 2 1 1 Hubert Davis 33 2-3 2-2 2-2 8 1-2 1 0 2 0 0 Cedric Ceballos 33 4-9 0-0 4-5 12 2-5 0 0 4 1 0 Rick Hughes 1 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 1-1 0 0 1 0 0 Damon Jones 23 3-9 2-4 1-3 9 1-3 2 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 33-77 7-11 16-23 89 10-37 13 10 19 5 8 patricia (to all who celebrate it, have a very Merry Christmas!)