Please give a warm welcome to future Mavs fans (if Auntie Patricia has
anything to say about it) John Louis Fish III and Carrie Marie Fish who
made their debut February 10!
Michael Finley did the Mavs proud in his showing at the All-Star game. He
had 11 points on 5-6 FG in 10 minutes of play. [I was disappointed in the
low minutes (only Karl Malone, who didn't want to be there (3 minutes),
and David Robinson, who was injured (7 minutes), had fewer minutes), but
was expecting it as first year All-Stars normally don't get many minutes.]
Dirk Nowitzki also did very well in the first round of the 3-point
shooting contest. He had the contest high 18 points in the first round,
but only had 11 points in the 2nd round. That was good enough for 2nd
place in the contest which Jeff Hornacek won with 13 points. No one got
hot in the contest. Hubert Davis finished 6th with 14 points in the 1st
round.
Dirk also had 17 points and 6 rebounds in the Rookie game. He did very
well in the 1st half, but the ball did not go to him often in the 2nd
half. His 1998 rookie team lost to the 1999 team 83-92 in overtime.
Robert Pack practice with the team Wednesday - it was his first practice
since he was injured 2 months ago. Don Nelson expects to activate him
next week.
Dirk Nowitzki is questionable for tonight's game vs Detroit due to a
bruised right thigh. The injury occurred during the Milwaukee game when
Dirk was kneed by Ervin Johnson.
The NBA fined Dennis Rodman $10,000 and suspended him for 1 game for
failing to leave the court in a timely manner and berating the refs
following his ejection from Tuesday's game [see the Milwaukee game report
for details]. Rodman will miss today's game vs Detroit.
Dallas at LA Clippers (Feb. 5)
The game was tied 8-8 with 9 minutes left and Dallas scored the next 8
points to go up 16-8 with 6 minutes left. Dallas led 30-22 after 1.
Cedric Ceballos had 11 points in the quarter. Dallas led 50-41 with 5:30
remaining and scored the next 6 points to go up 56-41 with 4:20 to go.
Erick Strickland hit a 3-pointer with less than a second left to give
Dallas a 67-51 lead at the half. Dallas shot 12-16 FG and the Clippers
shot 13-27 in the 2nd quarter. Dallas opened the 3rd quarter with an 8-1
run to go up 75-52 with 9:30 left and lead comfortably the rest of the
quarter. Dallas led 98-74 after 3. Garbage time was in full effect in
the 4th quarter and only a closing 10-2 run by the Clippers made the final
score a little more respectable. Dallas won 119-106.
Dallas led the entire game and won this one easily. Erick Strickland had
the game high 24 points including 7-11 FG and 6 rebounds. Michael Finley
almost had a triple-double with 19 points, 10 rebounds, and 9 assists.
Cedric Ceballos also had 19 points and Dirk Nowitzki had 20 points. For
the Clippers, Maurice Taylor had 17 points and 6 rebounds. Lamar Odom
had 14 points but only shot 4-11 FT. This was Jim Todd's first game as
coach of the Clippers.
Quotes
Don Nelson: "We were worried that they might come out with a lot of
emotion [due to the coaching change], so we knew we had to be good. I
don't know how good we're going to get, but we're doing real well without
an established inside game. We don't have anybody who can post up, so we
have to find creative ways to score - which we're doing."
Michael Finley: "Coach was emphasizing that for two days how jacked up
they were going to be with the new coach, and he didn't want us to come
out relaxed. We took it upon ourselves, especially the starters, to come
out and get out of the box early and set the tone for the game, and I
think we did that."
Erick Strickland: "We were doing a good job rotating the ball. We were
penetrating, drawing double-teams and then kicking it out. We couldn't
have played it any better than we did - just driving, setting each other
up for shots and knocking them down."
Strickland: "We just went out from the start and stayed aggressive. We
knew they were going to come with some energy, and we knew we were going
to be in for a fight. But we just came out and jumped on them and made
sure we were not going to be lackadaisical about the game."
Cedric Ceballos: "We've been trying to figure out what keeps us going. We
put ourselves in a position to win. We just matched the Clippers energy
tonight."
New coach Jim Todd: "One of the things we talked about was that this was
going to be our training camp. We can't sell the media and the fans on
doing the same thing when we've lost 35 games."
Todd: "Tonight we wanted to implement new things. The one major concern
was the tempo. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. But if we
continue to play hard and aggressive we are going to have better days."
Todd: "We're a little discouraged about the loss but I think the they
remain upbeat. But I want us to never quit. Even when you're down 30,
never quit. I'm not going to quit and I don't think we did tonight. We
tried to come back. We tried to up the tempo. We tried to press. We
would like to press for 48 minutes."
Lamar Odom: "With Jim, it's just a little more freelancing style on
offense, and a little more up-tempo type of game. We're more of an
up-tempo team, and that's the way we want to play."
Tyrone Nesby: "Everybody feels comfortable with him and everybody would
love for him to be back as head coach next year. He's a good coach. He
just let us go out there and play, and that's what the guys like about
him."
Nesby: "We were just trying to get everybody to run up and down until we
were tired. I think it was a good flow, but we got to be in better
shape."
Michael Olowokandi: "Everything about the team we have to work on, from
sharing the ball to getting everyone involved and knowing who is on the
court. We lost the basketball game and frustration comes from losing.
But today was our first game under J.T. Can we play better? We all know
we can."
Dallas Mavericks 119, Los Angeles Clippers 106 at Los Angeles (February 5)
1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT%
Dallas 30 37 31 21 - 119 .492 .500 .494 .879
LA Clippers 22 29 23 32 - 106 .507 .278 .462 .586
Halftime: Dallas 67-51
3rd Q: Dallas 98-74
Technicals: Lamar Odom 11:04 3rd, Tyrone Nesby 3:28 4th (2, ejected)
Refs: Don Vaden, Bruce Alexander, Bill Spooner
Attendance: 13,646 (cap 18,094)
Dallas Mavericks REB
Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK
Cedric Ceballos 29 7-13 1-2 4-4 19 1-4 0 1 2 2 0
Dirk Nowitzki 31 6-14 2-4 6-6 20 1-5 2 3 3 0 1
Shawn Bradley 14 3-5 0-0 3-6 9 1-1 1 0 4 2 3
Michael Finley 38 8-15 2-2 1-1 19 0-10 9 4 1 2 0
Erick Strickland 32 7-11 3-5 7-8 24 2-6 2 2 1 1 0
Sean Rooks 29 1-4 0-0 6-6 8 0-9 4 1 4 0 1
Steve Nash 15 3-4 1-2 0-0 7 0-2 5 1 2 0 0
Hubert Davis 23 2-5 1-3 0-0 5 0-2 3 1 2 0 0
Greg Buckner 22 2-5 0-0 2-2 6 0-0 2 0 2 1 0
Damon Jones 4 0-2 0-2 0-0 0 0-0 1 0 0 0 0
Bruno Sundov 3 1-3 0-0 0-0 2 0-1 0 0 3 0 0
Totals 48 40-81 10-20 29-33 119 5-40 29 13 24 8 5
Los Angeles Clippers REB
Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK
Lamar Odom 24 5-12 0-0 4-11 14 2-4 2 3 4 3 0
Maurice Taylor 26 8-16 0-0 1-2 17 4-6 2 3 6 1 0
Michael Olowokandi 28 5-8 0-0 0-0 10 3-11 0 3 1 1 2
Derek Anderson 28 2-11 0-4 3-3 7 3-7 2 4 1 2 0
Eric Murdock 27 3-8 2-5 2-2 10 2-7 3 1 3 1 0
Tyrone Nesby 17 3-9 0-2 2-2 8 0-1 2 0 0 1 0
Keith Closs 14 4-5 0-0 4-7 12 3-7 0 0 1 0 0
Anthony Avent 6 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 0 0 3 0 0
Eric Piatkowski 22 4-5 0-1 1-1 9 0-2 2 1 2 0 0
Troy Hudson 21 2-8 0-3 0-0 4 0-0 6 1 0 0 0
Charles Jones 14 4-4 3-3 0-0 11 0-3 2 1 1 0 0
Brian Skinner 13 2-3 0-0 0-1 4 0-1 0 0 4 0 1
Totals 48 42-91 5-18 17-29 106 17-50 21 17 26 9 3
Dallas at Vancouver (Feb. 6)
Dallas led 14-13 with 3 minutes left and Vancouver closed the quarter with
an 11-2 run to go up 24-16 after 1. Vancouver led 26-18 with 11:30 to go
and Dallas answered with a 12-4 run to tie the game on a 3-pointer by
Steve Nash at 30-30 with 8 minutes remaining. Vancouver led 34-32 with
7:21 left and Dallas went on a 17-4 run to go up 49-38 with 3 minutes
left. Milt Palacio got a layup with 2 seconds left and Dallas led 52-44
at the half. Nash had all 13 of his points in the 2nd quarter. Shareef
Abdur-Rahim had 11 points and 11 rebounds in the half. Vancouver scored
the first 8 points of the 3rd quarter to tie the game at 52-52 with 10:15
to go. Vancouver took a 56-54 lead with 7:30 remaining, but Dallas
answered with an 11-2 run to go up 65-58 with 4 minutes left. But
Vancouver scored the last 7 points of the quarter and the game was tied
65-65 after 3. Abdur-Rahim had 10 points in the quarter. The game stayed
close in the 4th quarter. Dallas led 80-74 with 4:50 left. Vancouver
scored the next 7 points to go up 81-80 with 3 minutes left. The teams
traded 2 baskets and Vancouver led 85-84 with 1:45 remaining. Michael
Finley hit a jumper with 1:30 to go. Palacio missed 2 free throws and
Finley hit another jumper with 54 seconds to go to put Dallas up 88-85.
Michael Dickerson hit 2 free throws with 44 seconds left. Finley's shot
was blocked with 28 seconds left and Palacio missed 2 more free throws.
Abdur-Rahim shoved Shawn Bradley after the ball went out of bounds and
was whistled for the technical foul. Finley hit the T to give Dallas a
89-87 lead with 26 seconds remaining. Vancouver immediately fouled and
Nash hit 1 of 2 free throws. Grant Long got the quick layup with 17
seconds to go. Strickland was fouled and hit 1 of 2 free throws (his
12th miss of the season). Dickerson hit a jumper with 7.5 seconds left
to tie the game. Finley missed a long jumper at the buzzer. The game
headed into overtime tied 91-91. Finley had 13 points and Abdur-Rahim had
12 points in the 4th quarter. Finley opened the overtime by hitting 2
free throws and Shawn Bradley hit a short jumper with 3 minutes left to
give Dallas a 95-91 lead. Dickerson hit a jumper with 2:40 left for
Vancouver's first points of the overtime. The teams went scoreless over
the next minute and a half before Finley hit 2 free throws to give Dallas
a 99-93 lead with 24 seconds left. Abdur-Rahim hit a 3-pointer with 11
seconds to go, but Finley hit 2 more free throws. Nash capped the
scoring with 2 free throws. Dallas won 103-99.
This was the Mavs first overtime game of the season (and the 2nd latest
date for the first overtime of a season). The team actually hung on
and won a close one. Michael Finley had 8 of the Mavs' 10 overtime
points, including 6-6 free throws. Finley finished with 34 points, 8
rebounds, and 5 assists. Steve Nash had a great game with 24 points and
7 rebounds. Shareef Abdur-Rahim had a solid game with 36 points and 22
rebounds, including 8 offensive, but got little help from his teammates
as the next highest scorer was Michael Dickerson with 14 points.
Quotes
Don Nelson: "[Finley's] the guy who's going to have the ball if we can
possibly get it to him. We went to him, oh, 8 out of 10 times. The ball
was going to be somewhere around him and he just took the game over."
Nelson: "I think they're playing great and we're playing at the best level
we've played at in a long time and it was quite a game. I was proud to be
a part of it whether we won or loss."
Nelson on Nash: "He's been playing really well the last 3 games. He's
been struggling to find his timing and the last 3 games he's been very
good, so that's real encouraging. I just hope he can stay healthy. He
can really help us."
Steve Nash: "I've felt really good the last 6 or 7 games and I've played
pretty effectively. I just haven't played as many minutes as I did
tonight. It's a good feeling to be contributing after a long layoff and
after being injured most of the time I've been in Dallas."
Nash on Finley: "I think tonight proved what we've seen all season. He's
got lots of confidence. He's got a big heart. He's a great player and
finds a way to get better and better."
Michael Finley: "My whole season has been a statement. A lot of people
still don't think I'm deserving of being on the All-Star team, but the
coaches picked me. It wasn't the fans. I think I'm deserving and my
numbers continue to show that."
Finley: "Coach just kept calling my number. I kept coming through. When
the coaching staff has that much confidence in you and my teammates as
well, it just makes it that much easier to go out there and play my game."
Finley: "Everybody wanted to do a little bit extra to get Nash a win here
at home, and he came up big himself. He made some key 3's in the 2nd
quarter and just got everything flowing, and I'm just happy that he got a
win in his hometown."
Finley: "We played terrible, to me. But we didn't play well, and we won
on the road. How many times have we said that?"
Shawn Bradley on Finley: "His performance tonight is why he's playing in
next Sunday's [All-Star] game. He brings intensity, he works hard, and
he's the kind of guy you want on your team."
Bradley: "We're starting to go out expecting to win. That's growth - team
growth."
Lionel Hollins: "I've been going against Nellie ever since I was a player
and he's only coached one way and that's mixing the game up with
mis-matches and getting you to get out of what you want to do."
Hollins: "I don't know the numbers but Shareef had a great game. I
thought we hung tough and scratched and clawed, and we worked our way into
the ball game in the 2nd half. I was proud of the way our guys played.
We made some mistakes at different times but I can't fault my guys."
Michael Dickerson: "I think if I had been in the game in the beginning, we
would have had a better chance to win. I just couldn't hit a shot. I've
never went through a night that bad."
Shareef Abdur-Rahim: "They do kind of mess the game it up a little bit -
mix it up, run different matchups."
Grant Long: "It's remarkable that they did win the game. I even sat on
the bench and said 'I wonder how they do this.' But I can't see them
winning big with that kind of basketball. It's won for them a bit lately,
but I don't know if it can work against a good calibre team."
Dallas Mavericks 103, Vancouver Grizzlies 99 OT at Vancouver (February 6)
1st 2nd 3rd 4th OT - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT%
Dallas 16 36 13 26 12 - 103 .361 .529 .393 .828
Vancouver 24 20 21 26 8 - 99 .459 .200 .416 .710
Halftime: Dallas 52-44
3rd Q: 65-65
4th Q: 91-91
Vancouver's largest lead: 24-16 0:08 1st
Dallas' largest lead: 49-38 3:01 2nd
Lead changes: 14
Technicals: Dallas Illegal D 5:26 1st, Dallas Illegal D 1:41 1st, Shareef
Abdur-Rahim 0:26 4th
Refs: Mark Wunderlich, Terry Durham, Derek Richardson
Attendance: 14,861 (cap 19,193)
Dallas Mavericks REB
Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK
Cedric Ceballos 30 3-10 1-1 0-0 7 2-7 0 1 6 1 0
Dirk Nowitzki 38 5-13 3-4 1-2 14 2-6 2 1 2 0 3
Shawn Bradley 25 3-4 0-0 2-3 8 0-4 1 0 2 3 0
Michael Finley 52 12-31 1-4 9-9 34 3-8 5 1 3 3 1
Erick Strickland 38 3-11 1-4 3-5 10 1-9 2 3 5 1 0
Greg Buckner 24 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 1-3 0 0 3 1 0
Hubert Davis 13 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 0-0 1 1 1 0 0
Steve Nash 38 8-15 3-4 5-6 24 0-2 7 4 0 2 0
Sean Rooks 7 0-1 0-0 4-4 4 3-5 0 1 0 0 0
Totals 53 35-89 9-17 24-29 103 12-44 18 12 22 11 4
Vancouver Grizzlies REB
Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK
Shareef Abdur-Rahim 47 13-25 1-4 9-10 36 8-22 2 5 4 0 0
Othella Harrington 25 4-8 0-0 2-3 10 1-4 0 1 1 0 2
Bryant Reeves 22 2-6 0-0 2-2 6 2-8 1 3 2 1 1
Michael Dickerson 36 4-17 1-4 5-5 14 0-2 3 2 4 0 1
Mike Bibby 34 6-15 0-2 0-0 12 1-4 8 4 6 1 1
Milt Palacio 19 2-3 0-0 0-4 4 1-1 3 0 0 1 0
Dennis Scott 25 1-4 1-4 2-3 5 0-1 0 1 2 1 0
Doug West 20 1-5 0-0 0-0 2 0-1 1 0 6 0 0
Grant Long 20 3-4 0-0 0-0 6 3-5 0 3 2 1 0
Felipe Lopez 12 1-2 0-1 2-4 4 2-2 2 1 2 2 2
Cherokee Parks 5 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 2-3 0 0 1 0 0
Totals 53 37-89 3-15 22-31 99 20-53 20 20 30 7 7
Seattle at Dallas (Feb. 9)
The game stayed close in the first 8 minutes with neither team holding
more than a 4 point lead. Ruben Patterson fell hard to the floor, after
being called for an offensive foul when Dennis Rodman got position, and
left the game with a knee injury with 7:45 left. He did return to the
game in the 3rd quarter. Seattle scored the last 7 points of the quarter
to go up 25-35 after 1. Gary Payton had 16 points in the quarter.
Seattle led 43-27 with 11 minutes remaining and Dallas scored the next 7
points to pull within 34-43 with 8:45 left. Seattle led 59-51 at the
half. Michael Finley and Payton each had 18 points in the half. Dallas
shot 0-0 FT and Seattle shot 3-7 FT. Seattle led 63-57 with 10 minutes
remaining and slowly built up their lead and led 80-65 with 5 minutes
left. Dallas scored the next 6 points, but Seattle answered with 5 more
points and led 85-71 with 3:15 remaining. Cedric Ceballos scored the
last 4 points of the quarter and Seattle led 87-79 after 3. Ceballos
had 14 points in the 3rd quarter. Dallas scored the first 4 points of
the 4th and Seattle's lead was only 87-83 with 10:30 to go. Seattle led
96-92 with 6:30 left and Rashard Lewis scored 5 points and Payton hit a
3-pointer to put Seattle up 104-92 with 5:30 left. Dallas was unable
to make a run or get closer than 9 points the rest of the way. Seattle
won 117-106.
In my eyes, Dennis Rodman's first game as a Mavericks was a flop. His
presence completely disrupted the Mavs' offense. He did not want to
touch the ball on offense. The Mavs' usual offense involves swinging
the ball to a player at the top of the key and then the player passing
the ball to the right or left depending on how the opponent's defense was
going and/or a player coming off a screen. A couple of times Rodman was
at the top of the key and a Mav (Finley or Nowitzki) would pass to Rodman
and Rodman would pass the ball right back to the player. Finley made a
nice pass to an open Rodman under the basket and he was not expecting
the pass and fumbled the ball away. Steve Nash was about to pass the
ball a couple of times and pulled the ball back when he realized it was
Rodman that was open. To be fair, it was Rodman's first game and he only
had one practice with the team. But his on the court presense did
disrupt the Mavs' game (and for those who joke about "the Mavs' game",
the team had been playing well and won 11 of the last 15 games before this
(all be it, mostly against weaker teams)). The team also struggled
defensively (but they almost always do) and their defensive rotation
often wasn't there.
For the numbers, Michael Finley had 26 points and 5 assists in playing
all 48 minutes. Cedric Ceballos had 26 points and 8 rebounds. Erick
Strickland had a strong offensive game (but he had Payton on defense)
with 21 points on 9-13 FG and 3-4 3-pointers and 5 assists. For Seattle,
Gary Payton was a monster with 24 points, 7 rebounds, and 14 assists.
2nd year player Rashard Lewis had a career game in front of his family
with 30 points (16 of which came in the 4th quarter) including 13-20 FG
and 12 rebounds. Brent Barry chipped in 17 points including 4-6
3-pointers, 8 rebounds, and 8 assists.
Quotes
Paul Westphal: "Everybody came here tonight talking about Dennis Rodman,
and they probably left talking about Rashard."
Westphal on Payton: "Gary is so good. He's having a phenomenal year. If
we keep winning and increase the winning a little bit, he's going to be a
real strong candidate for player of the year. It's really fun to watch
him every night."
Westphal on Lewis: "He rose to the occasion. The reason I think he's
going to make it in this league is because he's so good in the clutch.
Rashard has shown that over and over in crunch time."
Westphal: "We tried to run them, they tried to run us. It was a nice
game to watch."
Rashard Lewis: "It was a good feeling. There is nothing left to do but
celebrate."
Lewis: "That was my intention. I knew [Rodman] was going to bring a lot
of intensity to the game. I just wanted to pump my team up."
Lewis on his 7 offensive rebounds: "I felt I had to go to the offensive
boards. I knew that would win the game. I was just out there trying to
be aggressive."
Lewis on the rebounds: "That's the thing that's going to keep me in the
game. Basically, crashing the boards, especially the offensive boards.
Because that's what they look at me as, the rebounder, and that's what I
like to do."
Lewis: "Nothing but confidence, I had nothing but confidence. I do that
in practice, but I feel that when you come off the bench you have to lift
the team up. When they aren't playing well you just have to keep the team
ahead or keep the score at the same level."
Brent Barry on Lewis: "He was awesome. We saluted him when he came in the
locker room. And he was classic Rashard. He didn't say a word. He just
stood there smiling."
Ruben Patterson: "I hit my head and thought I had a concussion. And my
knee is really, really sore. But I just had to fight through it."
Horace Grant on Rodman: "With all the new rules, it will take him a while
to get used to them. He was still the same old Dennis. He's still the
same pushing Dennis. He wasn't in basketball shape. I would give him
another week and then you will see the old Dennis."
Don Nelson: "[Lewis] had one of those games you dream about. He looks
like a fine young player. Dennis Rodman played well when he played,
definitely a little rusty, but I see possibilities here. I liked what I
saw."
Nelson: "Seattle played a terrific game. Rashard Lewis just killed us.
He had one of those games you dream about."
Nelson: "I thought [Rodman] played pretty well when he played, definitely
a little rusty, but I see possibilities here. He really knows how to
play, but the guys kind of got caught up in the atmosphere of the game.
Everybody wanted to do so well. We weren't patient enough."
Michael Finley: "Everything was here for us but a win. The crowd was into
it, we were into it at first, but Seattle got into it as well. We did
everything right but get the win."
Finley on Rodman: "He did what he had to do when he came in. He's a
little bit out of sync but we expected that. And hopefully with a few
more practices, he'll be okay. I thought he was thinking a little bit too
much. He didn't know the schemes of what we wanted to do and we were a
little behind."
Cedric Ceballos: "Seattle shot the ball very well and we didn't get to the
line until the 2nd half. They are a good basketball team and the
opportunity slipped away from us."
Dirk Nowitzki: "We were a little frustrated. We should have won the game.
We had a bad night, but Seattle is a great team and that's all you can
say."
Dennis Rodman: "People were expecting a miracle. But people don't
understand. It's not that way. It's difficult. Rebounding is easy for
me. I can go out there and get 13, 14 rebounds easy. It's hard to go out
there with a team that's young and trying to find each other. It's
difficult."
Rodman: "I was a little rusty. My body was good, but my hands were bad."
Seattle Sonics 117, Dallas Mavericks 106 at Dallas (February 9)
1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT%
Seattle 36 23 28 30 - 117 .530 .412 .510 .533
Dallas 25 26 28 27 - 106 .545 .316 .500 .909
Halftime: Seattle 59-51
3rd Q: Seattle 87-79
Dallas' largest lead: 4-0 10:43 1st
Dallas' last lead: 21-20 4:53 1st
Seattle's largest lead: 43-23 11:02 2nd
Lead changes: 5
Technicals: Dallas Illegal D 4:16 2nd
Refs: Danny Crawford, Bob Delaney, Rashan Michel
Attendance: 18,203 (sellout)
Seattle Sonics REB
Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK
Ruben Patterson 12 3-6 0-0 1-1 7 0-1 0 3 3 1 0
Vin Baker 38 5-16 0-0 2-6 12 3-7 1 2 3 0 0
Horace Grant 39 8-11 0-0 0-0 16 0-6 4 1 3 1 1
Gary Payton 41 11-23 3-7 0-0 25 1-7 14 1 2 0 0
Brent Barry 40 6-12 4-6 1-1 17 0-8 8 1 4 2 0
Rashard Lewis 34 13-20 0-1 4-6 30 7-12 0 0 3 2 2
Jelani McCoy 8 2-2 0-0 0-1 4 0-0 0 0 1 1 0
Vladimir Stepania 11 3-5 0-1 0-0 6 2-4 0 2 2 1 1
Shammond Williams 5 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0-1 1 1 0 0 0
Emanual Davis 12 0-4 0-1 0-0 0 0-0 2 0 1 0 0
Totals 48 51-100 7-17 8-15 117 13-46 30 12 22 8 4
Dallas Mavericks REB
Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK
Cedric Ceballos 38 11-26 0-2 4-5 26 4-8 1 2 3 0 1
Dennis Rodman 32 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 3-13 1 3 5 1 0
Dirk Nowitzki 37 6-13 0-4 2-2 14 1-6 4 1 4 0 2
Michael Finley 48 12-24 2-4 0-0 26 1-3 5 1 0 0 0
Erick Strickland 29 9-13 3-4 0-0 21 0-2 5 1 0 0 0
Steve Nash 16 1-2 1-2 0-0 3 0-3 3 0 1 0 0
Shawn Bradley 26 4-6 0-0 4-4 12 1-8 0 0 2 0 1
Greg Buckner 5 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 1 2 1 1 0
Hubert Davis 8 2-4 0-2 0-0 4 0-0 1 1 1 0 0
Damon Jones 1 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0
Totals 48 45-90 6-19 10-11 106 10-44 21 11 17 2 4
Milwaukee at Dallas (Feb. 16)
Dallas took an early 10-2 lead with 8 minutes left, but Milwaukee went
on a 10-2 run themselves to tie the game at 12-12 with 6 minutes
remaining. Dallas scored 6 straight points, but Danny Manning nailed a
3-pointer at the buzzer. Dallas led 24-19 after 1. Shawn Bradley had 10
points in the quarter. Ray Allen opened the 2nd quarter with a dunk, but
Dallas then went on a 13-2 run to go up 37-23 on a 3-pointer by Michael
Finley with 9 minutes left. Milwaukee slowly ate away at Dallas' lead and
Dallas only led 50-49 with 2:15 to go. Dallas led 56-54 at the half. The
game stayed close in the 3rd quarter. Dallas led 64-63 with 6 minutes
remaining. Glenn Robinson hit a 3-pointer and Ervin Johnson had a slam to
give Milwaukee a 68-64 lead with 5 minutes left. Milwaukee led 82-77
after 3. Vinny Del Negro scored the first 4 points of the 4th to give
Milwaukee an 86-77 lead with 10 minutes to go. Dallas went on a 8-1 run
to pull within 85-87 with 7:45 remaining. Robinson hit a jumper. Dennis
Rodman was calling for illegal D on Milwaukee with 7:13 left and got a T
for his complaints about the non-call. He then got his 2nd T when he sat
down on the court in frustration about the non-call and technical. Sam
Cassell hit both free throws. Dirk Nowitzki got a dunk and then Robinson
hit a 3-pointer to put Milwaukee up 94-87 with 6 minutes remaining.
Robinson nailed another 3-pointer with 3:45 left to give Milwaukee a
101-91 lead and again with 3 minutes left to put the Bucks up 104-93 and
once more with 2:25 left to give Milwaukee a commanding 107-95 lead.
Cassell pitched in his own 3-pointer with 1:20 to go to give Milwaukee
their largest lead at 110-95. Milwaukee won 112-99.
It was the Allen-Cassell-Robinson show. The 3 combined for 84 of
Milwaukee's 112 points (for the math impaired, that's all but 28 points).
Glenn Robinson led the way with 29 points including 6-10 3-pointers, of
which 14 points including 4-4 3-pointers came in the 4th quarter, and 11
rebounds. Ray Allen had a very solid game with 27 points, 9 rebounds,
and 5 assists. And Sam Cassell enjoyed his usual strong game against
his former team with 28 points and 13 rebounds.
The Mavs' offense looked much better than it did in the Seattle game.
Dennis Rodman did participate in the offense this time and was passing
the ball around in the Mavs' rotation. But their defense was strongly
lacking. Yes, the Bucks trio was shooting well, but the Mavs' defense
was mainly one-on-one and the help was slow to non-existent in coming.
Shawn Bradley had a great game (though was most active in the 1st
quarter) and was looking for his shot. He finished with 20 points, 6
rebounds, and 4 blocks. Michael Finley had a quiet 19 points (except
one stretch in the 2nd quarter where he was really clicking) and 6
assists. Dirk Nowitzki and Cedric Ceballos had 18 points, but their
lack of defense work hurt the team.
And here I was prepared to give Rodman some credit for fitting better into
the Mavs' game (much, much better than the Seattle game) and even note his
really pretty pass into Finley for the easy layup. The 2nd quickest
whistle in the league Ken Mauer (behind Steve Javie) gave Rodman his first
T after Rodman was repeatedly stomping his foot on the floor and arguing
for an illegal defense to be called. After the T was called, Rodman went
and sat on the court in protest of the call. A different ref (David
Jones) then gave Rodman his 2nd T for the ejection [any player would have
gotten a T for sitting on the floor like that]. Rodman made the situation
worse by getting in Jones' face about the 2nd T and it was a few minutes
before he finally left the court. As expected, he was fined $10,000 and
suspended for 1 game for failing to leave the court in a timely manner and
berating the refs following his ejection. The league said that the fine
and ejection was purely for his on the court actions and had nothing to do
with his post-game comments about the refs and David Stern.
Dennis Rodman: "Hell, no [the ejection] wasn't deserved. I don't know who
the hell gave David Stern all the power in the world to sit there and make
all these rules, but this league has gone to hell. It's ridiculous. I
wish me and David Stern could get some damn gloves and go into the ring
and we'll see who comes out the winner. Me and him."
Quotes
George Karl: "I think we did a great job of handling their transition in
the 2nd half. I thought that was the big key. They were running by us
early in the 2nd quarter and I think that gave them a lot of confidence.
We made them play 5 on 5 a great deal in the 2nd half and I thought we
found some defensive answers because of that."
Karl: "Glenn wasn't really shooting the ball that well until the 4th
quarter. But when he gets into a rhythm, it's our blessing. We have guys
who can shoot the ball."
Karl: "Glenn wasn't really shooting the ball well until the 4th quarter.
In fact I remember trying to make a point to take him on the low block
because he was taking too many jumpers that he wasn't making."
Glenn Robinson on his 4th quarter: "That was the best time, the time for
me to step up. Ray and Sam were having great games and I wanted to step
my game up down the stretch."
Sam Cassell: "I just got Dog the ball. I told him to be ready and let me
be the point guard. Down the stretch I just dribbled around and found
guys."
Don Nelson: "We said going into the game that we had to stop at least 1 of
the 3, and we were 0 for 3. They all had big games against us."
Nelson: "I'm not sure that we played that poorly. We played pretty well
for quite a while. I just thought they were fantastic. They did a great
job of finding the open guy and creating and making the shots they had."
Nelson on Rodman's ejection: "They were certainly illegal on the play and
then he didn't get the call. I'm not upset with anybody who gets ejected.
It happened to me not long ago."
Nelson: "I have no problem with the ejection if he sat down in the middle
in the floor - I didn't see it - that would have been an ejection."
Cedric Ceballos: "They are a great offensive team, especially when those 3
guys start shooting the ball outside the arc. It's really hard to stop.
We tried double-teaming and that's what opened up a lot of things for
them. They just knocked them down. You have to give them credit. 2 of
those guys [Robinson and Allen] played in the All-Star, and Sam, he should
have played too. With 3 all-stars, its difficult to compete."
Ceballos: "We've got scorers. It's just the rebounding and the other
little things that we've got to take care of."
Michael Finley: "That's their team. I mean that team is based around that
3-headed monster, Ray, Sam and Glenn. When those guys all have big
nights, I would bet you that their record is a damned good one."
Finley: "[Rodman is] rebounding, but like I've always said, Dennis is not
going to come in here and do it all by himself. It's still going to take
a collective effort from everybody. Whether its rebounding, defending or
just overall playing hard. He's a good player, but he needs help."
Finley: "I don't know what Dennis was thinking, but from my standpoint he
wasn't getting any calls. He was getting held and as a result he got
frustrated and took it out on the refs."
Milwaukee Bucks 112, Dallas Mavericks 99 at Dallas (February 15)
1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT%
Milwaukee 19 35 28 30 - 112 .441 .500 .457 .800
Dallas 24 32 21 22 - 99 .521 .231 .476 .727
Halftime: Dallas 56-54
3rd Q: Milwaukee 82-77
Dallas' largest lead: 41-27 7:56 2nd
Dallas' last lead: 64-63 5:54 3rd
Lakers' largest lead: 110-95 1:18 4th
Lead changes: 3
Technicals: Michael Finley 0:37 2nd, Milwaukee Illegal D 7:39 3rd, Dennis
Rodman 7:13 4th (2 - ejected), Sam Cassell 4:29 4th, Milwaukee Illegal D
3:27 4th
Refs: Ken Mauer, David Jones, Hank Armstrong
Attendance: 11,912 (cap 18,187)
Milwaukee Bucks REB
Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK
Glenn Robinson 38 11-22 6-10 1-2 29 2-11 2 2 1 0 1
Scott Williams 25 2-6 0-0 2-2 6 2-5 0 2 3 1 1
Ervin Johnson 29 2-6 0-0 1-2 5 7-12 2 1 6 0 1
Ray Allen 39 9-20 3-8 6-6 27 5-9 5 1 1 1 0
Sam Cassell 37 10-18 2-3 6-6 28 1-4 13 2 3 0 0
Tim Thomas 24 2-7 0-2 0-0 4 1-2 1 1 1 0 0
Vinny Del_Negro 19 2-4 0-0 0-0 4 0-1 2 1 0 0 0
Danny Manning 22 2-7 1-1 0-0 5 0-0 0 0 3 1 1
Darvin Ham 7 2-2 0-0 0-2 4 0-2 0 1 1 0 0
Totals 48 42-92 12-24 16-20 112 18-46 25 12 19 3 4
Dallas Mavericks REB
Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK
Dirk Nowitzki 41 6-13 0-2 6-7 18 0-2 2 1 1 0 0
Dennis Rodman 36 2-5 0-0 2-3 6 7-16 4 3 2 0 0
Shawn Bradley 34 9-17 0-0 2-2 20 3-6 0 3 3 1 4
Michael Finley 43 9-18 1-4 0-1 19 0-3 6 1 2 0 1
Erick Strickland 24 2-8 1-3 1-2 6 1-4 3 1 2 1 1
Steve Nash 23 3-7 0-2 4-4 10 0-1 5 1 2 0 0
Cedric Ceballos 29 8-14 1-2 1-2 18 3-10 1 2 4 0 1
Hubert Davis 9 1-2 0-0 0-1 2 0-0 1 0 2 0 0
Damon Jones 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0
Totals 48 40-84 3-13 16-22 99 14-42 22 12 18 2 7
patricia