The good: Michael Finley was named as an All-Star reserve! Finley was selected by the coaches in the Western Conference and gets to go to Golden State for the game on February 13. Finley on the coaches selecting him: "It's even more special because it wasn't a popularity contest or how many commercials you have or anything like that. It's just about picking a player who deserves it." Finley: "I'm blessed and very thankful that I made the All-Star team. It's a chance for me to not only represent myself and my family, but to represent the Dallas Mavericks organization and the fans and the fans that have been very supportive." Hubert Davis is currently leading the league in 3-pointer shooting (54.0% (68-126)). If he keeps it up, he'll set the NBA record for 3-pointer percentage (52.4% (89-170) by Steve Kerr in 94-95 - and I think it was the shorter 3-point line that season). Cedric Ceballos and Mavs each donated $10,000 to the Bobby Phills Foundation. The bad: Don Nelson said the other day that he expects Gary Trent to be out for a long time - 6 to 8 weeks and maybe for the season. I heard someone say that he might have to undergo surgery. Nelson also said that he doesn't expect Robert Pack to return until sometime after the All-Star game. The Mavs' bought out Leon Smith's contract and released him on Friday. The team will pay the rest of the $1.44 million they owe him over a period of 10 years. The NBA struck down a clause in the buy-out agreement (which was arranged by the jerk Billy Hunter) that would have required any team that picked up Smith to take on the rest of what Dallas owed him. The ugly: It was a sad day for me as a Mavs fan when what I had been hoping would go away if I kept ignoring it came to pass Thursday night: Dallas signed Dennis Rodman for the rest of the season. Assuming he doesn't do something stupid before then (please, please do), Rodman is expected to see his first game in a Mavs' uniform Wednesday vs Seattle. I can't tell you how sick the concept of Rodman wearing blue-and-green makes me feel. I could go through all the logical reasons I have for not wanting Rodman on my team (his assaults history, his antics in San Antone, he's not a good defensive player anymore, he's one-dimensional, ...), but those are sugar coating the basic, underlining reason: I DO NOT WANT DENNIS RODMAN ON MY TEAM! No, I won't stop going to the games or rooting for the Mavs due to this stupid move - I am a die-hard after all and one player will not take that away from me. But I definitely will not be rooting for him and hope he does not do too much damage while he is here. I look forward to the day he is no longer on this team. Once he steps on the court, he'll replace Adrian Dantley as my least favorite player to have worn the Mavs' uniform. The signing of Rodman was new owner's Mark Cuban's move. Rodman is even staying in Cuban's large guest house. What's next? Trading for Latrell Sprewell? Philadelphia at Dallas (February 1) Philadelphia led 10-7 with 6:45 left and Dallas went on a 10-2 run (including 2 3-pointers by Cedric Ceballos) to go up 17-12 with 4:42 left. Dallas led 26-22 after 1. Allen Iverson had 11 points. A bucket by Dirk Nowitzki 30 seconds into the 2nd quarter put Dallas up 28-22, but Philadelphia scored the next 10 points to go up 32-28 with 9 minutes left. Philadelphia led 34-30 with 8:15 to go and Dallas went on a 12-2 run to go up 42-36 with 5 minutes remaining. Dallas led 52-50 at the half. Iverson had 17 points. Philadelphia opened the 3rd quarter by scoring the first 9 points to take a 59-52 lead with 10:30 remaining. Philly led 67-63 with 5:45 left and Dallas scored the next 9 points (with 7 of them by Ceballos) to go up 72-67 with 4:15 to go. Dallas led 83-75 after 3. Ceballos had 11 points in the 3rd. A jumper by Michael Finley gave Dallas the largest lead of the night of 10 points at 85-75 with 11:30 left. Dallas led 89-81 with 9:30 to go and Philadelphia scored the next 8 points to tie the game at 89-89 with 5:30 remaining. Dallas led 97-93 at the 2 minute mark. Iverson hit 2 free throws and Theo Ratliff got a layup after a turnover by Steve Nash to tie the game at 97-97 with 1:22 left. Philadelphia was whistled for the 2nd illegal defense and Nash hit the free throw to put Dallas up by 1 with a minute left. Finley missed a jumper. George Lynch drove for a layup with 39 seconds remaining. Dallas called their last timeout and then Finley hit a clutch jumper over a defender to give Dallas a 100-99 lead with 28 seconds left. Iverson drove to the basket and received the superstar call as Ceballos was called for the foul. Iverson hit both free throws. Dallas pushed the ball up court and Finley wasted time looking for a shoot, then passed to Dirk Nowitzki with only a couple seconds left, who hesitated and then passed to Steve Nash who threw up the desperation shot and the buzzer sounded as the ball bounced off the rim. Philadelphia won 101-100. This team does not know how to finish. Besides the Iverson "foul", I had 3 big problems with how the game ended. The Mavs' shouldn't have used their last timeout with 39 seconds left. Nowitzki shouldn't have passed the ball. And my biggest grip: the Mavs had 17 seconds left (okay, take 4 off for getting the ball up court) and are down by 1 and they take a shot at the buzzer???? With that much time, you go for the quick shot. If you miss, you have a shot at the rebound (and maybe a putback) or they get the board and you foul them - the most they can go up by is 3 points. Geez. As for the "foul", I definitely didn't see it live - it looked to me like Iverson simply missed the layup and I was jumping up and down about Finley getting the rebound. I couldn't believe the refs called the foul in that situation. From the replay I saw, I couldn't tell if Ceballos did foul him - if he did, it had to have been on the arm as Ceballos was beside Iverson and there was no body contact. Ceballos didn't have anything to do with Iverson ending up on the ground. Hate to see a game lost on something like that (but, again, the Mavs should have done something better with their last play). Except for from the "foul" on, it was a great game to watch. The Mavs' largest lead was 10 points and Philly's largest lead was 7 points. Allen Iverson had a great game and the Mavs' defenders of Greg Buckner, Erick Strickland, and Steve Nash had trouble stopping him (surprisingly, Nash seemed to do the best job on him). Iverson finished with 29 points. Theo Ratliff had the complete game with 25 points including 11-13 FG and 13 rebounds. Cedric Ceballos led the way for Dallas with 26 points and 12 rebounds. Michael Finley had 21 points, 5 rebounds, and 7 assists. Shawn Bradley had a nice game with 17 points including 7-10 FG, 5 rebounds, and 4 blocks. Dirk Nowitzki struggled offensively and had 16 points including 6-17 FG and 7 rebounds. Quotes Larry Brown: "Things just haven't been going our way in games lately. But I think we executed pretty well tonight. Late in the game, George made a big play, Eric found Theo on a big hoop and Allen got to the free throw line." Brown on Dallas: "They are a much improved team and they have a lot of guys who can score. I think they played very unselfishly. That is the way Nellie plays. They did a good job of spacing out and finding open people." Brown: "I think we needed [a win] pretty badly. The last 3, we had played well enough to win, but we didn't shoot well from the floor or from the line, and that's a bad combination. When things get like that, you can lose a little confidence, you start to complain to the refs, you moan a little instead of focusing on playing the right way. We kept having chances to win, kept fighting, kept working hard and we got lucky. Maybe we were owed one after the last 3." Brown on Ratliff: "I thought he hit 4 big ones. Theo even hit 2 big ones when we were rallying, when we were down 10 and came back. We missed them early but I'm just real proud of the way we did some good things. This is probably Theo's best game in a long time and George also did some really great things." Brown on Ratliff: "He was great. I thought this was by far his best game in a long time. He made big hoops, and we went to him. I got mad at Aaron [McKie] because [Theo] made 3 in a row and then Aaron came down and shot a jumper on the break. Aside from that, I think we rewarded his play." Theo Ratliff: "That's this team. We never quit. That's been our game all year. People know when they play against us we're going to play hard whether we're 20 behind or ahead." Ratliff: "The guys got the ball to me in the right spots, but I've been telling [Brown] that I've been getting open, posting hard and guys were passing me up. Tonight, I told them to call some plays for me. I hit the shots and they kept coming to me. That put the pressure on Dirk Nowitzki, a very good offensive player, to play defense. But I didn't want to just establish myself, I wanted to help establish everybody's game, to help get us back to the effort that we've been known for." Allen Iverson: "After you lose one straight, any game is a much needed win. You don't want to get into a losing mentality." Iverson on Ratliff: "We expect that of him. That's not something that surprises us. If Theo goes out and gets 100 blocks, we expect him to do it. He's our best defensive player." Iverson: "Theo, man. He did it for us tonight." Iverson: "I wanted the opportunity again because my teammates look to me at the end of a game. The ball's gonna be in my hands. If I don't step up and make free throws, there's no need in giving me the ball." Tyrone Hill on Ratliff: "Thank goodness he did it. Me and Matt [Geiger] certainly didn't do much. On this team, you always need one of the big men to step up." Aaron McKie: "We needed this one. It gives us that edge back a little bit that we usually come into the games with. We didn't have it before." McKie: "We were dying for a win. We were desperate. I think this one is going to give us back the edge a little. Now we have to try to keep it. We had gotten away from some things, like being aggressive on defense, offensive rebounding, cutting down turnovers. We understood that Dallas has talent, that they have some guys who can flat out score, but Theo was down there for us, demanding the ball. We had to get it to him, and every time we did, he answered the call." George Lynch: "We needed this one. It seemed like we spent the whole night trying to put it together. Somehow, we have to find a way to turn it up because we haven't played defense as consistently as we did last season. Maybe teams are more aware now of what we're trying to do, but we have to concentrate, to focus. We can't allow ourselves to play down to the level of our competition." Don Nelson: "It was a whale of a game. You hate to have a referee decide a great game like that." Nelson: "I just hate to have a referee decide an outcome of a great game like that. It's unfortunate that that's the way it had to end." Nelson: "We did have an awfully good look at the end. If you get an open shot at the end to win, you have to take that shot." Nelson: "[Dirk] should have shot it, and unfortunately, he has to learn the hard way." Nelson: "If you get a wide-open shot to win the game, you've got to take that shot. I just don't know what to say, other than he has to learn that. You think he would know that in that situation that the ball has to be shot. Unfortunately, you learn the hard way often times." Nelson: "It was a whale of a game. I like a lot of things that we did. But unfortunately, at the end we had a wide open shot and we have a young player that should have shot it." Dirk Nowitzki on the final play: "The play was designed for Michael Finley to get a shot off. They played good defense so he kicked the ball to me. I saw two guys running at me and saw Steve wide open in the corner. Maybe I should have shot it." Nowitzki: "I didn't know I was almost open. I'm a guy who's not selfish. Maybe I should have been selfish in that situation." Nowitzki: "I saw two guys running at me and saw Steve wide open. I should have shot it, but you're always smarter afterward. I'm a guy who's unselfish, but maybe I should have been selfish in that situation." Steve Nash: "Dirk got the ball late and two guys ran at him. He kind of got half a look. Unfortunately, I only had half a second. It was too little time." Nash: "I was wide open, but I didn't really have time to set up. I just wanted to put it up to the rim and see if it fell." Nash: "I bet you [Dirk] won't do that again. It was just inexperience, but we never should have put ourselves in that position." Nash: "We never should have lost that game." Michael Finley on the double-team that forced him to pass at the end: "That's the type of defensive team they are. Even though they have one of the premier scorers in the league in Allen, it's their defense that gets them wins. Everybody's always there, help side." Finley: "The All-Star stuff is secondary. My whole agenda is to win games. Tonight is a game we should've won and didn't." Cedric Ceballos on the foul called: "He's leading the league in scoring. He's a superstar and he's going to get those calls. But nothin' against the refs." Ceballos on the call: "He's a great player, and if he goes down, then obviously something has to be called. If you're a superstar, you're going to get those calls. They're not just going to let him fall to the ground like that. There was no contact, but they thought somebody hit him." Ceballos: "We competed hard, and we had the lead. We had an opportunity to win the game again, and we didn't." Philadelphia 76ers 101, Dallas Mavericks 100 at Dallas (February 1) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Philadelphia 22 28 25 26 - 101 .525 .000 .506 .810 Dallas 26 26 31 17 - 100 .419 .389 .413 .810 Halftime: Dallas 52-50 3rd Q: Dallas 83-75 Technicals: Philadelphia Illegal D 1:07 4th Refs: Luis Grillo, Greg Willard, Leon Wood Attendance: 13,506 (cap 18,187) Philadelphia 76ers REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK George Lynch 26 6-10 0-0 2-2 14 5-8 1 5 4 2 2 Tyrone Hill 27 2-8 0-0 0-2 4 1-9 1 2 1 0 0 Theo Ratliff 39 11-13 0-0 3-3 25 3-13 1 5 4 0 5 Allen Iverson 40 12-28 0-1 5-6 29 1-3 4 2 1 2 0 Eric Snow 38 6-8 0-0 0-0 12 0-6 11 3 3 2 0 Billy Owens 8 0-2 0-0 1-2 1 1-5 0 1 2 0 0 Matt Geiger 17 3-5 0-0 0-0 6 0-5 2 2 1 0 1 Aaron McKie 24 1-4 0-1 0-0 2 0-2 4 1 3 0 0 Larry Hughes 21 1-5 0-1 6-6 8 1-3 2 1 2 3 0 Totals 48 42-83 0-3 17-21 101 12-54 26 22 21 9 8 Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Cedric Ceballos 39 9-23 3-6 5-5 26 4-12 3 2 1 0 3 Dirk Nowitzki 38 6-17 0-0 4-6 16 1-7 4 1 2 0 4 Shawn Bradley 30 7-10 0-0 3-4 17 1-5 0 0 4 2 4 Michael Finley 47 8-20 1-5 4-4 21 2-5 7 2 2 2 0 Erick Strickland 17 3-6 2-2 0-0 8 1-2 2 2 2 3 0 Greg Buckner 24 2-4 0-0 0-1 4 3-6 5 2 4 2 0 Sean Rooks 8 1-3 0-0 0-0 2 1-1 0 1 1 2 0 Hubert Davis 9 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 0 0 0 0 0 Steve Nash 28 2-8 1-5 1-1 6 0-0 8 2 2 1 1 Totals 48 38-92 7-18 17-21 100 13-39 29 13 18 12 12 Charlotte at Dallas (Feb. 3) Dallas opened the game by going up 11-4 with 7:25 left. Charlotte responded with a 11-4 run to go up 17-15 with 4:30 to go. Charlotte led 23-21 after 1. The teams traded leads for the first 5 minutes of the 2nd quarter and the game was tied 35-35 with 7 minutes left. Dallas scored the next 8 points to go up 43-35 with 5:30 left. Michael Finley's jumper at the end of the half gave Dallas a 57-50 lead at halftime. Dallas shot 12-17 FG in the 2nd quarter. Erick Strickland had 15 points in the half. The Mavs built their lead up to 65-54 with 8:15 remaining. David Wesley nailed a 3-pointer and hit a jumper at the end of the quarter, but Shawn Bradley did a long bomb in-bounds touchdown pass to Finley who got the layup at the buzzer. Dallas led 81-75 after 3. Charlotte opened the 4th quarter ice cold and could not stop Finley as he scored 7 straight points. A jumper by Strickland gave Dallas a 90-75 lead with 10 minutes left. Dallas pushed their lead up to 19 at 102-83 with 6 minutes left. Charlotte went on a 9-1 run to make it not a blowout at 94-105 with 3 minutes left, but only scored 2 free throws the rest of the way. Dallas won 106-96. Charlotte only shot 3-15 FG in the 4th quarter and were 1-9 at one point and 12 of their points in the quarter came from free throws as the whistles were friendly to Charlotte. Charlotte was able to stay in the game for most of the way by shooting 33-43 FT while Dallas shot 23-29 FT. The Mavs won by shooting _much_ better than Charlotte - 53.3% to 37% - a good thing too as the Mavs only had 3 offensive rebounds. And, despite Charlotte's height advantage, the Mavs were only out-rebounded by 3 boards (43-46). And the Mavs won despite their second highest scorer only having 7 points (Ceballos). Michael Finley and Erick Strickland were the heros for the game with Steve Nash playing a key secondary role. Finley had 32 points on 11-18 FG and 9-10 FT and Strickland had 23 points including 10-18 FG and 6 rebounds. Nash chipped in 12 points including 5-7 FG and 6 assists. Eddie Jones was "held" to only 21 points including 7-21 FG with the help of defensive jobs by Strickland, Greg Buckner, and Finley. Derrick Coleman had a quite 19 points and 8 rebounds and Anthony Mason was a non-factor (or, more accurately, a negative-factor) with 8 points including 1-7 FG, but did snag 8 boards and had 6 assists. Dirk Nowitzki had a fairly poor night, but was driving to the basket with the ball and it didn't look like a strong drive so I was expecting him to put up a floater or soft shot, but he turn up the speed and finished with a two-handed power slam. I think he took everyone by surprise with that one. He gets no respect and the rookie got away with it: Late in the 4th quarter, Baron Davis drove to the basket and dished out to a Hornet on the baseline who shot, but Davis continued to the basket, ran into Shawn Bradley (who was starting to move toward the player with the ball), grabbed Bradley by the waist and pulled him to the ground and continued to have a hold of Bradley while he was on the ground while the shot was made. No call. Quotes Don Nelson: "They're a coach's nightmare with their size. We tried to throw them off balance by changing our defenses, pressing them and trapping them, and I think everything was successful." Nelson: "For us to win this game, we had to shoot the ball and get in the open court. We did those two things. We tried to throw them off balance, changing defenses and pressing them and trapping them a little bit. I think everything was pretty successful, but I think the main thing was we made shots." Nelson: "The last time we played them, they outrebounded us by almost 30. To make it almost even this time [on the boards] is something. We were really scrappy." Erick Strickland: "We got after people, simple as that. We knew they were a lot bigger and a lot stronger than we were, but we never quit." Strickland: "I just felt comfortable and I was ready to go. This was a nice boost for me, and the win was a good confidence booster for the team." Strickland: "They had the size advantage on us so we had to push it and take advantage of our quickness. We needed this win badly. After losing a lead the other night, we wanted to close this one out." Michael Finley: "I just wanted the game to come to me. Against Philadelphia, I was too passive at times and not aggressive enough. I wanted to be more aggressive." Cedric Ceballos: "They kind of panicked and tried to put themselves back in the game with a few [long] shots instead of grinding it out. It was an opportunity for us to get layups and good post ups." Paul Silas: "You have to have more concentration on the road. I've been around this league long enough to know that if I panic, then my players are going to panic. And I'm not going to do that." Silas: "I thought we did a great job on the big people, but the guards just penetrated too much. We really couldn't keep them at bay. We couldn't score and they were breaking us down by scoring. It was a tough game. We knew it was going to be tough." Silas on Finley: "He's capable of these games. He was just on. When he shoots like that, there's nothing you can do. He's made himself into one heck of a player. He couldn't shoot nearly like that when I had him in Phoenix [as an assistant coach]." Eddie Jones: "We were feeling so good at home when we left. We came on the road thinking we were going to continue with it and instead we just fell apart. I'm not really alarmed we've got 18 left on the road. But we can't let people believe they can beat us or let them come into a game thinking they're going to get a win because we're a bad road team." Jones: "We're feeling pretty good about ourselves at home. When we go on the road, we think we are going to continue it. We just fall apart. I'm not alarmed. We can always turn things around. This is our 23rd road game, so we have 18 left. We can't let people think they can beat us when we come in." Dallas Mavericks 106, Charlotte Hornets 96 at Dallas (February 3) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 21 36 24 25 - 106 .552 .375 .533 .793 Charlotte 23 27 25 21 - 96 .415 .188 .370 .767 Halftime: Dallas 57-50 3rd Q: Dallas 81-75 Charlotte's largest lead: 23-19 0:51 1st Dallas' largest lead: 104-85 5:23 4th Technicals: Dallas Illegal D 3:36 2nd, Derrick Coleman 7:09 4th Refs: Bernie Fryer, Jim Clark, Blane Reichelt Attendance: 11,126 (cap 18,187) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Cedric Ceballos 29 2-7 0-1 3-3 7 1-5 2 2 1 1 0 Dirk Nowitzki 23 5-10 0-1 4-4 14 0-4 1 1 4 0 1 Shawn Bradley 23 1-3 0-0 1-2 3 1-8 1 1 4 2 3 Michael Finley 41 11-18 1-1 9-10 32 0-9 4 4 4 2 0 Erick Strickland 42 10-18 0-2 3-4 23 0-6 1 2 4 2 0 Sean Rooks 20 2-5 0-0 1-2 5 1-4 0 1 4 1 2 Steve Nash 26 5-7 1-2 1-2 12 0-2 6 5 3 1 0 Greg Buckner 23 3-5 0-0 1-2 7 0-2 1 0 4 0 0 Hubert Davis 13 1-2 1-1 0-0 3 0-3 2 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 40-75 3-8 23-29 106 3-43 18 17 28 9 6 Charlotte Hornets REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Anthony Mason 41 1-7 0-0 6-7 8 3-8 5 1 2 1 0 Derrick Coleman 32 7-13 0-1 5-7 19 1-8 1 4 5 0 0 Elden Campbell 30 3-7 0-0 5-6 11 3-10 0 0 2 0 2 David Wesley 32 4-12 1-6 3-4 12 0-2 4 2 2 0 0 Eddie Jones 42 7-21 1-7 6-8 21 2-9 2 3 5 5 0 Dale Ellis 8 1-2 1-1 0-0 3 0-0 0 0 1 0 0 Brad Miller 13 2-7 0-0 2-5 6 2-3 1 0 1 0 0 Baron Davis 19 0-3 0-1 4-4 4 0-2 5 1 3 3 1 Eddie Robinson 20 5-9 0-0 2-2 12 2-4 0 1 2 1 0 Ricky Davis 3 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 1 0 0 0 Totals 48 30-81 3-16 33-43 96 13-46 18 14 23 10 3 patricia