Orlando at Dallas (January 18) The mismatch was obvious from the start. Shaquille O'Neal at 7'1" and 301 pounds vs Lorenzo Williams at 6'9" and 200 points. Roy Tarpley did not play again due to tendinitis in his knees. Both teams started shooting well in the first 2/3rds of the game. Dallas built up a small lead (8 points or so), but Orlando came back and the teams traded leads midway through the quarter. Mavs misses and turnovers lead to a 12-2 run over the last 2 1/2 minutes by Orlando including 8 points by O'Neal (2 consecutive dunks) and 2 by Nick Anderson. Orlando was up after 1 32-23. O'Neal had 14 points on 7-8 FG, 3 rebounds, and 1 block, Jamal Mashburn had 10 points, and Popeye Jones had 7 rebounds. Dallas started the 2nd quarter with a 7-0 run to cut Orlando's lead down to 36-33 with 8:20 left. 4 of those points came from Doug Smith and 3 from a 3-pointer by Morlon Wiley. Orlando built their lead back up to 9 over the next 3 minutes. A 3-pointer by Brian Shaw pushed the lead up to 12 points. With a 15 point lead, Orlando was shooting 66% FG and Dallas 32% FG for the quarter. Overall, Orlando's run was 17-3, including 8 points by Shaw and 5 by O'Neal, to give them a halftime lead of 59-46. O'Neal had 23 points including 11-14 FG and 6 rebounds, Shaw had 8 points all in the 2nd quarter, Mashburn had 8 points and 12 rebounds, and Smith had 7 points all in the 2nd quarter. For the half, Orlando was shooting 62% FG and Dallas 41% FG. Orlando maintained a 15-17 point lead through most of the 3rd. The Mavs cut into that lead towards the end of the quarter and it was 73-62 Orlando with 2:25 left. A free throw by Jim Jackson (and 1 miss), an Orlando turnover, a 3-pointer by Wiley, 2 by Shaw, 2 Orlando misses, 4 Mashburn points, and a partridge in^K^K^K^K^K^K^K^K^K^K^K^K 3-pointer at the buzzer by Shaw that hit nothing but the bottom of the net closed out the quarter. 78-70 Orlando. Orlando was up by about 9 through the first 2 minutes of the 4th. Jackson had 4 points and Wiley another 3 to bring Dallas within 85-81 with 8:13 left. The 7-0 run was sparked by 2 turnovers by O'Neal (travel and 3-seconds). Dennis Scott hit a 3-pointer and Orlando built their lead to 11 points. It was 94-83 Orlando with 5:57 remaining. The Mavs went on another small run, keyed by Orlando misses, and it was 95-88 Orlando with 3:45 left. O'Neal drove for a lay-up and Williams' 6th foul. He missed the extra, but the rest was just academic. Orlando won 108-97. Orlando shot 58.8% (47-80) for the game. Sheesh. The Mavs shot a respectable 45.9% FG (38-85) (including an incredible for the Mavs 58.3% (7-12) 3-pointers) Morlon Wiley had a great performance off the bench with all of his 3s. He had 14 points including 4-6 3-pointers (he didn't attempt any 2-pointers). Popeye Jones had an incredible 19 rebounds, including 9 offensive, but shot poorly. He had 10 points on 5-16 FG in 40 minutes. Jamal Mashburn shredded his shooting slump and had 29 points in 43 minutes. Jim Jackson started the game shooting poorly (something like 2-10 in the 1st half? quarter? - I can't remember), but finished respectably with 23 points on 9-21 FG and the other assets of his game were there with 7 rebounds and 7 assists in 48 minutes. Doug Smith and Terry Davis contributed nicely off the bench in the 2nd quarter. The point guard matchup wasn't as great as one would have hoped for. Jason Kidd had 6 points on 3-6 FG, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals, and 7 turnovers in 32 minutes. Anfernee Hardaway had 12 points on 6-12 FG, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, and 4 turnovers in 34 minutes. Shaquille O'Neal, as expected, was incredible. He had about 4 power slams and scored 13 of Orlando's last 20 points. He had 42 points on 17-25 FG and 8-13 FT, 10 rebounds, and 4 blocks in 38 minutes. If O'Neal was the star then Brian Shaw was second billing. His 3-pointers killed us. Shaw had 13 points on 5-9 FG and 3-4 3-pointers, 7 rebounds, 8 assists, and 4 steals in 30 minutes. Quotes: Dick Motta, before the game, on how the Mavs were going to contain O'Neal: "I don't know." (He then expanded on it a little bit, but the first part and pause was funny.) Brian Hill: "It was obvious that we made a major point of the mismatch we had inside. That's where we were going. And when they did double-team, Shaq was able to kick the ball out for the open shot." O'Neal: "We got the inside game going in the first half. All my shots were falling in the first half. The thing about them is, not too many teams have come in here and gotten a win. They're starting to put it together, and they are going to be tough." Jackson: "They've got the big fellow in the middle. We wanted to go out there and double on him, but Brian Shaw starting shooting those 3-pointers and that hurt a lot." 1 2 3 4 Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Orlando 32 27 19 30 - 108 .600 .500 .588 .563 Dallas 23 23 24 27 - 97 .438 .583 .459 .571 Halftime: 59-46 Orlando 3rd Q: 78-70 Orlando Technicals: Orlando illegal D 3:26 3rd Refs: Ron Garretson, Sean Corbin, Bob Delaney Attendance: 17,502 (sell-out) Orlando Rebounds Player Min FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS OFF TOT AST PF STL TO BLK Donald Royal 18 4-6 0-0 0-0 8 1 5 2 3 0 1 0 Horace Grant 36 7-13 0-0 1-1 15 1 5 2 1 0 1 0 Shaquille O'Neal 38 17-25 0-0 8-13 42 1 10 2 2 0 3 4 Nick Anderson 38 4-8 1-3 0-0 9 0 1 10 1 2 2 0 Anfernee Hardaway 34 6-12 0-1 0-2 12 5 7 6 4 1 4 0 Brian Shaw 30 5-9 3-4 0-0 13 0 7 8 2 4 2 0 Tree Rollins 4 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Anthony Bowie 7 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 0 1 0 1 0 2 0 Dennis Scott 17 2-3 1-2 0-0 5 0 0 2 4 0 1 0 Anthony Avent 18 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 2 3 2 2 0 1 1 Totals 240 47-80 5-10 9-16 108 10 39 34 20 7 17 5 Dallas Rebounds Player Min FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS OFF TOT AST PF STL TO BLK Jamal Mashburn 43 13-25 2-4 1-2 29 1 2 4 1 1 3 0 Popeye Jones 40 5-16 0-0 0-2 10 9 19 1 5 0 2 0 Lorenzo Williams 23 0-0 0-0 2-2 2 1 3 2 6 0 1 1 Jason Kidd 32 3-6 0-0 0-0 6 0 7 5 2 3 7 0 Jim Jackson 48 9-21 1-1 4-7 23 3 7 7 1 1 2 1 Morlon Wiley 16 4-6 4-6 2-4 14 0 0 3 1 1 1 0 Donald Hodge 16 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 Doug Smith 11 2-5 0-0 3-4 7 1 1 1 2 0 0 0 Terry Davis 11 3-4 0-1 0-0 6 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 Totals 240 39-85 7-12 12-21 97 16 41 23 19 6 16 2 patricia