Houston at Dallas (January 3) The teams played each other pretty evenly in the 1st quarter - with Houston shooting very well and Dallas getting most of what rebounds there were. Hakeem Olajuwon had 10 points and Jamal Mashburn had 9 points. 27-26 Houston. For a change, the refs let the players play. There was only 1 free throw in the entire quarter. The 2nd quarter saw Sam Cassell go bonkers. He scored 9 points in the first 4 minutes of the quarter. The Mavs were really having problems with Olajuwon. Lorenzo Williams was not able to guard him effectively and the double team was usually late in coming. Plus, once again, they were doubling off the point and Cassell had the hot hand. Houston continued to shot well. Houston went on an 18-6 run to end the quarter. 58-45 Houston. Cassell had 14 points in the quarter and 16 for the half, including 7-11 FG. Olajuwon had 17 points including 8-14 FG and 8 rebounds and Robert Horry had 9 points. Jim Jackson had 12 points, Mashburn 13 points, Jason Kidd 5 points, and Popeye Jones had 6 points and 6 rebounds. Houston shot 59% FG and Dallas 45% FG. Houston also shot 5-9 3-pointers. Houston started the 3rd quarter strong and built up a 17 points lead. Dallas cut that down to 12 4 minutes into the quarter to 64-52 Hou. Dallas continued to whittle away at the lead and got it down to a 5 point lead. Houston ended the 3rd with a 21-9 run. 85-68 Houston. Houston built there lead up to 20 points and it looked to be a blow-out. It was 95-75 with 9:29 left. But the Mavs weren't dead yet. They made another run (it was a game of runs) and cut Houston's lead all the way down to 7 with 5:45 left. They traded a couple of baskets and Olajuwon got his 5th foul. A 19-4 Dallas run had cut Houston's lead down to 99-94 with 4 minutes left. Dallas made a couple of mistakes and misses and Olajuwon took advantage and built it up to 103-94. Olajuwon scored 10 straight points for Houston, including 6 free throws. Houston won 110-98. The rematch is Thursday night in Houston. Hopefully, the Mavs will have figured out some way of defending Olajuwon by then. Interesting to note, the Mavs have had more sell-outs than the World Champion Houston Rockets. [Okay, yeah, Houston management jacked up the prices ridiculously.] 1 2 3 4 Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Houston 27 31 27 25 - 110 .540 .692 .566 .938 Dallas 26 19 23 30 - 98 .453 .250 .429 .786 Halftime: 58-45 Houston 3rd Q: 85-68 Houston Technicals: None Officials: Joe Crawford, Bill Spooner, Tim Donaghy (rookie ref - fresh from the CBA) Attendance: 17,502 (sell-out) Houston Rebounds Player Min FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA Pts Off Def Tot Ast PF Stl TO Blk Carl Herrera 27 2-4 0-0 0-0 4 2 1 3 2 4 1 5 0 Robert Horry 44 6-8 2-2 4-4 18 0 4 4 0 1 4 0 2 Hakeem Olajuwon 40 16-28 0-0 9-10 41 3 10 13 2 5 1 5 5 Vernon Maxwell 36 3-10 0-2 0-0 6 1 1 2 6 2 5 3 0 Kenny Smith 17 4-6 4-4 2-2 14 0 2 2 3 2 1 2 0 Sam Cassell 31 8-14 2-3 0-0 18 0 0 0 6 1 3 1 0 Pete Chilcutt 25 3-3 1-1 0-0 7 4 1 5 1 1 0 2 0 Zan Tabak 6 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 Mario Elie 14 1-2 0-1 0-0 2 1 1 2 0 0 0 0 1 Totals 240 43-76 9-13 15-16 110 11 21 32 20 17 15 18 8 Dallas Rebounds Player Min FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA Pts Off Def Tot Ast PF Stl TO Blk Jamal Mashburn 39 7-14 1-3 4-4 19 2 0 2 2 1 0 3 0 Popeye Jones 31 4-12 0-0 0-0 8 6 4 10 0 1 0 3 0 Lorenzo Williams 14 1-4 0-0 0-0 2 3 1 4 1 4 2 0 0 Jason Kidd 43 2-15 1-6 1-1 6 4 2 6 11 1 4 5 0 Jim Jackson 48 11-25 1-3 4-6 27 5 3 8 5 2 1 3 0 Roy Tarpley 34 10-20 0-0 0-0 20 5 7 12 2 3 3 1 1 Lucious Harris 5 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 Doug Smith 15 4-4 0-0 1-2 9 2 1 3 1 1 0 2 0 Terry Davis 11 2-3 0-0 1-1 5 1 2 3 0 4 1 0 1 Totals 240 42-98 3-12 11-14 98 28 20 48 23 18 12 18 2 patricia