Sean Rooks on his trade to Minnesota for a 1st round draft pick: "Last Year, I was a trade rumor all year. It seemed like they practically wanted to give me away for doggy biscuits. So this is kind of nice." Some more notes from the New Jersey - Dallas game: It was the Mavs first season-opening victory since 1987. And the Mavs are above .500 (1-0) for the first time since November 20, 1990 (5-4). The Mavs' first home victory last season came on January 29, 1994. Jackson's 37 points tied his career high. [Since this game is already 3 days old and the Mavs are about to play their second game, I'm just going to include my initial reaction to the game instead of writing a new game summary. This was written about 11:00 Saturday night.] Oh man, was that ever FUN! Reunion (officially) sold out and was rocking. They led the _whole_ game. Kidd was awesome. Yeah, he missed a couple of easy baskets, but - oh wow - those assists were incredible. Two of his spectacular passes that didn't end up resulting in 2 points were loudy cheered. He nearly got a triple double - 10 points, 11 assists, and 9 rebounds. And Mashburn, oh he was just scoring at will in the first quarter - he had 17 points in the 1st. He didn't get too many minutes in the 2nd and when he came in the game in the 2nd half, New Jersey had learned their leason and doubled down on Mash. So Jackson took off in the 2nd half. Jackson ended up with 37 points of which probably about 12 came in the 1st half. Mashburn finished with 30 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 steals. This game was a blast. I could make a highlight film from it. Mashburn had some incredible moves, Jackson made some great plays, everybody was hustling, Kidd was throwing the ball where ever he wanted to, Dumas had two spectacular jams, Kidd had a fast break jam, Kidd tricked New Jersey driving to the lane, Mashburn flew and spinned past his unworthy defender, it was a blast! NBA basketball has finally come back to Dallas!!! I love it! Dallas 112, New Jersey 103 FG 3-pt FT Reb New Jersey Min M-A M-A M-A Pts O-T Ast TO F Stl Blk Morris 30 2-6 1-2 4-4 9 1-8 1 3 3 0 2 Coleman 40 5-14 1-2 7-10 18 3-9 7 6 2 0 2 Benjamin 16 2-4 0-0 0-0 4 1-2 0 1 2 0 0 Anderson 44 9-20 2-7 10-11 30 1-3 6 2 2 2 0 Edwards 34 4-7 0-0 3-3 11 1-3 2 2 4 1 0 Brown 19 3-7 0-1 1-3 7 2-3 0 0 6 0 0 Williams 15 1-3 0-0 2-2 4 1-3 0 1 4 0 1 Walters 10 2-4 2-3 1-1 7 0-0 1 1 4 1 0 Higgins 10 1-3 0-0 0-0 2 0-2 0 0 4 1 0 Gilliam 22 3-6 0-0 5-7 11 1-4 1 1 3 2 0 Total 240 32-74 6-15 33-41 103 11-37 18 16 34 7 8 FG 3-pt FT Reb Dallas Min M-A M-A M-A Pts O-T Ast TO F Stl Blk Mashburn 38 12-24 1-2 5-9 30 1-5 2 2 2 1 0 Jones 31 5-11 0-0 1-3 11 8-11 3 4 4 0 1 Williams 25 2-3 0-0 0-0 4 2-9 1 1 5 1 2 Kidd 35 3-10 0-1 4-6 10 1-9 11 3 4 3 0 Jackson 40 11-22 0-0 15-17 37 4-6 2 3 1 0 0 Davis 14 0-0 0-0 2-2 2 3-5 1 1 6 0 0 Harris 9 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1-3 1 1 2 0 1 Hodge 21 2-5 0-0 4-8 8 0-2 3 0 4 1 0 Smith 13 1-5 0-0 0-0 2 1-3 1 0 5 1 0 Dumas 8 3-3 0-0 2-3 8 1-1 0 1 0 0 0 Wiley 6 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 1 0 0 0 0 Total 240 39-85 1-3 33-48 112 22-54 26 16 33 7 4 1 2 3 4 Final 2FG% 3FG% TFG% FT% New Jersey 32 28 24 19 103 .432 .400 .427 .805 Dallas 37 30 25 20 112 .459 .333 .455 .688 Halftime: Dallas 67-60, 3rd Q: Dallas 92-84, Dallas' largest lead: 84-68 5:35 2nd Q, New Jersey's largest lead: 5-2 10:31 1st Q, Lead changes 4, Attend: 17,502, Time 2:24, Technical Fouls: New Jersey 2 (Morris 7:24 1st Q, Andreson 4:33 4th Q), Dallas 1 (Hodge 1:51 3rd Q), Officials Jack Nies, Bernie Fryer, Michael Smith. patricia