Utah at Dallas - game 3 (April 28) The game stayed close early on and Utah had an 18-13 lead with 4:50 left. John Stockton sat for the rest of the quarter with 4:55 remaining due to foul trouble. Dallas then went on an 18-2 run, capped by a 3-pointer by Dirk Nowitzki, to go up 31-20, with a minute remaining. A jumper by Danny Manning with 40 seconds to go was the last points of the quarter. It was amusing to see Olden Polynice (who struggles mightly with free throws) throw up a 33-foot jumper at the buzzer - it was at least 5 feet short. Dallas led 31-22 after 1. Nowitzki had 16 points and Karl Malone had 9 points. Dallas shot 7-7 FT and Utah shot 1-2 FT. Manning scored the first 4 points of the 2nd quarter and then Utah missed their next 9 shots, but Dallas was only able to score 5 points. Dallas led 38-32 with 4:30 remaining and Dallas scored the next 6 points to go up 44-32 with 2:40 left. Malone threw up a 3-pointer at the end of the half and it went in. Dallas led 51-43 at the half. Manning had 10 points in the 2nd quarter and Nowitzki had 24 points in the half. Michael Finley only had 3 points. Dallas led 56-47 with 9:40 to go and Utah went on a 9-1 run to pull within 57-58 with 5:45 left. Dallas was able to hang on to small leads. Steve Nash and Stockton bumped heads with 6:45 remaining and Nash had to leave the game to get 7 stitches in his forehead. He returned for the start of the 4th quarter. Howard Eisley (how has been MIA for sometime) actually filled in nicely while Nash was out and all of his 7 points came in the quarter. A jumper by Bryon Russell tied the game at 65-65 with 1:30 remaining. Dallas closed the quarter by scoring the last 7 points of the quarter, capped by a 3-pointer by Howard Eisley with less than a second left. Dallas led 72-65 after 3. Malone had 11 points, Donyell Marshall had 9 points, and Russell had 2 points for all of Utah's 22 points in the quarter while 6 Mavs players scored for Dallas. Dallas led 76-65 with 11:10 left and Utah went on a 7-1 mini-run to pull within 72-77 with 7:40 remaining. Juwan Howard scored the next 4 points as David Benoit was trying to guard him and Nowitzki hit 2 free throws to give Dallas an 83-72 lead with 6:25 to go. But Utah scored the next 7 point and Dallas' lead was only 84-80 with 4:50 left. The teams traded 2 points, Nowitzki hit a jumper, and [deja vu to game 1] Manning drained a clutch 3-pointer to cut Dallas' lead down to just 3 points. Malone hit 2 free throws with just over 2 minutes left and Finley drove for a layup and was fouled. He miss the free throw though and Dallas led 90-87 with 1:50 remaining. Stockton missed a layup with 1:30 left and Nash's pass to Nowitzki bounced off his shin and out of bounds. Stockton dished to Malone inside and he was fouled. Malone made both free throws with 1:03 to go and Dallas only led 90-89. Howard missed a 15-foot jumper and Marshall got the rebound and the ball to Stockton, who pushed the ball up quickly and drove for the layup to give Utah a 91-90 lead with 34 seconds left - their first lead since the 1st quarter. But Nash came right back and drove to the baseline, stopped, spun, and nailed the 10-foot fade away jumper with 23 seconds left. Stockton drove, got under the basket as Shawn Bradley stepped over to help, and Stockton's pass to an unexpecting Marshall bounced off Marshall's hands and Finley got the ball and was fouled. Finley hit both free throws to give Dallas a 94-91 lead with just 8 seconds left. Utah called timeout and advanced the ball to halfcourt. The ball was inbounded to Stockton, who forced the quick 3 (5 seconds left) and it bounced off the back of the rim and Nash ran down the rebound and Utah let time expire. Dallas won 94-91. Utah leads the best of 5 series 2-1. Game 4 is Tuesday at 8:30 on TBS. Yeaaaaa! I was pumped. It would have been nice if the Mavs held their nice lead in the 4th, but I'll take a win when Michael Finley only has 8 points and shots 2-14 FG and I'll especially take _any_ win when a loss means going home for the summer. The Mavs did do what they needed to in this game - stop complaining about the refs and go back to their game. Dallas played more aggressively and had 16 fast break points including 9 in the 2nd half. That might not sound like much for this team, but there were only 7 fast break points for Dallas in game 2 and none in the 2nd half. It was easier for Dallas not to bother with the reffing as the officiating was much better than games 1 and 2. Dallas even had a rare advantage there. I'm sure Utah fans feel the officiating was extremely lopsided (hee, now you know how we felt in the first 2 games) as Utah was called fro 30 fouls and Dallas 15 fouls, but it wasn't that bad as there were a number of calls that did go Utah's ways (the refs fell for flops by Malone and Russell). Dallas had a huge advantage from the free throw line as they shot 26-30 FT and Utah shot 8-11 FT. But Dirk Nowitzki shot 13-14 free throws himself and he was really aggressive taking the ball inside and got fouled on a 3-point attempt. The Mavs also benefited from Utah's 17 turnovers while Dallas only committed 11. The teams still needs to work on their assists - only 15 in this game. The game was actually won in the 1st quarter as Dallas out-scored Utah 31-22 - the only quarter Dallas out-scored Utah. Utah out-scored Dallas by 1 point in the 2nd, 1 point in the 3rd, and 4 points in the 4th. Two heros for this game: Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash. Nowitzki finally came out of his slump and had a monster game with 33 points including 13-14 FT and 10 rebounds. He was aggressive in going at the basket and looking for his shot - no hesitation in this game. Nash had 12 points over a 13 minute span of the 2nd and 3rd quarters, capped by an incredible behind the head flip layup, before leaving to get stitches. And, of course, the clutch turnaround, fadeaway baseliner to put Dallas back up with 23 seconds left. He finished with 16 points and 7 assists. Juwan Howard had a very good game with 18 points and 11 rebounds and hopes that Utah puts David Benoit on him some more (Dallas did have Bradley and Nowitzki on the court at the same time, which is why Benoit was on him). Michael Finley had a _terrible_ game as nothing was going for him. He rose and snagged an offensive rebound next to the basket and missed the gimme - it was that bad of a game. He did hit a key layup with 2 minutes left (but missed the extra free throw) and 2 free throws with 8 seconds left. That's half of his 8 total points. Ouch. He shot 2-14 FG. Ouch. Shawn Bradley contributed well with 10 points (including a great behind the head dunk) and 10 rebounds in foul limited minutes. His defense on Malone was effective. There was a Howard Eisley sighting and he actually did a couple of things positive while filling in while Nash was getting stitches. Eisley had 7 points including 2-7 FG (I didn't say it was a great game) and 0 assists. Calvin Booth (2 points, 12 minutes) and Mark Bryant (0 points, 6 minutes) were the only other Mavs to play. For Utah, Karl Malone led the way with 29 points and 11 rebounds. But he only had 4 points on 0-4 FG and 4-4 FT in the 4th quarter as Shawn Bradley did an effective job defending him. John Stockton had his first _ever_ triple-double with 12 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists. His previous high for rebounds was 9. He was limited somewhat by foul trouble. Donyell Marshall had 17 points and 8 rebounds and Bryon Russell had 14 points, 8 rebounds, and 5 assists. Danny Manning had 19 points off the bench - the only Jazz bench player to score. Jacque Vaughn, David Benoit, Greg Ostertag, John Crotty, and starter Olden Polynice all had donuts. Only 5 Jazz players scored in the game. Besides the disparity between fouls and free throws, Utah players and fans were complaining about Shawn Bradley's flagrant foul with 6:40 left in the 1st quarter. Bradley had been knocked to the ground by Donyell Marshall on a hard pick with no call and Bradley got up and went towards the basket as Karl Malone blew by Dirk Nowitzki baseline. As Malone went up, Bradley made contact with Malone and his arms connected with Malone's head. The refs, correctly, called it a flagrant foul. I had to laugh when I heard that some wanted Bradley ejected for the foul (and those that have been saying that Dallas has been whining should read the Utah papers' articles about this). It was just a hard foul, not a flagrant level 2 (and, no, I didn't think Olden Polynice's foul in game 2 was a level 2 either). It was Bradley's 3rd foul and he sat until the 2nd half. Hopefully it is only a 1 game slump for Michael Finley and he, Nowitzki, Nash, and Howard will have stellar games for game 4 - it would be nice to let the world see how well this team can really play. I'm looking forward for a great game on Tuesday in rocking Reunion Arena! Go Mavs! Quotes Don Nelson: "I am very, very pleased that we found a way to win this game. It's a very impressive win for us." Nelson: "It's a very impressive win for us. We had a sub-par performance from Michael - our best player. I am very, very pleased that we found a way to win this game." Nelson on not calling a timeout after Stockton's layup: "Once their defense is set in the halfcourt, it's very difficult for us to score. We got a really good shot. That was huge." Nelson on Nowitzki: "He needed to do two things. He needed to stop complaining about not getting calls and he needed to play with more confidence. This crowd gave him confidence tonight. And he did the other part that we asked him to do and just go out and play and be the great player that he is." Nelson on Nowitzki: "I was so happy that he had a great game. He did what we asked him to do over the last couple of days, and that's just concentrate on playing and not worry about if you're getting the calls or not getting the calls. Just play." Nelson on the Nash-Stockton match-up: "It's really interesting. It's the young and the old, a really promising young guard playing against one of the best ever. It's been real enjoyable for me to watch that match-up. It's been a real good one all 3 games. Steve has done a great job of hanging in there. I don't think you would say he is better than John Stockton, but he sure is battling him. By the time Stockton is 40, 45, maybe Steve will be better." Nelson on game 4: "I think what we're going to need is not have any of our players have an off-night if we're going to win the next game. We're going to need solid performances out of everybody. So far, when one guy's been up, the other guy's been down. We've had some guys be consistent, but not everybody. When you look at [Utah], they've been more consistent than we have in each of the games. That's going to be a big priority, that we get everybody playing at a high level." Nelson: "This team has never been without confidence. I am not going to let their confidence die. If we would have lost 3 in a row, it wouldn't have bothered us. If we had [lost] and somebody wanted to play us again tomorrow, we would have still been confident. This team is amazing that way. They had a great year by keeping their spirits up. I just don't think anything's going to get us down." Michael Finley on his poor game: "The only reason I was frustrated was because if this was our last game, I didn't want to go out like that. It was good to see the other guys stepping up. I knew my time would come and my shot would fall." Finley: "I'll take a terrible game on my behalf and a win any day. So if it means that I have to shoot terrible for us to get a win, hey, I'll miss 'em all on Tuesday." Finley: "Juwan told me that my time would come, and it came in a way that I wouldn't imagine: on the free throw line. But it came, and I confidently stepped up and knocked them down." Finley: "That's what makes us a dangerous team. On any given night, anybody can step up. And tonight, the other guys did it for us." Finley: "We were being aggressive. That was a good sight to see. We were driving to the basket. We were putting the refs in a position to make calls. If we do that, we'll be tough to beat." Finley: "Our fans gave us a big lift. We fed off their energy." Finley on Nash: "For him to be most effective against John Stockton, you have to be an aggressor toward him. Steve did that. He kept him on his heels, got him in foul trouble. He just attacked. That's what he wasn't doing in Utah. He attacked, but was kicking it out and we were not knocking down the shots. It just made our offense flow a little better." Finley on Bradley knocking down Malone: "It was good to see our big men stepping up and letting them know that any layups tonight would be tough. To make a flagrant foul, that's going to the extreme. But at the same time it set the tone, letting them know that officially it was going to be a struggle for them." Dirk Nowitzki: "I was just trying to be a little more aggressive on the offensive end from the beginning of the game until the end. I was trying to take the ball to the basket a little more, draw some fouls and get to the free-throw line." Nowitzki: "It's been a tough time for me, but there are always going to be ups and downs in your career. I just tried to be more aggressive on the offensive end today. I wanted to play hard. That was the main thing." Nowitzki: "I have worked on my shot lately. I went back to the gym each night and worked out twice a day to get my rhythm back." Nowitzki: "I got a lot of good looks in the first games. I just wasn't knocking them down." Nowitzki: "We know how to beat them now, I think. But they are going to try to end the series, of course, on Tuesday. So we've got to bring our A game if we want to stay in the playoffs." Steve Nash: "We feel it's a different series now. We were more positive, more aggressive. We're more confident and hopefully that will help us next game. Utah is a very experienced team and they are going to come out and play a great next game. I can guarantee that." Nash: "We were aggressive. You know, Dirk especially was aggressive early and that gave us a lot of hope and a lot of light. When he's making shots, that makes it easy for everyone else. We played a better team game today. We beat them to loose balls and that was key." Nash: "We were confident today. We feel it's a different series now." Nash: "In the first 2 games, we took ourselves out of our rhythm. There was too much negative energy. We had to learn to be more mature with that." Nash on his shot after Stockton's layup: "I just knew we needed to counter and we didn't have much time. I just wanted to make a shot. The reaction was, 'Let's get going.'" Nash: "I didn't really have a shot as good as I wanted or a pass back, but I was just aggressive and tried to take it to the basket, [Stockton] cut me off, so I spun and took a turnaround. I thought it was a good shot." Nash on leaving the game to get stitches: "Well, it was unfortunate because it kind of broke my momentum. But, other than that, it was fine." Nash on his gash: "I'm hoping that it scars so I can have a little memento, a souvenir. He's, I don't know, the 1st-, 2nd-, or 3rd-best point guard of all time. To play against him in a playoff series is a great experience for our whole team." Nash: "My head is a little sore, but it's fine. It's just like getting a bruise anywhere else. It feels a little sore." Nash on Finley: "I really wasn't that worried about Michael, because Michael affects the game when he's missing shots. People still had to pay attention to him." Nash: "Even though Michael didn't make the shots he normally makes, he was just as effective spreading the court for us, causing them problems, playing hard, being a leader [and] having confidence. I knew that Michael wouldn't quit playing." Nash on Nowitzki: "Dirk hasn't been down. Yes, he had a tough time in Game 2, but he had a good 4th quarter and some good stretches in Game 1. He's played well half the series." Juwan Howard: "Man, it feels great. I said that in the locker room after the ball game. That it's a great feeling getting my first playoff victory. But not only that, to get a victory here at home. Now I feel, and my teammates feel, that the series definitely has been changed. Howard: "We have confidence and that's what you need. It can take you to another level." Howard: "When Stockton hit that shot, I was like, 'Oh God, tough shot.'" Howard on Eisley: "I know as a player, not to play the last game that has an effect on you. But he was ready to come out and help his teammates." Shawn Bradley: "We had to do a better job of staying mentally focused, mentally tough. We needed this game, big time." Bradley: "We know the Jazz are a quality team. They are a veteran team that always plays well at the end. We knew we had to stay sharp and stay focused for 48 minutes." Bradley on his performance in the game and the crowd: "It's awesome. It's what you dream of as a kid. Playing big games and being a positive factor for your team. It makes all those trips you took as a kid, all those summer camps, all the long hours and the effort seem worth it." Bradley on his flagrant: "He was driving hard, and I was driving hard. They called the flagrant foul, but it was nothing personal. I wasn't going for him intentionally." Bradley: "He broke to the basket hard and I stepped up hard. We collided under the basket. It's happened before with Karl and me, and it will probably happen again." Bradley: "If there's a message taken from that, then so be it. This is a physical game. Bodies are banging into each other, and things like that happen. It's not like I've got a personal vendetta against Karl Malone. I went to his basketball camps as a kid. I've paid him too much money to learn how to play basketball." Bradley: "If a message was taken from that, then I guess so. But the one thing is, it's a very physical game and when everyone is hustling and playing hard, and when bodies are banging into each other - then things like that happen. It was a hard foul, but that's just part of being aggressive." Bradley: "Our job when [Malone's] going to the baseline like that is to step up quick and hard. We kind of met in the middle. It was a hard foul. That's part of the game. But that's what we wanted to do, to play hard, to play aggressive. If there's a message in that, then that's the way it is." Howard Eisley on his 3-pointer at the end of the 3rd: "It was a big shot because we needed it." Eisley on the free throw disparity: "I think we were very aggressive going to the basket and they weren't." Jerry Sloan: "We came in here with the idea to win. It's not easy to get a sweep. Obviously, we would have [liked to], but you can't come in thinking about that. We've got 5 games to try to win the series. This is too good of a team we're playing against. We know that and now everybody else knows it." Sloan: "This game was exactly what I expected." Sloan: "Dallas played well. Nowitzki had a great game. Our guys played well, too. We had our chances to win the ball game, if we had kept doing the right things." Sloan: "You can't beat a team that's athletic if you're going to take all outside shots. When you're old and unathletic, you've got to play smarter than that." Sloan: "We aren't good enough to play against this team when we get 30 fouls and they only get 15." Sloan: "We still had our chances in the ballgame. If we would have kept playing and kept executing properly - we had our chances to win the ballgame, if we had done the right thing. But, obviously, you've got to have a perfect finish, and we did not have a perfect finish." Sloan on Utah's last shot: "We didn't get to the right spots on the floor. We were coming down the floor looking at the clock like we had the lead." Sloan: "It was the last play - the same thing we've [run] about 3 or 4 other times. We just didn't get to our spots quite as quick. John maybe took off maybe a hair too soon, or whatever, but our big people didn't get quite where they should have been to get the play started." Sloan on the Stockton-Nash match-up: "Well, John doesn't think he's going against Nash. He thinks he's going against Dallas. That's his mentality. It always has been. Over the years he's been with us, he's never said, 'give me the ball and let me beat somebody.' He's just trying to play basketball. Obviously, we all know how good a player Nash is and how tough it is for John. They're going to pick-and-roll John to death. It's not something he's never seen, but he's 39 years old. It's just part of the business, part of staying as long as he has. But he's a fighter. He's going to give you everything he has." Sloan on Finley: "I don't think we shut him down. I think he missed some shots. I don't think you shut great players down. I never have thought you can." Sloan on Bradley's flagrant foul: "I didn't have a problem with that. [The refs] called it. [Bradley] had to go sit down. That's the way it should be." Karl Malone: "I hope our mind set is not 'Wait until we get back home.' I don't like Game 5s. Anything can happen in Game 5." Malone on his 28 field goals attempted: "I usually don't like taking that many shots." Malone: "Even when we were down by 3 or 4, we still had opportunities down the stretch. We just couldn't execute." Malone: "Down the stretch, we had our opportunities. We just didn't take advantage of them." Malone: "We still had opportunities down the stretch and I don't think we executed like we should have." Malone on the end of the game: "We were right there. We had them on their heels. But we didn't take advantage of it." Malone on Dallas' free throw edge: "There's been enough whining in this series without me adding to it. They won this game." John Stockton on his turnover with 9.5 seconds left: "I got myself into the air, Donyell made a nice cut and I just didn't make the pass. That's the ballgame." Stockton: "I just drove, got up in the air and tried to find somebody. And I didn't complete [the pass]." Stockton on his last 3-point attempt: "I don't get caught up in if it was or it wasn't [a good shot]. I would have liked to have gotten a better look." Stockton: "They were very aggressive. This game was similar to the other games, [but] maybe our attempts to get the ball inside weren't as good." Stockton on the fouls: "There were a lot of close calls. [Nash's] a physical, aggressive player. I think I'm a physical, aggressive player. Some days you're going to get [the calls]. Some days you don't." Stockton: "We know what we have to do to be a good team. We have to do most of them, but we're not going to win when we do some of them." Stockton on his first ever triple-double: "It means zero. It doesn't mean anything. I'm just out there trying to help us win a ballgame." Stockton on his triple-double: "You go out and just play. You're not out there for the numbers, you're out there to win the ball game." Bryon Russell: "I came with the attitude of winning. We had a couple let downs. They played well. They won the game. Now we've got to come back and try to do it all over again." Russell on Dallas at the end: "They held their poise." Donyell Marshall on not catching Stockton's pass with 9.5 seconds left: "He got stuck in the air, I guess. I was just going in there to try and rebound. I thought he was going to shoot. I should have caught it, but I was really looking to rebound." Marshall: "I just seen Stock in the air, so I tried to go to the rim. I thought he was going to shoot it. He passed it to me at the last second. I wasn't necessarily looking for it - you know, looking up - but I should have caught it." Marshall: "Dirk played with a lot more confidence here than he did in Salt Lake City. He came out firing and he was hitting the shots he wasn't hitting before." Marshall: "They played with a lot more confidence than they did in Salt Lake and [Nowitzki] came out firing." Danny Manning: "They pushed the tempo a little bit more." Manning, who scored 19 points: "It's just a matter of playing basketball. We are very fortunate to have John Stockton and Karl Malone on our team because they create so many problems and give others the opportunities to get open looks. When you have that opportunity, we are supposed to make the shot." Manning: "Dirk is a very talented basketball player. He has a lot of one-on-one moves. He shot the ball well and got them over the hump." Dallas Mavericks 94, Utah Jazz 91 at Dallas (April 28) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 31 20 21 22 - 94 .412 .267 .386 .867 Utah 22 21 22 26 - 91 .486 .333 .459 .727 Halftime: Dallas 51-43 3rd Q: Dallas 72-65 Technicals: Juwan Howard 5:47 2d, Dallas Illegal D 3:20 3rd Flagrant fouls: Shawn Bradley 6:41 1st Refs: Danny Crawford, Ed F. Rush, Scott Foster Attendance: 18,187 (sellout) Did not play due to injury: Greg Buckner (dislocated left kneecap), John Starks ("minor surgery") Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Juwan Howard 45 8-18 0-0 2-3 18 1-11 1 1 3 0 0 Dirk Nowitzki 48 9-19 2-7 13-14 33 3-10 2 2 3 0 1 Shawn Bradley 23 4-6 0-0 2-2 10 4-10 0 1 4 1 0 Michael Finley 45 2-14 0-1 4-6 8 1-4 5 3 1 4 0 Steve Nash 39 6-15 1-3 3-3 16 0-4 7 2 0 0 0 Calvin Booth 12 1-4 0-0 0-0 2 2-3 0 0 2 0 1 Howard Eisley 22 2-7 1-4 2-2 7 0-2 0 2 1 1 0 Mark Bryant 6 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1-1 0 0 1 0 0 Totals 48 32-83 4-15 26-30 94 12-45 15 11 15 6 2 Utah Jazz REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Karl Malone 43 11-28 1-2 6-8 29 4-13 6 5 4 1 1 Donyell Marshall 37 8-14 1-4 0-0 17 4-8 4 5 3 0 0 Olden Polynice 21 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0-1 0 1 2 0 1 Bryon Russell 44 6-11 2-4 0-0 14 2-8 5 0 4 1 1 John Stockton 36 6-11 0-2 0-1 12 2-11 10 2 5 0 0 Jacque Vaughn 15 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 2 1 5 0 1 David Benoit 9 0-2 0-1 0-0 0 0-1 0 0 2 0 0 Danny Manning 25 8-12 1-1 2-2 19 0-2 0 3 5 1 3 Greg Ostertag 6 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 1-3 0 0 0 0 0 John Crotty 4 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 2 0 0 0 1 Totals 48 39-85 5-15 8-11 91 13-49 29 17 30 3 8 patricia Go Mavs!