The Mavs defeated Houston in the first pre-season game last night. Here's my scatter-shooting thoughts about the game. [Since it was pre-season (and I don't have play-by-play of the game), I'm not focusing on the details of the flow of the game like I try to do for regular season games.] Dallas has been working on rebounding??? On defense??? Heck, even their offense looked stagnant. Players were standing around and there was almost no movement. The rebounding was pathetic and the defense was non-existent. The Mavs were down by 9 boards most of the first half and no one had the slightest clue how to provide helping defense, they were having too much trouble simply defending their own man. And the offense was pathetic. There were lots of isolations and one- or two-man plays. And with the isolations, the other players would just stand around. Ugh! The entire game plan needs work. And what was with that 4th quarter - 4 guards and a forward almost the entire quarter? Ya, that's practicing for your usual lineup for the regular season. It was an ugly, ugly, ugly game - thank goodness it was just a pre-season game, and the first one at that. Fortunately, only a few thousand people got to watch that disgusting game. Neither team deserved a win - the Mavs lucked out and got the win. Thank goodness it didn't go into overtime - who wanted to see more of that disgusting stuff? The lone bright spot came from Eduardo Najera. Najera came in during the 2nd quarter with Houston up by about 10 points. He was quiet the first few minutes and then exploded. The Mavs had been getting creamed on the boards, but Najera snuck in and got an offensive rebound and the putback. Next time down the court, he again showed hustle and effort and got an offensive rebound and basket. Houston called timeout and the fans applauded Najera's work. Thanks to Najera's spark, the Mavs came back and the game was tied 43-43 at the half (and they were only down by about 4 boards). Don Nelson reward Najera by starting him for the 3rd quarter in place of the injured Trent and Najera played the entire 3rd, minus the last 40 seconds. He continued his hustle and hard work and quickly became a fan favorite. Most of his 23 points came off his own hard work and not from set plays. He had an impressive dunk where the seas parted and he charged through for the power slam. He fouled out with a couple minutes left in the game and received a standing ovation when he left the court. He snagged 9 rebounds including 6 offensive and shot 9-10 FG. Needs to work on his free throws, though. I mentioned the real bad news above: Gary Trent was injured late in the 1st quarter. He left with a strained groin and did not return. It is not known how serious the injury is or how long he will be out. Nelson says that he will not play Friday. Shawn Bradley came in off the bench (Laettner started) and looked lost at first, but then he started really clicking. He hit a hook shot, got a rebound, hit another shot, stole the ball and then got carried away when he started dribbling down the court - he bounced the ball off his foot and Houston picked up the ball and went past him for an easy layup. Got a good laugh out of that one. One other thing I saw that gave me a warm fuzzy was when Najera had his power slam, Bradley jumped off the bench and stood up cheering him. Bradley finished with 8 points in only 14 minutes. Dirk Nowitzki had a completely off game. It was a night to forget for him. He looked terrible in the first half and, as that usually means, looked terrible the rest of the game. No defense and no offense. Walt Williams ate him alive in the first half. The Mavs did try to post him up a couple of times, but that didn't work (a combo of Dirk's off game and the Mavs' stagnant offense). Michael Finley didn't look good either (no where near as bad as Nowitzki, though). His defense was non-existent and he was eaten alive. He was on the court but not being used much in the 4th quarter. He did get the key tap in near the end and finished with 11 points including 4-12 FG. A fun thing to watch during the game was the Nash-Francis battle. Steve Nash and Steve Francis were going at each other the entire night. Francis got the best of it most of the time, often blowing pass Nash (who got little defensive help), but Nash stuck with him and was constantly challenging him and Nash even blew past Francis a couple of times. Francis had some spectacular plays, but shot a terrible 6-19 FG. Until I heard that he shot only 6-19 FG, I thought he and Najera were the only bright spots of the game. He definitely has the flash and had me "oh"ing a number of times. And what was with Tomjanovich playing him for 40 minutes? This was a pre-season game. Both teams had a number of starters on the court for the 4th quarter - and those players played significant minutes in the quarter. Nash finished with 12 points, 9 assists, 3 steals, and only 2 turnovers. Francis had 17 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, and 6 turnovers. Howard Eisley hit a couple of nice shots. He did a good, but not out standing job. Greg Buckner had 13 rebounds??? I guess someone had to get the rebounds in that 4-guard offense. He got most (all?) of his minutes in the 2nd half. He played good D (as usual) and obviously was active on the boards while playing out of position. Had a laugh in reading the Houston paper's article about the game refer to him as a forward. Christian Laettner did not impress me. I saw lots of madador defense from him letting players drive to the basket. And he needs to crash the boards a lot harder. Donnell Harvey hardly played. Corey Alexander did not show much in the game (and only played 10 minutes) except for one pretty up-and-under baseline drive. Etan Thomas (sprained right big toe) did not play. I assume that the various small injuries for Harvey and Alexander was the reason for their small amount of playing time. If you weren't paying real close attention, you might have missed Hubert Davis. He was actually on the court for 12 minutes (mostly in the 4-guard 4th quarter), but only put up one shot. End game: Michael Finley got a putback in traffic to put Dallas up by 1 with about 10 seconds left. Shandon Anderson nearly lost the ball at mid-court, but got it to Steve Francis who drove for the easy layup with 6.6 seconds left (it was sooo pathetic [the Mavs' not contesting it] that I started laughing). Steve Nash drove to the basket and was fouled with 2.7 seconds left. He hit both free throws. Houston, who was out of timeouts, was able to baseball pass the ball up to Francis, who's 10-footer rolled around and out at the buzzer. Neither team seemed to want or deserve to win. Thanks goodness it didn't go into overtime. Dallas Mavericks 93, Houston Rockets 92 at Dallas (October 10) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 19 24 29 21 - 93 .463 .200 .448 .609 Houston 29 14 25 24 - 92 .393 .214 .360 .854 Halftime: 43-43 3rd Q: Dallas 72-68 Technicals: None Refs: Steve Javie, Blane Reichelt, Bennie Adams Attendance: 8,870 (cap 18,042) Did not play due to injury: Etan Thomas (sprained right big toe), Jamal Kendrick (bruised calf), Carlos Rogers Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Gary Trent 9 3-7 0-0 0-0 6 1-3 0 1 1 0 0 Dirk Nowitzki 24 1-7 0-0 0-2 2 0-4 0 2 2 1 1 Christian Laettner 25 3-6 0-0 2-2 8 0-1 1 2 4 1 0 Michael Finley 34 4-12 1-2 2-2 11 0-2 3 2 4 1 0 Steve Nash 31 5-11 0-3 2-2 12 1-4 9 2 4 3 0 Courtney Alexander 10 1-5 0-0 0-0 2 0-2 0 0 2 0 0 Howard Eisley 28 4-7 0-0 3-5 11 0-3 1 3 2 1 0 Shawn Bradley 14 4-7 0-0 0-2 8 2-3 1 1 0 2 1 Greg Buckner 25 4-12 0-0 0-0 8 4-13 1 1 4 2 1 Eduardo Najera 26 9-10 0-0 5-8 23 6-9 0 0 6 2 0 Hubert Davis 12 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 0-1 1 0 0 0 0 Donnell Harvey 2 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 1 0 0 Totals 48 39-87 1-5 14-23 93 14-45 17 15 30 13 3 Houston Rockets REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Maurice Taylor 29 2-9 0-0 5-6 9 4-9 1 3 4 1 0 Walt Williams 22 1-3 0-1 6-6 8 0-3 2 1 2 1 0 Hakeem Olajuwon 15 0-3 0-0 5-6 5 1-4 0 3 2 1 0 Steve Francis 40 6-19 0-2 5-7 17 4-7 4 6 3 2 0 Shandon Anderson 28 5-10 2-5 1-2 13 3-11 1 4 2 2 0 Cuttino Mobley 35 6-13 1-4 6-7 19 0-4 3 1 2 3 2 Kelvin Cato 11 1-1 0-0 2-2 4 1-2 1 0 4 0 0 Kenny Thomas 19 2-4 0-0 2-2 6 2-6 0 1 2 0 0 Moochie Norris 19 2-5 0-0 3-3 7 2-6 4 1 1 2 0 Jason Collier 9 1-3 0-0 0-0 2 0-1 0 1 1 0 0 Dan Langhi 9 1-3 0-0 0-0 2 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Matt Bullard 4 0-2 0-2 0-0 0 0-0 0 1 1 0 1 Totals 48 27-75 3-14 35-41 92 17-53 16 23 24 12 3 patricia (friggin, stupid, HP compile - well, it's given me time to write this)