Dallas at Philadelphia (October 9 - pre-season) (from listening on the radio) Philadelphia was playing without Allen Iverson, Aaron McKie, Eric Snow, and George Lynch and it showed. Dallas' starters were Steve Nash, Michael Finley, Dirk Nowitzki, Juwan Howard, and Shawn Bradley and the 5 played almost all of the first quarter - the only sub was Adrian Griffin for Nowitzki with just 54 seconds left in the quarter after Nowitzki picked up his 2nd foul (both were offensive). Dallas led 13-7 with 7 minutes left and closed the quarter with a 13-4 run to take a 26-11 lead after 1. Nowitzki had 12 points in the quarter. The refs were emphasising the new 3 second defensive call (each is a technical - no warning, differing from illegal defense) as 3 were called in the 1st quarter and a 4th was called early in the 2nd. The only other defensive 3 second call in the game was called midway through the 3rd. Most of the starters sat for most of the 2nd quarter and the bench pushed Dallas' lead up to 44-17 with 5:40 to go. Then the bench started turning the ball over and missing shots and Philly went on a 12-1 run to pull within 29-45 with 3 minutes left (more points in less than 3 minutes than they had in the entire 1st quarter). Dallas led 50-35 at the half. Dallas shot 52.9% FG and Philadelphia shot 33% FG. With the rested starters back in, Dallas committed 4 turnovers to open the 3rd quarter as Philly scored the first 9 points of the quarter to pull within 44-50 with 9:30 left. What was once a 27 point lead was down to just 6 points. Fortunately Philly was playing just as sloppy as Dallas and the Mavs were able to hang on to a single digit lead. Dallas led 65-60 after 3. Raja Bell had 11 points in the quarter as Philly out-scored Dallas 25-15. The game stayed close in the 4th and Dallas led 79-74 with 5 minutes left when the turning point of the game came. Matt Harpring nailed a 3, but it was disqualified as Michael Smith apparently gave a 2-hand shove to Nash under the basket and the ref whistled a flagrant foul-level 2 (automatic ejection) on Smith. Larry Brown went nuts, got a T, came on to the court and got another T. Nash hit all 4 free throws and it was Dallas ball. Tim Hardaway then drove for 2 to give Dallas a 85-74 lead with 4:41 to go and Philly was never able to recover from the 9 point swing (6 Dallas points and 3 Philly points taken away). Dallas won 96-87. The game was pretty sloppy by both teams. Philly picked up their dismal 1st half shooting in the 2nd half to make a game of it - amazingly they shot 52.3% FG for the game. And there were turnovers all over the place - Dallas had 23 and Philly had an incredibly high 32 turnovers. Not too surprising considering it was the first pre-season game for both teams. It's hard to get a sense of how a player played without actually seeing the game, but some impressions from listening to the game on the radio: Dirk Nowitzki was awesome in the 1st quarter, but did nothing the rest of the game. And he wasn't active on the boards. Juwan Howard and Adrian Griffin were the only ones going after boards. Michael Finley had a very quiet game, despite playing too many minutes for a pre-season game. Steve Nash had a couple of his driving wild shots and was the high assist man at 6 assists. Tim Hardaway only jacked up 6 3-pointers. Shawn Bradley had a good game with 10 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 blocks and a number more affected shots with the inexperienced Philly players. The refs like blowing the whistle on Evan Eschmeyer - the radio announcer said that 2 of his fouls looked like good blocks. Danny Manning, Eduardo Najera, and Donnell Harvey were quiet in limited minutes. Khalid El-Amin did not play, coach's decision and Greg Buckner (strained tendon) and Ruben Wolkowyski (gimpy ankle) did not play. For Philly, Raja Bell was on fire (21 points including 8-11 FG and 3-3 3-pointers) and Matt Harpring also had 21 points including 9-14 FG. Dikembe Mutombo had just as many 3 second calls (2 defensive and 1 offensive) as rebounds (3) and didn't score. Robert Traylor didn't sound like he had a good game, but his numbers ended up being decent at 14 points and 10 rebounds. Quotes Don Nelson: "We're just trying out different combinations, trying to blend the veterans with the young guys." Nelson on the difference between this pre-season and last year's pre-season: "There's less emphasis [on wins] because we're better and we know what we can do. [Last season] we needed to get that confidence that we were a good team." Steve Nash: "The big start really helped us because we were terrible in the 2nd half." [Larry Brown did not speak to the media after the game.] Assistant John Kuester on Brown's ejection: "Coach is somebody that is always going to stick up for his players whether it's Allen Iverson or Michael Smith, a guy trying to make the team." Kuester on the injured 76ers: "You're looking at 4 integral pieces missing. The thing I know Coach is pleased with is the young guys played so hard." Speedy Claxton: "We played hard. It's a big adjustment. We know what the other guys can do. We're trying to get some chemistry with the new guys." Dallas Mavericks 96, Philadelphia 76ers 87 at Philadelphia (October 9) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 26 24 15 31 - 96 .508 .214 .455 .767 Philadelphia 11 24 25 27 - 87 .508 .667 .523 .714 Halftime: Dallas 50-35 3rd Q: Dallas 65-60 Technicals: Dallas defensive 3 seconds 9:01 1st, Philadelphia defensive 3 seconds 7:42 1st, Philadelphia defensive 3 seconds 2:37 1st, Dallas defensive 3 seconds 11:10 2nd, Donnell Harvey 0:33 2nd, Robert Traylor 0:33 2nd, Philadelphia defensive 3 seconds 5:07 3rd, Larry Brown 4:41 4th (2 Ts, ejected) Flagrant fouls: Michael Smith 4:41 4th (level 1, ejected) Refs: Ronnie Nunn, Sean Corbin, Tony Brothers Attendance: 16,835 (cap 20,444) Did not play due to injury: Greg Buckner, Allen Iverson, Aaron McKie, Eric Snow, George Lynch Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Juwan Howard 36 5-13 0-0 0-0 10 5-10 2 3 3 1 0 Dirk Nowitzki 23 6-15 1-4 3-3 16 0-0 1 3 4 2 0 Shawn Bradley 24 4-6 0-0 2-2 10 1-5 1 3 2 2 3 Michael Finley 32 4-11 0-2 4-5 12 1-3 1 2 1 1 0 Steve Nash 29 3-8 0-1 6-6 12 1-3 6 3 2 1 0 Adrian Griffin 28 3-5 0-1 3-4 9 4-7 1 1 1 1 1 Evan Eschmeyer 14 2-2 0-0 1-3 5 4-4 1 2 4 1 1 Tim Hardaway 24 4-10 2-6 3-4 13 0-1 4 2 2 1 0 Danny Manning 19 4-6 0-0 1-3 9 0-0 1 1 3 2 1 Eduardo Najera 8 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 0 2 3 0 0 Donnell Harvey 3 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 1 0 Totals 48 35-77 3-14 23-30 96 16-34 18 23 25 13 6 Philadelphia 76ers REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Matt Geiger 21 3-6 0-1 3-5 9 2-5 1 2 1 1 0 Matt Harpring 33 9-14 0-1 3-4 21 1-2 2 5 3 5 0 Dikembe Mutombo 23 0-5 0-0 0-1 0 0-3 0 4 0 0 0 Raja Bell 33 8-11 3-3 2-2 21 0-2 6 3 4 2 1 Speedy Claxton 44 5-7 0-0 3-5 13 0-4 10 7 2 5 0 Robert Traylor 30 6-10 0-0 2-2 14 4-10 0 2 4 0 1 Cedric Henderson 21 1-5 0-0 0-0 2 0-0 0 2 2 0 0 Michael Smith 5 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 1-2 0 2 2 0 0 Corey Benjamin 16 2-5 1-1 2-2 7 0-2 0 3 4 0 0 Alvin Jones 7 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1-3 0 1 5 0 1 Samuel Dalembert 6 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-2 1 0 0 0 1 Ira Bowman 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 1 0 0 Totals 48 34-65 4-6 15-21 87 9-35 20 32 28 13 4 patricia