All the paper work was finished and Dallas finally formally signed Antoine Rigaudeau on Friday to a 3 year, $1,986,000 contract. The 3rd year is at Dallas' option. He joined the team in Seattle and had his first practice with them on Saturday and is available to play in tonight's game. Dallas (31-6) at Phoenix (24-16) (January 17) The game stayed close in the 1st quarter with Phoenix holding small leads most of the quarter. A 3-pointer by Stephon Marbury gave Phoenix their largest lead of the game at 21-14 with 2:45 left. Dallas scored the last 7 points of the quarter to tie it all up at 23-23. Marbury had 12 points. A hook by Shawn Bradley opened the 2nd quarter and gave Dallas their first lead of the game. A 3-pointer by Walt Williams and a hook shot by Nick Van Exel put Dallas up 36-28 with 7 minutes to go. Dallas' lead got no larger as Phoenix chipped away at it and a thunder dunk by Amare Stoudemire (his only memorable play of the night) tied it all up at 42-42 with 4:15 left. Dallas responded with a 13-3 run to go up 55-45 with 1:25 remaining. Dallas led 57-49 at the half. Dallas was not shooting all that great, but was winning the rebounding war by a large number, including a good number of offensive rebounds. Dallas could not pull away as Phoenix drained 4 3-pointers in the first 5 minutes of the 3rd quarter to stay in the game. Dallas scored 6 consecutive points to take their largest lead at 83-72 with 1:30 left. Dallas led 85-78 after 3. Phoenix scored the first 7 points of the 4th quarter to tie it up at 85-85 with 10:30 to go and it was going to be a battle to the finish. Steve Nash drained a 3-pointer to end the run. The teams traded 2 dunks and Marbury drove for 2 with 7:35 left. 2 more 3-pointers by Nash surrounded a 3-pointer by Marbury and Dallas led 96-92 with 6:15 left. Then it got nasty for Dallas as the Mavs missed 11 of their next 12 shots. Despite the cold shooting, Dallas led 102-99 with 2:50 left after 4 free throws. A jumper by Joe Johnson and 2 free throws by Casey Jacobsen gave Phoenix a 103-102 lead with 2 minutes remaining. The teams traded misses and Van Exel missed a forced shot with 1:12 left. The Mavs intentionally fouled Bo Outlaw, a notoriously poor free throw shooter, but he made 1 of 2 free throws with a minute to go. Adrian Griffin drove to the basket, but Shawn Marion knocked the ball away and Phoenix got possession with 50 seconds left and up by 2. Marion missed a jumper with 27 seconds left, but Outlaw got the rebound and they passed the ball around before Dallas was able to commit the foul. Marbury only made 1 of 2 free throws, but the refs did not call Outlaw's shove on Nowitzki under the basket [and it was a shove, not acting] and he tapped the ball out and Marion grabbed it and was fouled. He hit both free throws to give Phoenix a 107-102 lead with just 13 seconds left. Dallas finally made a basket with 9 seconds left, but Phoenix didn't miss their free throws (4 of them) in the wanning seconds to seal the win. Phoenix won 111-106. It's a team game, but one player really deserves credit for this game - Stephon Marbury. Marbury provided the scoring in the 1st quarter and re-energized his team and kept Dallas from running away with it during the 3rd quarter. Of course, Dallas paved the way for Phoenix's comeback win by shooting just 6-26 FG in the 4th quarter. Dallas' offense was again hurt by players opting to go one-on-anyone during the stretch run instead of playing a team game and being patient for the good shot. And Dallas' defense was again lacking. I'll admit to being very ticked and yelling at the screen for Raja Bell not being inserted during the 4th quarter to try to contain Marbury, as he did at the end of the 1st quarter and into the 2nd quarter, and Dallas instead playing an ineffective zone and Nick Van Exel on the court. For the game, Dallas only shot 38.3% FG (skewed by the 4th quarter - it was 44.1% through 3 quarters) including 9-26 3-pointers while Phoenix shot 38-81 FG including 10-19 3-pointers - and I can't tell you how many of those were wide open, zone-breakers. Dallas did win the rebounding war 50-40 including 19-8 offensive, but did not get the key defensive rebounds down the stretch. With this and the Sacramento loss, Dallas has lost consecutive games for the first time this season. As I said, Stephon Marbury was awesome. He had an opponent's season high 41 points including 15-28 FG and 4-6 3-pointers, 11 assists, and no turnovers in 46 minutes. He gave his team everything they needed. Joe Johnson started bad with a couple of awful shots, but found his shooting touch and finished with 20 points, 9 rebounds, and 5 assists. Shawn Marion chipped in 16 points and 9 rebounds. Rookie Casey Jacobsen had 12 points off the bench and was on the court at the end. Rookie Amare Stoudemire started, but picked up 2 fouls in the first 5 minutes of the game and was ineffective the rest of the game. He had just 8 points and 5 rebounds in 24 minutes. Steve Nash had a terrible shooting night, but tried to keep up with Marbury scoring-wise. Take out Nash's little streak of 3 3-pointers during the duel in the 4th quarter and Nash shot just 6-22 FG. He did finish with a season high 32 points including 10-25 FG and 5-12 3-pointers and 6 rebounds, but had just 3 assists. Dirk Nowitzki also struggled finding the basket in shooting just 5-17 FG including 1-4 3-pointers, but did have 20 points and 14 rebounds - 10 of which came in the 1st half. Nowitzki played all 48 minutes. Michael Finley was quiet with just 13 points (shot 6-14 FG) and 5 rebounds. Raef LaFrentz had a nice outing with 11 points and 12 rebounds including 6 offensive - and another power putback. Nick Van Exel had 11 points but shot 5-15 FG to get that and it included a number of very poor forced shot selections during the 4th quarter. Quotes: Frank Johnson: "Well I hope you guys enjoyed that, I certainly couldn't, not until the buzzer went off. We just hung in there, made plays in the end defensively, to hold a team like this to 38% - that was awesome, absolutely awesome. The defense we played tonight, we changed it up, they countered and we kept changing and I was really pleased with that." Johnson: "If you start looking at individual performances, Stephon Marbury 46 minutes, 41 points, 11 assists, and 0 turnovers - thats pretty damn amazing." Johnson on Marbury: "That was awesome. Certainly just an amazing performance. When it just looked as though we had no energy, no life, he put life into every last one of us." Johnson: "To see the 2 young fellows, Casey and Joe come up big and be in situations like this where they perform because they had been struggling, it just lets you know that they are capable of hitting big shots and making big plays. Jake Voskuhl again came in with great energy and got us going with 6 points, 6 rebounds, some putbacks, and a ton of energy." Shawn Marion: "It was great. Everyone was playing, stepping up big tonight for us, and Steph played big. Of course he got us going. They couldn't deal with him, and I had to put the clamp on Dirk Nowitzki tonight, and it was a great effort by everybody. We came together as a team and won. We pulled it out together." Marion: "Everybody helped defensively. We were helping each other, talking, communicating." Stephon Marbury: "We lost 2 games, so we knew we had to come with a lot of energy. We had to play defense and we had to rebound the ball. In the 1st half, we weren't rebounding the ball as well as the 2nd half. We picked up our intensity, and we went out and played harder in the 2nd half." Marbury: "The first 3 quarters is nothing. The end of the game is where it's at. Not everybody can play in the 4th quarter." Marbury: "That's the best I've seen Joe Johnson play since he became a Sun." Joe Johnson: "It's about time. I feel like I haven't been playing up to my capabilities lately. I've been working hard at practice, but I just came out and hit shots, and it worked out for the best for me tonight." Don Nelson: "They really played well. Our inability to contain Marbury, I thought, was really the difference. Not only does he go for 41 but he also gets 11 assists and was just the dominant guy of the game. We were cold at the wrong time, but yet hung in there and had the opportunity to win. But I thought that one Bo Outlaw push that was not called I thought was the turning point. I hate to complain about the referees, and it wasn't the referees it was our poor play or their good play, 1 of those 2. I thought that was the non-call of the game because it gave them another opportunity and put us in a must-foul mode." Nelson: "They deserved to win." Nelson on Phoenix making their free throws: "We expected it, they are a good foul-shooting team, we expected they probably would but we were in a position where we had to foul." Nelson on Marbury: "No turnovers and a great game like that, you don't really have to look too far to see it was a great game. We were unable to contain him, but we aren't alone. Everyone has trouble containing him. Nelson: "It's tough out here in the west, on the road. We played 2 good home teams and I thought we competed tonight but we didn't do enough to win." Dirk Nowitzki: "Defensively, we're just not getting it done right now. We scored 106 points and that should be enough to win. Sooner or later, we have to find a way to stop some people." Nowitzki on Outlaw's shove near the end of the game: "I felt like I got pushed in the back. I asked the ref about it and he said I flopped. Either way, we didn't lose the game on that play. We had a chance to get the lead back and couldn't get it done." Steve Nash: "Same old story, we didn't play defense. You've got to play defense to win. They played well. They did a good shot. We got tough shots, and they got some good bounces and made their free throws and made some incredible shots. We have to play better defense, though." Nash on Marbury: "He's a heck of a player. He carried his team tonight." Nash on Marbury: "He's the most explosive point guard in the league. When he plays that way, it's going to be tough to beat them." Nash on losing 2 games in a row: "It's disappointing, but maybe this is what we need. Maybe we need to learn a lesson. We need to play better defense." Nash: "If we want to win a championship, we've got to get better defensively. We can't worry about having the best record and all that stuff. We've got to play better defense." Nick Van Exel on Marbury: "You can't get a grip on him when he's going like that. He was feeling it and when he's like that he does pretty much whatever he wants." Phoenix Suns 111, Dallas Mavericks 106 at Phoenix (January 17) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Phoenix 23 26 29 33 - 111 .452 .526 .469 .862 Dallas 23 34 28 21 - 106 .397 .346 .383 .926 Halftime: Dallas 57-49 3rd Q: Dallas 85-78 Technicals: Dallas defensive 3 seconds 4:21 2nd, Dallas defensive 3 seconds 3:08 2nd, Randy Brown 3:52 2nd, Phoenix defensive 3 seconds 4:39 3rd Refs: Danny Crawford, Greg Willard, Pat Fraher Attendance: 19,023 (sellout) Did not play due to injury: Anfernee Hardaway (right thumb surgery) Phoenix Suns REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Shawn Marion 45 6-16 1-3 3-3 16 1-9 1 1 3 1 0 Amare Stoudemire 24 3-6 0-0 2-3 8 1-5 1 2 3 0 0 Bo Outlaw 31 2-4 0-0 2-4 6 2-6 0 0 3 0 1 Stephon Marbury 46 15-28 4-6 7-8 41 1-4 11 0 4 1 1 Joe Johnson 39 6-14 3-6 5-5 20 0-9 5 2 3 2 0 Scott Williams 5 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 1 2 0 0 Casey Jacobsen 24 2-5 2-4 6-6 12 1-1 2 2 4 1 0 Jake Voskuhl 17 3-5 0-0 0-0 6 2-6 0 1 3 0 0 Randy Brown 9 1-3 0-0 0-0 2 0-0 1 1 2 1 0 Totals 48 38-81 10-19 25-29 111 8-40 21 10 27 6 2 Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Adrian Griffin 27 2-8 0-0 0-0 4 3-6 1 1 3 0 0 Dirk Nowitzki 48 5-17 1-4 9-9 20 3-14 4 1 4 2 3 Raef LaFrentz 34 4-8 0-1 3-3 11 6-12 0 1 3 0 1 Steve Nash 41 10-25 5-12 7-7 32 1-6 3 1 3 1 0 Michael Finley 37 6-14 1-3 0-0 13 3-5 2 3 2 1 0 Raja Bell 9 1-3 0-0 3-4 5 0-0 0 0 1 0 0 Nick Van_Exel 27 5-15 1-5 0-0 11 0-4 4 1 3 1 0 Shawn Bradley 11 2-3 0-0 3-4 7 3-3 0 0 1 0 0 Walt Williams 6 1-1 1-1 0-0 3 0-0 0 0 2 0 0 Totals 48 36-94 9-26 25-27 106 19-50 14 9 22 5 4 patricia