Utah at Dallas (December 20) The game stayed close in the first 8 minutes of the quarter as there were 8 lead changes. Utah scored 5 straight points to take their largest lead at 26-19 with 1:15 left, but Dirk Nowitzki scored the next 5 points to close the quarter. Utah led 26-24 after 1. Matt Harpring had 13 points and Nowitzki had 10 points. Dallas tied the game a couple of times early in the 2nd quarter, but could not take the lead. Utah scored 6 consecutive points to go up 43-35 with 3:45 left. Utah led 47-41 at the half. Dallas was shooting terrible about just 37% FG including 4-15 3-pointers while Utah was shooting 48% FG including 2-4 3-pointers. Nowitzki was trying to carry Dallas as he had 18 points. The shooting did not improve for Dallas in the 3rd quarter and Utah scored 8 straight points, capped by a 3-pointer by Mark Jackson, to go up 67-52 with 2:40 remaining. Don Nelson had enough of the poor officiating and was ejected after getting 2 technicals during the run (the 2nd occurring when he walked on the court after another bad call). Scott Padgett hit a jumper at the buzzer to give Utah a 76-59 lead after 3. The Jazz continued to lead in the teens during the 4th quarter. Donn Nelson decided to join his father in the locker room when he collected his 2nd technical for complaining about a bad call and walking on the court. John Stockton hit the technical free throw to give Utah a 85-70 lead with 5:20 left. Dallas finally was able put some points together to make a small run (granted 5 of them came from free throws) and scored the next 7 points to pull within 77-85 with 3:30 left. The teams traded misses and Dallas turned the ball over with 2:50 to go. Stockton hit a jumper, but Nowitzki drove for 2 to keep it an 8 point game with 2:20 left. Steve Nash stole the ball, but then threw it away on the break and what would have been an easy 2 with 2 minutes remaining. Dallas could not recover from the 2 turnovers and Utah scored the next 5 points to put the game away. Utah won 93-81. Dallas continued their poor shooting from the last game and Utah, being a _much_ better team than Denver, was able to take advantage of Dallas' miscues and deal Dallas their first home loss of the season. Dallas was the last team without a home loss. Dallas only shot 33.3% FG and 4-24 3-pointers. Even worse was the fact that Dallas only had 9 assists the whole game - and just 1 in the 2nd half. One the other hand, Utah played a good game and shot 46.5% FG and had 24 assists. Add poor rebounding to poor shooting and you have a recipe for a loss. Utah out-rebounded Dallas 50-37 and Dallas only had 10 offensive rebounds despite their many misses. Not the reason for the loss, but it didn't help things and it should not happen - the officiating was absolutely terrible. Matt Harpring was hitting everything in the 1st quarter and finished with a game high 19 points. Greg Ostertag had a strong game in his home town with 16 points on 5-7 FG and 6-10 FT and 6 rebounds. Karl Malone did not shoot well, but did have a double-double with 16 points on 5-16 FG and 6-11 FT and 12 rebounds. And Calbert Cheaney chipped in 18 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 steals. Dallas basically only got performances out of 3 players. The big 3 combined from 69 points - only 5 points from the other 2 starters and 7 points off the bench. Dirk Nowitzki did all he could with 28 points including 13-15 FT, 17 rebounds, and no turnovers in playing all 48 minutes despite his ankle not being 100%. Steve Nash played well, but his late turnovers hurt. He had 25 points, 5 assists, and 6 turnovers. Nash missed a free throw during the 3rd quarter to snap his consecutive free throw streak at a team record 49 (old was 45 by Rolando Blackman). Michael Finley shot very poorly until he hit a couple in the 4th quarter. He had 16 points including 7-21 FG and 6 rebounds. Adrian Griffin had 3 points and 4 rebounds in 13 minutes, Raef LaFrentz had 2 points and 1 rebounds in 19 minutes, Shawn Bradley had 3 points and 4 rebounds and 3 blocks in 26 points, and Walt Williams had 4 points and 4 rebounds in 20 minutes. Nick Van Exel went scoreless on 5 attempts, had 0 rebounds, 0 assists, 2 steals, and 2 turnovers before fouling out in 26 minutes. Quotes Jerry Sloan on the difference between this game and their last few games: "I think we concentrated a little bit harder on doing things to help each other. On offense, if we executed, we usually got something pretty good, and defensively, they got some baskets off us. But I thought we tried hard to try and help each other. That's how you have a chance to overcome tough times. After losing 4 games in a row and we had chances to win those but we couldn't finish. Tonight we were able to build a big enough lead that we were able to finish the ball game." Sloan: "I think they missed a lot of shots, obviously. That probably helped us a little bit. But I thought our guys concentrated a little bit harder on trying to do things to help each other. That is how you have a chance to overcome some tough times." Sloan: "Every time you get around this time of year, you don't know what you are going to get. When you get to the all-star break, you know what your team is going to be able to do because of different distractions and things happening here and there. I have always felt that, and it has always been pretty much that way. You have to go out and play whatever the situation is because they don't call them off just because you don't think it is a good time to play. I thought we executed pretty well. We tried to get the ball where we wanted it to go and competed a little bit harder. Sloan on Ostertag: "It's amazing. When Greg plays well, it makes a big difference with our team. When he catches, delivers the ball around the basket - it doesn't have to be a lot. But we took him out and you saw what a drop off we had. ... He's important." Karl Malone: "It's nice to come out on the road and get a win. The guys, when they face a little adversity, seem to come together. Every time down the stretch, somebody did something to stop their run. With the exception of one point in the game, we stayed aggressive so we were able to get the lead. It was a nice win for us. Malone: "This was a great team effort on the defensive end. Everybody wants to talk about offense all the time, but that was a great effort on defense." Malone on stopping Dallas: "You just try to contain them. They are steady players, you know their habits. You need to, as much as you can, keep your body on them. You want to try and play them yourself before you holler for help. Our zone worked at the time when we needed it. You got to stay with your guy. If you get beat, which everybody does, guys come over and help or try to get a hand on the basketball. That was a great team effort on the defensive end. Everybody wants to talk about offense all the time, but that was a great defensive effort." Malone on Ostertag: "He likes coming back home too, I guess. Greg did a great job for us." Greg Ostertag: "I've had more confidence this year than I've had in 6 years. I guess I've just got a renewed attitude: I really want to help this team win." Del Harris: "We are obviously disappointed about losing a game and seeing the whole winning streak come to an end. Even though we probably were not going to go 41-0, we wanted to win one more. That has been our approach. Tonight Utah was in a situation with 4 straight losses where they had their backs against the wall. I thought they came and played an outstanding game. They were very strong with their defense. They were intent, focused the entire night to the rebound, loose ball. I felt they played a terrific game." [Don Nelson normally does not address the media following games in which he was ejected.] Harris: "So if we were going to get beat sometime at least it was better to get beat by a team that just beat us and played well. And they did. As for our part, we have played a couple of games here where we haven't shot the ball well and we haven't gotten quite the action off the bench that we need. Hopefully, in another day or 2 when we have to play again, we can re-group and get re-focused offensively and have a better outcome." Harris: "I thought the guys competed hard. We certainly didn't give up. We put ourselves in a position where we actually had a chance. We were down 8 and turned the ball over twice, on the out-of-bounds play and on the break out. Knowing our guys, if we could have capitalized on those 2 possessions and cut it down to 4 points, the history of our players is that they keep on going. I don't think the guys gave up. I want to give credit to Utah, they certainly beat us." Harris: "We had our big 3 cooking. But it takes more than 3." Michael Finley: "They play aggressive defense and contest each and every shot. Tonight the enthusiasm and our commitment to defense weren't there." Finley: "We just didn't play well. When you go against a veteran team like Utah, you have to be more consistent. The coaches felt as if the refs weren't giving us a fair shake. That's their job. Our fault as players was we probably got into it a little too much rather than just playing." Finley on the Nelsons being ejected: "They felt the referees weren't giving us a fair shake. That's their job, if they see something is wrong, they have to contest it. But we as players got too much into critiquing the referees." Dirk Nowitzki: "We just couldn't get over the hump. We got started too late. They're a veteran team that knows how to play with a lead. We were flat offensively and they had more energy." Nowitzki: "There's no excuse for this one." Steve Nash on if they were tired: "I think that's a bad excuse if we're going to lean on that. We really had a chance to rest after the back-to-back and we had a bad performance in Denver and we really needed to come out and play better tonight. I thought our energy was good for the most part. We just weren't really smart with the ball. I threw it away too much and defensively we made too many errors. We just weren't good tonight and we just need to re-group and get everything sorted out." Nash on the turnovers: "That's disappointing. I guess it's going to happen some times, but you definitely hate to give the ball to the other team, especially down the stretch when you're fighting as hard as you can to get back into the game. That's really frustrating." Nash: "You're going to have nights when everyone lacks production. Tonight, none of us were terrific. The bench might have not come through on the stat sheet, but I don't think anyone really came through in this game. We all made our mistakes and all cost our team and that's why we lost, but that's why we have won so many games because we always have a team that rallies around each other and someone always steps up." Nick Van Exel: "When you only have 3 players playing, it's real tough to win. A lot of times, our big 3 can get it done by themselves. But we - the bench - need to snap out of this real quick. I was terrible, but I don't think anybody has lost any confidence." Van Exel on his poor game: "I'm sitting here looking, no assists, 2 turnovers, plus the fouls. It was terrible. I definitely wasn't there tonight. The bench didn't give them anything tonight." Shawn Bradley: "We've come out flat 2 games in a row now. We came out flat against Denver, but luckily we got a win there and tonight we come out flat against the Jazz on our home floor. We didn't get any calls or we didn't deserve any calls because we didn't play with any type of energy across the board. We're going to have to do that to beat good teams. Utah is a veteran team. A very smart team and they took advantage of our lack of energy. Tonight we didn't come to play like we usually do and we got beat. Bradley on the low score: "I'm not too concerned about it. I think we're more concerned about the level of energy we came to play with tonight knowing that scoring is going to take care of itself." Utah Jazz 93, Dallas Mavericks 81 at Dallas (December 20) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Utah 26 21 29 17 - 93 .475 .417 .465 .595 Dallas 24 17 18 22 - 81 .412 .167 .333 .871 Halftime: Utah 47-41 3rd Q: Utah 76-59 Technicals: Dallas defensive 3 seconds 11:50 1st, Utah defensive 3 seconds 2:56 1st, Utah defensive 3 seconds 10:31 2nd, Utah defensive 3 seconds 8:06 3rd, Don Nelson 4:22 3rd, Don Nelson (ejected) 3:08 3rd, Donn Nelson 1:44 3rd, Donn Nelson (ejected) 5:21 4th Flagrants: Nick Van Exel 4:43 2nd Refs: Bill Kennedy, Greg Willard, Michael Smith Attendance: 19,826 (sellout) Utah Jazz REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Karl Malone 41 5-16 0-0 6-11 16 1-12 3 1 2 1 0 Calbert Cheaney 31 8-12 1-1 1-4 18 3-7 3 2 1 3 1 Greg Ostertag 37 5-7 0-0 6-10 16 1-6 4 1 5 1 2 John Stockton 30 1-7 0-2 4-5 6 0-6 7 2 3 1 0 Matt Harpring 37 7-16 3-5 2-3 19 3-4 1 5 4 0 0 Mark Jackson 17 2-3 1-1 0-0 5 1-2 5 1 3 0 0 Andrei Kirilenko 28 1-2 0-1 2-3 4 2-9 1 5 3 1 2 Tony Massenburg 8 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 0-3 0 1 2 0 0 Scott Padgett 10 3-6 0-2 1-1 7 0-1 0 0 3 0 0 Carlos Arroyo 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 1 1 0 Totals 48 33-71 5-12 22-37 93 11-50 24 19 27 8 5 Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Adrian Griffin 13 1-4 1-1 0-0 3 4-4 0 0 2 0 0 Dirk Nowitzki 48 7-18 1-6 13-15 28 2-17 1 0 4 4 0 Raef LaFrentz 19 1-3 0-0 0-0 2 1-1 0 0 4 0 0 Michael Finley 44 7-21 0-6 2-2 16 2-6 1 1 3 2 0 Steve Nash 39 8-16 2-5 7-8 25 0-0 5 6 2 0 0 Nick Van_Exel 23 0-5 0-1 0-0 0 0-0 0 2 6 2 0 Raja Bell 3 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Shawn Bradley 26 0-1 0-0 3-4 3 1-4 0 1 3 1 3 Walt Williams 20 1-5 0-4 2-2 4 0-4 1 1 4 1 1 Avery Johnson 5 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 1 1 1 0 0 Totals 48 25-75 4-24 27-31 81 10-37 9 12 29 10 4 To all who celebrate it, have a wonderful Christmas! patricia