Game 3: Dallas at Portland (April 25) Portland again was without Scottie Pippen and Derek Anderson (Anderson is out indefinitely with a torn meniscus) due to knee injuries. The teams traded 2 points to open the game and Dallas then went on a 14-2 run, as Portland turned the ball over 3 times, to go up 16-4 with 8:10 left. A 3-pointer by Antonio Daniels ended Dallas' run. The physical play of the series continued as Shawn Bradley's arms got wrapped around Ruben Patterson's head after a missed shot and Patterson pulled Bradley to the ground with 3:30. left Both were assessed technicals and Bradley sat after collecting his 2nd personal foul - he had 7 rebounds already. The 2 free throws by Patterson pulled Portland within 14-20 with 3:30 remaining, but Raef LaFrentz answered with a layup and 3-pointer to give Dallas a 25-14 lead with 2:50 to go. 2 free throws by Bonzi Wells capped the scoring in the quarter and Dallas led 30-22 after 1. LaFrentz had 9 points. Dallas shot 12-25 FG and 3-4 FT. Portland only shot 5-16 FG, but was staying in the game with their aggressiveness to the basket that resulted in lots of fouls by Dallas and they shot 11-12 FT in the quarter. Portland hurt themselves by committing 6 turnovers [which was as many as Dallas committed all game]. Dallas' defense was completely ineffective in the 2nd quarter, but Portland's wasn't much better. Neither team could string together more than 4 consecutive points and Dallas' lead stayed in single-digits. A short shot by Arvydas Sabonis pulled Portland within 39-42 with 7:50 remaining, but Eduardo Najera hit 2 free throws and Dirk Nowitzki nailed a jumper to give Dallas a 7 point lead. Rasheed Wallace drained a 3-pointer to pull Portland within 54-57 with 2:10 to go, but on the next play Wallace collected his 3rd foul and he sat for the rest of the quarter. A layup by Patterson and 2 free throws by Dale Davis pulled Portland within 59-61 with 45 seconds left. Nick Van Exel missed, Davis rebounded with 30 seconds to go, but he didn't see Adrian Griffin behind him and Griffin poked the ball away, passed it to Van Exel, and Van Exel passed it to Michael Finley, who drained the open, quick 3-pointer. Zach Randolph tipped in a miss at the half buzzer. Dallas led 64-61 at the half. Nowitzki and Patterson each had 12 points in the quarter. Dallas shot 11-19 FG, but hurt themselves by only grabbing 4 rebounds while Portland had 13. Bonzi Wells, who had a career high 45 points in the last game, shot 0-9 FG in the 1st half. Portland scored 7 straight points to pull within 68-69 with 8 minutes left, but Dallas answered with a 7-1 mini-run and their lead stayed in single-digits. Dallas led 84-77 with 2:10 to go and Portland scored the last 8 points of the quarter to take their first lead of the game at 85-84 after 3. Dallas shot a poor 7-21 FG during the quarter while Portland shot 8-19 FG including 4-7 3-pointers as Portland out-scored Dallas 24-20 in the quarter - Dallas had 30+ points in each of the other 3 quarters. The teams traded 2 points to open the 4th quarter and Van Exel hit a runner and Steve Nash drained a 3-pointer to give Dallas a 91-87 lead with 9 minutes left [Dallas had missed 9 straight 3s before this one went in]. Dallas led 93-96 with 6:50 left and it became the Dirk Nowitzki show as 2 3-pointers by Nowitzki surrounded a free throw by Patterson (his only point of the 2nd half), Sabonis hit 1 of 2 free throws, Nowitzki got a dunk, Portland turned the ball over, and Nowitzki was fouled on the break, got the layup, and made the extra to give Dallas a 107-95 lead with 5:10 remaining - that was 11 straight Dallas points by Nowitzki. And Portland never recovered as they could not string together consecutive buckets the rest of the way. Dallas won 115-103. It was a tightly contested game most of the way, until Dirk Nowitzki blew the game open midway through the 4th quarter. Dallas was on fire in the 4th in shooting 12-18 FG including 4-6 3-pointers while Portland struggled in shooting only 6-18 FG including 0-4 3-pointers. Dallas out-scored Portland 31-18 in the 4th. And it was Dallas' good shooting that won this game (plus Portland's inability to stop Dallas - Dallas also wasn't able to stop Portland, but Portland was unable to keep a strong shooting performance for 48 minutes). For the game, Dallas shot 50.6% (42-83) FG including 13-29 3-pointers and Portland shot 43.4% (33-76) FG including 6-17 3-pointers. Portland again had a large advantage from the free throw line (but it was more warranted than the difference in the last game as Portland was attacking on the inside and Dallas used a lot of jump shots (not that there weren't blown calls/non-calls here and there, but the officiating wasn't terrible)). Portland shot 31-39 FT and Dallas shot 18-21 FT. Portland also out-rebounded Dallas 49-34, but hurt themselves by committing 17 turnovers while Dallas only had 6. Dallas leads the series 3-0 and is 1 win away from advancing to the conference semi-finals. Game 4 is Sunday in Portland at 7 pm on TNT and channel 21. Once again, the hero of the game was Dirk Nowitzki. He was awesome with 42 points on 15-20 FG, 5-6 3-pointers, and 7-9 FT and 10 rebounds. 16 of his points came in the 4th quarter as he shot 6-6 FG including 3-3 3-pointers in the quarter. I don't know how Portland didn't keep a man on him at all times as a number of his shots were from open looks. Portland continued to double Steve Nash on the screen-and-roll, which left Nowitzki open for a couple of seconds. Nowitzki got his first bit of extended rest in this game as he came out with 1:17 left - in the 1st 2 games, he only sat 1 second. And it wasn't just Nowitzki in this game. Nash wasn't scoring well, but he did have a double-double with 12 points including 4-12 FG and 10 assists. Raef LaFrentz had a monster offensive game with 20 points including 7-11 FG and 4-7 3-pointers - with the way he was shooting from the outside, Portland had to respect him and keep a man on him defensively. He only had 4 rebounds, though. Michael Finley had a poor outing, outside a string of buckets at the end of the 2nd quarter, with just 10 points on 4-12 FG. He did have 6 assists, though. Nick Van Exel played a solid game with 14 points (but 0-5 3-pointers), 4 rebounds, and 7 assists. Dallas is 25-6 this season (including playoffs) when he has 5 or more assists; 19-2 when he has 6 or more assists. Shawn Bradley started well with 7 rebounds in the 1st quarter, but didn't do much after that and he tweaked his back when Patterson took him down. He finished with 4 points and 9 rebounds including 5 offensive in 24 minutes. Eduardo Najera, as usual, provided a spark off the bench with his hustle and had 11 points and 5 rebounds in 20 minutes. And Adrian Griffin contributed in the handle full of minutes (5) he played with 2 points and the nice steal. Ruben Patterson led the way for Portland with 19 points off the bench, but he only scored 1 point in the 2nd half. Patterson also had 9 rebounds including 5 offensive. Bonzi Wells had a very poor offensive outing with 15 points on 3-16 FG and 9-12 FT. He did collect 8 rebounds and hand out 6 assists before fouling out late in the game. Rasheed Wallace played frustrated and was plagued by foul trouble. He had 11 points including 4-10 FG and 5 rebounds and 5 fouls (and got away with a 2-handed shove on Bradley early in the game). Damon Stoudamire had 15 points on 6-11 FG and 3-4 3-pointers and 4 assists. Dale Davis played his role with 7 points on 2-2 FG and 3-4 FT and 8 rebounds. Portland got a nice performance from Arvydas Sabonis in limited minutes as he was more than a point-per-minute man with 16 points on 5-7 FG and 6-7 FT in 14 minutes. He also had 4 rebounds, but had 3 fouls [and got away with lots of offensive 3 seconds as he likes to camp]. Zach Randolph had 8 points and 10 rebounds including 5 offensive. Antonio Daniels had 8 points in a starting role. Nicest moment of the night: the 13-year-old young lady forgot the words while singing the national anthem and froze. Maurice Cheeks came over and sang the rest of the anthem with her, with everyone else in the arena joining in too. Quotes: Don Nelson: "It was a sensational game for us. In the 1st quarter we played very well. In the 2nd quarter they made a good run at us. The 3rd quarter was a close quarter, but I thought we were still playing well so I wasn't worried. The Blazers missed some easy baskets in the 4th quarter and we just kept plugging away and played one heck of a game. Raef played very well tonight. I told Raef he had to score the ball. He looked a lot like Nowitzki tonight and he has a Nowitzki type game overall. He is a big difference with our big line up and when he faces the baskets and shoots the ball he is very tough. The 2nd and 3rd quarters were pretty much a layup drill for them. I was disappointed but I got their attention at halftime, and we were pretty darn good in the 2nd half." Nelson: "It was a sensational game for us. We had a little lapse in the 2nd quarter, but in the 2nd half, I thought we were really sharp." Nelson on Wells: "After somebody gets 45 on you, he certainly gets everybody's attention. He was our '#1 Hot Man' as we call it. We tried to make sure that he didn't have open looks and then we had a guy waiting for him on spot-up situations. And I thought also he missed some shots that he normally would make. What ever the reason, we'll take it. I don't want to give us too much credit, but he didn't have the same night, certainly, he had up at our place." Nelson: "I thought it was important that Dirk move the ball in the 1st quarter and I thought the game would open up. That's what I told him and that's what he did. And I wanted him to take it the right way. I still wanted him to be dominant, take his shots. All the great players get his teammates involved where the defense can't key on him and he's starting to learn those lessons. Like I said, there will be a day where he'll be a triple-double guy quite often and he'll be able to hurt you with the pass as well as the shot. His mentality was really good. He kept focus. I didn't like his rebounding in the 1st half. I brought that to his attention and he got 8 rebounds in the 2nd half." Nelson on being up 3-0: "We tell them not to relax and don't take a deep breath and think that everything is just fine. You've got to go out there and play with the same intensity and expect to get a physical game." Dirk Nowitzki on what Nelson said about rebounding: "Well, he got pretty upset with me but ...[dumb announcer talking over him] I had 2 rebounds, Fin had none, Shawn had a couple, but Raef only had 2. So he was pretty upset. We felt like we shot the ball great in the 1st half, but yet we were only up 3. We just didn't rebound the ball. It was all effort points - they got to the glass and laid it back up and they just played a little harder. We said to ourselves, we got out-hustled, but we're still up and it's our game. We just have to hit the glass a little harder, rebound better, and defend and we'll be in good shape." Nowitzki on 3-0: "Oh, it's great. I think we're really playing well as a team now. We're really moving the ball, getting everyone involved. I think the 1st 2 games were huge; keeping our home court, that was really one of our biggest focuses. It wasn't easy. I think even the 1st game, they had us, but they just gave it to us. But we certainly took it and it was great. We wanted to come here and come out with the same intensity as we did at home in the 1st 2 games and that's what we did. We were very focused and I'm glad we got the 3rd win. but they moved it up to best of 7, so this series is not over. We know that we've got to approach game 4 the same way as we did the 1st 3. Come out with the same intensity and we'll see." Nowitzki: "A big key for us is always defense and rebounding. We know we can score on any given night and we have enough scorers out there, enough shooters; we share the ball on offense and we'll be all right. That's what the biggest key all year [was] rebounding. Sometimes we play solid defense and we just don't get the rebounds and give them 2nd chance opportunities. Once we cut that out, it just comes out to being tougher in the paint. Other than that, offensively we should be in great shape." Nowitzki: "It really was nice. I was actually surprised at how open I was. We're moving the ball great and really everyone was shooting the ball well. So they had to attack everyone and chase them off the 3. I thought Raef had a great game for us and they had to rotate to him and Raef really opened all the other shooters up. So I think his game really opened everybody else up." Nowitzki: "I know Steve and Nick are always looking for me. It doesn't matter - sometimes I have off nights, but they're still going to look for me. In transition especially they know that I'm going to run to the 3-point line and spot up there. They always keep their eyes on me. If I'm open, they get it to me; if not, they're going to make the play theirselves and it's just a great chemistry we have and it's been working well so far." Steve Nash: "This position is only great if we take advantage of it. It's really difficult sometimes to remain equally focused as you would be at the start of the series and it's also important that we not take this opportunity lightly and figure we've just got to get 1 out here. We've got to get the next 1 and that's all we need to worry about." Nick Van Exel: "Actually, we pushed the ball when we had the opportunity to. They got a lot of free throws. It was a lot of deadball situations where we had to take our time and set up. But any time we had the opportunity to push the ball, we took advantage of it. I saw Dirk really get open and hit those big 3s." Van Exel on playing point guard while Nash played 2-guard in the 4th: "That was the case because Steve had the hot hand from 3 when he was taking it and I was a little off. So they decided to let me be the playmaker and Steve be the shooter." Van Exel: "It's feeling good right now, but it's a lot of work to be done. But right now, 3-0 against a good Portland team, we'll take it." Van Exel: "I am definitely sure we have broken their spirit a little bit, but they are still dangerous. They have a lot of pride and they are going to be hungry. We don't want to give that team a chance to think they have a chance to get into this series." Van Exel: "My outside shot was not there, so I made it a point to try to get into the lane and get some floaters down. That was my best weapon tonight." Van Exel on Nowitzki: "Dirk is absolutely unbelievable. He shoots 3s where it looks like layups. It's incredible to play with a 7-footer that strokes the ball so perfect." Van Exel on Nowitzki: "Unbelievable. Some of the shots that he makes, unbelievable. If he has just a little bit of space, it's a good chance it's going to go in. He's just an unbelievable shooter." Van Exel: "This is what we're capable of. We have so many weapons on this team. We have a lot of people who can put the ball in the basket. Throughout a 7-game series, it's kind of hard to keep everybody down." Eduardo Najera: "To tell you the truth, we were worried about the 3rd quarter because they beat us the last time we played here in the 3rd quarter. We knew that we had to come and play in the 1st 5 minutes. Everybody stepped it up. I thought everyone played well tonight. And obviously we carried that all the way to the 4th quarter and made big shots. Dirk made big shots in the 4th quarter and that's the reason we won." Najera: "Their role players played very well tonight. Sabonis had a heck of a game. We just played better. We were going after the loose balls. It seemed like we had a little more energy and all the plays to us, rebounds and all that. It was a great victory for us." Najera: "We knew we needed to put them away. it's going to be a tough game again and hopefully we'll beat them again." Najera on Nowitzki: "When he's hitting those shots, that makes everybody's job easier, my job easier. He was wide open and he can go there in the paint. He's just an unbelievable player. Hopefully he will keep that hot hand." Najera on defense: "Especially when we play team defense. When somebody gets beat and then somebody is right there helping out, taking the charge, or blocking the shot - we talk about that more than they're scoring buckets. That's a sign of a good team." Najera: "If I was in their shoes, I would be down, but at the same time I think it would be motivating." Najera: "We are going to play very aggressive like we are playing right now on Sunday, and hopefully we will just put them away." Raef LaFrentz on the quick start: "That was real important. We started well, hit some easy shots, and got going. We never gave the crowd a real chance to get into the game." LaFrentz on his production: "I was just keeping them honest. They were rotating off of me and giving me open shots and I just knocked them down." LaFrentz: "Offensively, we're going to be fine. Defensively, we have gotten the stops when we've needed to. That's what I said last year. We don't have to have great defense, we just have to get the stops when we need to get stops. So far, we have done that." Shawn Bradley on tweaking his back: "I didn't reallize it had tweaked it until I got back into the game later on and then I couldn't hardly run. Came into the locker room and got it worked on, did some stretching, did some manipulation, and really tried to get it right. I thought we'd go out and get it warmed up in the 2nd half and it was feeling good, for the most part. Bradley on defense and rebounding: "Well, we've done those 2 things very - I wouldn't say very well, but a lot better than we have this season. And it's really proved to be a good thing for us this series." Bradley on being up 3-0: "This is huge, this is huge for us. We really knew that they were going to play well, to play hard, and come out aggressive. And they did. They stuck with it most of the game. It wasn't until the very end with a couple of minutes left and they were down by 10 that it was kind of out of reach for them. And they're not going to quit in game 4. We're going to have a battle for us on Sunday. I expect them to be as or more physical and aggressive and really go after it." Maurice Cheeks: "I think as the game went on, they're such a good offensive team, we just couldn't substain us scoring the basketball. I think at the end of the 3rd quarter, we went up 1, to start the 4th, we went up 1, they continued to put the pressure on us at the offensive end. We could just not get any stops. Again, I think it was the pick-and-roll toward the end. And then we tried the zone. And they made shots. They're one of the highest scoring teams in the NBA, so they made shots." Cheeks on Wells: "He struggled a little bit on the offensive end, obviously, shooting 3-16. We rely on Bonzi to score some baskets and when he wasn't scoring, you know, Rasheed shoots 4-10, so you know we had a tough night scoring the basketball. But we were still in there, we hung in there offensively. Like I said, we were still up by 1 at the start of the 4th and could just not maintain scoring the basketball, could not maintain it. They kept the pressure on us offensively." Cheeks on Patterson not starting the 3rd quarter: "I wanted to get Tony [Daniels] in there. I knew Ruben would give us some energy off the bench. And that was what I was trying to look for. I knew he had a great 1st half, but I was trying to keep his energy inserted into the game once we started the game. I knew Tony would try to give us some solid defense and Ruben would come off the bench and give us his usual energy." Cheeks on being down 0-3: "Well, I've been there before. I'm trying to get a win for the 1st time and I think we are trying to get a win just to stay alive in the series. It's like I told the players, I think it's not over until someone gets 4 and we have to keep fighting. Sunday is a new day and we got to try to figure out something tomorrow and try to get a win on Sunday." Cheeks on what the team needs to work on: "Absolutely it's defense. I think our offense was pretty good - obviously for 3 quarters, it put us up 1. But I think our defense is something we have prided ourselves on all year long and right now they are doing a very good job of scoring the basketball. They're putting us in a lot of situations that we're just not defending well right now. We played zone a couple of times - we had some success playing zone and right now we're just having a little trouble defending." Cheeks on Nowitzki saying he was surprised how open he was: "I was surprised. He wasn't the only one surprised. I was surprised too. The guy is a great shooter. He's not going to miss too many shots when he's wide open and he certainly didn't miss too many tonight - 15-2, so that's a pretty good shooting night. And he's a very good basketball player. So when you have a guy that's shooting wide open jumpers and he's having a night like he's having and he plays 47 minutes of that game, you know you're kind of in trouble." Cheeks: "Our defense wasn't there. Like I said, the series isn't over until someone gets 4 and we have to try to go back and work on something tomorrow and try to figure out a way to get our defensive stops. I think that's the main thing. I think we have to try to keep our energy up for Sunday." Cheeks: "Sabonis gave us a nice little lift when he was in there. That's when we tried to play some zone with Sabonis in the game. With Sabonis in the game, they're going to try to put him in some screen-and-rolls, so we tried to give a little more zone look and that will cut down the pick-and-rolls that they tried to run. Even in zone, they've got some very good shooters." Dale Davis: "It is definitely do or die and we know if we lose the next game we are out. They have won 3 in a row and we have been there pretty much every game and we are not giving up. I am not quitting and we are not quitting as a unit and the series isn't over until you close out 4." Davis: "We are a much better team with Derek and Scottie and not having them right now is definitely a loss for us and at the same time we have to be prepared to move on like we are doing and if we can get Scottie back that is fine, but if not we just need to keep working and just try to win a game and start from there." Bonzi Wells: "Dallas has won 60 games and they were the #1 team until the last week of the season. They are a great team and they are showing us why they won all of those games during the series. Damon Stoudamire: "We have to go out and play even though we are down 3-0. Dallas will try to close us out. That's what good teams do. I thought we were in the game tonight, but we had breakdowns on defense that hurt us. The way Dallas is shooting in this series, it's anybody's guess if we can beat them. When Raef LaFrentz can score 20 points - I mean he is a good player and all - but when he can add to the mix and hit those 3s it really stretches the defense." Dallas Mavericks 115, Portland Trailblazers 103 at Portland (April 25) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 30 34 20 31 - 115 .537 .448 .506 .857 Portland 22 39 24 18 - 103 .458 .353 .434 .795 Halftime: Dallas 64-61 3rd Q: Portland 85-84 Technicals: Shawn Bradley 3:31 1st, Ruben Patterson 3:31 1st, Don Nelson 0:45 2nd Refs: Greg Willard, Hue Hollins, Joey Crawford Attendance: 19,980 (sellout) Did not play due to injury: Scottie Pippen (sore left knee), Derek Anderson (torn left meniscus) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Raef LaFrentz 44 7-11 4-7 2-2 20 0-4 0 0 4 2 1 Dirk Nowitzki 47 15-20 5-6 7-9 42 1-10 3 2 4 2 1 Shawn Bradley 24 2-4 0-0 0-0 4 5-9 0 0 5 0 0 Michael Finley 29 4-12 2-5 0-0 10 0-0 6 1 2 2 0 Steve Nash 39 4-12 2-6 2-2 12 0-2 10 3 3 0 0 Eduardo Najera 20 3-5 0-0 5-6 11 4-5 1 0 3 0 0 Nick Van_Exel 32 7-18 0-5 0-0 14 0-4 7 0 3 1 0 Adrian Griffin 5 0-1 0-0 2-2 2 0-0 0 0 2 1 0 Totals 48 42-83 13-29 18-21 115 10-34 27 6 26 8 2 Portland Trailblazers REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Bonzi Wells 39 3-16 0-4 9-12 15 3-8 6 3 6 1 0 Rasheed Wallace 31 4-10 1-4 2-2 11 2-5 2 1 5 0 0 Dale Davis 30 2-2 0-0 3-4 7 2-8 2 4 1 0 0 Antonio Daniels 24 3-7 2-4 0-1 8 1-2 2 2 1 0 0 Damon Stoudamire 33 6-11 3-4 0-0 15 1-3 4 2 4 1 0 Ruben Patterson 32 6-12 0-0 7-9 19 5-9 2 3 1 1 0 Zach Randolph 22 3-8 0-0 2-2 8 5-10 4 1 0 0 0 Jeff McInnis 13 0-1 0-0 2-2 2 0-0 4 0 1 0 0 Arvydas Sabonis 14 5-7 0-0 6-7 16 2-4 0 1 3 1 0 Qyntel Woods 2 1-2 0-1 0-0 2 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 33-76 6-17 31-39 103 21-49 26 17 22 4 0 patricia Go Mavs!