Dallas activated Popeye Jones and placed Michael Finley on IR with a strained left hamstring. The earliest Finley could be activated is the Golden State game (with 3 games left in the season). The move was more precautionary and so that the question of whether or not Finley was going to play that night would not be hanging over the team. It was also so that Finley could stay in Dallas for treatment instead of going on the road trip. LA Lakers (43-31) at Dallas (56-18) It was the first meeting of the 2 teams since Dallas blew a 27 point 4th quarter lead December 6. Unfortunately, neither team put out an A-game performance this night. The game stayed close in the 1st quarter with neither team holding more than a 5 point lead. The Lakers led 18-17 with 4 minutes to go and scored the next 7 points to lead 25-17 with 2 minutes left. Nick Van Exel got a layup right before the quarter buzzer and the Lakers led 27-21 after 1. Shaquille O'Neal had 11 points. Rick Fox had 8 points, but was plagued by foul trouble the rest of the game. The Lakers shot 48% FG including 4-6 3-pointers and Dallas shot 43% FG including 1-4 3-pointers. O'Neal sat out to open the 2nd quarter and Dallas took advantage by opening the quarter with a 9-2 run to go up 30-29 with 10 minutes remaining. O'Neal returned and the Lakers scored the next 4 points. Steve Nash nailed a 3-pointer and Dirk Nowitzki converted a 3-point play to put Dallas back on top and the game was either tied or Dallas held a small lead the rest of the quarter. Derek Fisher drained a 3-pointer from the corner as the quarter ended and the game was tied 49-49 at the half. The shooting remained the same in the 2nd quarter, but the Lakers committed 8 turnovers while Dallas just had 1 in the quarter. Neither team came out playing well to open the 3rd quarter as both teams had a single bucket over the first 3 1/2 minutes of the quarter. The teams started hitting some buckets (but not too many) and Dallas led 63-59 with 3:45 to go. The Lakers then went on a 15-2 run to go up 74-65 with 25 seconds left . 2 free throws by Nowitzki capped the scoring and the Lakers led 74-67 after 3. Kobe Bryant opened the 4th with a layup and Steve Nash answered with a 3-pointer to pull Dallas within 70-76 with 10:40 remaining. Bryant then scored the next 6 points and Jannero Pargo hit a jumper to give the Lakers their largest lead at 84-70 with 8 minutes to go. Dallas responded by scoring the next 9 points to pull within 79-84 with 5:50 left. O'Neal hit a hook shot and the teams traded a number of misses. Nowitzki rebounded a Laker miss and quickly took the ball up the court on the break. O'Neal slapped at the ball with one hand and shoved Nowitzki in the back with the other. Instead of correctly calling a flagrant foul or even a regular foul, the ref singled Dallas ball out of bounds. Don Nelson went nuts and got tossed. Bryant hit both technical free throws to give the Lakers a 88-79 lead with 4:10 remaining. 4 straight free throws by Nowitzki pulled Dallas within 83-90 with 2:20 to go, but O'Neal converted a 3-point play with 2 minutes left and Dallas would get no closer than 9 points the rest of the way. The Lakers won 100-89. It was a game where Dallas never really got it going offensively, and that cost them in the end. No Mav player took over on the offensive end and most seemed hesitant to shoot at times. Dallas actually lowered their poor 42% FG shooting in the 1st half to a mere 31.8% FG in the 2nd half. For the game, Dallas shot 37.1% (33-89) FG including 7-23 FG and the Lakers shot 43.8% (35-80) FG including 8-17 FT. The only thing Dallas could hit was free throws, but they attempt half as many as the Lakers did. Dallas shot 16-16 FT and the Lakers shot 16-16 FT. The Lakers also out-rebounded Dallas 55-44 including 17-11 offensive. Neither team played all that great, but someone has to come out with the win and the Lakers did. As usual against Dallas, Shaquille O'Neal led the way with 31 points on 11-19 FG and 9-12 FT, 17 rebounds, 3 blocks, and 5 turnovers. Dallas was able to somewhat contain Kobe Bryant, except for his spurt early in the 4th quarter where he scored 8 straight Laker points, and he finished with 19 points including 7-21 FG. But he contributed in other ways with 8 rebounds, 6 assists, and 3 steals. 14 of Derek Fisher's 18 points came in the 1st half. He hit 4-4 3-pointers and had 8 rebounds. Robert Horry was the 4th Laker in double-digits with 13 points and 8 rebounds. All of Rick Fox's 8 points came early in the 1st quarter. He didn't shoot well, but Dirk Nowitzki had a monster game with his 5th 20-20 game. He had 25 points on 7-21 FG, 1-6 3-pointers, and 10-10 FT and 22 rebounds. Steve Nash was the high man with 26 points including 4-6 3-pointers (his circus shot wasn't falling, but he didn't attempt too many of them) and was the high assist man with just 5 assists (the team only had 15 assists). Nick Van Exel was the only other Mav in double-digits with 19 points. Raef LaFrentz did do a decent job of trying to contain Shaquille O'Neal, but LaFrentz struggled in contributing on the offensive end or with rebounds. He had just 6 points on 3-11 FG and 4 rebounds before fouling out in 29 minutes. Shawn Bradley had a terrible game with 0-6 shooting and just 3 rebounds in 12 minutes. Adrian Griffin and Tariq Abdul-Wahad did a good job defensively on Kobe Bryant. The officiating was terrible, especially in the 4th quarter - which was really disappointing since Danny Crawford was one of the refs and he is one of the best ones (and was also blowing calls). I don't know why some of the worst officiated games I've seen this season have come when the game has been nationally televised. Kobe Bryant had a pretty spin move with 10:18 left in the 4th quarter that was also a travel - now I wasn't expecting them to call the travel, but I blew a gasket when just 10 seconds later Tariq Abdul-Wahad spun in baseline and was called for the travel. If you're not going to call it at one end, don't call it at the other. Then it went from the annoyingly lopsided to the ridiculous. Dirk Nowitzki rebounded the ball and quickly brought it up on the break, heading for the basket. Shaquille O'Neal swiped at the ball with one hand and shoved Nowitzki in the back with the other, sending Nowitzki sprawling out of bounds. Shoving a running player in the back should have been a flagrant (I would have said that no matter who the player who committed it was, even if it was a Mav), but the fricken refs didn't even call a foul. That's when Don Nelson got tossed. [You could not see O'Neal's hand in Nowitzki's back from the TV replays, but I had a clear view of it.] I'm not blaming the loss on the refs - Dallas played poorly enough to earn the loss - but the refs deserve criticism for not correctly doing their job in this game. The sign of the night: "Help. Call Police. Refs stealing game" Quotes Phil Jackson: "We had a good 3rd quarter after we struggled in the 1st half - we didn't play good basketball and had 12 turnovers. Kobe didn't get into the action - he was 2-10 in the 1st half. Fisher and Shaquille really carried us in the 1st half, so at least we came away with a tie and got a little momentum buster with that 3-pointer to tie the game up at the end of the session. We were good in the 2nd half; much better defensively. We were more active. Offensively, we got some boosts from our bench when Shaquille came out at the beginning of the 4th to extend the lead and push it to a position where we could hold them off." Jackson on Bryant in the 4th quarter: "We talked about it last week, how necessary it is for him to score when Shaquille goes out of the ballgame, because he becomes the first option on our ball club. He carried that at that point. He did a good job." Shaquille O'Neal: "We know that if we play like that, we can compete with anybody. They are still a dangerous team and against a team like that, we have to do everything right. And against a team like us, they have to do everything right. We needed this game. We wanted this game. When the game first started, they gave us their best shot, but we were still close and at half time we tied it up. We tried to limit their great shooters to one shot and down on the other end, we took the high-percentage shots and took care of the ball as much as possible." O'Neal on defense: "We are getting a little bit better. Everybody played today. Rick Fox had a good game, Fisher had a good game, Robert Horry had a good game. I think in order to get #4, we are going to have to play like this. I know that in the playoffs my team is going to step up. We have had a dismal year, but it is going to be fun in a couple days." Kobe Bryant: "In the 4th quarter, I sensed it was time to start turning things up a little bit. We approached it as a big game. We approached this as come in here and do everything possible to win this ballgame. It was very important to us that we hustled." Bryant: "We approached this as a big game and wanted to win. We accomplished that. We're not in playoff shape yet, but we're getting there and we'll get there." Bryant: "I didn't worry about my offense. I just kind of waited and turned things up in the 4th quarter." Derek Fisher: "We needed to show ourselves, I mean, we knew we could do it. But we had to go out and do it." Rick Fox: "They'll learn soon enough. Championship players and championship teams put [bad calls] aside; they play the team in front of them. It showed that they're a lot closer to Sacramento than they are to us in that understanding, because Sacramento does the same thing. That's something that you learn as you go along, and they're still learning." Fox on what beating Dallas means: "Nothing. We played a better game this time. In a series, you have to beat a team 4 times. And Finley does make a difference." Don Nelson: "The Lakers came to play and they took no prisoners. I thought they were terrific. They defended us, guarded us, and we of course had trouble guarding them and as a result it was a loss to us and a very solid win for them. I think they have their playoff posture in mind now. They have been playing pretty well now for a long, long time, except for a loss to Seattle. They are gearing up for the playoffs and will once again be dominant. They know how to play and win. They've been there before. They've played through adversity and do a lot of things championship teams do. I think we need to give them an awful lot of credit tonight. They came in here and we did the best we could. We didn't play a bad game; we played a very good game. Hard, solid, did the best that we could, competed and we didn't get the win. We got beat by a good team, but we will go on and try to do better next time." Nelson on LA with 5 minutes left: "They stepped it up and guarded. We had to struggle for every possession. They guard individually and team-wise stepped up. It's real easy to go inside out when you have a dominant figure. It opens up a lot of easy shots when you have to double team Shaq and worry about the lobs and weak side help. They have seen it all. We are not going to bring anything new to the table. They are still the World Champs. They may not win the World Championship but they are going to be a tough opponent." Dirk Nowitzki: "I thought we played a good game. We're not afraid just because we lost a game." Eduardo Najera: "There is no excuse. I know we were complaining to the refs, but they aren't the ones that missed the shots for us. Shaq played very well tonight and we were trying to slow him down tonight, but we didn't do it. We want to beat these guys and we need to make sure that Shaq doesn't have a night like he did tonight." Najera on the last 5 minutes of the game: "It got out of hand. I thought we started complaining too much to the refs. There were a few calls that did not go our way. That is going to happen, but we just have to play through that." Najera on missing Finley: "Obviously, we miss him. We are going to miss him the next few games. We need his toughness because he is one of the toughest guys on the team. I feel we have enough talent to beat these teams and hopefully we will finish up strong." Raef LaFrentz: "It's a tough loss. Every game from here on out is a tough game for us, fighting for the division. San Antonio is right there with us and we just have to go out and do better to get a W." LaFrentz on stopping O'Neal: "It's a tough task any night. Tonight there were a couple times when he was able to get low and get dunks." LaFrentz on the possibility of playing the Lakers in the 1st round: "The championship goes through them. The last I know, they ran off 3 straight. It's not going to be easy going up against them." Los Angeles Lakers 100, Dallas Mavericks 89 at Dallas (April 3) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% LA Lakers 27 22 25 26 - 100 .429 .471 .438 .688 Dallas 21 28 18 22 - 89 .394 .304 .371 1.000 Halftime: 49-49 3rd Q: LA Lakers 74-67 Technicals: Nick Van Exel 4:08 3rd, Don Nelson 4:09 4th, Don Nelson (ejected) 4:09 4th, Steve Nash 1:22 4th Refs: Danny Crawford, Bill Kennedy, David Jones Attendance: 20,129 (sellout) Los Angeles Lakers REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Stanislav Medvedenko 7 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 0-2 1 1 2 0 0 Rick Fox 22 3-6 2-3 0-0 8 0-3 3 1 5 1 0 Shaquille O'Neal 40 11-19 0-0 9-12 31 7-17 1 5 2 0 3 Derek Fisher 41 5-9 4-4 4-5 18 2-8 3 1 1 3 0 Kobe Bryant 44 7-21 0-4 5-7 19 1-8 6 3 4 3 1 Robert Horry 37 5-12 1-4 2-4 13 4-8 3 3 4 2 0 Devean George 22 1-5 1-1 0-0 3 1-5 1 3 4 0 1 Brian Shaw 10 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1-2 1 1 1 0 0 Jannero Pargo 10 1-3 0-1 0-0 2 0-1 1 1 1 0 0 Mark Madsen 6 1-1 0-0 2-4 4 1-1 1 0 1 0 0 Kareem Rush 1 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 0-0 0 1 0 0 0 Totals 48 35-80 8-17 22-32 100 17-55 21 20 25 9 5 Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Eduardo Najera 24 2-4 0-1 2-2 6 1-4 1 1 5 1 0 Dirk Nowitzki 47 7-21 1-6 10-10 25 3-22 2 3 4 1 0 Raef LaFrentz 29 3-11 1-4 0-0 7 2-4 1 1 6 2 2 Adrian Griffin 30 1-6 0-2 0-0 2 1-2 1 1 2 2 0 Steve Nash 42 10-20 4-6 2-2 26 2-2 5 3 1 1 0 Nick Van_Exel 36 8-19 1-4 2-2 19 0-3 4 3 3 1 0 Tariq Abdul-Wahad 19 2-2 0-0 0-0 4 2-4 1 1 1 2 0 Shawn Bradley 12 0-6 0-0 0-0 0 0-3 0 1 3 1 1 Evan Eschmeyer 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 1 0 0 Totals 48 33-89 7-23 16-16 89 11-44 15 15 26 11 3 patricia