Game 7: Portland at Dallas (May 4) The do-or-die game 7 was here and what a game it was. Portland was without Derek Anderson due to his knee surgery and Dale Davis was unable to go as he strained his groin during the last game (he did dress, though, and I don't know if the Mavs knew he wasn't going to play). Arvydas Sabonis started in Davis' place and Don Nelson went with a different lineup for the first time in the series as Eduardo Najera started in place of Shawn Bradley. The 6-8, 235 Najera had the difficult task of trying to defend the 7-3, 292 Sabonis - it didn't work too well as Sabonis had 8 of Portland's first 10 points. Despite being ineffective of the defensive end, Dallas was scoring on the other end and both teams held small leads early in the game. The teams traded 3-pointers and it was all tied up at 13-13 with 6 minutes left. Neither team was very effective over the next 2 1/2 minutes as Portland scored 5 points and Dallas didn't have a point. Nick Van Exel drove for 2 as the quarter ended and Portland led 22-19 after 1. Both teams had players already in foul trouble as Bonzi Wells had 2 fouls, Shawn Bradley had 2 fouls, and Raef LaFrentz had 3 fouls in the 1st quarter. Portland led 27-24 on a 3-pointer by Damon Stoudamire, but Dallas then went on a 12-2 run to go up 36-29 with 7 minutes to go. Dallas led 42-33 with 5:15 left and Portland closed the quarter with a 12-3 run, including 2 more 3-pointers by Stoudamire, and the game was tied at 45-45 at the half. Stoudamire had 9 points in the 2nd quarter and Van Exel had 10 points. Neither team shot well in the half as Dallas shot 34.8% (16-46) FG and Portland shot 39.5% (17-43) FG. The game remained close in the 3rd quarter. Dallas went on a 10-2 run to go up 63-57 with 6 minutes remaining, but Portland answered with an 11-2 run to go up 68-65 with 2 minutes to go. The teams traded leads a couple of times over the rest of the quarter and a jumper by Stoudamire at the buzzer gave Portland a 73-71 lead after 3. Bonzi Wells, who was scoreless in the 1st half, had 8 points and Dirk Nowitzki had 11 points. Van Exel scored 9 of Dallas' first 11 points of the 4th quarter to give Dallas an 82-78 lead with 8 minutes left. Dallas led 88-83 with 6:30 to go and Rasheed Wallace scored the next 7 points, capped by a 3-pointer, to give Portland a 90-88 lead with 4:45 remaining. Nowitzki answered with a jumper and it was a tie game. As the shot clock was winding down, Van Exel buried a 3-pointer from 2-feet behind the line, but Scottie Pippen answered with a 3-pointer (only his 2nd basket of the game) to tie the game at 93-93 with 3:13 left. Nowitzki hit another jumper and Portland missed. Michael Finley got tied up and Portland won the jump ball, but Arvydas Sabonis was called for the offensive foul on the other end - his 6th foul. Nowitzki missed the finger roll, but got his own rebound and took it back up strong for the bucket to give Dallas a 97-93 lead with 1:50 to go. Ruben Patterson was fouled inside, but only hit 1 of 2 free throws. Steve Nash drove and passed out to Nowitzki and he nailed the 3-pointer to give Dallas a 100-94 lead with 1:20 left. Wells drove and Najera was called for blocking [bad call - inconsistent with how they've called it all season], but Wells also only hit 1 of 2 free throws and there was just 1:18 left and Dallas was up by 5. The shot clock was running down with Finley having the ball on the side and Patterson got up on him and was called for the bail out foul and Dallas got 14 seconds back on the shot clock. Nash dribbled around the arc towards the corner was swished the long jumper with his arm extended to give Dallas a 102-95 lead with 46.5 seconds remaining. Portland quickly brought the ball up and Stoudamire missed the leaning in 3-pointer and Nowitzki got the rebound with 37 seconds left. Portland started intentionally fouling and Dallas hit 5-6 FT to seal the win (while Portland still could not score). Dallas won 107-95. That was a great (it may have not been the prettiest, but it was very exciting) 7th game and I have to say I have a great sense of relief. Neither team led by more than 9 points - just 6 in the 2nd half - until the last minute of the game. The game basically came down to which team executed down the stretch and, unlike game 5, that was Dallas. From 3 minutes left to 30 seconds left (when Portland started intentionally fouling), Dallas scored 9 points while Portland scored just 2 points - and those were off of two different 1-2 FT trips to the line. Dallas shot an amazing 13-17 FG in the 4th quarter while Portland shot 7-17 FG (both teams made 4 3-pointers) and Dallas even held the rebounding edge at 9-6. Dallas had their usual porous defense inside during the 1st quarter, but it was not a glaring problem the rest of the game. The key stat to me showed that Dallas was able to get back to their run-and-gun game. Dallas had 29 fast break points while Portland had 7 fast break points. For the game, Dallas shot 45.8% (38-83) FG including 7-20 3-pointers (but 4-6 3-pointers in the 4th). Portland shot 42.7% (35-82) FG including 9-19 3-pointers. Dallas shot 24-26 FT and Portland shot 16-19 FT. [The refs let a lot of stuff go and called it like a playoff game - there were non-calls galore both ways and some bad calls both ways, but it wasn't a badly officiated game (they were semi-consistent). For the complaints the Blazers had below, I can counter with things that went against Dallas. And with that officiating crew, I'm still stunned that absolutely no technicals were called.] The rebounds were even at 42 a piece and both teams had 13 offensive rebounds. I'm also amazed that Dallas scored 107 points and only had 15 assists. Dallas takes the series 4-3 and advances to the Western Conference Semi-finals where they will face Sacramento. Dirk Nowitzki, as he has been in 6 of the 7 games, was a stud with a game high 31 points, 11 rebounds, and 3 blocks. 12 of his points came during the 4th quarter and he lifted the team to victory. The 6th man gets mentioned before the rest of the big 3 as Nick Van Exel was the 2nd hero of the game and he also stepped up in the 4th quarter with 12 of his 26 points. He shot 10-15 FG during the game with a combination of 3-pointers and attacking the basket. Steve Nash played solid with 21 points, 6 rebounds, and 7 assists. Michael Finley struggled shooting with 14 points including 4-14 FG, but had a key 3-pointer. He also had 8 rebounds. Eduardo Najera started and had the dubious task of trying to defend the much taller and heavier Arvydas Sabonis. It didn't work in the 1st quarter, but was more effective later on. Najera couldn't buy a bucket (0-5 FG), but he was hitting his free throws (7-8 FT - he's a career 65% shooter) and he also had 7 rebounds. Raef LaFrentz and Shawn Bradley were plagued with foul trouble. LaFrentz had 4 points, 4 rebounds, and 5 fouls (including 3 in the first 5 minutes of the game). Bradley had 4 points, 3 rebounds, and 5 fouls in 23 minutes. Adrian Griffin and Raja Bell combined for 4 minutes as Don Nelson stuck with his 7-man rotation. Portland had a balanced attack with 6 players in double-digits, but none had more than 17 points. Damon Stoudamire was shooting from the outside like crazy and had an all-around great game with 17 points including 5-8 3-pointers, 7 rebounds, and 9 assists. The crowd verbally groaned when Portland's ball rotation found an open Stoudamire during the 3rd quarter and he drained the 3-pointer. Rasheed Wallace also had 17 points - all in the 2nd half. Arvydas Sabonis loved Najera trying to defend him early on as 8 of his 16 points came in the first 5:10 of the game. He also had 8 rebounds and 3 blocks before fouling out with 2:15 left. Zach Randolph had a quieter game, but still had a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds including 6 offensive. Ruben Patterson had 12 points. Bonzi Wells had a poor outing with 11 points (all in the 2nd half) including 4-12 FG, 5 rebounds, and 4 turnovers in 29 minutes. He picked up 2 fouls in the first 3:20 of the game and sat for the rest of the quarter. Scottie Pippen only had 5 points, 3 rebounds, and 2 assists in 20 minutes and Antonio Daniels had 3 points in 7 minutes. The 2nd round starts Tuesday night in Dallas (Dallas gets home court due to having the better regular season record). And the schedule is completely nuts (and Mark Cuban blew a gasket when he saw it). Not only is there a back-to-back Saturday and Sunday, but the first 4 games is to take place in 6 nights. Game 1: Sacramento at Dallas Tuesday 8:00 pm on ESPN2/channel 21 Game 2: Sacramento at Dallas Thursday 8:30 pm on ESPN/channel Game 3: Dallas at Sacramento Saturday 8:30 pm on ESPN/channel 21 Game 4: Dallas at Sacramento Sunday 9:30 pm on TNT *Game 5: Sacramento at Dallas Tuesday May 13 TBA *Game 6: Dallas at Sacramento Thursday May 15 TBA *Game 7: Sacramento at Dallas Saturday May 17 TBA *if necessary Quotes On Dallas lockerroom board before the game: "This game is not about X's and O's. This is a heart and gut check. It's about WILL." Don Nelson: "Well let me first say that Maurice Cheeks is a class act. I'm a big fan of his. I thought he and his staff did a marvelous job of getting back in the series, making us adjust, finding holes in our zone, and really making it difficult for us. I think the bottom line is that injuries hurt him and his team. They had a lot of guys banged up at the end. It's just hard to beat a good team 4 times [in a row], it just is. We couldn't do it to them and thank goodness that we had this game at home and we rose to the occasion. Ruben Patterson is dumber than a rock 'cause we put what he said on the board, which helped us I thought, saying that he sees fear in our eyes. [Van Exel: "That's Cincinnati, Coach."] That Cincinnati guy. So you can quote me on Ruben, thank you Ruben for you being dumber than a rock and helping us get where we needed to be." Nelson: "In studying film like we do, one of our favorite plays they took us out of and we thought we could make a couple of adjustments. It's just called a pick-re-pick and changed our angles on the play and that we would get open. We ran that quite a lot. I'm fortunate to have 2 great point guards. Of course, one can run, one can set picks and be a shooter and when they change their defense, we can reverse their roles. And both those guys did a great job and just getting hot at the right time. I think we made 80% of our shots in the 4th quarter. We don't always execute that well. We have in this series when we won. The things that we ran were our favorite things that we've been running all year and we basically just got back to what we do best." Nelson on what he said before the game: "Well, I didn't say very much. I had Avery do my talking 'cause he said it in our coaches meeting a lot better than I could. When I was younger, maybe I could have said it that well, but I got older. I thought Avery expressed himself in the coaches meeting and I asked him to address the team. Not that we needed firing up. I think we were all fired up, but he did a marvelous job on giving a talk to the team and all I did was not do very much at all. I just tried to make it simple. We put nothing on the board. We watched no film. We already know this team - we've played them 7 times. All we did was make it simple, easy, and let's go play and Avery did the rest." Nelson on starting Najera: "Well, I wanted that matchup against Sabonis and I'm not sure it was successful, but that's what I wanted. And I thought it didn't pay dividends until later - he was just a great player. But it took them out of some of the normal stuff they have been doing. A different post guy, they look for him a lot and he had a marvelous 1st half, but their 2 best players were also shut out. So, it wasn't terrible strategy, even though he did well, it took a couple of other players out of where they were familiar." Nelson on not playing Bradley and LaFrentz together: "I just thought we needed more energy and athletism and Eddie's one of my best athletes up front, Dirk being the next guy. And athletism are 2 things that those 2 guys don't possess. Now they have other assests, but they're just not rebounders and not athletic. And I thought that was where we were getting out-rebounded through quickness and athletism and strength, so I chose just to start a different way. And of course, it helped not having Dale Davis in the lineup, that afforded me not to do that." Nelson on Van Exel: "Hey, he's a big-time player. We've seen him do it against us and everyone else and beat the Lakers by himself when he was with Denver a few times. He's a big-player guy, big-play guy. That 3 that he made when Nowitzki wouldn't come and set the pick that he was supposed and left him out there by himself - [Dirk] forgot, like Ruben Patterson - so Nick shot about a 35-foot 3. I loved it. I thought it was great." Nelson on game 7: "Well, I played a lot, I think, in game 7s. I don't really go back. Somebody said I've never coached or I've only coached in 1 or something, I don't even know. In Boston I think we played a game 7 [Van Exel: "Somebody said you had a terrible percentage in game 7."] Oh. [laugh] [Van Exel: "Coaching-wise."] Oh, that's true, that's true. I'm 0-1 for sure. We had a similar thing in a 5-game series. It's do-or-die whether it's 7 or 5 and I thought that was really good training at the time. This was our first 7-game series as a team - I think Nick's been in some 7-game series. No, you haven't been either? Well, I'll be darned. Well, anyway, it was great experience and I'm just thankful that we won." Nelson on if having been up 3-0 added extra pressure: "Yeah, I suppose. If you talk about pressure and all that kind of stuff, it's just win or losing. I don't know that nobody's ever done it before, I supposed we didn't want to be the first one. But what are you going to do about it? If they beat us tonight, then we set the record, we'll be the trivia question. But it's never happened before and the reason is that it's hard to beat somebody 4 times in the playoffs, a good team, unless they're some injuries involved, it's hard to beat a good team 4 times." Nelson: "I'm going to leave you with the players, okay. I got a cold beer to drink." Dirk Nowitzki: "Our backs were against the wall. We didn't want to go to vacation yet. Our energy was great. We rebounded the ball well. If we rebound the ball well, we put ourselves in great position to win the game." Nowitzki: "I think there will always be games where the shot's not going, but I didn't get any rebounds in 26 minutes in game 6 and I wanted to make sure that that doesn't happen again. I came out and tried to get every rebound I can and it worked out well." Nowitzki on Portland coming back from 0-3: "I don't think we ever talked about it, we never thought about it. We knew our energy wasn't there the last 3 games and that's where we had to pick it up and just be more physical in the paint and rebound the ball and we never thought about setting a record or anything like that. We just wanted to win a game. Our mindset was that it was a 1-game series now and we worked hard the whole season to get the home court advantage and I think we used that advantage very nice." Nowitzki on if his game 6 added pressure: "Not at all. There will always be nights where you don't shoot the ball well and that game 6 was that kind of night. But it was embarrassing to me that I didn't get any rebounds in 26 minutes and I just said to myself, "Hey, you just got to go out and bang the boards.' Because we're not a great rebounding team and somebody's got to get some. Got to hit people and get some rebounds. And that's what I did in the 1st half. I was so busy getting rebounds that I never got any clean looks at the basket the 1st half. Still, I tried to be aggressive and it worked out." Nowitzki on the emotional roller coaster: "I felt a little different, I wanted to [something]. No, actually I cam to the gym last night and just tried to find my rhythm again, my shooting rhythm, and got a little workout in and got some good food, and, like he said, sleeping is tough. It's such a big game. Probably one of the biggest games in our careers. But it's a fun place to be, in the playoffs. It's what you train for all summer. And Nellie told us before the playoffs started, don't get too high with the highs and don't get too low with the lows. Of course, the last games weren't great, but you know, we just wanted to forget about them. Like he said, it was 1 game and we needed to win it and that's what we did." Nowitzki on the starting lineup: "I think Nellie already talked about it. It just gave us more energy. Eddie is probably our most energetic guy out there. He's everywhere on the court. He's probably our best defender. He's not very tall, he's only 6-6, but he's getting it really done on the inside. He's always guarding taller guys, but he also on smaller guys, so it doesn't really matter. He's giving us energy and that's what he does. So I thought it was great and it helped out a lot." Nowitzki: "I don't really see myself as the only leader of this team. I think we have a lot of offensive weapons. You saw it in game 2 where I was cold and Steve and Mike and Nick took over. I think just that we have so many weapons on the offensive end. Whoever has the hot hand will take over at the end and take the big shot. Steve hit a couple of big shots today, and Nick. So I just think there is not really one leader. We have more leaders on this team and I think that's what showed the whole year." Nowitzki: "Boarding has been a big key for us all season long. If we get out-rebounded by like 15, 20 boards, we usually come up short. And if we battle on the boards, we don't necessarily have to win the rebounding game, but at least we got to keep the margin down to like under 10 and then usually we put ourselves in a good position to win games. The last 3 games, we didn't really rebound the ball well and that was a big focus today. Rebounding is big for the playoffs. You know, we're not a great rebounding team, so we've got to have 5 guys in there battling and I thought that's what we did today." Michael Finley: "I didn't want to go home. We'll probably enjoy this one for a couple of hours, and then start thinking about Sacramento. But for now, I haven't even thought about them." Finley on Van Exel's long 3-pointer: "If anybody else would have shot that I would have called it luck." Finley: "This was a physically and mentally draining series. Nothing Sacramento can do will be tougher than what we faced here." Steve Nash on Nowitzki: "I think the rebounding got him into the game. He hadn't really gotten a bucket to start the game, he got a few boards and that really helped him get going." Nick Van Exel on trying to exert his will: "I didn't get to sleep until about 5:30 this morning, literally, and still had a lot of energy. I knew coming in that no matter what happened, I was just going to have to be aggressive, attack, attack early, and try to get in the pain and make something happen. That's part of the will, just being aggressive and attacking." Van Exel: "We played with our backs against the wall. When we went up 3-0, that team, Portland, did a great job of fighting, fighting, fighting. And we sort of let them beat us up. So once we finally had our backs against the wall, we started to push back a little bit more, started to be a little more aggressive like we were in the 1st 3 games and it paid off for us." Van Exel on Nowitzki in the 4th: "That's what he does. He's unbelievable. He had 31 points, 11 boards, 1 big assists. Wow. [laughs] That's what he does. He's always been like that all year. When we needed big baskets, we run our pick-and-rolls and Steve finds a way to get him the ball and he's come up big all season long. His confidence right now is sky high. In the 4th quarter, his eyes just light up. Today it was unbelievable the shooting exhibition he put on, because we needed it and he came through." Van Exel on the emotional roller coaster: "There's no sleeping, man, there's no sleeping. Once we got in yesterday, I went home, locked my doors, pulled down my blinds. I didn't want to be seen in Dallas. And that was the feeling that I had that I don't think people wanted to look at us. Up 3-0, lose 3 in a row, backs against the wall, and just it's an embarrassing feeling and couldn't wait to get to the gym today to get all that over with and get back out on the court. And luckily, we got the win today." Van Exel on Sacramento: "We've played them 4 times this year so we know what they're going to do. They're going to come at us with a lot of pick-and-roll, a lot of backcuts. They have great shooters. But the best thing about it is that we'll be able to sleep a little easier these next few days that we have to prepare for Sacramento. And it's going to be tough, but we know what's ahead of us and I think we're all looking forward to the challenge because they pretty much put a whupping on us last year and we're excited to play those guys again in the playoffs." Van Exel on experience gained: "It's big, it's big. Especially from having a commanding 3-0 lead and then letting this team come back, you can get so up, so happy, and then all of the sudden you get all that taken away from you. And that's what the playoffs is about. We've experienced that in one series and we have Sacramento as a team that's going to have us probably in a lot low times. So we are definitely experienced. But there's a lot of basketball left and one series doesn't really mean anything. It gets tougher." Van Exel on his long 3-pointer: "Yeah, my man didn't come set the screen. He's from Germany. I guess he doesn't understand English when he wants to. But he just didn't come set the screen. When he has guys like Rasheed and Scottie Pippen, who's really aggressive in the paint, he really doesn't understand that as a point guard it's kind of tough to get him the ball when you have an active guy behind him. I'm working with him, trying to help him out with the English language and all. But he just didn't come set the screen and I had to get the shot up, get it up on the glass, and it fell." Eduardo Najera on Sabonis being slow: "But the weight is still there. I thought I responded well, but he is tough to guard." Najera on his role: "Just to wrestle around with everyone. They wanted me to be a little more physical and rebound, and that's what I did. I didn't play as well as I wanted to offensively, but I was just concentrating on [rebounding]." Raef LaFrentz on Johnson's pre-game speech: "He's intense in everything he does. He's a guy that's been there, he's a guy that's been through the playoff wars, and Avery has a ring." Maurice Cheeks: "It was a heck of a series. Unfortunately, we had to lose that series, but it was a heck of a series. Give Dallas credit. That's what you play for in the regular season, you play for the chance to have home court advantage and they got it and it was a big plus for them. The crowd was great. The guys made shots down the stretch late in the 4th quarter. Pretty much that was the difference. Again, my hats off to Dallas. They played a great 7th game. The guys who were supposed to make shots, made shots - Nash, Nowitzki, Van Exel - they all stepped up and made shots. But I give my guys a lot of credit because I know a lot of people really didn't believe that we would actually come back and win 3 games. And we really believed that we could actually win this 7th game. As I said, I think the difference was their home court. I think they really stepped up when they needed to and the crowd, as I said, the crowd was great, everybody was great down the stretch of that 7th game." Cheeks on if his team ran out of gas: "No, I don't think so. We were still in a position to win this game. We had a jumpball - I forget the time of the jumpball - it was a 2-point game at the time and I think we get an offensive foul, which was [Sabonis'] 6th foul and after that, I think that was a turning point where I don't think we scored and we missed a couple of foul shots. I think at the time, we had guys in foul trouble, we didn't have that many big guys as it was. So I think Bonzi got in foul trouble early, [Sabonis] got in foul trouble, and Rasheed got in foul trouble and that kind of set us back a minute and then we had to go with a very small lineup, which we didn't do too badly in the small lineup - but I think we needed those big guys out on the floor." Cheeks: "I surely would have liked to have made some history, that's for sure, but I'm not upset. I'm a little disappointed. I'm not upset, I'm a little disappointed that we lost the game. And winning the game would have been history, but by no means am I upset. I'm disappointed that we lost the game. Really. I give my guys credit for coming back down 3 games, but let's give Dallas credit too. They made the plays they had to make in the 4th quarter." Cheeks: "It can never be a bad thing coming back from 0-3 and win 3 straight games. It can never be a bad thing. It just showed that we have a little bit more strength mind-wise than most people think we do. I don't know if it helps us - I know that the Portland fans really were behind us as we were mounting our comeback in the series, but it just showed that we had players on the team that really care about playing, care about winning, and that feel a little disappointed too that we didn't win the ball game." Cheeks on if the team came together: "I think that the players understand after getting down 3 games, I think they understand about needing one another and what it takes to try to win certain games. I think they are a little mindful of it now as opposed to before. I think going into the playoff series we thought we could, obviously, battle the Mavericks, but until you got down 3 games, we needed each one of us to come back in the series. And I think they're a lot more mindful of the fact that they need one another instead of going off on their own, one guy here, one guy there. I think they're very mindful of it right now of needing one another and to become a team." Cheeks on playing Sabonis 32 minutes: "I would of played him more if he hadn't gotten foul trouble. He would have needed that cane tomorrow." Damon Stoudamire: "We were real confident. We thought that we had a great chance to win this game. We were in the game the whole time. We just couldn't get it done. Dallas, they hit shots. Dirk Nowitzki, he had a big game. Steve Nash came on. But from our stand point, the guy that really hurt us was Van Exel. Van Exel didn't play the game he played, we'd be talking about us winning this game." Stoudamire: "It's a disappointment, but the last 5 or 6 days has been fun. I think it has shown a lot about this team, the character that we have, the heart that we have. Headed into the future, there are things that you can look forward to, as opposed to as last week at this time if we had lost 4-0. I think there is a lot to look for to coming to next year. We talked about it last year and then at the beginning of this year. But more importantly what came into play, Dallas won their home court advantage and they got to get this game here. Whether that played into the victory, who knows. But it had to make them feel better that they had game 7 here in Dallas." Stoudamire: "I thought the way the game had been played throughout, I thought that the turning point was the offensive foul on Sabonis. I just thought at that juncture of the game, to me that's a no-call the way the game had been played throughout. And then Mike Finley has the ball on the sidelines, shot clock running down, and they call a foul - where the foul was, I don't know." Stoudamire on if it brought the team closer: "Yeah, I think it did. Like I said, the last week has been a lot of fun for everybody. I think that for some reason, we play well with our backs against the wall. Every day that you go into the gym, you cherish that moment because you know it could be the last day. I think that's what we did all week. That's what we thrived on. We had a lot of fun and we went out and we didn't even think about what the repercussions of losing would be, even though we knew the season would be over. We just went out and played and we had a lot of fun and I think you could tell that we had a lot of fun. It's almost like we had more fun with our backs against the wall than we did when we started the series." Arvydas Sabonis on his 6th foul: "For calls like that to decide the series ... let the players decide the game. Maybe the outcome would be the same, but the refs let us play most of the game. Then the last few minutes they started to call things." Zach Randolph: "It hurts. To play so hard and come back after being down 3 games. ... We should have played like that from the beginning of the series. We all played hard and we tried to stick together, but we just couldn't pull it out." Scottie Pippen: "I'm happy that we even gave ourselves the opportunity to be in this position today. We could have packed it in and taken our 4 licks and been on vacation a week and a half ago, but we showed a lot of character and pride." Bonzi Wells: "When a team beats you, you always hope the best for them. But Sacramento is a great team as well as Dallas, and it's going to be a shoot out. I can see a lot of 125-120 games, because both teams can definitely put it in the hole." Dallas Mavericks 107, Portland Trailblazers 95 at Dallas (May 4) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 19 26 26 36 - 107 .492 .350 .458 .923 Portland 22 23 28 22 - 95 .413 .474 .427 .842 Halftime: 45-45 3rd Q: Portland 73-71 Technicals: None Refs: Bob Delaney, Joey Crawford, Steve Javie Attendance: 20,281 (sellout) Did not play due to injury: Dale Davis (strained groin), Derek Anderson (surgery left knee) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Eduardo Najera 31 0-5 0-0 7-8 7 1-7 2 2 3 2 1 Dirk Nowitzki 46 12-21 1-4 6-6 31 1-11 1 1 4 2 3 Raef LaFrentz 15 2-5 0-0 0-0 4 4-4 0 1 5 0 2 Michael Finley 44 4-14 2-6 4-4 14 2-8 1 2 4 1 1 Steve Nash 46 9-19 1-5 2-2 21 1-6 7 1 1 1 0 Adrian Griffin 3 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 1 0 0 0 0 Shawn Bradley 23 1-3 0-0 2-2 4 3-3 0 2 5 0 2 Nick Van_Exel 31 10-15 3-5 3-4 26 1-3 3 2 2 1 0 Raja Bell 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 38-83 7-20 24-26 107 13-42 15 11 24 7 9 Portland Trailblazers REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Rasheed Wallace 43 6-13 2-4 3-4 17 1-6 3 1 4 1 2 Zach Randolph 37 5-12 0-0 4-4 14 6-10 4 3 2 1 0 Arvydas Sabonis 32 8-13 0-0 0-0 16 0-8 2 3 6 1 3 Damon Stoudamire 44 6-16 5-8 0-0 17 2-7 9 1 5 0 0 Bonzi Wells 29 4-12 0-4 3-4 11 1-5 3 4 4 2 0 Ruben Patterson 24 3-6 0-0 6-7 12 1-1 1 1 3 0 0 Scottie Pippen 20 2-6 1-2 0-0 5 1-3 2 1 0 0 0 Jeff McInnis 3 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 1 0 0 0 0 Antonio Daniels 7 1-3 1-1 0-0 3 1-2 1 0 1 0 0 Qyntel Woods 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 35-82 9-19 16-19 95 13-42 26 14 25 5 5 patricia Go Mavs!