The NBA fined Dallas $150,000 and suspended Don Nelson and Donn Nelson for the first 2 games of the regular season for contact with players who were ineligible for the NBA draft. The Nelsons attended private workouts in Yugoslavia in June. Dallas signed free agent Walt Williams to a 1 year, minimum contract. Williams, a shooter, will spend most of his time at small forward. [Okay, I don't think the signing has officially occurred yet, but he took his physical last night and was introduced to the team after the game. It should be finalized later today.] Walt Williams: "I like their style of play. They're a playoff team, so it's definitely exciting to be a part of this. They have a lot of players on this team who are versatile and can get the ball out on the break and just go. I can step right in and feel very comfortable in that, so I think I can fit in great with these guys." Williams: "This team has loads of talents, and I think this team can do wonderful things in the playoffs. They switch a lot on defense, and I'm just excited to come out here and play with these guys." Detroit at Dallas (October 17) It was Raef LaFrentz's turn to sit and Michael Finley also sat as his knee was still bothering him. So with 2 starters out and Popeye Jones still sitting with a gimpy ankle, it got really ugly - not only with, um, interesting lineups, but with very poor shooting. The offensive in the 1st quarter came from Adrian Griffin as he scored 8 of Dallas' first 10 points. Both teams played poorly and it was tied 23-23 after 1. Then it got ugly. Detroit scored 16 points and Dallas scored 13 points in the 2nd quarter. Dallas shot somewhere around 15% FG in the quarter. Dirk Nowitzki got whacked between the shoulder blades early in the 2nd and sat for most of the quarter - he did play in the 2nd half. Detroit led 39-36 at the half. Detroit shot 38% FG and Dallas shot just 30% FG in the half. The game remained close and Nick Van Exel still couldn't buy a shot in the 3rd quarter. Chucky Atkins hit a runner with a couple of seconds left and Detroit led 60-58 after 3. Detroit led by 5 points with about 5 minutes remaining and Don Nelson started getting serious about the game as Nowitzki and Steve Nash were brought back into the game. 2 free throws by Nowitzki tied the game at 72-72 with 5:15 left, but Detroit remained ahead with consecutive layups by Corliss Williamson. A 3-pointer by Griffin pulled Dallas within 80-82 with 17 seconds left. Dallas took their time intentionally fouling and finally caught Jon Barry with 6 seconds left. While I debated about whether or not I should root for Barry to hit the free throws and end this painful game, Barry clanked the first one. He hit the second one to give Detroit a 3 point lead and Dallas called timeout to set up an ugly play. The ball came into Nowitzki and he didn't seem to know what he wanted to do as he dribble-stepped a couple of times behind the arc and then gave a poor pump-fake and then forced up a terrible shot that caught nothing but air - Tayshaun Prince got credit for a block, but Nowitzki's shot wouldn't have been close anyways. Detroit won 83-80. Yuch. I'm glad that there is only one more home pre-season game left and then we can get back to seeing some regular line-ups. It was amazing that such a close game could be so ugly. Detroit's largest lead was only 8 points and Dallas' was 2 points. Dallas shot slightly better in the 2nd half to "up" their shooting percentage for the game to 33.3% FG. It gets even worse if you take out Adrian Griffin's numbers - the only Mav to shoot better than 50% (8-11) - excluding Griff, the rest of the Mavs shot just 28% FG. Griff was the only Mav to have a good game. He had 17 points and 9 rebounds. Dirk Nowitzki tried to help Griffin, but his shot wasn't all that accurate as he shot 8-22 FG. He had 20 points and 8 rebounds. Steve Nash threw up enough shots to get 14 points. He shot 6-22 FG and 2-11 3-pointers and only had 2 assists (granted, with all the bricks in the building, there were not many assists to be had). No other Mav was in double-digits. Nick Van Exel had a donut in missing all 7 of his attempts in 34 minutes. He did have a team high 5 assists, though. For Detroit, Ben Wallace had fun snagging all the rebounds available and finished with 17 boards. Zeljko Rebraca enjoyed some open looks and had 15 points. Corliss Williamson also had 15 points. Quotes Rick Carlisle: "We have a lot of unfamiliarity going on among ourselves offensively. The thing I like is that we continue to make hard plays at the defensive end. There were some great loose-ball plays tonight by Jon Barry and Corliss Williamson. Don Reid went in there in the 2nd period and really brought a physical presence that really helped us. It's great to win, but it is exhibition. Our turnovers were better. We'll keep working, but we have some things to build on." Carlisle on Prince: "I thought Tayshaun played very well. He played a very good all around game. He showed all the things he can do. He can do a little bit of everything offensively: post, shot from range, make plays. Defensively, he had 4 blocked shots. He's a guy we're going to have to count on." Carlisle: "We wanted to rest Cliff and Curry and take a look at Tayshaun with that 1st group and move Don Reid into the 2nd group. This isn't to say that there's going to be a set rotation as far as who's going to rest or anything like that." Tayshaun Prince on Nowitzki's last attempt: "I was supposed to foul him. Nash came down to set a pick and I was a step back, so I didn't know if he was going to shoot it right off or not. As soon as he got it he shot-faked, so if I had fouled him they probably would've put him on the line. From that point on he was kind of unsure of what he wanted to do. At that point, I didn't foul him and contested the shot." Corliss Williamson on Prince: "He played well. Not only on the offensive end, but he played some exceptional defense, especially for a rookie. He really stepped up and made it hard for Nowitzki there at the end. We have to be pleased with the way he played." Don Nelson: "It was kind of a crappy game, I guess." Nelson: "This was a game that we didn't have a right to be in. When you shoot 33% like we did, your defense has to be strong and that's what kept us in it." Nelson: "It was a game we didn't have a right to be in. When you shoot 33% for the game and can't get anything to go down, your defense had better be pretty strong. For the most part we played zone a lot in the game today. We are really working hard at some things that we think we will be good at. Our zone is pretty strong and probably kept us in the game we probably should have been in." Nelson on the high number of rebounds available: "There were a lot of them to go around. I could have gotten 10 rebounds out there myself." Nelson: "I wanted to get Griff going, because he had not played that well. We need Grif to step up and be a mad dog now without Buck [Greg Buckner]. He's going to have an opportunity to play some small forward." Nelson: "We tried to get Nick going, but it seemed to be a struggle. We've got to get him to make some baskets." Adrian Griffin: "I've been struggling all pre-season, and it's been a little difficult. But I felt like I made a step toward getting better tonight." Griffin: "We made a conscious effort tonight defensively. We're working hard on our zones, but we still have a lot of work to do." Griffin: "We need to learn how to play without certain guys and develop more as a team. Sometimes we depend too much on Dirk, Nash, and Finley to carry us. It's not going to be that way all of the time so tonight was a good challenge for the rest of us to come out and make some things happen. We missed way too many open shots." Griffin: "We're making a conscious effort on the defense end to improve. Tonight we really worked on our zone and this is the time to do it during the pre-season. We're going to use the last few games of the pre-season to get all the new players comfortable with the offense and defense." Avery Johnson: "We need to keep our confidence up and keep working hard in practice. We need to keep working on our zone, working on our traps, working on our offense and working on our fast breaks. We're looking at a lot of things right now and breaking down a lot of film and hopefully we can get our team all on the same page during the last two pre-season games." Detroit Pistons 83, Dallas Mavericks 80 at Dallas (October 17) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Detroit 23 16 21 23 - 83 .483 .300 .436 .474 Dallas 23 13 22 22 - 80 .364 .188 .333 .714 Halftime: Detroit 39-36 3rd Q: Detroit 60-58 Technicals: Dallas defensive 3 seconds 1:38 3rd Refs: Bob Delaney, Jess Kersey, Courtney Kirkland Attendance: 17,493 (cap. 18,042) Did not play due to injury: Clifford Robinson, Michael Curry, Michael Finley (sore left knee), Raef LaFrentz (sore right heel), Popeye Jones (sprained right ankle), Tariq Abdul-Wahad (sore right knee) Detroit Pistons REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Richard Hamilton 24 3-12 0-2 1-1 7 2-3 2 2 1 0 0 Chauncey Billups 20 2-5 2-4 0-0 6 0-1 5 2 2 0 0 Tayshaun Prince 36 5-12 1-5 0-1 11 0-4 1 1 1 0 4 Ben Wallace 26 1-1 0-0 0-3 2 4-17 2 1 1 0 1 Zeljko Rebraca 20 5-8 0-0 5-5 15 3-7 1 2 3 0 1 Mehmet Okur 26 2-6 0-1 0-0 4 0-4 1 2 2 0 1 Corliss Williamson 26 7-13 0-0 1-3 15 1-6 0 3 2 1 0 Chucky Atkins 24 4-9 2-4 1-4 11 0-2 5 1 5 1 0 Jon Barry 21 3-5 1-3 1-2 8 1-4 5 1 2 1 0 Don Reid 10 2-5 0-0 0-0 4 0-3 1 0 2 0 1 Pepe Sanchez 4 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 1 0 1 0 Hubert Davis 3 0-2 0-1 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 34-78 6-20 9-19 83 11-51 23 17 21 4 8 Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Steve Nash 37 6-22 2-11 0-0 14 0-0 2 2 2 0 0 Nick Van_Exel 34 0-7 0-1 1-2 1 0-3 5 0 1 1 0 Adrian Griffin 37 8-11 1-1 0-0 17 1-9 2 1 3 1 0 Dirk Nowitzki 29 8-22 0-3 4-5 20 3-8 3 1 3 0 2 Evan Eschmeyer 23 3-7 0-0 3-4 9 2-6 0 2 2 1 2 Shawn Bradley 26 1-8 0-0 3-4 5 3-8 0 2 3 1 3 Raja Bell 22 2-5 0-0 0-0 4 5-8 2 0 2 2 0 Eduardo Najera 20 1-6 0-0 0-0 2 5-8 0 1 3 0 0 Avery Johnson 12 2-5 0-0 4-6 8 0-3 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 31-93 3-16 15-21 80 19-53 14 11 19 6 7 patricia