Don't forget that Thursday's game vs Houston has an early 6:30 pm start time. Don Nelson says that Tony Delk will be out 7 to 10 days with his strained hamstring. New Orleans at Dallas (November 11) Steve Nash opened the game with a 3-pointer and then Michael Finley scored Dallas' next 6 points to give Dallas an early 9-2 lead with 10 minutes left. New Orleans pulled within 14-16 with 5 minutes remaining, but Dallas pushed their lead back up with a 10-2 run to go up 26-16 with 3:10 to go. Dallas closed their hot shooting quarter with a 6-1 mini-run, capped by a jumper by Dirk Nowitzki at the buzzer. Dallas led 39-24 after 1. Dallas shot 68% FG and had an amazing 15 assists already while New Orleans shot 52% FG and had just 3 assists. Finley had 13 points, Nowitzki had 11 points, Nash had 7 assists, and Danny Fortson and 7 points and 7 rebounds. The Mavs took their largest lead at 47-28 with 9 minutes to go. Darrell Armstrong kept New Orleans in the game by scoring 7 of the Hornets' next 9 points to pull Charlotte within 12 points and keep Dallas' lead in the teens. The teams traded 3-pointers and Charlotte scored the next 8 points to pull within 50-58 with 3 minutes left. Dallas led 64-54 at the half. For the half, both teams were shooting 53% FG and Dallas was out-rebounding New Orleans 24-18 including 13-7 offensive [there were 54 games last season where Dallas didn't have 13 offensive rebounds]. Baron Davis had 20 points, including 12 in the 2nd quarter [Nowitzki and Finley only combined for 2 points in the 2nd quarter]. A layup by Davis pulled New Orleans within 60-66 with 10 minutes to go. Dallas then went nuts and New Orleans went ice cold as Dallas went on a monster 23-2 run to go up 89-62 with 3:25 remaining. Dallas shot 10-12 FG during the run while New Orleans shot 1-10 FG. Dallas led 95-70 after 3. For some (stupid) reason, Dallas' stars were still on the court for the start of the 4th quarter (though Nash subbed in for Nowitzki 30 seconds in) and the Mavs tooked their largest lead at 105-72 with 9 minutes left. The stars got pulled over the next few minutes and it was pure garbage time over the rest of the game with Dallas' lead staying in the 20s. Dallas won 125-97. Dallas finally found their shooting touch and won an easy one. The stat that blew me away was that the Mavs had 40 assists. They haven't had that many assists in a game in over 8 years (which is as far back as my boxscores go) and the team record is 45 assists (which came in a game where Dallas scores 149 points back in 1983). Dallas finished the game shooting 58.1% (54-93) FG including 9-19 3-pointers and New Orleans shot a respectable 48.1% (38-79). But Dallas also out-rebounded New Orleans 45-30 including 17-11 offensive. 58% shooting and 17 offensive rebounds will get you a win almost always. And it wasn't pure outside shooting as Dallas had 64 points in the paint. Dallas lead from start to finished and gave Don Nelson his 250th win as Dallas' coach. It was a well balanced affair for the Mavs as the team had 6 players in double-digits. Antoine Walker was the high man with 21 points including 9-16 FG, 9 rebounds, and 6 assists. Michael Finley started really strong (his shooting touch went south after the 1st quarter) and finished with 20 points including 8-20 FG, 5 rebounds including 4 offensive, and 6 assists. Dirk Nowitzki had a quiet night with 18 points and just 5 rebounds. Steve Nash had a double-double with 17 points on 6-7 FG and 5-5 3-pointers (tied team record most 3s made without a miss) and 11 assists. The only thing he didn't do was make a technical free throw. Danny Fortson got the starting nod in Tony Delk's absence and was solid with 9 points including 4-5 FG and 11 rebounds. 3 of his buckets buckets came from feeds converted into layups - his tendency of fumbling away passes was no where to be seen this night. Antawn Jamison had 12 points on 6-9 FG off the bench and Travis Best chipped in 12 points and 5 assists off the bench. Eduardo Najera was one of the few to have a poor outing with 1 point including 0-3 FG and 4 rebounds in 13 minutes. Shawn Bradley had 2 points and 3 rebounds in 4 garbage time minutes. The rookies performed well in garbage time as Marquis Daniels had 6 points including 3-5 FG and 3 assists in 8 minutes and Josh Howard had 7 points on a perfect 3-3 FG including his first career 3-pointer and 3 rebounds in 7 minutes. Baron Davis led the way for New Orleans with 25 points - but only had 5 after halftime. He shot 11-17 FG and had 5 rebounds. David Wesley had 18 points and Darrell Armstrong had 12 points and 6 assists. No other Hornet was in double-digits. Quotes Don Nelson: "It is kind of ironic that the guy we guarded all night, Baron Davis, got 25 points and nobody else did that much. I liked our game plan - we didn't get the final result I had hoped but we got a win. I don't know if that's a glimpse of what we can be. I don't know if we can play that well all the time but certainly it was a good game for us as a ball club. We played together and enjoyed the game of basketball, to pass and shoot and run and rebound. We had not done that yet this season, so that was good to see." Nelson on playing at home: "We were the best road team in the league last year. I think to go out early when we weren't ready did not help us. I know the coaches thought we had a great practice yesterday, but I thought we were sloppy in our passes so I did not expect this kind of performance tonight. We had 15 turnovers which was too many but we are getting down under 20 which we have been averaging." Nelson: "We just continued to work on our inefficiencies. We don't always get the same looks that we got tonight. I would like to bottle this and open it up every game we play. It is nice when we get a glimpse of how we can play." Nelson on Nash: "Part of the thing we missed was his outside shot and his reluctance to take it and drive every time. I have been gently persuading him that he needs to shoot more like he did last year because it opens up the drive more if you can shoot it. He seemed to take his open looks and he got the shots and the assists. I was very pleased with him and everybody else. Danny Fortson came in and did what I had hoped he could do for us. He got rebounds and established our inside and I thought he did an outstanding job." Nelson on Finley: "Fin came out right away and showed us that he was going to have a game. I thought he was good all night. He was definitely in the flow but we also moved the ball better than we had in the past. To get 40 assists in an NBA game is not an easy thing to do and we had not been close to any numbers like that." Nelson on the rookies: "The 2 kids can play. I'm going to tell you right now the 2 boys can play. I like them very much. But if you want to get this thing rolling it is not going to be by the rookies. It's going to be by the veterans stepping up like Mike Finley did tonight. The rookies will have to wait their turn like they should on any good team. I have confidence in both of those young men. They both play hard and the coaches have a place in their heart for both those kids." Dirk Nowitzki on Nash: "He was controlling the game, getting everybody involved. He was our MVP last season and that hasn't changed. We have so many weapons, we don't have to force shots. When we have 40 assists, that pretty much says it all." Nowitzki on Finley and Fortson: "You know Mike, he'll find his game. To us, he's an All-Star in this league. We know he believes in himself and will stay aggressive, and one day, his shot will come back. With Danny, you know what you're going to get. He's a beast down there, and can get offensive rebounds and owns the glass defensively. He was huge today because the Hornets are a big and physical team. He was big." Michael Finley: "We were moving the ball, sharing the ball, not forcing bad shots." Finley: "I just wanted to make the most of my opportunities. There were a lot of shot opportunities that I had that in the past I may have passed up. Tonight I wanted to be aggressive, take those shots. And, lucky for me, they were falling early." Steve Nash: Coming together with the group we have, we're bound to have some explosions. Hopefully this was a glimpse." Nash: "Playing at home is always good. We got our confidence back in the San Antonio game and that carried over." Antoine Walker: "We moved the ball real well. We shot the basketball at a high level. When you have the opportunity to score 120 points, getting a lot of guys in double figures, you can really share the basketball and use all of your abilities." Antawn Jamison: "Like I said, the most important thing was our defense. When we play good defense and limit them to one shot, control the boards and got the opportunity to run, we're a tough team to beat. We got a lot of opportunities to run and made the most out of it. It shows what we are definitely capable of doing. We did everything well in all phases tonight. We just have to keep doing it night in and night out." Jamison on the assists: "We weren't to the point where we were too unselfish tonight. Our guys were definitely aggressive once they got the ball. We moved without the ball and guys hit the open man for easy layups tonight." Danny Fortson: "Even though we made some mistakes tonight, it seemed like when they scored we came right back and scored a lot more points and that's the beauty of playing on this team right now." Fortson: "It's a lot easier for me now. Throughout my career I had to worry about putting points up at the same time as doing the dirty work. Now I can come in and just focus on what I need to do to help the team and that's even better. I like to do the dirty work. It feels good to just concentrate on that." Fortson on if the team is gelling: "I think so even though our record doesn't show it. We would have liked to win more games, but we're getting the feel of it. If we can just play consistent like we did tonight things will continue to become easier for us in the future." Tim Floyd: "They had everybody going. I thought Finley got going early. A lot of it was a result of Nash getting the ball where he needed to get it and causing us to help. Nowitzki got it going early and we didn't have an answer for that. Nor on the defensive boards, we gave up 17 offensive rebounds. When we did stop them, they got it back off the glass. They got 30 points in the 1st half off of turnovers and offensive rebounds. That is as bad of defensive transition as I have had a team play. That's where it all starts. You give yourself a chance by getting back. Give them some credit, they came out ready to play. I think they were tired of where they had been at 4-3. This is a 60-win team that was ready to break loose and they broke loose tonight." Floyd on Dallas: "They were awesome tonight." Floyd: "I think we made some shots. David West got some minutes, which may help us down the road. I think we all need to be disappointed, because you have to start your games night in night out by giving yourself a chance defensively and we didn't do that." Baron Davis: "Our 3 losses have come when we didn't focus; when we didn't prepare for games. It is not our coach's fault. It's nobody's fault but ours. When we come with a mind frame that we are going to work and we are focused and we are mentally prepared for the game, then we come out and we play well. We scored enough points to win, but we couldn't stop anybody. We didn't have any energy. They beat us to every ball. Every time we lose it is because we are not mentally prepared." P.J. Brown on defense: "I think the majority of our problem was just like Saturday night. Our defense just didn't show up. We just have to get a better effort on the defensive end. Giving up 125 points, you are not going to beat anybody in this league. We gave up 64 in the 1st half and that's definitely uncharacteristic of us." Brown on the 3rd quarter: "It was 66-60, Nash hit a 3-pointer, and it was like we couldn't come back. It seems like we were stuck on 60-62 points. It was just a bad, bad quarter - horrible." Dallas Mavericks 125, New Orleans Hornets 97 at Dallas (November 11) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 39 25 31 30 - 125 .608 .474 .581 .800 New Orleans 24 30 16 27 - 97 .525 .350 .481 .700 Halftime: Dallas 64-54 3rd Q: Dallas 95-70 Technicals: Dallas defensive 3 seconds 1:31 1st, New Orleans defensive 3 seconds 5:45 2nd Refs: Jess Kersey, Marc Davis, Tom Washington Attendance: 19,820 (sellout) Did not play due to injury: Tony Delk (strained left hamstring), Stacey Augmon (personal reasons) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Antoine Walker 35 9-16 0-3 3-3 21 4-9 6 2 2 1 1 Dirk Nowitzki 30 8-12 1-3 1-1 18 0-5 4 2 2 1 1 Danny Fortson 23 4-5 0-0 1-1 9 3-11 0 1 3 0 0 Michael Finley 36 8-20 2-6 2-2 20 4-5 6 1 4 1 0 Steve Nash 32 6-7 5-5 0-1 17 1-1 11 2 3 2 0 Antawn Jamison 28 6-9 0-0 0-0 12 2-3 2 1 1 1 3 Travis Best 24 6-12 0-1 0-0 12 0-1 5 2 2 2 0 Eduardo Najera 13 0-3 0-0 1-2 1 2-4 2 2 1 1 1 Marquis Daniels 8 3-5 0-0 0-0 6 0-0 3 0 0 0 0 Josh Howard 7 3-3 1-1 0-0 7 1-3 1 0 3 0 0 Shawn Bradley 4 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 0-3 0 2 1 0 1 Totals 48 54-93 9-19 8-10 125 17-45 40 16 22 9 7 New Orleans Hornets REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK George Lynch 29 3-8 0-3 0-0 6 2-5 2 4 0 1 0 P.J. Brown 28 3-10 0-0 3-3 9 2-3 0 0 2 1 1 Jamaal Magloire 23 2-7 0-0 2-2 6 2-4 1 2 3 1 0 Baron Davis 33 11-17 3-7 0-0 25 1-5 4 3 1 1 0 David Wesley 30 7-12 2-3 2-3 18 0-1 3 3 1 1 0 Sean Rooks 9 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 1 0 1 Robert Traylor 17 2-5 0-0 2-4 6 2-5 3 1 1 1 1 Steve Smith 19 1-4 0-1 2-2 4 1-1 0 1 2 0 0 Darrell Armstrong 27 5-10 1-5 1-2 12 0-2 6 1 2 0 1 David West 20 3-4 0-0 2-4 8 1-4 0 2 2 1 0 Bryce Drew 5 1-2 1-1 0-0 3 0-0 0 1 0 1 0 Totals 48 38-79 7-20 14-20 97 11-30 19 18 15 8 4 patricia