The NBA All-Star voting has started. You can vote online at http://www.nba.com/allstar2004/asb/eng/ballot.html once a day. You also can vote in person at the games - at the AAC, ballots can be picked up and returned at the northwest corner of the arena on the concourse near the team shop. Arrive early and stuff the ballot. Dirk Nowitzki, Michael Finley, Steve Nash, Antawn Jamison, and Antoine Walker (listed with Boston) are on the ballot and need your votes! Houston at Dallas (November 13) The game stayed close in the 1st quarter with it either tied or Dallas holding small leads - none more than 4 points. Neither team was shooting well and it wasn't very pretty. Dallas led 20-18 after 1. Dallas shot 38% FG and Houston shot 35% FG. Dirk Nowitzki had 11 points and Jim Jackson had 10 points (one of the few shooting well at 4-6 FG, but was repeatedly burned on the defensive end). Scott Padgett opened the 2nd quarter with 2 free throws and a 3-pointer to give Houston a 23-20 lead a minute in. Houston led 25-22 with 9:30 remaining and Dallas scored the next 6 points to go back up at 28-25 with 7:50 to go. The game stayed close with 2 ties and Dallas holding small leads. 6 straight points gave Dallas their largest lead at 48-40 with 30 seconds left. Steve Francis and Steve Nash traded spectacular driving buckets on successive possesions and Yao Ming got a bucket as the quarter ended. Dallas led 50-44 at the half. Both teams upped their shooting some in the 2nd quarter and Dallas shot 45.8% FG and Houston shot 42.5% FG for the half. Antawn Jamison had 11 points in the 2nd quarter. Houston opened the 3rd quarter with a 7-1 mini-run to tie the game at 51-51 with 10:15 to g. Dallas was able to hang onto their lead, though. With Dallas up by 5 points with 6:25 remaining, Houston committed their 5th team foul of the quarter and started sending Dallas to the free throw line (the Mavs had attempted 9 free throws up to that point and would get 10 more attempts to the end of the quarter). With 5 made free throws and a jumper by Antoine Walker, Dallas built up a 69-60 lead with 4:35 remaining. Jackson drained [another] 3-pointer, but Dallas then scored the next 10 points to go up 59-63 with 2 minutes to go. Houston scored the last 5 points of the quarter - a dunk by Francis and 3-pointer with a fraction of a second left in the quarter by Jackson - to make it a 10 point game. Dallas led 81-71 after 3. Dallas shot 10-16 FG and 11-13 FT in the 3rd quarter [Houston shot 10-23 FG and 3-3 FT]. Nash opened the 4th quarter with a 3-pointer (only Dallas' 2nd 3 of the game) and Dallas led in the teens for the rest of the quarter as Houston was unable to make a run. Walker found Michael Finley for the power slam to give Dallas a 93-77 lead with 4:50 to go. While Nowitzki was shooting free throws that would give Dallas an 18 point lead with 2:35 remaining, Houston threw in the towel as all 5 players subbed out. The Rockets did score the last 7 points of the game to make the final margin more respectable. Dallas won 97-86. Even though Houston set the pace (it was a slow down affair), Dallas had the better game on both ends of the floor. Dallas went extensively to the zone in the 2nd half and it completely confounded Houston. It wasn't that the zone didn't leave people open, but that the Rocket players didn't take advantage of their open looks. I can't tell you how many times I saw Houston swing the ball on the outside and the player on the elbow, who was usually open, continued the swing without even considering to shoot and the Mavs already had someone heading towards the 3rd player. The Mavs also did a good job of containing Houston's explosive guards in Steve Francis and Cuttino Mobley (yeah, it wasn't purely Dallas' D as the 2 did miss some open looks; but Dallas did do a good job of hounding them most of the game). Dallas' defense also did a good job of showing Yao Ming different looks and never allowing him to get comfortable with what Dallas was using on him - whether it was a new player coming in to defend him (Danny Fortson, Shawn Bradley, Dirk Nowitzki, Antoine Walker, and even Antawn Jamison had him at various points) or fronting instead of being behind or giving him some space. Houston only shot 40.2% (33-82) FG - but did shot 8-23 3-pointers (thanks to Jim Jackson's 5-7 3-pointers) - and 12-12 FT. Dallas shot 45% (36-80) FG including a miserable 2-19 3-pointers and had a big advantage at the line in shooting 23-28 FT - thanks in large part to Houston getting into the penalty so early in the 3rd quarter (and getting frustrated) as Dallas shot 11-13 FT in the 3rd. Dallas hardly turned the ball over and only had 7 turnovers (and 2 of those came very early in the 3rd quarter off of bad Steve Nash mistakes). Houston committed 13 turnovers. Dallas held a slight edge on the rebounds at 44-42 and both teams had 11 offensive rebounds. Again it wasn't a pure outside barrage for Dallas as they had 40 points in the paint (Houston had 36). Despite not feeling well (Dallas had a trash bag in the huddles in case of an emergency), Dirk Nowitzki was the high man with 23 points including 9-16 FG and 5 rebounds. A number of times early in, Houston had Jackson defending Nowitzki and Nowitzki burned him almost every time. Antoine Walker was heading towards a triple-double, but fell short on assists. He had 17 points, 12 rebounds, and 7 assists. Though he only had 14 points, Michael Finley played well and had a good defensive game. Steve Nash had 16 points, 5 rebounds, and 7 assists. He banged knees with Yao near the end of the 1st half, but was able to play in the 2nd half. Antawn Jamison got going in the 2nd quarter where he scored 11 of his 13 points. He also had 8 rebounds. Josh Howard deserves special mention for his stellar defense. His numbers weren't that great with 7 points on 3-10 FG (he had Dallas' only 3 of the game until Nash finally hit one to open the 4th quarter) and 5 rebounds in 17 minutes, but he was hounding whomever he was on and helping when needed and also had 3 steals and a block. Danny Fortson started and did his job of defending Yao. Despite the foot height difference, the mismatch worked to Dallas' advantage as Yao missed his first 3 shots and then Houston stopped going to him. Fortson had no attempts and 3 rebounds in 13 minutes. Shawn Bradley subbed in for Fortson and also did a good job of disrupting Yao. Bradley took a couple of shots he shouldn't have (and a couple he should have, despite the groans) and knocked the ball away a couple of times and had a nice outing. He had 5 points, 2 rebounds, and 3 steals in 16 minutes. Travis Best missed 2 shots and had 2 assists in 13 minutes. Eduardo Najera only played 4 minutes and Marquis Daniels got in for a minute. The big story was that Yao Ming was not a big factor in the game. He shot 2-9 FG outside of a 3 minute span during the 2nd quarter when Dallas had Jamison and Nowitzki [I think it was Nowitzki that was on him for the 3rd shot, I know it was Jamison for the 1st 2] where he hit the 3 shots he took. His overall numbers didn't look bad with 12 points and 8 rebounds, but he just didn't have a big effect on the game. Steve Francis was also relatively quiet outside of a small stretch of the game. He only had 10 points through the first 34 minutes of the game - he did have a 3-point play and dunk in the last 2 minutes of the 3rd quarter. He only had 15 points including 6-14 FG, but did have 7 assists in 37 minutes. The Rocket who did have the biggest effect was, surprisingly, Jim Jackson who took full advantage of the open looks he got. Jackson had a team high 23 points on 9-16 FG and 5-7 3-pointers. Kelvin Cato had a nice outing with 12 points and 9 rebounds including 7 offensive. Cuttino Mobley had a miserable outing with just 9 points including 2-10 FG. He did have 5 rebounds. Also a big thumbs down to Houston's new uniforms. The lettering is so bad from a distance that I couldn't read the names from where I was sitting (near the top of the lower bowl). Quotes Don Nelson: "The game took an unsuspecting turn when Nash hurt his knee and I didn't know if he could continue on. If he would have been taken out of the game, it would have stiffened up. I told him I was going to play him until the end or a big enough lead where I could take him out. That's why I didn't sub for him. We had to go to our zone and it was very effective. I thought Shawn Bradley did a good job coming in. It was a hard fought game. Nowitzki was also ill. He looked about as white as I've ever seen anybody." Nelson: "Right now, Houston is a good basketball team. We certainly had our hands full. They played hard and we had to match their energy. I like their team and they are going to be good. I would say that they are going to be in a playoff hunt this year." Nelson on Dallas' inside scoring: "Well, some of those are points coming off picks and things opening up underneath because of that. But, yeah, we're working on the low-post stuff, which is what some of the new people are all about." Nelson on Francis: "You don't want to take too much credit for stopping a great player because it will bite you in the behind. We worked hard and we tried to shadow him the best we could. Whether it was effective or not, I don't know. Between him and Mobley they didn't get many shots tonight and when they did, they didn't make them. I think we were fortunate more than anything. We sure worked hard on them." Nelson on telling Walker to shoot more 3s (he passed up a number of good looks in this game) as centers are often defending him: "That leaves the 3 open a lot and when he's open, I want him taking it. ... No, not 8 3s a game like he did with Boston." Nelson on Bradley: "Good for him. He hadn't had much opportunity to play. He was a factor in the game - a positive factor." Dirk Nowitzki on feeling ill: "I threw up in a game a couple of years ago and went right back out there. But this wasn't that bad. I just felt weak and achy." Steve Nash: "I thought we did a good job for the most part tonight defensively. We stuck to the game plan and had a high level of concentration and intensity and we covered for each other." Nash: "Yeah, we shot pretty well at times, but at times we could have really blew it open and didn't convert. But the defense was the key for us tonight." Nash: "We're coming closer to finding our identity." Nash: "I don't know if it was a measuring stick or not. Right now, everybody is up and down in the league. You may just catch them on a bad night. It's happened to us." Nash on Mobley's 2-10 FG: "We did a good job. We tried to clog the lane up and make him shoot from the perimeter and tried to really pressure his shots. We did a great job of focusing on him." Nash on his knee: "It would have been tough to go back in if I'd come out and let it stiffen up. It's stiff and very sore and kind of swelled up. The doc said it was a bruise. Hopefully, it'll be all right by Saturday." Antoine Walker: "Yeah, every game you get more comfortable. Every game is going to be different so I'm constantly just trying to get better. We're starting to get a good feel for each other offensively. The best thing is that defensively we're starting to come together. What ever defense we play, we're picking up on it." Walker: "As long as we continue to move the ball the way we do and find guys for easy shots and make the game easier for all of us, the sky's the limit on how good we can be. Obviously, some nights every shot is not going to fall, but if we keep playing defense the way we have been playing, we can be a very good basketball team." Walker on defending Yao: "Danny and Shawn did a great job of forcing him just a little bit outside that block and made every shot a little bit tougher for him." Antawn Jamison on scoring against Houston, who had been holding teams to 76.8 points: "It just shows you that once our offense gets clicking and we start playing like a team like we've been trying to do it's going to be difficult for teams to stop us. I don't care if you give us 75 points or 100 points, it's still going to be hard to stop us. You can't key in on one guy. If you do, you're just going to open up shots for everyone else." Jamison: "We were definitely trying to keep the ball away from Yao, Francis, and Mobley. We wanted Jackson and Padgett to beat us. You just can't allow their guards to get going and obviously Yao is too good inside to allow him to get the ball any more than you have to." Shawn Bradley on defending Yao: "That was my job. Part of it is he never sees anybody his own height. It's a different look, a different challenge." Bradley on Yao: "He's going to be a great player. But I've been in the league 11 years. I just used some of the things I've learned." Jeff Van Gundy: "You have to give Dallas credit. They played well and that is where it starts. We feel that emotionally we allowed frustration to not allow us to play as well as we are capable of playing in the 2nd half. You can't have lapses against Dallas. They'll make you pay for lapses. It's hard to play well frustrated, whatever it is. Situational defense, maybe forgetting a play. I thought we spent too much time preoccupied with officials either calls or non-calls. You can't put Dallas at the line 28 times, 22 in the 2nd half. That's where they really separated from us." Van Gundy: "My main concern is not how we played against their zone or how we defended certain situations, it's the emotional stability that champions have to get to the next play, always. Every team has a certain fragileness based on results not going your way. That's probably when I came here the #1 thing I wanted to correct, and I still think it's the #1 thing, just being emotionally less fragile. For us, the next step is when things aren't going our way, instead of playing a bit frustrated, is to be more determined." Van Gundy: "Bradley was a big factor; he always has been. He does a good job. We are having a difficult time against teams that scramble the game with zones and things of that nature. The post game has to be well synchronized and well coordinated between the pass on time and the target. We struggled to post the ball effectively. That is a team thing and not just an individual thing." Yao Ming on Bradley: "I felt like I was surrounded all night. It's good experience. I don't have that many opportunities to do that." Yao: "I can't talk about last year's games, but today we didn't play our game. We played a game that was strange to us and that is why we lost." Steve Francis: "The reality is that we weren't making shots. Even though they went on a run, I thought we didn't knock down the quality shots that we normally do. Guys were getting open and getting the ball, but we weren't able to knock down shots." Francis: "I don't think I saw guys frustrated. We couldn't convert. We got the shots that we wanted. We got open jump shots that we have been taking throughout the preseason and the regular season; we just weren't knocking them down. The way you go about not knocking down shots is to play tougher defense. They were getting a lot of easy looks." Francis on Van Gundy calling his team fragile: "When they were making shots, I don't think guys were focused enough defensively to put a stop to it. 'Fragile' is for teams that are in the lower echelon of the NBA. I don't think we're fragile one bit." Cuttino Mobley: "I had looks that just didn't fall. I don't think I was really aggressive. The zone kind of made it that way. Next time we play them, we'll make adjustments. If that's the way they can beat us, it's a great tactic. I'm pretty sure the next time I get those looks or we get those looks as a team, we'll knock them down. I'm not worried about it." Jim Jackson: "You want a team in this league to play zone, because they don't play zone well. There's a lot of gaps. What we have to do is not just rely on the jump shot. We can exploit the zone by getting into the gaps." Scott Padgett: "I think we got a very good team, but success-wise, we haven't been to the playoffs. This is definitely a playoff team, but you got to expect to beat the best teams. Tonight, myself included, we let frustration get to us. Then whatever mistake you made or if you missed a shot, you compound it. Right now, we have to learn to fight through the tough times." Dallas Mavericks 97, Houston Rockets 86 at Dallas (November 13) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 20 30 31 16 - 97 .557 .105 .450 .821 Houston 18 26 27 15 - 86 .424 .348 .402 1.000 Halftime: Dallas 50-44 3rd Q: Dallas 81-71 Technicals: Houston defensive 3 seconds 0:36 1st Refs: Gary Zielinski, Mike Callahan, Ron Olesiak Attendance: 19,663 (sellout) Did not play due to injury: Tony Delk (hamstring injury) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Dirk Nowitzki 38 9-16 0-4 5-6 23 0-5 1 1 1 0 1 Antoine Walker 35 6-13 0-3 5-7 17 3-12 7 2 2 1 1 Danny Fortson 13 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-3 0 0 2 0 1 Michael Finley 45 6-11 0-4 2-2 14 3-4 2 0 1 1 2 Steve Nash 35 4-7 1-2 7-8 16 0-5 7 4 3 0 0 Shawn Bradley 16 1-4 0-0 3-4 5 1-2 0 0 4 3 1 Antawn Jamison 23 6-15 0-1 1-1 13 3-8 0 0 0 0 0 Travis Best 13 0-2 0-1 0-0 0 0-0 2 0 0 0 0 Josh Howard 17 3-10 1-3 0-0 7 1-5 0 0 3 3 1 Eduardo Najera 4 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 0-0 0 0 1 0 0 Marquis Daniels 1 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 36-80 2-19 23-28 97 11-44 19 7 17 8 7 Houston Rockets REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Kelvin Cato 27 6-14 0-0 0-0 12 7-9 0 2 3 1 1 Jim Jackson 37 9-16 5-7 0-0 23 0-4 3 1 3 0 0 Yao Ming 30 5-12 0-0 2-2 12 3-8 4 1 4 2 1 Steve Francis 37 6-14 0-3 3-3 15 0-3 7 3 3 2 0 Cuttino Mobley 35 2-10 1-5 4-4 9 0-5 1 2 3 0 0 Scott Padgett 23 2-9 1-4 3-3 8 1-5 0 1 1 0 0 Torraye Braggs 9 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 0-2 0 1 2 0 0 Moochie Norris 23 1-3 1-3 0-0 3 0-3 5 1 1 0 0 Bostjan Nachbar 13 0-2 0-1 0-0 0 0-1 1 1 2 1 1 Alton Ford 3 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-2 1 0 0 0 0 Mike Wilks 3 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 0-0 1 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 33-82 8-23 12-12 86 11-42 23 16 22 6 3 patricia