Note that Thursday's game vs Sacramento has an early start time of 7:00 pm. The game is being broadcast on TNT. Orlando at Dallas (March 30) Dallas led 10-9 with 9 minutes to go and Cleveland scored the next 8 points to go up 17-10 with 7:15 remaining. Dallas responded with a 9-2 run to tie the game at 19-19 with 4:45 left. Cleveland scored the next 4 points and held a small lead the rest of the quarter. Cleveland led 32-28 after 1. Carlos Boozer had 11 points and 10 rebounds and LeBron James had 10 points. The game stayed close in the 2nd quarter with Cleveland holding a small lead over the first 6 minutes of the quarter and Dallas holding a small lead over the last 6 minutes. A 3-pointer by Steve Nash gave Dallas a 64-57 lead with a minute to go, but Cleveland scored the last 4 points of the quarter. Dallas led 64-60 at the half. Dirk Nowitzki had 17 points in the 2nd quarter and a total of 25 points and 10 rebounds for the half. James had 20 points. Both teams were shooting well at 53% FG. Dallas led 70-64 with 10:25 remaining and Cleveland went on a 9-2 run, with 7 points from Zydrunas Ilgauskas, to go up 73-72 with 8:40 left. Nash then scored the next 5 points and Marquis Daniels got a layup to put Dallas up 79-63 with 6:45 to go. Dallas held a single-digit lead the rest of the quarter. Cleveland pulled within 85-87 with 1:50 left, but Dallas scored the last 5 points of the quarter. Dallas led 92-85 after 3. Dallas led 98-92 with 9:40 remaining and used an 11-5 run, capped by a 3-pointer by Josh Howard, to go up 109-97 with 5:30 left. Dallas pushed their lead up to 117-101 with 4 minutes remaining and the teams pulled the plug a short time later as the stars came out. Dallas won 126-109. With the hype and reality of LeBron James and excellent games from Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash, it was a very entertaining game and Dallas did not pull away until midway through the 4th quarter. And the Mavs used the pick-and-roll to an extreme to obtain the distance in the 4th. Dallas stayed hot the entire game and shot 54.4% (49-90) FG including 6-10 3-pointers. Cleveland was also hot for 3 quarters, but shot slightly under 40% FG for the 4th quarter. Cleveland finished shooting 48.9% (44-90) FG and did not make a 3-pointer in 5 attempts. And that shooting was basically the game. The other key for Dallas was slowing down Cleveland's fast break, easy points. Cleveland out-scored Dallas 22-6 on fast break points in the 1st half and Dallas out-scored Cleveland 14-4 on fast break points in the 2nd half. Dallas had a slight rebound edge at 46-44, but both teams had 17 offensive rebounds. With the win, Dallas formally clinched a playoff berth. But Dallas did have their worst regular season month (not counting Octobers) in 23 months (since March 99-00 where the team went 7-9) as the Mavs went just 8-8 in March (4-1 at home and a dismal 4-7 on the road). It was the Nowitzki and Nash show. Dirk Nowitzki was on fire and finished with 35 points including 14-23 FG and 18 rebounds - he could have had even points more if the Mavs had given him more touches (as I was screaming for them to do). Steve Nash started looking more for his shot in the 2nd half, where he scored 21 of his 31 points. Nash shot 11-17 FG including 3-4 3-pointers and had 10 assists. The rookies continued to play well. Josh Howard had 19 points and 7 rebounds. Marquis Daniels had 17 points (but 6 came in the last 2 minutes of the game). Antoine Walker was the 5th Mav in double-digits with 11 points, 9 of which came in the 1st quarter. He also had 9 rebounds, but also had 5 turnovers. Walker really struggled in March as he averaged just 9.6 points including 40% FG [and he wasn't simply missing from the outside as he only averaged 2 3-point attempts per game] and 7.4 rebounds while he averaged 15.5 points including 42.5% FG and 8.9 rebounds prior to March. Michael Finley only received 6 minutes in the 1st quarter and 4 minutes in the 3rd quarter as Don Nelson elected to bring him back slowly in his first game after a 3 game layoff and with the rookies playing well (and Finley not really clicking during his time on the court). The kid is the real deal. I know that everyone ohhs and ahhs over LeBron James' dunks, but it was his other moves that said to me that he's going to be more than just a flashy player. When a Mav would get in his way to prevent a dunk, he would contort himself and adjust to make an impressive layup. For those who got to the game really early, he put on quite a show in swishing (and I mean clean shots) 5 of 7 (not counting the miss where he caught the ball by his ankles) from 8 feet behind the arc on the elbow. The game changed in the 2nd half when James got few touches and they settled into a halfcourt game - granted some of that was due to Dallas getting back better on defense than they had in the 1st half and Cleveland trying to take advantage of their taller lineup and forcing the ball into the big guys' hands. But things looked smoother for Cleveland when James was in the flow of a more up tempo game. James had an impressive debut in Dallas with 28 points (but 20 in the 1st half) including 13-22 FG, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, and 4 steals. Lee Nailon very much enjoyed his return to where he went to college with a season high 23 points including 10-18 FG and 7 rebounds including 6 offensive. The big guys did have good games for Cleveland. Carlos Boozer finished with 23 points and 20 rebounds including 7 offensive after starting huge with 11 points and 10 rebounds in the 1st quarter. Zydrunas Ilgauskas had 26 points on 10-13 FG and 6-11 FT, but only had 4 rebounds and couldn't handle Dirk Nowitzki on defensive and was completely lost as to what to do when the pick-and-roll result and him trying to defend Steve Nash. Yup, Cleveland lost despite having 4 players score 20+ points. The problem (besides Nowitzki and Nash going nuts) was that the other 8 players combined for just 9 points including 3-20 FG and 8 rebounds. Quotes Don Nelson: "I think James is the real deal. In the open court he is really good. He is going to be a really good defender someday also. I thought Cleveland played well. They had 4 guys in the 20s and we didn't really secure it until the end of the 4th quarter. The effort was good, we shot the ball well and did a lot of positive things. I would like to tighten the defense up a little because they really tested us with their big lineup. Nelson: "Nash and Nowitzki carried the load most of the time. Once we got in the half court, we were getting pretty much everything we wanted off our screen-and-roll." Nelson: "Nash and Nowitzki carried the load most of the time, but I think the rookies really got involved in the open court and in other ways. But once we got to the court, we didn't have to run a whole lot." Nelson on Finley: "He did not practice well yesterday. You might think it would have been a good time to play him for 25 minutes, but I thought the game was in doubt. He is just not sharp and it takes a while to get sharp after an injury. We'll work him out tomorrow and gradually bring him along. As long as he is ready by playoffs and ready to play some long minutes the last 3 or 4 games of the season I'd be happy." Nelson on clinch a playoff berth: "I hadn't noticed. That was never a doubt in my mind." Dirk Nowitzki: "I think our set defense was pretty good in the 1st half. They just kept running and had way too many easy layups and dunks. We made a good effort in the 2nd half taking that away and always keeping 1 or 2 guys back and stopping their fast breaks. Finally, we were able to pull away a little bit." Nowitzki on Ilgauskas defending him: "I was able to take him off the dribble some. And the whole year a lot of small forwards have been guarding me. That takes me off the perimeter a little more because they're smaller and quicker than I am and my advantage is more in the post. With a small lineup now, I'm going to face some bigger guys and that's my strength to go out to the perimeter, show the ball, dribble a couple of times, and pull up for the jumper and I was able to do that tonight." Nowitzki on small ball: "We won a lot of games at the end of last year with our small lineup. There are not many teams that can match up with us when we go small." Nowitzki: "We've got to win them all if we want to make a little movement. We still believe in each other and we're going for homecourt advantage. That's big in the playoffs. We're going to try to make a climb." Nowitzki on James: "LeBron is a special player. He's going to be amazing. He's so athletic. I've never seen anything like that. He takes 3 strides from halfcourt and dunks the ball. He's going to be a very special player in this league." Steve Nash: "We didn't have a great game defensively, but we certainly cut down on some of their transition baskets in the 3rd quarter and that gave us a little breathing room. I thought in the 4th quarter, the game could have gone either way and we really stepped up and made some plays offensively." Nash on him and Nowitzki: "I thought it was good. They decided to put Ilgauskas on Dirk, which was something that we were certainly going to take advantage of." Nash: "Everyone talks about our defense, but we're not a defensive team so we shouldn't try to live up to certain standards defensively. We should try to be better defensively, we should try to be adequate defensively and we can always have that as a goal, but I think when we try to hang our hat on our defense, we start hanging our heads when we fail and it takes away from our running game. If we push the ball and really run and really attack people, that's our best defense really. That puts them on their back foot." Antawn Jamison on Nash and Nowitzki: "That's the bread and butter of this team. The new guys are used to having to defend that, the pick-and-roll. That's what you expect when you see Dallas: the 2-man game." Josh Howard on he and Daniels: "We're just doing what we've been doing all season long. We try to take advantage of the opportunities we get in games, like we've been doing all year. We're just going to have to keep doing it." Paul Silas on Dallas' strong shooting: "It seems like that is what is happening to us lately. Everybody just makes shots. I thought we played as well as we could play; we just couldn't stop them. [Nailon] came in and shot the ball extremely well and played defense and rebounded. He played a good all around game. If we were not playing against this team tonight, we would have had a chance against a lot of other folks." Silas: "Every time they needed a lift, Nowitzki and Nash gave it to them." Silas on Dallas' small ball: "It was their big ball - Nowitzki was just terrific and so was Nash. It was those 2 guys; nobody else really hurt us that much. Every time they needed a hoop, one of those guys provided. We contested shots, we were right there, but Nowitzki was just unbelievable tonight.' LeBron James on the 4th quarter: "They made shots. We can't miss shots against them. They made shots and we missed shots." James on Dallas: "They are a powerhouse. They have some of the best players in this league on one team. They are going to come at you every night. They have the capability to score 120 points every game." James: "We know we need wins. We've overachieved this year. Not being in the playoffs would hurt, but we're not going to hang our heads if we don't make it. We've got to keep playing the same game we've been playing all year." Carlos Boozer on the 4th quarter: They just made more shots than we made. It ended up being a shootout. We had a lot of fast break points. Those guys stepped up and we tried to match their intensity, but we just couldn't match it at that point in the game." Boozer: "The small ball lineup got to us a little. I thought we did a good job with them until the end." Boozer: "We still think we can win enough games to make the playoffs. We just played a really good team tonight." Lee Nailon: "I would have rather we won and I have a good game. They had their track shoes on and there wasn't much we could do about it." Dallas Mavericks 126, Cleveland Cavaliers 109 at Dallas (March 30) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 28 36 28 34 - 126 .538 .600 .544 .733 Cleveland 32 28 25 24 - 109 .518 .000 .489 .656 Halftime: Dallas 64-60 3rd Q: Dallas 92-85 Technicals: Ira Newble 4:05 4th Refs: Bill Spooner, Marc Davis, Monty McCutchen Attendance: 20,575 (sellout) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Michael Finley 10 1-4 0-1 0-0 2 0-0 0 0 1 0 1 Antoine Walker 31 5-10 0-1 1-2 11 4-9 2 5 3 1 1 Dirk Nowitzki 42 14-23 1-2 6-6 35 2-18 4 1 3 1 1 Marquis Daniels 38 7-17 0-0 3-5 17 1-3 2 3 3 1 0 Steve Nash 36 11-17 3-4 6-7 31 2-2 10 2 1 1 0 Josh Howard 38 7-12 2-2 3-6 19 3-7 2 1 3 2 1 Antawn Jamison 20 1-2 0-0 3-4 5 3-3 0 0 2 2 0 Shawn Bradley 14 2-3 0-0 0-0 4 1-2 3 1 5 2 2 Danny Fortson 6 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 0-0 0 0 2 1 0 Travis Best 3 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 1 0 Eduardo Najera 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 49-90 6-10 22-30 126 16-44 23 13 23 12 6 Cleveland Cavaliers REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Carlos Boozer 35 8-17 0-0 7-9 23 7-20 2 1 3 0 0 Lee Nailon 40 10-18 0-0 3-4 23 6-7 3 3 1 1 0 Zydrunas Ilgauskas 37 10-13 0-1 6-11 26 1-4 0 3 2 0 0 Kevin Ollie 21 1-5 0-0 0-0 2 0-3 6 2 5 0 0 LeBron James 42 13-22 0-2 2-4 28 1-5 6 3 2 4 0 Tony Battie 11 0-3 0-0 0-0 0 2-3 0 0 3 0 0 Eric Williams 5 0-1 0-0 1-2 1 0-1 0 0 1 0 0 Dajuan Wagner 9 0-4 0-2 2-2 2 0-0 1 1 3 1 1 Mateen Cleaves 23 2-5 0-0 0-0 4 0-1 6 2 5 1 1 Ira Newble 11 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 1 0 1 0 0 Kedrick Brown 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 DeSagana Diop 4 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 44-90 0-5 21-32 109 17-44 25 16 26 7 2 patricia