As a surprise, Travis Best was left off the playoff roster and Tony Delk was on the playoff roster. No surprise that Tariq Abdul-Wahad and Jon Stefansson were also left off the roster. The playoff roster consists of 12 players; there are no injury replacements. Game 1: Dallas at Sacramento (April 18) Bobby Jackson is still suffering from an abdominal strain and may not play the entire series. Dallas came out tight and Sacramento hopped out to an early 8-1 lead with 9:30 remaining as Dallas missed their first 8 shots. Dallas finally started hitting some shots and 7 points would be the largest lead of the quarter. Sacramento did hold a single-digit lead the rest of the quarter. Sacramento led 34-31 after 1. Peja Stojakovic had 13 points, Chris Webber had 9 points, and Dirk Nowitzki had 9 points. Sacramento led 38-33 a minute into the 2nd quarter and Dallas scored the next 8 points to go up 41-38 with 9:30 left. The game stayed close the rest of the quarter with 5 points being the largest lead of the quarter. Marquis Daniels got a steal and Josh Howard took it in for the dunk as the quarter ended. Dallas led 65-63 at the half. Howard had 11 points in the 2nd quarter. Both teams were shooting well as Dallas shot 53% FG and Sacramento shot 56% FG. The game stayed close in the 3rd quarter with 5 points again the largest lead of the quarter. Dallas led 85-82 with 1:50 left and collapsed down the stretch in missing their last 3 shots of the quarter and Sacramento scored the last 4 points [and could have been worse as Brad Miller missed 2 free throws] to go up 86-85 after 3. Nowitzki scored 14 of Dallas' 20 points in the 3rd quarter. Stojakovic and Mike Bibby opened the 4th quarter with consecutive 3-pointers to kick off a 10-2 run to go up 96-87 with 9:15 to go. Dallas scored the next 4 points and then Sacramento put the game away with a 13-3 run to go up 109-94 with 4:15 remaining as Dallas shot 1-8 FG and committed 3 turnovers during the 4 minute stretch. Nowitzki picked up his 5th foul with 6:45 left and Dallas down by 9 points and sat for the next 3 1/2 minutes. Dallas got no closer than 11 points the rest of the game. Sacramento won 116-105. The game started to get away from Dallas midway through the 3rd quarter when players started passing up open looks [yes, I was screaming at the tv] and completely got away from the Mavs when Sacramento drained consecutive 3-pointers to open the 4th quarter. It was a close game until the 4th quarter as neither team led by more the 7 points until several minutes into the 4th. But Dallas got cold in the 2nd half and only shot 37% FG while Sacramento shot 50% FG. Sacramento also shot 9-13 FT in the 2nd half while Dallas shot just 3-4 FT. For the game, Sacramento shot 53% (44-83) FG including 11-21 3-pointers and Dallas shot 45.1% (41-91) FG including 8-21 3-pointers. Dallas did have 17 offensive rebounds. Sacramento shot 17-24 FT and Dallas shot 15-19 FT. As usual in the playoffs, Sacramento killed Dallas inside with 50 points in the paint while Dallas had 38 points in the paint. Dallas never got their running game going as they had just 7 fast break points. Sacramento leads the series 1-0 and game 2 is Tuesday night. Sacramento basically went with a 7-man rotation and all but 1 were in double-digits. Peja Stojakovic was the high man with 28 points including 10-16 FG and 5-10 3-pointers and 8 rebounds in 46 minutes. Chris Webber also shot well with 12-19 FG as part of his 26 points. He also had 12 rebounds including 4 offensive. Doug Christie had a solid game with 21 points, 8 rebounds, and 11 assists in his 44 minutes. Mike Bibby struggled with 4-14 FG as part of his 14 points. He did have 7 assists, though. Anthony Peeler chipped in 11 points off the bench including 3-3 3-pointers. The Kings centers were not very effective as Vlade Divac had 12 points and just 2 rebounds and Brad Miller had just 2 points on 1-3 FG and 0-2 FT and 6 rebounds. Dallas also went with a 7-man rotation. Dirk Nowitzki was a stud with 32 points including 12-19 FG and 4-6 3-pointers, 13 rebounds (no offensive, though), 3 steals, and 5 blocks. Only he and Antawn Jamison were clicking, though. Jamison had 18 points including 7-10 FG, but just 3 rebounds, in 20 minutes. The rest of the team combined to shot just 35.5% FG. Steve Nash had 13 points including 5-14 FG and 8 assists. Michael Finley struggled with just 9 points on 4-13 FG and 1-8 3-pointers. Antoine Walker also struggled with 9 points including 3-11 FG, but he did have 10 rebounds including 7 offensive. The rookies did play well (but had their rookie spots). Marquis Daniels had 13 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, and 4 steals, but also had 6 turnovers. Josh Howard had 11 points and 5 rebounds in 22 minutes. Eduardo Najera played 8 minutes and Shawn Bradley played 2 minutes. Quotes (a lot transcribed by me from interviews and press conferences) Rick Adelman: "... guarding them because we made a lot of mistakes, mental mistakes, in the 1st half, giving cuts to the baskets, runouts, and things like that. We just wanted to try to get better as the game went on, defensively. We really wanted to make them guard us at the other end, be sure they guarded us and not quick shoot the ball. And our guys really stayed with it. The 2nd half we were much more active, cut down on the mistakes. We were able to get the win." Adelman on the 4th quarter: "I think it always helps us when we can get Peja on Dirk. It gives a smaller guy, it really helps us as far as defending him and defending Steve. They're such a handful. They do so much for them. I just thought we were very active. Guys were really helping, guys were really aware of what we want to do. If you got the effort and you've got the awareness and, I've said all along, this team is a smart team. They just need to lock in on what the other team is trying to do and I thought we got better as the game went along." Adelman on Stojakovic on Nowitzki: "I don't know if it's pressure, but that's what he's got to do. He's a terrific player and he had a great game today." Adelman on Christie: "Of all the guys at the end of the stretch down the season that came every night was Doug Christie. And he brought it tonight. I looked at him one time there, I was able to give him about a minute and 10 seconds blow in the 4th quarter, he just really looked spent. And he should have. He played so hard and was so effective for us. Doug sets the tone for all of our energy and everything. The guys feed off him. Plus tonight he had a very solid game offensively, not only scoring but passing. Adelman: "It's all we've been talking about for 3 weeks is we have to have a consistent effort. You have to have some urgency about the way you play. We had a good discussion yesterday and that's what it's going to take to beat this team. This is a very, very good offensive team and if we aren't out working them and if we aren't every minute you're playing every minute, they're going to hurt you because they have the ability to score so quickly. And I think the effort was just consistent, not only physically but mentally with them the whole game. It would have been real easy to say that you gave up 65 points and say, geez, are we going to be able to stop these guys. But we didn't take that attitude." Adelman on Peeler: "Anthony is such an experience player and has been through it with Minnesota and the playoffs. I've got a lot of confidence in him. He's great. He led the league in 3-point shooting. But he competes every minute he's out there defensively. He's really impressed us in that he guards quick guys, he guards bigger guys, but he competes. And that's one thing that we noticed about him last year when he played Kobe in the playoffs. He really competed with Kobe during that series. It's just a guy that's been around. He's been around in big situations. He's not afraid to go out there and take a shot or make a play defensively." Adelman on not taking quick shots: "I think it is hard because we've played so well all year when we take quick shots. Sometimes people said that it's a quick shot and I guess if it doesn't go in, it's a quick shot. You never know. If Peja is all by himself, do you want him to shoot that shot? But I think against this team, I think it is more important to understand the flow of the game. If we got a really good run going and we've got something going positive, that might be a pretty good opportunity, like I think I told Mike with 4 minutes to go. He drove and he got to the basket and it was against 4 people and we had the lead, that's the time you need to make them defend us. I think that's what we have to understand that this team, Dallas, just thrives on going up and down like that. And they're better at it than we are. They're better at it than anybody in the league. So you got to understand the more you take a quick shot and miss it, the more you bail them out at their defensive end." Adelman: "We put things in the last 2 days. It wasn't any secret to us that Dallas' major strength is when they play small with Walker and Nowitzki out there against big people who aren't as mobile as they are. But that's also their biggest weakness. And we wanted to make sure that we were going to make a consistent effort in going after them at the basket. And we have to continue to do that. We have to make them play us around the basket. If you are getting those 2 guys at the basket and they have to defend and they have to work down there, it tires them out, they don't get out and run in the open court as much. I think we put somethings in to make sure we could win inside and we made a conscious effort of doing that during the course of the game." Adelman on Bibby: "He's such a great offensive player that he's going to break loose sometime. I tell you what I liked about Mike is that he really competed against Nash at the defensive end. He got beat some times. But that 4th quarter, he was really working hard. He's just such a playmaker for us. He's the one guy we have if you give him a little room, he can break the guy down and make something happen. I didn't expect him to struggle the whole game offensively." Adelman on emotional and mental levels in the playoffs: "That's what it's all about. When you are in a playoff series like this, you don't think about 7 games. You think about 4 wins and the 1st game was today. We had to get this win. We're at home. We have homecourt advantage. We're trying to hold serve here. We're not thinking about 2 here, just playing today. That's what I just told them in the locker room. You got the 1st one, enjoy it. But now the next one is going to be much harder, is going to be a totally different game. Every playoff game is different. But was really important, especially the way we struggled down the stretch, that we come out and play like the team that won 55 games. I think we did that, but now we know that Dallas is going to throw the best game they have at us on Tuesday. And we got to be better on Tuesday than we were today." Chris Webber: "It's a big win because you want to get the 1st win of the series. I think everybody is speculating how we feel in the locker room when nobody has been in the locker room before. We don't panic as much as the outside panics because you have to have confidence in yourself. Any time you win the 1st game of series, especially against a team like Dallas, it's a big win." Webber on his play: "Hopefully, as I joked with the trainer, hopefully I'll live to tell about it tomorrow. I'm sleeping in a tub of ice today. But that's what it's all about. it's just trying to make it to this point where hopefully you can give more and not risk being inconsistent with showing up for the team. Hopefully my body will keep allowing me to do that." Webber on Christie: "If Doug can't inspire you, nobody will. He's my pick for defensive player of the year, I've said that many times. He definitely inspires us. I told him when I got the steal on that guy, I learned that little hold after I got the steal and dive for it from him. He definitely influences us. He's a big part of our defense - he is our defense. We go as he goes. So he definitely inspires a lot of us." Webber: "Playing them I can imagine how tough defensively it is to play us. Not because individually great players, but because of the freedom and the decision making that players are allowed to make. They have basketball players. They don't have one guy that you can just let shoot or one guy that you can kind of ignore offensively. And so defensively we just tried to make it a point to put hands in everyone's face, to get back, to run. I knew personally that they were going to try to run me and it really felt good being able to get up and down the floor today. And we just really challenged ourselves to be consistent. With a team like this, all you can do is try your hardest and stay consistent. I think that by us just keeping the pressure on, keeping the pressure on in the 3rd quarter and 4th quarter when shots don't fall as they were in the 1st half, it kind of makes the other team look and say, 'What are we doing?' when really they are still getting good shots and they're just going in and out. And maybe we get a couple of steals or a couple of big rebounds. Just try to wear them down and that's what I think we were able to do." Webber on his knee: "It feels very good. It's getting better. It still has it's good and bad days. Right now I don't really care how it feels. It's just ironic that this is the team that last time I played in the playoffs was against these guys. So it really was on my mind to come out and to have that focus. And now it's real good because for a whole day I can get my mind prepared for a game for my body. So if I'm hurting, if I'm aching, I can take a couple of baths, I can ice, I can go get different things, I can just mentally prepare for it. That's what I like about the playoffs is that it's not like during the season where you have the back-to-back or it's a different type of team. We're playing the same team. My job right now is just to come out and be healthy mentally. If I come out healthy mentally and try not to limp and try not to do the things that let you know how I'm really feeling out there, I think it affects the team positively and it affects me down the road positively. For me it's mental. If I'm hurt, so what. This is what I came back early for. Webber on the speech made to the team on Saturday: "Basically it was Doug and myself. I just let them know that I've been through a lot in my life and the one thing that I've learned is that God puts you in situations for a reason. And he had me come here for a reason. And it's no coincidence that we're here. And you never know what next year holds. We're lucky to have a coach that we have, we're lucky to have the guys in the locker room that we have. And going through everything that I've been through, never one day did I want to leave that locker room. That we just owe it to each other to get the most out of it. It was much longer than that, a lot more emotional than that. I'm blessed to play with Vlade. I'm blessed to play with the best shooter in the league. I'm blessed to play on a team where we pass. I'm blessed to have a GM like Geoff. That locker room is really close. In basketball years, we're senior citizens as far as how long our team has been together. We don't have teams stay together this long. Just seize the moment. If you don't win it, it's not about that. It's about being able to look each other in the face and say we did all that we could do. At that's basically what it was." Wabber on slapping the back of the backboard: "I've been doing that a lot because it makes it look like you're jumping higher than you are. It used to be something we used to do in high school. We used to jump, dunk, and smack the glass. Not a sign of intimidation, but a sign of I'm ready, let's go. A little extra and I was so hyped out there today that when I slapped it one time we came down and a timeout and guys were giving me 5 on the side and I couldn't even give them 5. So you have to be careful about that. Just having fun." Webber on his game: "It means a lot and I'm happy that it happened. So I hope that I'm not coming across wrong. But just like Dirk had what he had or Peja, it's out of my mind. I expect that. Just because other people don't expect that from me, I still look at myself in the same light, saying I just can't wait to get back to that. So actually when I get home, I'm thinking about a couple of the jump hooks I missed, I missed 2 free throws off the back of the rim, I wanted to shoot a better percentage than Mike during the playoffs. So there are things that I'm thinking about. But it is a blessing and hopefully I can keep having performances like that. But, truthfully, I expect that out of myself. I expect to have good games whether it's through scoring or assists. Hopefully these good things keep happening." Webber: "I think coach Carril said it best. When you play ball, your personality shows and what is our character. And I think right now we wanted to show each other in the locker room that we'll be there for each other. I think Vlade came out and started with a great game. No one's talking about that, him being physical in the post and doing those things. It's the thing of getting back to trusting each other as far as doing what we know we can do. We really don't play to make statements to people, especially with how up and down people have been on us. We made a statement today, if we lose Tuesday you're going to say that we're too happy and lackadaisical coming off a win. So you can't prove anything. You can't make statements. All you can do everyday is come out and give your best and a consistent effort. And today our effort was there. And I think that win or lose in these games, because there is going to be some great games, our effort has to be there. And that was the statement we made to each other in the locker room is that we have each other's backs and that we're here for each other." Peja Stojakovic: "It was a tight game. I believe in the 4th quarter it was our defense. It was the man who was going to make stops. And we did that the beginning of the 1st quarter and came back in the 4th quarter with a lot more energy. We eliminated touches with Nowitzki and Nash, make everybody else put the ball in and that's how we got the lead." Stojakovic on looking for his shot: "I did. I felt that I wasn't aggressive enough towards the end of the season and so I had to step it up tonight. I came really aggressive. I tried to get myself going with a couple of rebounds on the defensive end, just do something on the floor. And I got my shooting going. It was basically a good game. We moved the ball much better than we did the last couple of games. So it was a good start. Stojakovic: "The main thing was energy and we had that. We ran the floor, made a lot of shots, played our game. I think we used the 3 days before this game to work on some things." Mike Bibby on Christie: "Doug always does that, even in practice. Some people might take practice off. Doug plays like that all the time." Bibby: "Everyone just put it on the line defensively. The main thing that you want to do is stop their early looks and stop them from getting layups." Vlade Divac on small ball: "On offense, it's easier. On defense, it's harder because you have to chase all those little guys around." Doug Christie: "I think we understand what's at stake. We haven't been playing well. If we don't win, we're going home and I don't think anybody wants to do that. This game is a game that I love. I'm going to go out there and give it all I have. If I lead by example, then so be it. But I was proud of the way everybody played tonight. I hope that we just continue to bring the same energy night after night." Christie on Jackson and defense in the 2nd half: "With Bobby out, he brings so much to our team - offensively, defensively, energy-wise. The crowd loves him so it gets the 6th man involved. But defensively, I really think that we were just active tonight. We didn't stop on rotations. Some times you get into a mode where a guy just has an open shot and you stop and you give it to him and you hope he just misses. And tonight we weren't doing that. We just kept running, trying to contest shots, trying to be physical when they were cutting across the lane, and just making them make tough shots and then try to get in there and the rebounds also I think was a big key for us. I don't know what the final rebound numbers were, but it was not as drastic as it has been if we didn't win the rebound battle." Christie: "As I get older and you start winding your career down, you see the window of opportunity closing and one thing I can't do when I walk away from the game is say, 'What if?' I'm sitting there watching my kids play and I'm saying, 'Dang, I should of...' I can't do that, I couldn't live with myself. So I'm just going to give it everything I got and I told the guys if we have to crawl, then we just have to crawl. But what ever we have to do, give it everything you got. Then if you're not good enough, then, hey, you're just not good enough." Christie on Webber: "Chris is going to continue to get strong. When Chris came back, he wasn't nearly a 100% and he's still not a 100%, but so much love and respect for a man that goes out there and plays the way he does regardless. As fans, we might not understand what it feels to have pain like that and still play. I'd go to war with him any time." Christie: "The guy with a lot of talent has a lot of responsibility and you have to find a way to harness that. And I think that I've been a basketball player for a long time, but not until your head gets screwed on straight and you start paying attention and understanding and trying to become better and understanding that it's not always going to work for you. And you have to take those heart aches and those pains and you have to harness it and that's what I've been trying to do. I said, 'Hey, I'm trying as hard as I can.' I'm going to go out there and give it everything I got and it might not work. But I'm going to do it." Brad Miller: "I didn't play well at all, but that's no excuse, and I can't blame [injuries]. I don't want it to be an excuse. It's what other players in this league might do when they have a bad game. I can't let injuries get in the way. I'm trying to get better. It's been a long, rough season and I'm trying to get healthy. There's plenty of time between games to rest, but I'll play." Don Nelson (with his usual monologue to start): "The 2nd half really was our demise. We did a lot of good things in the 1st half. And I was pretty disappointed with that because I thought they were very successful and why would we change. But for whatever reason, the heat of battle, we stopped doing what was successful in the 1st half. I'm not going to get specific, but coach doesn't like to see that. You like to continue to do the things that are good for you and are working and eliminate the bad. But I will say on their behalf that they did turn their defense up and they really played us well in the 2nd half. And they attacked our zone and really hurt that when we went to our zone. We were between a rock and a hard place in the 2nd half defensively. But still, offensively is where we let our guard down some by not continuing to do the things that were successful. I thought my 2 rookies in their 1st game did not get much of a break from anybody. I thought there were a lot of contact on plays that they made. They've been terrific all year, didn't get a break throughout the game. I guess you have to pay the price being a young player, I suppose. But they played so hard and so well that they deserved better. I didn't think Mike Finley was his old self. He's been coming back after some injuries and has not been real sharp in the game and in our practice sessions and continued to struggle in this game. I thought that hurt us quite a bit. Other than that, we will regroup. I think it's going to be a great series, I really do. It's not the easiest thing in the world to win on the road period, for our team anyway, and certainly in a playoff atmosphere with one of the best teams in the league. It's very difficult to win here, though we have been successful over the years. This is a different situation now in which we have to find a way to win on the road. Obviously, we don't have the homecourt advantage. If we are going to win the series, we have got to win on the road." Nelson: "I don't know that you are going to be able to shot 53% every game. Hopefully we can do a better job there. I think none of their players surprised us because they're all terrific players and we have high regard for all of them, really. The ones that played well, we expect them to play well." Nelson: "They were good today. They haven't been good all of the regular season, especially down the end. They have the capabilities of being good. They don't play much better than this. This is one of their best games of the year, I would think, or certainly one of their best games since Webber's been back." Dirk Nowitzki: "We got to forget this game as soon as possible. I thought we had a great shot at it. It was just in the 4th quarter we didn't execute any more the way we did in the first 3 quarters. But you have to give them credit. They had their inside game going with Webber. They had their outside game. They were shooting the ball extremely well. They were on fire basically from all angles. We just probably are going to watch some film tomorrow and hopefully come out with a win on Tuesday." Nowitzki on Sacramento defensive: "I thought they went with a small lineup. They were able to move the pressure up. I thought Christie had some big steals down the stretch and that really gave them a couple of transition baskets and those are big in the 4th quarter. We had to grind out every baskets and they had a couple of easy layups in transition. Like I said, they really played well in the 4th quarter, both ends of the floor, and we got to give them credit." Nowitzki on small ball: "I think the small lineup was really good for us over 3 quarters and in the 4th quarter they took it to us. We were there the whole game. I thought offensively we just shoot the ball well enough. Usually our small lineups is effective because we move the ball around the perimeter and make the shots from everywhere. It's just offensively as a team we didn't really shoot the ball well enough to win this game. Because they were shooting the ball from every angle. As a team, I thought we had good looks, but just didn't knock them down. We got to be confident about it and keep taking them and hopefully they'll go in on Tuesday." Nowitzki on allowing 53% FG: "It's hard. It puts a lot of strain on our offense when they come down and get open shots, they get layups, they get deep post catches. It's tough. Even in the 1st quarter, they shot almost 70%. It's going to be hard like that. I still thought that we had a great shot at it even though they were shooting the ball extremely well, I think we were still in the game until the last couple of minutes and we still had a shot at winning. So that should give us some confidence for our next game." Nowitzki on Howard and Daniels: "While they are both rookies, they got to get used to the physical style. The referees are not going to call that much and they just have to go up strong and finish the plays. I think they can learn tremendously from this game - they already did, showed it in the 2nd half. We need those 2 guys to be effective on both ends of the floor. They are both very long, 2 of our best defenders. We need them on the floor being productive. I think they all learned from this game and being better Tuesday." Nowitzki on the road trouble: "I don't really know. We were struggling on the road all year long. We are a great home team, but we haven't fount the formula to win on the road. It's a little frustrating because the year before we were the best road team in the NBA and this year we're one of the worst. It's been an up and down year on the road. We beat some good teams on the road. We beat Sacramento here, we beat LA on the road, we just lost to a lot of teams that we should have beat. I don't really known what to tell you there. All we can do is stay confident and see what happens next game." Nowitzki: "You have to give them credit for the small lineup, putting Peja on me. They put their big guys on someone else. That was a smart move by the coaching staff." Michael Finley: "It's tough to beat a good team like Sacramento with one guy. I told Dirk, if we had just one other guy. ... Other guys had opportunities to make plays. But we were either missing shots or making bad decisions or doing something else." Finley: "They made some big shots. They made us pay for our defensive lapses, and that got them a nice comfortable lead." Finley: "It's still just 1 game. If my memory serves me right, I think they won Game 1 last year in Dallas. It's still just 1 game. We still have to win 4. They did what they had to do on the homecourt. Fortunately enough for us, we have one more opportunity to get one on Tuesday." Steve Nash: "I thought we played hard. I just though we made too many mental mistakes. Obviously against a team like Sacramento, they are going to make you pay. After a pretty fair 1st half, the 2nd half not only were we making mistakes defensively and giving up layups, but we also, I think, made too many mistakes offensively as well. Not necessarily missed shots, but just spacing and the way we moved the ball. I thought we could of done better. So we kind of wasted a good 1st half, but it's a long series." Nash on the 3rd quarter: "I thought we were sloppy offensively and we didn't make them pay in situations and that fueled them. And they got some momentum and they got out ahead of us and it was too much for us. But like we talked about yesterday, it's a long series and it's going to be, hopefully, a lot of ups and downs before we can win this thing." Nash on Stojakovic on Nowitzki: "He [Nowitzki] sat for a while in the 4th too. I don't know how many shots he got up in the 4th quarter. But I thought Dirk had a great game." Nash on Sacramento's adjustments: "No. I don't want to discredit because I thought they had a great 2nd half, but I thought more than anything we made too many mistakes and took ourselves out of what we were trying to do." Nash: "Obviously this team feels very comfortable at a high paced game and the faster and the more possessions, the better for our team." Nash on winning with giving up 20 layups: "It would be pretty tough. We'd have to shoot an astronomical percentage to hang in there like that. We just gave them too many layups. That's about as big a difference as there was in the game." Nash on what he said late in the 4th quarter: "I want guys to realize that if we're going to go down, we better go down swinging. We've got to do what we came here to do and not change anything. If we come back or not, you've got to continue to play hard through the whole series, continue to stay positive, and not let the highs get you too high or the lows get you too low." Nash on the pace of the game: "The faster the better for us. That is not what beat us today. We made too many little mistakes and offensively, we maybe didn't run enough." Antoine Walker: "We wanted to steal Game 1, but it didn't work out that way. We leave today feeling like we let one slip away from us." Walker: "We got what we wanted offensively. We were getting good shots. ... We're leaving today feeling very comfortable." Josh Howard: "We knew they could play this well. They came out and just shut us down in the 3rd quarter." Howard on Dallas offense in the 4th: "Their defense. We had open shots, we took those shots, the shots weren't falling. That's about it." Howard on break downs on defense: "I think any break down would be communication. When it comes down to it, just players talking. It's just something we'll have to work on. We have practice tomorrow. We'll just have to get over it." Howard on if Sacramento turned up the intensity in the 4th: "Na, end of the 3rd I think they did, when they went on that run to go up 9 or 10 or something like that." Marquis Daniels: "I want to learn from my mistakes. And there were a lot of them to learn from." Daniels: "I'll just have to learn from my mistakes and come right back. I'll be okay. I'll definitely be more aggressive [in Game 2]." On the lighter side: Mark Cuban when asked by an official with the Miss America contest if he would be interested in being a celebrity judge in the pageant: "I didn't tell him yes. I told him, 'Hell, yes!'" Sacramento Kings 116, Dallas Mavericks 105 at Sacramento (April 18) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Sacramento 34 29 23 30 - 116 .532 .524 .530 .708 Dallas 31 34 20 20 - 105 .471 .381 .451 .789 Halftime: Dallas 65-63 3rd Q: Sacramento 86-85 Technicals: Don Nelson 11:00 2nd Refs: Joey Crawford, Jess Kersey, Bill Spooner Attendance: 17,317 (sellout) Did not play due to injury: Bobby Jackson (abdominal strain) Sacramento Kings REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Predrag Stojakovic 46 10-16 5-10 3-3 28 1-8 1 1 3 2 1 Chris Webber 40 12-19 0-0 2-4 26 4-12 3 1 3 1 2 Vlade Divac 19 5-8 0-0 2-2 12 0-2 2 2 0 1 0 Doug Christie 44 7-14 2-6 5-7 21 2-8 11 1 2 2 1 Mike Bibby 39 4-14 1-2 5-6 14 1-4 7 2 3 2 0 Brad Miller 20 1-3 0-0 0-2 2 1-6 3 2 4 2 0 Anthony Peeler 20 4-7 3-3 0-0 11 0-1 1 1 4 0 1 Darius Songaila 5 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 1 0 0 Gerald Wallace 5 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 0-0 0 1 1 0 0 Rodney Buford 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Jabari Smith 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 44-83 11-21 17-24 116 9-41 28 11 21 10 5 Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Michael Finley 38 4-13 1-8 0-0 9 2-4 3 1 0 0 0 Dirk Nowitzki 43 12-19 4-6 4-4 32 0-13 3 1 5 3 5 Antoine Walker 28 3-11 1-3 2-4 9 7-10 4 1 4 0 2 Marquis Daniels 41 6-15 0-2 1-3 13 1-6 5 6 3 4 2 Steve Nash 38 5-14 1-1 2-2 13 2-2 8 3 1 2 0 Antawn Jamison 20 7-10 0-0 4-4 18 2-3 0 1 3 0 0 Josh Howard 22 4-8 1-1 2-2 11 3-5 1 0 1 0 2 Shawn Bradley 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 1 0 0 Eduardo Najera 8 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 1 0 1 0 0 Totals 48 41-91 8-21 15-19 105 17-44 25 13 19 9 11 patricia