Golden State at Dallas (November 8) Dallas jumped out to an early 7-2 lead with 10:15 left and thought they had an easy night on their hands - and played as if this win was already in the books. But Golden State had other things in mind as they continuely out-hustled Dallas and quickly pushed the ball up the court and took full advantage of Dallas' lax defense. Derek Fisher scored 6 straight points to kick off a monster 20-2 Golden State run and the Warriors went up 22-9 with 3:40 to go. Golden State shot 9-12 FG during the run while Dallas struggled mightily in shooting just 1-9 FG and committing 4 turnovers. Golden State led 33-19 after 1. There was no question which was the better team in the 1st quarter and all the numbers favored Golden State - the Warriors shot 60% FG and Dallas shot 35% FG, Golden State out-rebounded Dallas 13-8, and Dallas had 5 turnovers while the Warriors had 2. Derek Fisher had 11 points in the quarter. Dallas picked up their game a little bit in the 2nd quarter and Golden State starting missing some shots - but that didn't mean that Dallas was able to make a dent in the Warriors' lead as it just meant that the teams were then playing near the same level. The Warriors held a double-digit lead for most of the 2nd quarter, the largest being 17 points at 42-25 with 6:15 remaining. A 3-pointer by Josh Howard did pull Dallas within 40-49 with 2:40 to go, but the Mavs could get no closer than 9 points. Ansu Sesay tipped in a miss with less than 2 seconds left in the quarter to give Golden State a 57-44 lead at the half. The rebounding numbers got worse in the 2nd quarter as Golden State out-rebounded Dallas 16-5 (for a total of 29-13 for the half) including 9 offensive rebounds. Dallas shot 53.3% FG and Golden State shot 33.3% FG in the 2nd quarter. The Mavs got the tongue lashing they deserved during halftime and came out with a much better performance - and fortunately Golden State is the type of team that allows other teams to get back into the game. Golden State led 59-47 a minute into the 3rd quarter and the Warriors then went ice cold (a combination of just missing some shots and better Dallas defense). Dallas was finally able to take advantage of the Warriors' struggles and went on a 12-2 run to pull within 59-61 with 6 minutes remaining. The Warriors were able to hang on to a small lead until the last 2 minutes of the quarter where neither team could buy a bucket - the teams combined to miss 10 shots in the last 2 minutes. Marquis Daniel's 4 free throws were the only points scored during that time and gave Dallas a 68-67 lead after 3. Dallas out-scored Golden State 24-10 in the quarter. Golden State only shot 2-21 FG in the last 11 minutes of the 3rd quarter. And Dallas actually out-rebounded Golden State 16-10 in the quarter. So we had a tight 4th quarter with both teams struggling with their shooting. Neither team led by more than 3 points in the quarter. 2 free throws by Dirk Nowitzki gave Dallas an 84-83 lead with 1:45 left. Jason Richardson drove for a layup with 1:25 remaining and Erick Dampier got a short hook shot with a minute to go. Josh Howard was able to get a charge call on Richardson with 50 seconds left and Dallas still had a 1 point lead. Nowitzki missed with 33 seconds remaining and Fisher missed with 17 seconds left and Michael Finley snagged the rebound and was fouled. He hit both free throws to give Dallas an 88-85 lead with 16 seconds remaining. After a timeout, Golden State inbounded to Richardson in the corner and Finley and Howard were in front of him with their hands up blocking his view, but Richardson still manged to nail the tough, sweet 3-pointer to tie the game with 13 seconds to go. Dallas called timeout and then ran the clock down to get the last shot. Nowitzki had a good look at an 18-footer, but it missed at the buzzer and we had overtime at 88-88. Nowitzki opened the extra period by making a similar shot to the one he missed at the end of regulation. The teams traded misses and Jason Terry hit a jumper to give Dallas a 92-88 lead with 3:45 remaining. But Mike Dunleavy answered with a 3-pointer. The teams traded 2 points. Dampier missed a layup attempt, but Howard came flying in for the putback slam with 2 minutes to go. Golden State missed and Dallas missed on 2 attempts. Dunleavy was fouled with 1:15 left, but he barely hit the front of the rim on his first attempt and was only slightly better in missing his 2nd attempt and Terry grabbed the rebound and flew up the floor and gave some fakes to disrupt the one defender back and got the layup to give Dallas a 98-93 lead with 1:12 remaining. But the game was not over as Richardson nailed another 3-pointer with 47 seconds to go to make it a 2 point game. Nowitzki missed, but Howard was fouled going for the rebound and Dallas retained possession with about 2 1/2 seconds difference between the shot clock and game clock. Dallas ran the clock down and, crazily, Fisher stepped up to get the blocking call as Terry started to drive with 7 seconds left - putting the Warriors in the penalty and sending Terry to the line (if you are going to commit an intentional foul at that point, you need to do so early in the clock). Terry hit both free throws and Golden State called timeout. Dallas defended the 3 and Richardson's short shot was goaltended by Nowitzki with a little over 2 seconds left. Nowitzki was intentionally fouled after the inbounds, but he missed the 1st one and hit the 2nd to leave the door open. But this time Richardson's 3-point attempt was short and the game finally ended. Dallas won 101-98 in overtime. It was a really ugly game by Dallas and they were lucky to come out with a win. Fortunately, it just goes down in the books as a W with no reflection on how poorly Dallas played. Dallas' offense was off most of the game and they ran a lot of one-on-one junk that often resulted in a poor, forced shot. The Mavs only had 13 assists (and in an overtime game at that) with no player having more than 2 assists. Fortunately Golden State followuped their great 1st half with a miserable 2nd half. After shooting 48% FG in the 1st half, Golden State only shot 29% (14-48) FG in the 2nd half, including overtime. And Dallas finally started rebounding in the 2nd half. The Mavs were out-rebounded 29-13 including 12-4 offensive in the 1st half and out-rebounded Golden State 40-25 including 11-7 offensive in the 2nd half. For the game, Dallas shot 38.1% (32-84) FG including 4-19 3-pointers and Golden State shot 38.3% (36-94) FG including 4-15 3-pointers. Dallas again had a high number of free throws in shooting 33-43 FT and Golden State shot 22-31 FT. After turning the ball over 5 times in the 1st quarter, Dallas only turned the ball over 9 times in the next 41 minutes. You had to see the game to know who the 2 heros were in this game because the boxscore does not tell the story. Alan Henderson and Josh Howard had the hustle and energy that helped stir their teammates to overcome their sluggish play. Henderson had a strong 4th quarter with his rebounding, going after loose balls, and good defense. At times it seemed that he was the only Mav working out on the court. He had 9 points including 3-3 FG and 9 rebounds including 7 offensive in his 23 well earned minutes. Josh Howard was all over the court and had some key plays in the overtime. He had 14 points and 13 rebounds. [The 2 were the only Mavs to shoot better than 50% FG.] Dirk Nowitzki was not aggressive enough in the 1st half - but the Mavs also did not get him enough touches - and only had 8 points. It was not a great game for him, but he still had a double-double. Nowitzki had 25 points including 9-12 FT, 10 rebounds, and 3 blocks. Michael Finley had the play of the night (#1 on the top 10 plays for both NBATV and ESPN) when he drove, elevated, and power slammed over Adonal Foyle. But he had a poor game and was one of the players who was taking bad shots. He did have 17 points and 7 rebounds (all but 1 in the 2nd half), but only shot 5-22 FG. Erick Dampier had a terrible outing and struggled all night. He had 6 points and 5 rebounds in 29 minutes. Jason Terry was on the floor for all of the 4th and overtime and made some good players during that time. He had 12 points including 3-9 FG, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 turnovers in 28 minutes. Devin Harris had 8 points, 2 assists, and no turnovers in his 19 minutes. Jerry Stackhouse was quiet with just 4 points including 1-4 FG, 1 rebound, and 1 assist in 23 minutes. Marquis Daniels had 6 points including 1-5 FG and 4 rebounds in 10 minutes and Shawn Bradley had 1 rebound in 7 1st half minutes. Derek Fisher had a great 1st half where he scored 17 points but went ice cold in the 2nd half where he missed all 11 shots he attempted. He finished with 23 points on 6-23 FG and 11-13 FT, 5 rebounds, and 9 assists. Jason Richardson also had shooting woes during the game as he missed 8 straight shots from late in the 2nd quarter through midway through the 4th quarter, but did score 9 points over the last 4 minutes of the 4th quarter. He finished with a team high 25 points and 10 rebounds, but also had 6 turnovers. Troy Murphy had 15 points but shot 6-19 FG and 3-8 FT to get that. He had 7 rebounds. Mike Dunleavy was the 4th Warrior in double-digits with 13 points. Adonal Foyle didn't put up much numbers (4 points and 8 rebounds), but his defense kept Erick Dampier out of the game. Ansu Sesay had 6 points and 8 rebounds including 6 offensive in 18 minutes. Eduardo Najera received a warm welcome in his first return to Dallas, but didn't do much on the court besides a couple of good rebounds. Eddie had 5 rebounds including 3 offensive and no points (only attempted 1 shot) in 10 minutes. Golden State was down a point guard as Speedy Claxton did not play due to a right thigh contusion. Quotes Don Nelson: "Well we were certainly tested tonight but we responded. It wasn't our best game but we responded from a deficit in the 1st half and picked it up, relied on our defense when our offense wasn't clicking, and game them a 10 point 3rd quarter." Nelson: "I had a little talk with the lads at halftime about the defensive intensity and we moved it up and had our best quarter in the 3rd quarter. Here is a team who hadn't made shots in this season yet and I was very worried they were going to have a good night." Nelson: "All teams have good nights and they certainly responded with shooting the ball extremely well and making every shot that they seemed to need. I was a little disappointed with our defense on 3-point play where they got the corner shot. That should not have happened. We've been working on a lot of things, but we haven't worked on last second defensive schemes and dodged a bullet really by winning our game. They put it into overtime and they never should have done that as far as I was concerned. That is another thing that we'll check off the list and we'll start working on those things." Nelson on his problem with Golden State's 3-pointer that sent the game into overtime: "That catch should not have happened. You don't want to give a corner catch and we had gone over that in the huddle, but evidently whoever was the inbounder was supposed to take that away and he didn't do his job and they had a corner catch. After that you aren't supposed to double team when they need a 3-point shot unless there is a guy standing under the basket. You don't need to guard that guy, but you need to guard the 3-point. I was disappointed we didn't play better. But we did dodge a bullet and we will do better the next time. We have a chance to review those situations a little bit more." Nelson: "There is so much to work on because my team wasn't together during the preseason. We responded well and we battled. I don't know where this team would be without Alan Henderson who again played a great game and did so many things when we needed him. It was Josh Howard's best game of the year as far I was concerned. Everybody else battled and fought and we finally started rebounding the ball. Finley certainly need to be a dominant rebounder and he was. Josh Howard and everyone else battled a lot harder on the boards in the 2nd half." Nelson: "You never know when someone's going to come in and get hot. I'm not making any excuses. We got the win and it was a tough game for us. We relied on our defense to win this one. There are going to be games that are close. The better defensive team you are the closer games you seem to have and you have to battle them out because of course that is how playoff basketball is played as well." Nelson if he learned anything from the game: "Well I was dodging bullets tonight. I'm not sure, I was just coaching this game to win this game. I was trying to get some rhythm when Mike had been so hot for us then he goes cold and can't get anything to go down. We just needed some help from somebody and Josh Howard was the guy who stepped up and was just sensational. He had the big tip ins and guarded that tough guard all night and I thought he had a great game." Nelson on the emphasis of defense helping the team: "I think so and then if you get a win without learning a lesson with a loss and you can some lessons and still win, and that is what I was hoping for and I got my wish tonight. There are a lot of lessons to learn as we go through the season and it is better to learn them with a win." Nelson on Dampier: "I like his jumpshot, but he is reluctant to take it and we encourage him to take it but you can't demand that a guy take it if he isn't comfortable. He's got to play his own game when it comes to those type of things, but I prefer that he just back up and shoot the jumpshot. He's got a pretty good one but he seems to be more content to put it on the floor and try to get something. He made a big basket for us but I didn't think he was sharp at all." Nelson on if Dampier was affected by playing his old team: "It could have been but you just don't know sometimes. I looked at Nash when he would go to Canada or even Vancouver when they had a team and he very seldom played well there. I don't know why, but he never really had much of a game there and you don't know what goes through players' minds sometimes." Nelson on Najera: "I forgot how much I miss that guy. Seeing him again is really special. He has a special place in my heart and with this team and our fans. I wish him all the best." Michael Finley: "Our main goal, 1 through 15, is to win ballgames. Whether you're playing 40 minutes or 10 minutes, whenever you're on the court you're going to contribute in one way, shape, or form. That's been our mind set since training camp. Teammates are willing to put their egos on the line." Finley: "We can't fool ourselves. We know we didn't play a complete game tonight and as a result it almost cost us a loss. We got kind of lucky tonight." Finley: "We'll take it. But we know we didn't play a complete game, and it almost cost us. We were playing their record instead of their team." Finley on what he said at halftime: "I told them if we want to be a team that contends it has to start in the 2nd half. They were out hustling us. They were playing like they were the home team. Looking back at it, we know we shot ourselves in the foot." Erick Dampier: "I'm normally accustomed to shooting so I just take them in the rhythm of the game. I hit a couple last game, but didn't really feel comfortable tonight and couldn't get it going in the 1st half. I tried to find other ways to help the team win tonight." Dampier: "I would have liked to have had a better outing, but we won the game. That's all that matters." Dampier on the poor rebounding 1st half: "It's very hard to get rebounds when they are going in the basket and a lot of the rebounds were long so there guards were able to get the rebounds around the free throw line. We're a better rebounding team then we showed tonight. We just got to come out and be ready. If we would have blocked those guys out, we could have got those rebounds that would have led to easy baskets for us." Dampier on the defense: "It wasn't our best outing. We've played a lot better. Defense has to be our main focus. We just have to come out and be aggressive every night." Dampier on playing against friend Foyle: "It wasn't tough at all. I was just going out there to play. I approach this like any other game. Our intention was to win this game so that's what we did and now we just need to put this game behind us and get ready for tomorrow night." Jason Terry: "Our depth got to them. I saw it in them. They looked a little lethargic out there in the 4th quarter. We had to turn up the intensity. I'm glad we were able to." Terry: "I learned a lot about this team tonight. We were faced with adversity, and we didn't back down from anyone." Terry on what Nelson said at halftime: "He challenged each individual to go out and make a statement." Terry: "We buy into what coach says and go out and put forth a full effort and change the mentality of the way the league thinks about Dallas. You know, how we don't play any defense. That's what everyone thinks right away. Dallas, run and gun. We've been dedicated and committed to the defensive end. It makes the offense go a lot easier." Terry: "Our whole mentality is why lose. We're in it to win. We're going to take it one at a time, like the New England Patriots, let's knock this next one out. Look up in a couple of weeks and see where we are." Josh Howard on his offensive rebound-jam in overtime: "I just went aggressive to the offensive glass. Sometimes, guys try to box you out early. I just tried to have a little patience." Mike Montgomery: "I was disappointed, but I applaud our guys' effort. We really played hard. Even though we haven't won, if we can play with that kind of effort on a consistent basis, we will be fine. I thought in the 3rd quarter that we got a little tired and as a result Dallas picked up their pressure. We shot 3-23 in the 3rd quarter and scored 10 points. I think that if we kept the pressure on them, it changes everything, but we couldn't do it. We made some big plays at the end, and then made some mistakes at the end that win and lose ballgames. Jason Richardson hit a big 3 to get us into overtime. We missed a couple free throws, failed to block out - that got us to where we had to shoot a 3 again. It's hard to get a 3 when you have to get one to go to overtime. We are making progress if this is any indication. I think this is something we can build on. With this kind of effort, we are going to win some games." Montgomery on the foul late in the shot clock at the end of the game: "I didn't communicate that as well as I needed to. ... We should have fouled earlier. We could have gotten 2 or 3 more possessions out of the thing." Montgomery on starting 0-4: "I don't like losing, but we are in this together. We have a young team that I have to help get better. If they'll stay with it and stay with me, we'll defend like we did tonight and we will win some games. I thought coming in that if we lose 40 games, it's been a heck of an effort from where we have been. That's a lot of games to lose. It's hard every time you lose. You 2nd guess yourself and you look at yourself. That's just the way I have always been. If the effort is there, we can live with that." Jason Richardson on his last 3-point attempt: "It's basketball. I had a real good look at it and it was short." Richardson: "We were sluggish in the 3rd quarter." Richardson: "Coming close is no consolation. It could be ugly, it could be pretty, we don't care. We're searching for a victory." Mike Dunleavy: "They had some guys that came in and gave them some energy. Their starters are the guys that got it done. We came close, but it wasn't good enough." Dunleavy on his free throw shooting: "I haven't gotten there as much as I want to. When I start getting there more, I will get more comfortable. I just need to concentrate more and work on that." Dunleavy on the refs and the loose ball foul call for Howard late in the game: "They need to make everything consistent. With 26 seconds left, that's a tight call. I didn't give him much resistance. He just kind of fell over. You can't make that call. It's ridiculous." Derek Fisher on the foul late in the shot clock at the end of the game: "No one really ever gave me a strong signal definitely to foul. After the clock ran down a little bit more, it didn't make sense to foul then. I felt like later in the clock I was hearing them yell foul, but I was caught in between at that point because I thought I had already let 16, 17, 18 seconds run off, and at that point, let's go ahead and get a stop." Dale Davis: "We have to put it together for a complete game. That's where we're at right now. We were aggressive and played good enough to win in the 1st half, but we let things get away from us a little bit after that." Eduardo Najera on his return to Dallas: "They haven't forgotten about me yet. Of course, I miss it down here. But at the same time, I'm liking it over there. It's a fun city. I'm living in San Francisco." Dallas Mavericks 101, Golden State Warriors 98 OT at Dallas (November 8) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th OT - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 19 25 24 20 13 - 101 .431 .211 .381 .767 Golden State 33 24 10 21 10 - 98 .405 .267 .383 .710 Halftime: Golden State 57-44 3rd Q: Dallas 68-67 4th Q: 88-88 Technicals: none Refs: Joe Forte, Michael Smith, Eric Lewis Attendance: 19,527 (sellout) Did not play due to injury: Speedy Claxton (right thigh contusion) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Michael Finley 42 5-22 1-6 6-6 17 0-7 2 1 2 2 0 Devin Harris 19 3-7 2-4 0-0 8 1-1 2 0 2 1 1 Josh Howard 44 6-10 1-2 1-2 14 3-13 1 4 0 1 1 Dirk Nowitzki 40 8-18 0-2 9-12 25 0-10 2 1 5 2 3 Erick Dampier 29 2-5 0-0 2-5 6 1-5 2 2 4 0 1 Jason Terry 28 3-9 0-3 6-6 12 0-2 2 2 5 1 0 Alan Henderson 23 3-3 0-0 3-6 9 7-9 1 2 3 1 1 Jerry Stackhouse 23 1-4 0-1 2-2 4 1-1 1 1 1 1 0 Marquis Daniels 10 1-5 0-1 4-4 6 1-4 0 0 0 0 0 Shawn Bradley 7 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1-1 0 1 1 0 0 Totals 53 32-84 4-19 33-43 101 15-53 13 14 23 9 7 Golden State Warriors REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Derek Fisher 46 6-23 0-6 11-13 23 1-5 9 3 4 1 0 Jason Richardson 40 11-25 3-6 0-0 25 2-10 2 6 2 1 0 Troy Murphy 44 6-19 0-0 3-8 15 3-7 2 4 4 0 0 Mike Dunleavy 38 5-10 1-2 2-4 13 1-3 2 2 3 2 0 Adonal Foyle 31 0-1 0-0 4-4 4 0-8 0 1 6 0 4 Ansu Sesay 18 2-4 0-0 2-2 6 6-8 1 0 3 0 1 Calbert Cheaney 17 3-5 0-0 0-0 6 1-2 0 0 1 1 1 Clifford Robinson 12 1-3 0-1 0-0 2 0-3 0 0 2 0 0 Eduardo Najera 10 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 3-5 0 1 1 1 0 Dale Davis 9 2-3 0-0 0-0 4 2-3 0 0 3 0 1 Totals 53 36-94 4-15 22-31 98 19-54 16 17 29 6 7 patricia