Here I was all set to send this out when reports of a trade came down. Dallas has traded Alan Henderson, Calvin Booth, and cash to Milwaukee for Keith Van Horn. My first reaction is, yuch. I like Henderson and how he has fit so well in his role with Dallas. Surprisingly, he is the only Mav who has played in all 52 games this season - he only played in 6 games last season. He hasn't put up much numbers, but comes in and plays his role in getting rebounds and hustling and rarely making mistakes. Losing Booth doesn't bother me. My thinking reaction is, it's a good trade for Dallas. No question Dallas got the better talent. The problem with Van Horn is that he has under performed throughout his career and has one of those bloated contracts. He's the 17th highest player in the league this season at $14,487,000. He doesn't have a player opt-out clause for this summer, but would be a fool to do so; else his contract expires at the end of next season - which makes him a valuable trade asset next season. Milwaukee did this trade purely for money - Henderson's contract ($8,273,125 this season) expires at the end of the season and they need money freed up so that they can re-sign free agent to be Michael Redd. Van Horn is a 6-10 245 power forward. He is having the worst season of his career with 10.4 points and 5 rebounds in 24.8 minutes. Prior to this season, his career average was 17.5 points and 7.4 rebounds in 33.6 minutes. His numbers likely won't be much better in Dallas as he will probably continue to come off the bench (at least once Erick Dampier returns) and be backing up Dirk Nowitzki [and probably on the court some when Dampier rest and Nowitzki will then play center]. He won't be available for tonight's game vs Sacramento. Donn Nelson: "We are excited to bring Keith Van Horn to Dallas. Keith's versatility, experience and shooting ability were the factors for us to make this decision. We appreciate the contributions made by Alan Henderson and Calvin Booth and we wish them well." On Monday, an MRI showed that Erick Dampier has a stress fracture in his right foot. He is expected to be out 2 to 3 weeks. Prior to Tuesday's game, Dallas placed Dampier on IR and activated DJ Mbenga. Jerry Stackhouse missed his 3rd straight game due to a strained right groin. He is listed as questionable for tonight's game vs Sacramento. Marquis Daniels returned to action vs Utah after missing 7 games after undergoing an appendectomy. Although his shot wasn't falling, Dirk Nowitzki had a nice defensive outing in the All-Star game. He had 10 points including 4-10 FG, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 4 steals, and 4 blocks in 21 minutes as the West lost to the East 115-125 in the All-Star game. In the Rookie-Sophomore game, 18 Josh Howard had 7 points and 5 rebounds in 13 minutes for the Sophomore team and Devin Harris had no points, 6 assists, 3 steals, and 6 turnovers in 19 minutes for the Rookie team as the Sophomores beat the Rookies 133-106. Howard played despite suffering from sinus problems. Congrats to Alan Henderson who got married over the All-Star weekend! Dallas at Utah (February 23) Dallas was again without Jerry Stackhouse and Utah was without Carlos Boozer. It was a physical game from the start and the refs got plenty of work with their whistles. Dallas scored the first 8 points of the game before Utah finally got on the board with 9:20 remaining. 3 straight free throws gave Dallas their largest lead at 19-4 with 6:25 to go. After opening the game shooting 2-13 FG over the first 7 minutes of the game, Utah finally started to hit some shots and scored the next 6 points to pull within 10-19 with 4:20 left. Dallas' lead hovered around 10 points the rest of the quarter. Dallas led 30-20 after 1. Josh Howard had 10 points and 5 rebounds. It was a sloppy quarter as both teams had 7 turnovers each. After shooting almost 60% FG in the 1st quarter, Dallas lost their shooting touch in the 2nd quarter as Dallas missed their first 5 points of the quarter and Utah scored the first 4 points to cut Dallas' lead into single-digits. Utah continued to chip away at Dallas' lead and brought it down into the low single-digits. Dallas led 45-40 with 3 minutes left and Utah connected on 6 straight free throws to go up 46-45 with 2:10 remaining. The lead flip-flopped a couple of times and Dirk Nowitzki got the rebound and short banker with a handful of seconds left to give Dallas a 51-50 lead at the half. For the half, Dallas shot 48.6% FG including 5-8 3-pointers and Utah shot 33% FG including 1-7 3-pointers. Utah was in the game thanks to free throws as they shot 21-21 FT (15-15 in the 2nd quarter) and Dallas shot 10-13 FT. Michael Finley opened the 3rd quarter with a 3-pointer and Dallas held a small lead for the next 7 minutes. Dallas led 64-58 with 6:30 to go and Utah scored the next 7 points to go up 65-64 with 3:45 remaining. Dallas scored the last 7 points of the quarter to go up 75-69 after 3. Dallas led 77-73 with 10:30 to go and the Mavs went on an 11-2 run to go up 88-75 with 7 minutes left. Dallas would lead in the teens the rest of the way. A dunk by Josh Howard and jumper by Jason Terry put the game away at 96-79 with 2:25 remaining. Dallas won 101-83. It wasn't as easy as the final score as Utah got back into the game after going down big early and had their last lead with 2:20 left in the 3rd quarter. Dallas out-scored Utah 33-14 over the last 14:20 of the game. Pure and simple, shooting killed the Jazz. Utah only shot 30.7% (23-75) FG, the lowest FG% and FG made by an opponent in Mavs history. They only shot 1-14 3-pointers. Dallas shot 47.2% (34-72) FG including an impressive 8-17 3-pointers. The only reason it was not a blowout throughout was there were lots and lots of whistles blown as there was lots and lots of contact. Utah shot 36-39 FT as Dallas was called for 34 fouls and Dallas shot 25-32 FT as Utah was called for 23 fouls. Because of their poor shooting, Utah had only 14 assists (but Dallas was only a little better with 19 assists). Dallas did get their turnover problem under control and only had 4 turnovers in the 2nd half (after having 12 in the 1st half). Dallas is 28-0 this season when leading after 3 quarters. Dallas continued to be perfect (15-0) this season when Dirk Nowitzki and Michael Finley both score 20+ points. Nowitzki actually had a poor game where his shot simply wasn't falling - I think his only makes were up close. But he did get aggressive in driving and was a target of Utah's physical defense and he found himself at the line a lot. Nowitzki had 29 points on 7-21 FG and 15-16 FT and 8 rebounds. Michael Finley had 24 points including 10-18 FG and 3-6 3-pointers, 3 rebounds, and 4 assists. Most of Josh Howard's productivity came in the 1st quarter as he was in foul trouble a large chunk of the rest of the game. He finished with 18 points, 9 rebounds, and 3 steals in 29 minutes. Devin Harris was the only other Mav in double-digits with 12 points including 4-5 FG. He also had a game high 5 assists, 3 rebounds, and 3 steals in 25 minutes. Jason Terry had 9 points on 4-6 FG, 3 rebounds, and 4 assists, but also had 4 turnovers, in 26 minutes. Darrell Armstrong completed the 3-headed point with 2 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists in 17 minutes. Marquis Daniels had 7 points including 2-7 FG and 2 rebounds in 17 minutes in his return to action. The 4-headed center was in constant rotation as they kept picking up fouls. Alan Henderson started and had 5 rebounds and 5 fouls in 22 minutes. Shawn Bradley had 3 rebounds and 4 fouls in 16 minutes. Calvin Booth had 3 fouls in 6 minutes. And DJ Mbenga had 2 blocks and 2 fouls in 3 minutes. The 4 combined to attempt just 2 shots (both missed). Utah's 5 starters combined to shoot just 11-43 (25.6%) FG. Raja Bell was the high man for Utah with 16 points including 5-15 FG and 8 rebounds. Andrei Kirilenko had 12 points including 3-12 FG and 6 rebounds. Fresh from IR, rookie Keith McLeod had 5 points including 2-9 FG and 4 rebounds. Matt Harpring had 9 points on 1-6 FG and 7-8 FT and 5 rebounds. And Jarron Collins missed his only shot and had 1 rebound in 15 minutes (and committed an ugly flagrant early in the game on Nowitzki). Howard Eisley and Mehmet Okur contributed to the clanks off the bench. Eisley had 12 points on 2-10 FG and 8-8 FT and a team high 3 assists. Okur had 6 points on 0-5 FG and 6-6 FT and 5 fouls in 16 minutes. Curtis Borchardt was the only Jazz player who played more than 15 minutes who shot well. He had 9 points including 4-6 FG and 8 rebounds in 21 minutes. It was a good day in Mavs land as Dallas finished their road trip 5-0 and Sacramento committed hari-kiri in trading all-star Chris Webber (and 2 no-names) for 3 role players. Sacramento traded Chris Webber, Matt Barnes, and Michael Bradley to Philadelphia for Kenny Thomas, Corliss Williamson, and Brian Skinner. Sacramento is in Dallas for a game tonight and they will be short-handed as none of the traded players will be available [all players involved in a trade have to report to their new team and pass a physical before the trade is finalized]. Peja Stojakovic is questionable as he has missed the last 3 games with a strained right hamstring. As such, it went from a hard game to one Dallas should win - hopefully they will stay focused and not slip up in a home game they should win [as they have done a few times this season]. Quotes Don Nelson: "It wasn't that easy a game, I want to tell you. We had our hands full going into the 4th quarter. Played a sensational 2nd half. We guarded, we executed our stuff. The guys stepped up, and we ended up winning by a good number. But it was quite a fight. They play hard here, they give hard fouls. We had to play above that. We had to talk to our team almost every timeout about keeping their cool, let the referees handle the situation. I thought they did a good job, cause there were a lot of hard fouls out there." Nelson: "We're the number one road team in the league, as of tonight. We've won more road games than anyone else. That must say something about our ballclub. It means that we're horsecrap at home. But we've got to take care of business at home. We've got 2 games back-to-back. This was a very good game to start the end of the season rally. We have 31 games left, 30 now. Just keep the pedal to the metal and see where we end up." Nelson on Finley: "Well, he's taken some advice I gave him to heart, and he's a different player now than he was when we had the chat. You assume that veteran players know these things and they see it themselves in the film that we watch, you point them out. Sometimes it takes a heart-to-heart with an old friend to advise him and to point out what he needs to do to be the player that he's always been." Dirk Nowitzki: "We kept getting to the free throw line. We shot 21, 22 free throws. You know they really attacked the offensive glass, and in the 2nd half I think we took that away. We tried to keep them off the line." Nowitzki: "I thought in the 1st half they really kept in the game by getting to the foul line. They really attacked the offensive glass and I thought in the 2nd half we just took those things away. We tried to keep them in front of us in the penetration. We tried to keep them off the line. Don't do all those ticky-tack fouls. That really worked for us." Nowitzki: "The way we played before the All-Star Game, with those 4 games, was huge. We really executed down the stretch in the 4th quarter, just like we did today. That's what it's all about. Down the stretch, we've got to get the big shots, we've got to make big plays, and in the last few games, we've been doing that." Michael Finley: "Utah always plays physical. They play with that type of tenacity. That's what kind of player Coach Sloan was when he was in the league and it's carried over to this team." Finley: "I think we buckled down on the defensive end. The coaches were emphasizing that our offense was not the problem tonight. It was defensively, stopping them and making them take tough shots, and, most importantly, getting rebounds." Finley: "We're playing great. We have a sense of confidence on the road. In a way, we kind of look forward to the road to kind of prove critics wrong. When you're on the road, it's just you and those guys on the court against everybody. I think we like that kind of pressure." Jason Terry: "It was a very aggressive game, and that's the way they play up here. They play very physical. You can be very physical or you can back down. We chose to be physical and get to the line." Terry: "Dirk's really stepping up his D this year, which makes a big difference." Terry on the strong road play: "We're very confident. It's good. For one thing, we know during the playoffs we can go into other teams' arenas and win games." Jerry Sloan: "Teams must be toying with us because we've been able to hang in there with them, then we can't seem to finish." Sloan: "We got confused on what we were doing defensively a couple of times as we came down the stretch. We also got confused as to what we were trying to do offensively." Sloan: "We can't just take the basketball and fire it up there; I think we're good enough to do that and that's been proven on a number of occasions. You've got to still execute your offense, set screens and be ready to pass the ball. We had a difficult time doing that." Sloan: "They did a great job defending us. They made it difficult for us to read what was going on at times and we just kind of hung out." Sloan: "They did a great job defending. They switched on us, made it difficult for us to read what was going on." Sloan on the physical play: "We didn't respond to well because as we came down the stretch we got further and further away from the basket. They got up and played us a little bit and pushed us out on the floor, and we just kind of hung out. That seems to be one of the problems that we have, instead of being able to force the action, running the floor and getting into your offense a little bit quicker." Sloan on the team's week off: "Obviously, some guys still look like they were on vacation. It was difficult for them to run up and down the court." Sloan on Nowitzki: "Matt probably did the best job of keeping him in check, but he's a very difficult player to guard. You can't really stop him." Sloan on McLeod: "It wasn't so much what he was trying to do but everybody else shooting it as soon as they touched it." Curtis Borchardt: "I think we just kind of got away from what helped us in the 1st quarter, which was just executing and we were attacking. Guys started driving to the basket. We kind of missed a few defensive assignments as well. We had a similar letdown to what we had at the beginning of the game and you can't survive 2 of those." Borchardt on the shooting percentage: "We were a little cold. I think in the 1st half we only shot 33% and we were still within a point because we were doing the job defensively a little bit better. But in the 2nd half, we didn't do that. You're not going to win many games shooting that low a percentage." Borchardt: "We got to go back to work tomorrow and figure out how to shoot the ball straight and execute our offense. I think more than anything, we were taking tougher shots in the 4th quarter than we were in the 2nd and 3rd. So if we can work on that a little bit and come back and shoot with confidence we'll be in better shape." Raja Bell on what went wrong in the 2nd half: "I don't know man. It's hard to say. I have to take a better look at the film. I think we fell asleep defensively a couple times and there were some instances where we might have tried to make personal plays. I know that there were probably a couple I shot that I might have looked for someone who had a better shot." Bell: "I can't blame it on the week off. Obviously with no game-type competition your body is not going to feel the same as it did when you were playing night in and night out. I think that was evident in our shooting. I know I shot pretty bad. I know our field goal percentage was pretty low." Bell: "They had a week off, too. I can't blame it on the week off. Nobody's going to feel sorry for us because we had some time off." Bell: "Nobody's going to feel sorry for us because we had more time off than somebody else. We had to be ready to play when we step on the court." Bell: "I know my legs weren't there. And I didn't sit the whole week, either." Bell: "Dirk's a really good player. I know it has got to be tough for Matt and those guys trying to guard him. He can do so many things. He makes the refs make calls the way he throws his body around so that's frustrating. He did a good job of that tonight." Dallas Mavericks 101, Utah Jazz 83 at Utah (February 23) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 30 21 24 26 - 101 .473 .471 .472 .781 Utah 20 30 19 14 - 83 .361 .071 .307 .923 Halftime: Dallas 51-50 3rd Q: Dallas 75-69 Technicals: Dirk Nowitzki 9:23 3rd, Jerry Sloan 0:53 3rd, Josh Howard 3:02 4th, Raja Bell 3:02 4th Flagrant: Jarron Collins (level 1) 6:48 1st, Michael Finley 2:26 (level 1) 2:26 2nd Refs: Steve Javie, Phil Robinson, Michael Smith Attendance: 18,521 (cap 19,911) Did not play due to injury: Jerry Stackhouse (strained right groin), Carlos Boozer (strained right foot) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Michael Finley 41 10-18 3-6 1-1 24 0-3 4 1 2 1 0 Jason Terry 26 4-6 1-3 0-0 9 0-3 4 4 3 1 0 Josh Howard 29 7-13 1-2 3-9 18 3-9 0 2 4 3 0 Alan Henderson 22 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-5 0 2 5 1 0 Dirk Nowitzki 38 7-21 0-2 15-16 29 2-8 2 2 3 1 1 Devin Harris 25 4-5 2-3 2-2 12 0-3 5 2 4 3 0 Marquis Daniels 17 2-7 1-1 2-2 7 0-2 0 0 2 1 0 Darrell Armstrong 17 0-1 0-0 2-2 2 2-5 4 0 2 1 0 Shawn Bradley 16 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1-3 0 2 4 1 1 Calvin Booth 6 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 1 3 1 0 DJ Mbenga 3 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 2 0 2 Totals 48 34-72 8-17 25-32 101 8-41 19 16 34 14 4 Utah Jazz REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Raja Bell 34 5-15 0-1 6-8 16 2-8 1 2 2 1 0 Keith McLeod 23 2-9 0-2 1-1 5 1-4 2 3 2 1 1 Andrei Kirilenko 36 3-12 0-3 6-6 12 4-6 2 2 3 2 1 Matt Harpring 35 1-6 0-0 7-8 9 1-5 2 2 2 2 1 Jarron Collins 15 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1-1 0 1 2 0 0 Howard Eisley 30 2-10 0-4 8-8 12 0-2 3 2 2 1 0 Curtis Borchardt 21 4-6 0-0 1-1 9 4-8 2 4 3 0 1 Mehmet Okur 16 0-5 0-0 6-6 6 0-2 2 3 5 0 1 Kirk Snyder 15 2-4 0-2 1-1 5 1-3 0 1 0 0 1 Gordan Giricek 14 3-6 1-2 0-0 7 0-2 0 1 2 0 1 Kris Humphries 1 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 0-1 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 23-75 1-14 36-39 83 14-42 14 21 23 7 7 patricia