Prior to the Sacramento game, Dallas activated Pavel Podkolzin. He took the open active roster spot created with the Keith Van Horn trade. Despite being part of the Keith Van Horn trade, Alan Henderson may end up back in Dallas. Milwaukee released Henderson today. He will likely pass the 48 hour (workday) waiver period [any team can pick him up off the waiver wire, but they then assume his $8.3 million contract and it has to fit under their existing salary cap] and then would be a free agent on Tuesday, able to sign with any team he wants (for minimum or what ever a team has available and would be willing to pay him). Dallas has made comments that they would love to have him back. Henderson has been mum on the whole thing. Sacramento at Dallas (February 24) Both teams were playing short handed as none of the traded players (3 for Sacramento and 1 for Dallas) were available and Dallas was again without Jerry Stackhouse and Sacramento was again without Peja Stojakovic. Sacramento only had 8 dressed players. Dallas did have 10 available players, but that included never played Pavel Podkolzin and seldom used DJ Mbenga. Dallas was in the giving mode early and decided to spot Sacramento an early 10 point lead as the Mavs missed their first 6 shots. Dallas finally got on the board a little over 3 minutes into the game and that jumper by Marquis Daniels kicked off a 10-2 run for the Mavs that pulled Dallas within 10-12 with 6 minutes remaining. A 3-pointer by Michael Finley and jumper by Devin Harris gave Dallas their first lead of the game at 17-16 with 4 minutes to go. 3-pointers surrounded a dunk as Dallas scored the last 8 points of the quarter to give the Mavs a 27-23 lead after 1. Dallas went on an 11-2 run, capped by a 3-pointer by Harris, to take their largest lead at 49-37 with 5:30 left. But the Kings kept chipping away at Dallas' lead and consecutive 3-pointers by Mike Bibby pulled Sacramento within 51-54 with 1:45 to go. Dallas led 58-55 at the half. Sacramento shot 8-18 FG while Dallas shot 14-26 FG in the 2nd quarter, but the Kings were able to stay in the game thanks to some very friendly whistles as Sacramento shot 13-14 FT in the quarter while Dallas did not attempt a free throws (and Sacramento was only called for 1 foul in the quarter). For the half, Daniels had 16 points, 7 rebounds, and 8 assists. Sacramento scored the first 6 points of the 3rd quarter to go up 61-58 with 10 minutes left as Dallas missed their first 4 shots and committed 2 turnovers - Dallas finally got on the scoreboard 2:20 into the quarter on a jumper by Dirk Nowitzki. The game stayed close with Sacramento mostly holding small leads, none larger than 6 points. Brad Miller leveled an unsuspecting Devin Harris with a dirty pick as Sacramento was bring the ball up with 1:30 remaining and no call was made, which set Don Nelson off (and added to the frustration with the lopsided calls) and after Cuttino Mobley drained a 3-pointer as Harris laid on the floor, Nelson called timeout purely to get on the court and in the face of the refs. Of course, he was tossed. Harris left the game with a strained neck and did not return. Sacramento led 88-82 after 3. The lopsided free throws continued in the 3rd quarter as Sacramento shot 8-11 FT and Dallas shot 0-1 FT in the quarter. Mobley converted a 3-point play to give Sacramento a 93-84 lead with 10:50 to go. Sacramento led 103-96 with 7:10 left and Dallas went on a 13-2 run, capped by a fast break dunk (off a nice lead pass by Darrell Armstrong) by Josh Howard and the extra free throw, to put Dallas up 109-105 with 4:10 remaining. Darius Songaila got a putback with 3:20 left to end Sacramento's 4 1/2 minute field goal drought (0-8 FG, 4-4 FT during that time). Finley drained a 3-pointer, but Mobley answered with a 3-pointer to cut Dallas' lead down to 112-110 with 2:40 left. Nowitzki hit 2 free throws and Finley nailed another 3-pointer to give Dallas a 117-110 lead with 1:40 to go. Bibby hit 1-2 FT (as Howard fouled out with 1:35 left), Shaun Bradley shuffled his feet inside, and Mobley hit a pull-up jumper to pull Sacramento within 113-117 with 1:10 remaining. Daniels was fouled inside with a minute left and hit both free throws. Bibby missed on a 3-point attempt, but Sacramento got the ball out of bounds as the refs refused to call a foul as 2 Kings players surrounded Bradley and slapped away at the ball and Bradley, but Daniels intercepted a Kings' pass and Finley was eventually fouled. He hit 1-2 free throws to make it a 7 point game with 27 seconds to go. Mobley missed a 3-point attempt and 2 free throws by Nowitzki capped the scoring. Dallas won 122-113. The Mavs gutted it out and found another way to win a tight game in the 4th quarter. Of course, in no way, shape, or form should it have been such a tight game in facing a depleted Sacramento team and playing on Dallas' home court, even with Dallas missing players of their own. Give Sacramento credit for playing over their heads for 3 quarters, but Dallas needs to find some consistency in the first 3 quarters instead of having to exert a ton of energy to win in the 4th. Dallas out-scored Sacramento 40-25 in the 4th as the Mavs stepped up the offense and defense and Sacramento ran out of energy. Dallas shot 14-24 FG and Sacramento shot 8-22 FG. Dallas out-rebounded Sacramento 12-8 in the 4th including 4-2 offensive - impressive with Dallas strong shooting and Sacramento's poor shooting. It wouldn't have been a close game if Sacramento didn't get some help from the refs. The Kings had a grand total of 2 fouls called against them in the 2nd and 3rd quarters - 1:18 2nd quarter, 0:47 3rd quarter. Sacramento shot 21-25 FT and Dallas shot 0-1 FT during the quarters. Dallas went a whole 26 minutes between free throws attempted. And it wasn't as if Dallas was a pure jump shooting team during those quarters as they did score 30 points in the paint during the quarters [well over half of their 55 total points scored in the 2 quarters]. I don't know why the officiating was so lopsided as it wasn't a bad crew; maybe they wanted to make up for the aggrievious missed goaltending call near the end of the last Dallas-Sacramento game. [I don't blame the refs for not calling anything on the Brad Miller pick on Devin Harris as when I saw it live, it looked like a clean pick. It was only on replays that I saw after the game ended that I could tell that Miller leaned his shoulder into Harris as contact was made to make it a dirty pick. Of course, Harris' teammates also deserve blame for not warning him that the pick was coming.] Dirk! Dirk! Dirk! All hail. Dirk Nowitzki finally started ignoring the many double-teams (and sometimes triple-teams) Sacramento continually ran at him and started being aggressive and draining shots in the 4th quarter. He scored 17 points on 6-9 FG and 4-4 FT in the 4th quarter. For the game, he had 34 points including 14-25 FG and 11 rebounds. Marquis Daniels got the starting nod and was a stud and finished just shy of a triple-double. He had 29 points including 13-23 FG, 9 rebounds including 5 offensive, and 8 assists. Michael Finley was the 3rd Mav with 20+ points as he had 22 points including 5-9 3-pointers [and much poorer on 2-pointers at 3-12], 6 rebounds, and 4 assists. Josh Howard had a monster dunk early in the game where he slipped into an extra gear while driving and blew by the defense for the slam. He had a solid outing with 16 points, 9 rebounds, and 4 assists. Jason Terry got into the dog house with his poor play and hardly played in the 2nd half (pulled less than a minute into the 3rd quarter) and had no points on 0-4 FG, 1 rebound, 1 assist, 2 steals, and 2 turnovers in just 15 minutes. Devin Harris was having a very nice outing before leaving the game. He had 11 points on 4-6 FG, 3-5 3-pointers, and 0-2 FT, 4 assists, and 2 steals in 21 minutes. Darrell Armstrong played most of the 2nd half and also played well with 2 points (1-2 FG), 4 rebounds, and 7 assists in 23 minutes. Shawn Bradley manned the zone and played a season high 31 minutes. He had 8 points, 10 rebounds including 6 offensive, and 3 blocks. Those blocks gave him 2,088 career blocks, which placed him 10th on the NBA all-time block list, passing Manute Bol [blocks have been kept as a stat since 1974]. Due to the trade and injuries, Dallas only played 8 players. Sacramento also had 3 players with 20+ points. Mike Bibby had 26 points, but just 1 point in the 4th quarter. He was driving to the basket so often and so easily through 3 quarters that I was having flashbacks to the 2002 playoffs. Bibby also had 8 assists, 5 rebounds, and 3 steals. 20 of Cuttino Mobley's 26 points came in the 2nd half. He had 3 rebounds, 3 assists, and 6 turnovers in playing all but 2 minutes. Darius Songaila had a career high 23 points including 10-14 FG and 12 rebounds including 6 offensive. Brad Miller had a double-double with 16 points on 3-12 FG (including a couple of missed bunnies) and 10-10 FT and 15 rebounds. And starter Maurice Evans had 12 points including 2-7 FG and 6 rebounds. Sacramento's 3 reserves available only combined for 10 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 assists in just 28 minutes as the starters carried the load. Quotes [Don Nelson usually does not address the media after games in which he is ejected.] Avery Johnson: "What a great performance by the Sacramento Kings. Almost all their starters played 40 minutes. They came in short handed and hurting a little from the Webber trade. They played a terrific game. Coach Adelman had them ready to play tonight." Johnson: "Tonight, I'm really proud of us gutting this win out. They handled a lot of adversity during the course of the game and that is the kind of stuff that I look at. We had a lot of good individual performances. Darrell Armstrong and Shawn Bradley were huge. Marquis Daniels almost had a triple-double. Finley hit some big 3s for us and Devin was good when he was in. Everybody that touched the court tonight contributed in some way." Johnson on Daniels: "Early in the season, he couldn't get anything going. His ankle was giving him problems. He really played well. He was all over the place. We really needed him tonight in our zone." Johnson on Armstrong: "There is no set plan with Darrell. It's on a game-by-game basis. We like to keep his minutes around the 16-20 minute range and he was at 23 minutes tonight. He's given us a lot of energy." Johnson on the Van Horn trade: "I think it's good. We are concerned about wearing Dirk out. Personally, I don't like it when Dirk has to play 44 minutes. We think this new addition will help and take some pressure off Dirk. At the same time, when Dirk is out of the game our offense seems to go in the tank. Now at least we have somebody that can make some shots for us. We think we will have a solid 9 or 10 man rotation once we get Stackhouse back." Josh Howard on his dunk in the 4th quarter: "I saw the opportunity and DA [Armstrong] gave me a great pass and I just went up, got fouled, and finished with a 3-point play." Howard: "We just started concentrating hard in the 4th quarter. We did let a lot of lay-ups go by and we all realized that we couldn't do that if we wanted to win." Howard on the 4th quarter: "Guys are just coming together. We just need to stay focused and that's what we've got to do if we want to win." Howard on if this is the start of being a better home team: "I would say so. This was the first game back home in a long time so it was the perfect way to start it off and next in is Phoenix." Marquis Daniels: "I didn't expect to play as much, but it was one of those games where things were going good for me. I was getting guys open and I was freeing for myself as well and coach kind of went with me a little longer than he expected." Daniels on if he felt disjointed: "Not really. The first game last weekend, I didn't want to come in and cause it problems with the team. They have been playing great on the road. I was little more careful. And in this game I just kind of let loose and just played hard." Daniels on his health: "I feel okay. I'm a little sore, but everything else feels great." Devin Harris on his health: "Not too bad, though. All the body parts are accounted for." Shawn Bradley on the 4th quarter comeback: "That's something we've been doing well in the last few games. It feels good to pull games out like that." Rick Adelman: "We got tired at the end, but our guys played hard. We were there but we gave up too many offensive boards and we turned it over too many times. We had to control the tempo, cut down on fast breaks. It's hard to win on the road when you give up opportunities like we did. We bonded together and we had a chance to win, we just got tired at the end." Adelman on the Webber trade: "We've always responded before. Our team is very resilient and if we are to get through this, we're going to have to fight through this. We're kind of doing things on the fly. We've got to get together, get some wins and we've got a chance of being a pretty darn good team if we pull together. Being on the road, making a trade, and having Peja out - there are no answers. We have to play hard and smart and we'll be okay." Brad Miller: "We only played 7 guys basically the whole game. We have to be patient and play our game. Hopefully, we'll be over this by Saturday. Houston's coming on strong - we're going to pick our game up and focus on making the playoffs." Miller on missing Webber: "It was obviously different without him. He was playing real well for us and not having him out there took some time to get used to. He's the guy everyone would look to and it was up to the rest of us to step it up. We're going to have fill his shoes and make adjustments." Darius Songaila on missing Webber: "I knew I was going to have pick up my level of play. I didn't expect to play as well as I did, but a double-double is one thing and a W is another. I'll give up my points to get the win, but it didn't happen tonight." Songaila: "I'm a little tired, but that's the way this league is. No added pressure - this isn't the first time I've started. I think I made a few defensive mistakes, and tonight was tough. We only had 8 guys and the rotation was kind of short. In this league, you have to be able to push through and come up with big stops at the end. Especially in Dallas." Dallas Mavericks 122, Sacramento Kings 113 at Dallas (February 24) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 27 31 24 40 - 122 .471 .455 .467 .706 Sacramento 23 32 33 25 - 113 .491 .375 .457 .857 Halftime: Dallas 58-55 3rd Q: Sacramento 88-82 Technicals: Shawn Bradley 10:21 3rd, Don Nelson 1:27 3rd, Don Nelson (ejected) 1:27 3rd Refs: Danny Crawford, Kevin Fehr, Bennie Adams Attendance: 20,377 (sellout) Did not play due to injury: Jerry Stackhouse (strained right groin), Keith Van Horn (trade), Peja Stojakovic (strained right hamstring), Kenny Thomas (trade), Corliss Williamson (trade), Brian Skinner (trade) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Marquis Daniels 36 13-23 0-2 3-3 29 5-9 8 3 2 2 0 Jason Terry 15 0-4 0-1 0-0 0 0-1 1 2 1 2 0 Michael Finley 42 8-21 5-9 1-2 22 3-6 4 1 4 1 1 Josh Howard 28 7-18 1-2 1-2 16 4-9 4 2 6 1 0 Dirk Nowitzki 44 14-25 1-3 5-6 34 1-11 2 0 1 2 2 Shawn Bradley 31 3-8 0-0 2-2 8 6-10 0 3 5 0 3 Darrell Armstrong 23 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 2-4 7 1 0 1 0 Devin Harris 21 4-6 3-5 0-2 11 2-2 4 2 2 2 1 Totals 48 50-107 10-22 12-17 122 23-52 30 14 21 11 7 Sacramento Kings REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Cuttino Mobley 46 10-19 3-10 3-3 26 0-3 3 6 2 2 0 Mike Bibby 42 8-20 3-7 7-9 26 1-5 8 2 2 3 0 Darius Songaila 45 10-14 0-0 3-5 23 6-12 3 6 0 0 0 Maurice Evans 38 2-7 1-3 7-8 12 0-6 1 2 5 2 0 Brad Miller 40 3-12 0-0 10-10 16 2-15 3 1 4 1 2 Eddie House 10 2-5 1-3 0-0 5 0-0 1 0 2 1 0 Kevin Martin 10 1-3 1-1 0-0 3 1-1 0 0 0 0 0 Greg Ostertag 9 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 1-3 1 1 1 0 1 Totals 48 37-81 9-24 30-35 113 11-45 20 18 16 9 3 patricia