Milwaukee at Dallas (October 19) The Mavs had their first home preseason game and were minus a number of players. Dirk Nowitzki's grandmother passed away and he returned to Germany for the funeral - he will also miss Thursday's game, but should be back for Saturday's game. Shawn Bradley suffered a mild concussion in practice on Wednesday and sat out this game. Jerry Stackhouse sat out with a right thigh contusion that occurred during Tuesday's game. Marquis Daniels remains out with his sprained ankle. [And Avery Johnson did not even dress as he is really more of a coach than player.] With the injuries, Dallas added Jason Sasser to their training camp roster today (won't make the regular season roster). With the injuries and Dirk being gone, Dallas had 10 players available (and only 2 that were on the roster from last season) in this game and all saw time on the court. Milwaukee scored 13 straight points to go up 16-5 with 7:40 left. A 3-pointer by Michael Finley pulled Dallas within 12-18 with 6:15 left and Milwaukee held a single-digit lead the rest of the foul filled quarter. Milwaukee led 33-26 after 1. The refs were also in preseason form as they called some questionable things and had both teams grumbling at them (and after calling almost anything in the 1st quarter they let some obvious things go in the 2nd quarter). Milwaukee shot 13-15 FT and Dallas shot 10-12 FT in the 1st quarter alone. Michael Redd had 13 points. Milwaukee led 42-31 with 8:45 to go and Dallas went on a 14-2 run, capped by a 3-point play by Josh Howard, to go up 45-44 with 5:30 left. The game stayed close the rest of the quarter. Dan Dickau nailed consecutive 3-pointers to give Dallas a 56-54 lead with 40 seconds left. Dallas led 56-55 at the half. Dallas shot 38% FG and Milwaukee shot 44% FG for the half. The teams traded buckets to open the 3rd quarter and Milwaukee then scored the next 6 points to go up 63-58 with 9 minutes remaining. Neither team had a rally the rest of the quarter and Milwaukee hung on to a small lead. Milwaukee led 75-69 after 3. The game stayed close in the 4th quarter with Milwaukee continuing to hold a small lead - a couple of times it looked like they would pull away, but Dallas would come scrapping back. A 3-pointer by Erick Strickland gave the Bucks a 102-93 lead with 2:40 remaining, but Jason Terry answered with a 3 of his own and kicked off an 8-2 mini-run where Dallas pulled within 101-104 with 1:20 to go. Rookie Devin Harris thought the coach was yelling to foul instead of "no foul" and fouled Brandon Williams. Williams hit 1-2 FT and Harris hit a quick floater with a minute left. Alan Henderson committed a foul inside and Zendon Hamilton hit both free throws to give Milwaukee a 107-103 lead with 44 seconds left. Harris brought the ball up quick and was fouled driving. He hit both free throws with 37 seconds left. The Mavs played good defense and Marcus Haislip attempted a layup but Calvin Booth blocked it, Strickland got the rebound and tried the get the putback, but Booth blocked it again and Derek Hood snagged the rebound with 10 seconds left. And it ended up being anticlimatic as Harris fumbled the ball in the corner and committed a turnover instead of getting a shot off. Milwaukee won 107-105. It was nice to finally see a game instead of trying to imagine what they looked like while listening to the radio. Even with missing so many key players, Dallas looked much better than the previous 2 games sounded. They never found their shooting touch and there were some ugly lineups put out there by both teams - ones that you would never see in the regular season (ie, Howard, Harris, Dickau, Booth, DJ). The really good news was that they did not have the turnover problems that plagued them in the first 2 games. Dallas only committed 10 turnovers and only 1 each by points Terry and Harris. That's not to say that there weren't plenty of problems and more work and improve needs to occur. I think I laughed as much as I cheered. And it wasn't just Dallas - Milwaukee didn't look sharp either (and were also missing some players). And even the refs need some work. As for the numbers, Milwaukee shot 43.4% (33-76) FG including 3-10 3-pointers and Dallas shot 40.2% (35-87) FG including 6-16 3-pointers. In the foul fest, Milwaukee shot 38-44 FT and Dallas shot 29-39 FT. Milwaukee out-rebounded Dallas 53-45, but Dallas had 15 offensive rebounds and Milwaukee had 11 offensive rebounds. Josh Howard continues to show that he will earn time and it will be impossible for Don Nelson to keep him off the court. He had a very nice outing, despite the foul problems, and was even the leader on the court during some bizarre lineups. He was the high man for the game with 20 points before fouling out with 2 minutes left. Once he finally started playing the game instead of thinking about everything (and driving me nuts with some of the shots he passed up or hesitated on), Jason Terry got into the flow and looked better. He had 17 points and 6 assists. Michael Finley was fairly quiet (and didn't play in the 4th quarter) with 13 points in 23 minutes. Erick Dampier did not look sharp. Yes, he was aggressive for a couple of rebounds (and a couple fell in his lap) and had 9 rebounds, but he fumbled away so many inside passes that I was grumbling at him more than cheering. He did catch a couple and got the bucket or was fouled, but it wasn't that great of a performance. He had 10 points on 2-7 FG and 6-9 FT, no assists, and 3 turnovers. Alan Henderson was quiet with just 2 points and 2 rebounds in 19 minutes. Devin Harris was fun to watch. He might have you laughing (or crying or Don Nelson pulling out his hair) with his rookie mistakes or blowing you away with his speed. He had a couple of aggressive moves to the basket that had me cheering and a couple of nice passes and picked a couple of pockets with some good D and even stepped in and took 2 charges (and picked up a couple of rookie fouls). He's going to be good, but needs to develop some thick skin for all the yelling he is going to get from his coach. He even used a floater near the end of the game, a weapon that all points need to have. Harris had 16 points on 3-9 FG, 0-3 3-pointers, and 10-13 FT, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, 5 steals, and just 1 turnover. DJ Mbenga was also entertaining to watch. He had a swat that had everyone cheering. He even shocked me by making a decent short shot. He had 2 points (1-3 FG), 4 rebounds, and 2 blocks in his 17 minutes. Dan Dickau had a nice outing and gave the team needed sparks with 3-pointers. He had 14 points including 3-4 3-pointers and 4 rebounds in 15 minutes. Calvin Booth had 9 points including 3-11 FG, 7 rebounds, and 3 blocks. Derek Hood chipped in 2 points and 5 rebounds. Terry Porter had an interesting preseason strategy: who ever started a quarter played the entire quarter. He did not make a single substitution during the game and each player played either 1 or 2 quarters. Erick Strickland was active and the high man with 18 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists. Michael Redd finished with 17 points (only shot 1-6 FG in the 3rd quarter after the impressive 1st quarter). Keith Van Horn had 11 point and Desmond Mason had 14 points including 4-11 FG. Rookie Zaza Pachulia continued his nice preseason with 11 points including 4-4 FG and 9 rebounds. Quotes Terry Porter: "Overall it was pretty good. Our 2nd group did a pretty good job when Dallas tried to turn it up. I thought we reacted to it really well." Porter on Pachulia: "Zaza played great tonight. He really did. He did a lot of great things tonight. Battling with Dampier down there is not easy. He was just solid and made a lot of good basketball plays out there. He worked the boards. He's one of the guys that we are looking at [the center] spot. He can play 4 or 5." Porter on Harris: "He seems to be aggressive. He does some good things as far as knowing how to pass it correctly as far as in traffic. He seems to do a good job of running the team. I'm sure it's going to be a learning process for him like most rookies. The way it looks right now, it like right he may get a chance actually to play a lot, to get some time which will help the process." Zaza Pachulia: "My game is just to put all my energy on the floor when I come into the game. I hustle and do my best on the floor. I started tonight, but before I didn't. It is a coaches decision, so I do whatever the coach says. I shall be ready for everything." Don Nelson: "We had a tough 3rd quarter. If we could have played well in that quarter, we could have had a real good chance. We had a chance to look at some players. Both our point guards performed well. It's a position where we have an awful lot of injuries. Harris got a chance to play a lot and he's got quite a game. He's going to be awfully good. We are going to try to play him as many games as we can this preseason so he's ready to start the season." Nelson on the many fouls: "It's just preseason." Nelson on Harris' turnover at the end: "It was a good lesson for the rook. You have to go through those things." Nelson: "Both our point guards performed well. The rookie's got a lot of game. He's going to be awfully good. And Terry had his best game. It's been very slow for him, but the last 2 days, it's really clicked in practice. He doesn't have the gifts Steve had, yet he can be a very effective player for us." Jason Terry: "We're still trying to come together as a team. As you know, we were missing an vital part of this whole team and that's the big fellow Dirty, but we held it together without him. It was a tough game. That's what preseason is like. You go through your ups and downs and hopefully we can get all the mistakes out of our system. Turnovers were down tonight which is a positive so really what you try to do in preseason is to look for positive things and things to build on." Terry: "We had a major difference tonight in turnovers. We had 10 and if we can do that all season long we're going to look real good." Terry: "I thought for a minute there in the 4th quarter we could have got our heads down, but we fought back and the energy in the building was great. This was my first time playing in front of the home fans so I'm excited and ready to get back out there." Devin Harris on his turnover at the end: "I'd like to have the ball back to get that last shot. [Coach] said I was in the right spot. I just need to catch and shoot it. I was thinking about shooting it before I caught it." Milwaukee Bucks 107, Dallas Mavericks 105 at Dallas (October 19) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Milwaukee 33 22 20 32 - 107 .455 .300 .434 .864 Dallas 26 30 13 36 - 105 .408 .375 .402 .744 Halftime: Dallas 56-55 3rd Q: Milwaukee 75-69 Technicals: Desmond Mason 8:13 4th, Josh Howard 8:13 4th Refs: Luis Grillo, Scott Wall, Eli Roe Attendance: 18,582 (sellout) Did not play due to injury: Toni Kukoc, TJ Ford, Dan Gadzuric, Shawn Bradley (mild concussion), Dirk Nowitzki (death in family), Marquis Daniels (sprained ankle), Jerry Stackhouse (thigh contusion) Milwaukee Bucks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Mike James 24 2-10 1-4 0-0 5 0-5 6 2 3 0 0 Michael Redd 24 4-12 1-2 8-8 17 1-3 0 2 4 2 1 Joe Smith 24 2-3 0-0 5-6 9 2-7 1 0 2 1 1 Keith Van_Horn 24 5-11 0-1 1-1 11 0-3 2 1 5 0 1 Zaza Pachulia 24 4-4 0-0 3-4 11 2-9 2 3 2 2 0 Desmond Mason 24 4-11 0-0 6-7 14 0-3 2 3 3 0 0 Marcus Haislip 24 3-7 0-0 0-0 6 1-5 1 1 4 0 2 Erick Strickland 24 5-9 1-2 7-8 18 2-4 4 3 5 0 0 Daniel Santiago 12 1-3 0-0 0-0 2 1-3 0 0 1 0 0 Juaquin Hawkins 12 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 0-3 1 1 1 0 0 Zendon Hamilton 12 0-1 0-0 7-8 7 2-7 0 0 1 0 1 Brandon Williams 12 2-4 0-1 1-2 5 0-1 0 1 2 1 0 Totals 48 33-76 3-10 38-44 107 11-53 19 17 33 6 6 Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Jason Terry 31 6-14 2-5 3-3 17 0-2 6 1 2 2 0 Michael Finley 23 6-14 1-3 0-0 13 1-3 1 0 3 0 0 Josh Howard 26 8-15 0-1 4-6 20 1-4 3 1 6 1 2 Alan Henderson 19 1-3 0-0 0-0 2 1-2 0 0 1 0 0 Erick Dampier 26 2-7 0-0 6-9 10 3-9 0 3 6 0 1 Devin Harris 33 3-9 0-3 10-13 16 2-5 6 1 4 5 2 Calvin Booth 32 3-11 0-0 3-4 9 2-7 2 1 3 0 3 Derek Hood 18 0-2 0-0 2-2 2 2-5 1 2 5 0 0 DJ Mbenga 17 1-3 0-0 0-0 2 1-4 2 0 1 0 2 Dan Dickau 15 5-9 3-4 1-2 14 2-4 0 1 3 0 0 Totals 48 35-87 6-16 29-39 105 15-45 21 10 34 8 10 patricia