Dallas at Utah (November 2) On the 2nd night of a back-to-back and not getting to the hotel until 4 am, Dallas started the game sluggish and Utah jumped out to a 10-4 lead with 7:45 remaining. A jumper by Gordan Giricek gave Utah their largest lead at 19-11 with 4:25 to go, but the Jazz would not score again in the quarter in missing their last 4 shots, missing 2 free throws, and turning the ball over 3 times. Dallas took advantage of Utah's struggles in scoring the last 14 points of the quarter to go up 25-19 after 1. Jason Terry had 12 points. 2 free throws was all that was scored during the first 2 minutes of the 2nd quarter as the teams combined to miss 5 shots. But Dallas was able to keep a single-digit lead the entire quarter - between 2 and 9 points. Dallas led 48-44 at the half. Dallas shot 51% FG and 6-10 FT in the half while Utah shot 43% FG and 9-17 FT. The game stayed close in the 3rd quarter with both teams holding small leads, none larger than 5 points. Deron Williams threw a line-drive from 3/4ths court at the quarter buzzer that banked in. Dallas led 67-65 after 3. Dallas led 73-69 with 9:15 remaining and the bottom fell out as Dallas' offense disappeared in shooting just 1-13 FG the rest of the game. Utah went on a 12-4 run, capped by a 3-point play by Mehmet Okur, to go up 81-77 with 5:30 left. Dallas did hit 3 straight free throws to pull within 81-80 with 4:20 left. Neither team scored over the next 2 minutes. Okur ended the drought with a 3-pointer and then followed it up with the shot of the night. Okur got the ball behind the arc with his back to the basket and a defender up on him, he looked at the opposite end of the court and saw that the shot clock was about to expire, stepped back and turned and flung the ball at the basket and it banked in to give Utah a 7 point lead with 1:30 to go. After a timeout, Dallas missed, the putback attempt missed, and Dirk Nowitzki showed his frustration with recent non-calls and physical play by throwing an elbow at Matt Harpring. The refs called a flagrant foul, level 1 [actually the wrong call as it should have been a level 2 with Nowitzki tossed]. Harpring hit 1-2 FT and Utah kept the ball with the flagrant call. A layup attempt was missed, but Jarron Collins got the putback to give Utah the first double-digit lead of the night at 90-80 with a minute to go. There was no miracle comeback this night and Dallas got the loss they deserved. Utah won 93-82. The first 2 games were not good ones for Dallas and they'd have to feel fortunate to get away with a split. They do have the excuse of the late night, double-overtime game from the night before that might explain some for how poorly they played in the 2nd half of this game. But the team never looked sharp from the start and lacked energy throughout. Dallas shot 51% FG in the 1st half and just 24% FG in the 2nd half (6-19 FG in the 3rd quarter and 3-19 FG in the 4th quarter) while Utah was consistent in shooting 43% (16-37) FG in both halves. Dallas only scored 34 points in the 2nd half. Both teams struggled at the line with Dallas shooting 21-31 FT and Utah shooting 22-34 FT. And neither team did much sharing of the ball as Dallas had 10 assists and Utah had 15 assists. It was a block-fest, though, as Dallas had 9 blocks and Utah had 15 blocks, including 6 in the 4th quarter. The 24 combined blocks tied the team record for most combined blocks in a game. 15 of Mehmet Okur's 27 points came in the 4th quarter. He also had 8 rebounds and 5 turnovers. Andrei Kirilenko's shot wasn't falling in shooting 2-10 FG and 3-8 FT, but he helped in other ways with 10 rebounds, 5 assists, and 6 blocks. Rookie Deron Williams looked very good and will likely soon be starting, despite Jerry Sloan's aversion to playing rookies. He had 18 points including 3-4 3-pointers, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, and just 1 turnover. Keith McLeod had 10 points and Gordan Giricek had 9 points. Part of Dallas' 2nd half problems stemmed from their 1st half offensive threat having a poor 2nd half. After scoring 19 points on 9-12 FG in the 1st half, Jason Terry only had 2 points on 1-5 FG in the 2nd half. Dirk Nowitzki had a poor outing, capped by his frustration flagrant. He had 16 points including 5-17 FG and 1-6 3-pointers, 6 rebounds, no assists, and 3 blocks. He was joined by bricklayers Josh Howard, Doug Christie, and Keith Van Horn as the 4 combined to shoot just 28% (13-47) FG. Howard had 11 points including 3-13 FG, 4 rebounds, and 5 fouls. Christie had another ineffective night (both offensively and defensively) with 4 points including 1-6 FG and 5 rebounds. Van Horn did have a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds, but shot 4-11 FG and had 6 turnovers. Erick Dampier joined Christie in having 2 straight poor outings. Despite Utah's lack of interior strength, Dampier had just 1 point on 0-1 FG and 1-4 FT and 4 rebounds in playing just 15 minutes. Marquis Daniels had 8 points and 4 rebounds and Devin Harris had 7 points and 2 assists. DeSagana Diop only attempted 1 shot (missed), but did have 5 rebounds and 4 blocks in 23 minutes. Darrell Armstrong came in for 5 minutes, but wasn't able to spark the team like he did in the previous game. Quotes Jerry Sloan: "You have to have a little bit of luck, and luck fell our way tonight. But the harder you work, the luckier you get. You give yourself luck when you work hard and play hard." Sloan: "We happened to have a little bit of luck. Some of those shots went in, they were calling bank or something I guess. But you have to have some luck on that." Sloan on pulling away in a tight game: "Last year, if we would have been in that situation, we would have just caved in. This year, we got in a tough situation and we fought back. ... I thought we made them play defense a little more." Sloan: "We have that attitude of wanting to win, instead of just doing something for myself and trying to get it over with." Sloan: "If you work hard like you're supposed to, good things are going to happen. That is one thing we could never get over last year, when we got down, we accepted it." Sloan on Terry's 2nd half: "I don't know if I made any adjustments. He slowed himself down, probably. He played a tough game last night, but he can make shots. We gave him shots in the 1st half - our big people never got close enough to give our guards help." Sloan on Okur: "Mehmet can shoot the ball out there - there was never any doubt about that - but Deron was able to find him. That's the big key, and it makes the game a little bit easier for Deron, when we came down the stretch, for him to get on top of the basket." Sloan on Williams: "For his first game, I think he was under control. He knew what he was doing. A couple of times he got a little confused, but you expect that. But I thought he played pretty well." Andrei Kirilenko: "It's a great win. I think we showed a great example of the team game, and how we're supposed to play for the whole season. I think we did a pretty good job tonight." Kirilenko: "It was great emotion. You see Williams make that shot and Mehmet make that shot and everyone is happy. That was the emotion we needed to help us win the game." Mehmet Okur: "We need to play like that every night. We worked hard out there and I felt good." Okur on his banked 3-pointer: "That was a lucky one, I'll be honest. I saw the shot clock, there were 2 seconds left, I just threw the ball up and scored." Matt Harpring on Nowitzki's flagrant: "I just was boxing him out and he didn't like it, so he turned and showed me he didn't like it." Deron Williams: "I just feel comfortable in those types of situations. I've been in them a lot in college, and I don't see why it should be different now. I just try to go out there and assert myself. I'm just happy to get a win." Williams on the pick-and-roll: "It was working, so why go away from it? It's just hard to guard when 2 people both can shoot it or come off toward the basket and score." Williams on his quarter-ending 60-foot banker: "It's something I have in my repertoire, I try to bring it out every now and then. We'll take them any way we can get them. Everyone needs a little luck." Williams on his 60-footer: "I saw the clock going down and I just threw it up there. I'll take them any way I can get them." Avery Johnson: "The 2nd half, you've got to take your hat off to Utah. They were more physical, they rebounded stronger, and they had a presence about themselves, and we didn't." Johnson: "I don't want to make any excuses that we ran out of gas. This is the NBA. Sometimes, you have to fall on your face to get the message. When it's not your night, it's not your night. When they're banking in 3-pointers with 1 second on the shot clock, it's not a good sign." Johnson: "We couldn't get [Terry] going in the 2nd half. He was still aggressive, but they were trapping him and getting the ball out of his hands." Johnson: "Deron Williams is an old-school basketball player, and I really like that. He's awfully special." Dirk Nowitzki: "We should have won the game. Obviously, they made some prayers, but we made too many mental errors." Nowitzki: "We shouldn't have been that close. We just didn't play well enough down the line, not well enough to win on the road in the NBA." Nowitzki: "We're still working. We're all new. We weren't going to go undefeated. We have still have a lot of work to do on both ends." Nowitzki on his flagrant: "I was going for an offensive rebound, and I got thrown out of there. I shoved him. No big deal. I thought I got fouled a couple of times before that, so I guess it was a little bit of frustration." Josh Howard: "They continued to fight us the whole game. They hit some big buckets." Howard on Williams: "He played real composed. He didn't play like a rookie. They got a star in that guy right there." Jason Terry: "They got stops in the 4th quarter and we didn't get it done. Give them credit." Terry: "I wanted to come out and play with energy early and be aggressive. I tried to carry it over into the 2nd half. It just didn't happen." Terry on Williams: "He played under control. He hit some big shots, but we'll see him again." Utah Jazz 93, Dallas Mavericks 82 at Utah (November 2) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Utah 19 25 21 28 - 93 .391 .700 .432 .647 Dallas 25 23 19 15 - 82 .413 .214 .377 .677 Halftime: Dallas 48-44 3rd Q: Dallas 67-65 Technicals: Utah defensive 3 seconds 5:35 2nd Flagrants: Dirk Nowitzki (level 1) 1:21 4th Refs: Joe Forte, David Jones, Olandis Poole Attendance: 18,249 (cap 19,911) Did not play due to injury: Rober Whaley (suspended) Utah Jazz REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Keith McLeod 21 3-5 1-1 3-5 10 0-2 3 1 4 1 0 Gordan Giricek 21 3-9 1-2 2-3 9 0-1 1 0 1 1 0 Andrei Kirilenko 40 2-10 0-1 3-8 7 2-10 5 0 1 1 6 Mehmet Okur 37 10-17 2-2 5-5 27 3-8 1 5 4 0 2 Greg Ostertag 19 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 4-6 0 1 3 0 5 Deron Williams 26 7-14 3-4 1-1 18 0-3 3 1 2 0 0 Jarron Collins 24 1-3 0-0 2-2 4 3-8 0 2 5 1 1 Matt Harpring 22 3-8 0-0 2-4 8 1-6 0 1 1 1 1 Devin Brown 16 1-2 0-0 2-2 4 0-2 2 3 2 0 0 Milt Palacio 8 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 0-2 0 0 1 0 0 Kris Humphries 6 1-2 0-0 2-4 4 1-2 0 2 2 1 0 Totals 48 32-74 7-10 22-34 93 14-50 15 16 26 6 15 Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Jason Terry 31 10-17 1-4 0-0 21 1-4 2 0 3 2 1 Doug Christie 31 1-6 0-0 2-4 4 2-5 2 2 2 1 0 Dirk Nowitzki 36 5-17 1-6 5-6 16 1-6 0 1 2 1 3 Josh Howard 30 3-13 0-0 5-6 11 3-4 1 1 5 1 0 Erick Dampier 15 0-1 0-0 1-4 1 2-4 0 1 4 0 0 Keith Van_Horn 32 4-11 0-2 3-3 11 4-11 3 6 5 1 1 DeSagana Diop 23 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-5 0 1 4 0 4 Marquis Daniels 23 2-5 0-1 4-4 8 2-4 0 2 2 1 0 Devin Harris 14 3-5 0-0 1-4 7 0-1 2 1 2 1 0 Darrell Armstrong 5 1-1 1-1 0-0 3 0-0 0 0 0 2 0 Totals 48 29-77 3-14 21-31 82 15-44 10 15 29 10 9 patricia