Josh Howard has a 2nd degree sprained left ankle and is expected to be out 2 weeks due to the injury. He'll likely be placed on IL tonight and Devean George, who missed the first 3 games due to a stomach illness, will be activated. George is expected to play tonight. Golden State at Dallas (November 6) The poor start to the season continued with a bad omen for this game as the unveiling of the [bogus] Western Conference Championship banner took longer than expected as the black covering only came off part of the way and someone had to get up on the catwalk and tug the thing the rest of the way off (while several of the players laughed). [I still say that the only team banners displayed should be for league championships, but I guess that the Mavs felt an inferiority complex with the many (mostly bogus) banners the hockey Dallas Stars have up (including _5_ from one season).] Also of note before the game was that Don Nelson not only got enthusiastic applause when his name was announced as Golden State coach after his team's starting lineup, but a swelling of applause occurred when he came on the court about 5 minutes before game time (I can't recall the last time that has occurred). He hugged a number of Mavs players as he walked on the court and, after the lineups were announced, Dirk Nowitzki went over and gave him a big hug and Jason Terry followed suit. Devin Harris started in place of Greg Buckner, who had started the first 2 games. The first half was a tightly contested game and fairly entertaining, if at times sloppy. Dallas scored 9 straight points to go up 9-3 with 9 minutes remaining. A 3-pointer by Josh Howard gave Dallas a 7 point lead, but Golden State then went on a 9-2 run to tie the game at 14-14 with 5:20 left. Dallas scored the next 5 points, but Golden State answered with 5 straight points. Consecutive Dallas buckets gave the Mavs a 31-25 lead with a minute to go. Jerry Stackhouse drove for 2 near the quarter's end and Anthony Johnson stole Golden State's inbounds pass (but the Mavs missed the last shot of the quarter). Dallas led 34-27 after 1. Baron Davis had 10 points in the quarter. Both teams shot over 50% FG. Troy Murphy opened the 2nd quarter with a 3-pointer and the game stayed close the entire quarter with the largest lead being just 6 points. A dunk by Davis and 3-pointer by Mike Dunleavy tied the game at 42-42 with 7:45 left. Josh Howard landed on Mickael Pietrus' foot and sprained his ankle - Howard did stay on the court, grimacing, to shoot the free throws, but then left and did not return to the game. Consecutive buckets by Nowitzki gave Dallas a 51-46 lead with 4:40 remaining, but Pietrus answered with a 3-pointer. Avery Johnson was not happy with a non-call with 4 minutes left and picked up a technical by ref Danny Crawford and a 2nd technical quickly followed. Johnson had some extra words for Crawford before Johnson left the court. Del Harris coached the rest of the game. A 3-pointer by Terry gave Dallas a 4 point lead with 1:15 remaining, but Pietrus answered with 2 free throws. Neither team scored over the last minute of the quarter. Dallas led 59-57 at the half. Dallas shot 49% FG and Golden State shot 58% FG in the half. Golden State opened the 3rd quarter by scoring the first 6 points to take a 63-59 lead with 10 minutes remaining. Dallas then scored the next 9 points, with 7 points coming from Greg Buckner (who started the quarter in place of Howard and was seeing his first minutes of the game), to go up 68-63 with 7:10 left. A 3-pointer by Buckner gave Dallas a 73-67 lead with 6:10 to go, but consecutive 3-pointers kicked off 10 straight Warriors points to put Golden State up 77-73 with 2:55 remaining. A 10-4 Dallas run briefly put Dallas back on top, but Davis nailed a 3-pointer with 30 seconds left and both teams missed their last shot. Golden State led 84-83 after 3. Jason Richardson had 10 points, Nowitzki had 10 points, and Buckner had 10 points in the quarter. Buckner shot 1-2 FT to open the scoring in the 4th quarter, but Golden State then scored the net 6 points to go up 90-84 with 9:10 remaining. A 3-pointer by Devin Harris and jumper by Buckner tied the game at 94-94 with 6:10 left. But Golden State then went on a 13-3 run to go up 107-97 with 2:25 to go. During the run, Golden State had a 4-on-1 fast break with only Terry back and they got the ball to Monta Ellis who went up and Terry hit him hard and got him across the neck and head and Terry was [correctly] tossed with a flagrant foul level 2. Harris ended the Warriors' run with a 3-pointer. Golden State missed and Nowitzki hit a jumper with 1:25 left. Ellis tried to force a pass and Harris made a nice steal and got a layup on the break to pull Dallas within 104-107 with 1:10 left. Golden State ran the shot clock down and Davis missed with 45 seconds to go. But Harris threw a cross-court pass hard and high and Stackhouse was unable to catch it and the ball went out of bounds with 35 seconds left. Golden State again ran the clock down and Pietrus missed with 13 seconds. Without a timeout being acknowledge (Del Harris was calling for one, but the refs either didn't hear him or just didn't acknowledge him [new rule this year is that coaches can call timeouts]), the Mavs brought the ball up, Anthony Johnson hesitated and then passed to Stackhouse and Stackhouse missed a 3-point attempt, but Buckner got the rebound and passed out to Devin Harris in the corner with time running out and for some stupid reason Harris passed the ball instead of shooting it and time expired before Dallas could get a shot up. Golden State won 107-104. There were lots of things to gripe about from this game. Don Nelson was in old form in playing small and weird lineups and Dallas simply tried to matchup against those lineups instead of taking advantage of the weaknesses presented by the lineups. Dallas played almost the entire 2nd half without a center on the court - at one point Dallas went so small that Jerry Stackhouse was playing power forward. And when there were glaring mismatches, the Mavs would not take advantage of it. The Mavs were again settling for jumpshots throughout the game and hardly attacking the basket - and that was with the Warriors not having an intimidating front line or shot blocker on the court. I can't tell you how many times I saw the Warriors have a mismatch with Dirk Nowitzki when Dallas had the ball and the Mavs never got him the ball. Point guard Baron Davis was even on Nowitzki several times. And the few times Dallas actually got Nowitzki the ball, it was mostly either Nowitzki wasn't aggressive enough to simply turn and attack before the double-team arrived (and Golden State's plan was to double when he got the ball) or Dallas' spacing wasn't good enough to take advantage of the openings that a double-team allows. And all that and I haven't even touched on the most glaring problem from the game - Dallas' many defensive flubs. I guess it was a good thing that Avery Johnson got toss or else the Mavs would have been out of timeouts midway through the 3rd quarter. I can't tell you how many times Golden State found a wide open player under the basket for an easy 2, after which the Mavs would stand there looking at each other wondering who was supposed to be on that guy. It got to be really annoying. And guess what? Read the scouting reports: Troy Murphy likes to shoot outside shots. If you give him space, he will shoot it. And he did in this game to a tune of 8-10 FG. Late in the game, Baron Davis missed a shot and 3 Mavs simply stood flat-footed watching the ball bounce on the rim as Jason Richardson was able to come in uncontested and tap the ball home. Golden State had almost all of the hustle plays and deserved the win, even if they didn't score in the last 2 minutes of the game. Okay (yes, the game annoyed me that much), on to the stats. Golden State shot 49.3% (36-73) FG including 10-23 3-pointers and Dallas shot 45.8% (38-83) FG including 11-30 (yes, 30 3-point attempts) 3-pointers. Golden State shot 25-31 FT and Dallas shot 17-22 FT. The rebounds were even at 39 each. Dallas did improve on the assist and turnover numbers in this game. Dallas had 23 assists and just 13 turnovers. Golden State had 19 assists and 17 turnovers. There were 12 ties and 7 lead changes in the game and the largest lead was just 10 points. Dallas is off to their worst start to a season in over a decade. Golden State went with a short lineup as only 8 players played. And the Warriors had 3 players with 20+ points. Baron Davis was the high man with 26 points, including an "Oh, Wow!" dunk. He was solid throughout and also had 7 rebounds and 8 assists in playing all 48 minutes. Jason Richardson had a fairly quiet 22 points. He also had 7 rebounds. Troy Murphy feasted on the outside open looks for 20 points on 8-10 FG and 3-3 FT. He also had 6 rebounds and 4 assists. Mickael Pietrus had 12 points and 5 rebounds. Monta Ellis chipped in 16 points including 3-4 3-pointers off the bench. Mike Dunleavy did not start and hardly played. He had 6 points in 13 minutes. Dirk Nowitzki led the way for Dallas in both points and rebounds, but his numbers should have been much, much higher with the way Golden State played him. He had 26 points on 7-10 FG and 11-12 FT, 11 rebounds, and 6 assists. But his only shot attempt (a make; nothing from the line) in the 4th quarter came with 1:25 left. Jason Terry continues to struggle with his shot. He had 15 points including 5-15 FG to go with 6 assists and 3 steals. He has to feel fortunate that he was not suspended for his flagrant. [And again let me restate: he was correctly ejected for that foul. Any time a player hits another player in the air like that and gets him above the shoulders (no matter the intent or if they're just going for the ball), the player needs to be tossed. It's extremely dangerous and scary. Also, since the PA announcer got it wrong: if a player has to leave the court due to a flagrant foul, the player's coach can chose any player on his team to shot the free throws and the player is allowed to return to the game; if the player remains on the court, then the player has to shoot the free throws.] And worse was the loss of Josh Howard. The Mavs have been struggling with him and now they get to go 2 weeks without their 2nd best player. Howard had 13 points and 3 rebounds in 15 minutes before his injury. Although Devin Harris did have a nice 4th quarter where he scored 10 points, he drove me nuts with the many outside good looks that he passed up. And his passing up the last one, where Dallas didn't have enough time for a pass, was unforgivable. The point guard needs to be smarter and more aware of the game time than that. For his numbers, Harris had 17 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 steals. Greg Buckner had a very nice outing with 13 points and 3 rebounds in filling in for Howard in the 2nd half (Buckner did not play in the 1st half). Jerry Stackhouse struggled with just 6 points on 3-12 FG and 0-4 3-pointers. He had 4 rebounds in 26 minutes. Austin Croshere also struggled in shooting 1-6 FG, including some very good looks. Anthony Johnson had 5 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 steals in 19 minutes. As I said, the centers didn't see much playing time due to Dallas electing to matchup to the Warriors. DeSagana Diop didn't attempt a shot and had 3 rebounds in 13 minutes. Erick Dampier had 7 points including 3-4 FG and 2 rebounds in 15 minutes. Quotes Don Nelson: "I'm not sure how well it was played. I think there were some turnovers by both teams in a crucial part of the game, but we were able to get a 10 point lead and nurse it home. I'm glad the game ended when it did because we haven't finished games well. Last year that was a nemesis of our team down the stretch. So anyway, the clock ran out and I'm happy about that." Nelson: "I never expected this win. I really thought we were not able to beat a good team at this point in the season. But I was wrong and my team proved me wrong and we actually played pretty well. We got in a couple of good zones and kind of stayed there and nursed some simple stuff that we run and basically made shots we had to make. And we were good enough defensively to win the game. So I'm very proud of my squad. You take the win when you can get it." Nelson on his return to Dallas: "At 66, you don't find a lot of emotion except for love and death. But it was a special [night] for me." Baron Davis: "The thing we did, we had fun tonight. We shared the ball, we ran, we played defense." Davis: "They tried some different defenders on me, but it's tough, because I'm definitely going to find the open man. This year, our spacing is so good and guys know what to do when someone's posting up, that it's pretty scary." Jason Richardson on Nelson's return to Dallas: "It was like a player being traded, coming back and wanted to do well against his old team. He wanted this game and we wanted to play hard and get it for him." Richardson on Golden State's recent success against Dallas: "I don't know what it is. Maybe we just like these rims." Troy Murphy: "We really didn't have our team together the whole preseason, so we had some rust. You're going to have some rust for the first part of the season, but once we hit our stride and start doing what Nellie wants us to do, we're going to be tough." Murphy on 4 straight wins in Dallas: "I don't know. I think the last time were here, JRich hit a shot at the buzzer. For some reason teams match up well with other teams, and we play well here in Dallas. I know we haven't beat the Clippers in a long time, so it's just one of those things." Monta Ellis: "It means that we played hard, all 48 minutes, and do what Coach asks us to do, we can win the ballgame. If we stay together defensively, like we did in the last seconds, we can win more ballgames than we did last year." Avery Johnson: "Tonight we are obviously disappointed with the end result. Overall we thought we had a lot of guys give us a huge amount of energy tonight. We thought that with inserting Devin Harris into the lineup we would get some energy. We got quite a bit of energy early in the game, but we are just not finishing well. There are a couple of different reasons why we are not finishing well, but we will continue to work on it." Johnson: "We were just trying to get a win, that's all that matters. Nellie obviously was on the other side coaching and they deserve to win. They played hard and they finished the game very well. But this game was just more about us trying to get back in sync and we are just not there yet." Johnson: "Jason Terry getting thrown out of the game obviously hurt us because, obviously, we can use his offense. I thought Greg Buckner came in tonight and tried to give us a lift. Devin starting, we believe, gave us somewhat of a lift. Once we piece it all together, we really do have a chance to be a good basketball team. It is just not happening now, but we will keep working on it." Johnson on his ejection: "I was gone pretty quickly. There was a difference of opinion on a drive and for the most part, the next thing I knew, I was gone." Johnson on Del Harris trying to get the timeout at the end: "He looked like he was yelling [for a time out]. You could pretty much hear him through the monitor. But obviously, he just was not heard. Although he was pretty much screaming for it, he just did not get it. We will just hopefully see if we can get it the next time." Del Harris on trying to call timeout: "I started at about 8 seconds and I kept running down the court. I probably yelled 'timeout' 6 times." Jason Terry on his flagrant foul: "I was swinging for the ball." Greg Buckner: "It's still early, we've got 79 games left. But we've got to press a little bit. We can't keep saying 'It's still early' and lose 6 more." Buckner: "I think we have to press a little bit. We can't just keep saying it's early, it's early. But we've got time." Buckner: "We've just got to find a way to get stops on the defensive end. That's pretty much what's hurting us right now, especially against a team like Golden State who's very talented offensively. We've got to find a way to shut those guys down." Buckner on losing Howard: "It was big. They use Baron Davis and Jason Richardson on the wings and they're very good postup guys and we had to put one of our smaller guards on them. If Josh was in, that would have slowed them down a little." Buckner on if the team is struggling more on offense or defense: "I think defensively. We're going to win a championship playing defense, we're not going to win a championship on offense. That's the old Mavericks. This is the new Mavericks and we're here to win a championship and we've got to do it on the defensive end." Buckner on Johnson's ejection: "We have a very serious assistant head coach here in Coach Harris, who has been in the fire. We understand that sometimes coaches are going to get thrown out and guys have got to step it up. That's just part of basketball, coaches getting thrown out." Austin Croshere on the defense problems: "Yeah it was tough. We obviously scored enough points to win the game, but we had a difficult time stopping them in transition at times. Other times they got the ball in the post and we missed some of our coverages. It was disappointing obviously." Croshere on if the defensive problems is a lack of communication: "Certainly that's part of it, but I don't think we can use that as an excuse. All the new guys have played basketball long enough to know the terminology and the types of things we're doing out there. It just comes down to execution." Croshere: "If we were playing really good basketball and losing I think people we have problems with it, but the last 2 games we haven't played very well. We need to make corrections and come out as the team that we were suppose to be at the beginning of the year." Golden State Warriors 107, Dallas Mavericks 104 at Dallas (November 6) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Golden State 27 30 27 23 - 107 .520 .435 .493 .806 Dallas 34 25 24 21 - 104 .509 .367 .458 .773 Halftime: Dallas 59-57 3rd Q: Golden State 84-83 Technicals: Avery Johnson 3:54 2nd, Avery Johnson (ejected) 3:54 2nd, Dallas defensive 3 seconds 3:01 2nd, Golden State defensive 3 seconds 2:36 2nd Flagrant fouls: Jason Terry (level 2 - ejected) 3:05 4th Refs: Danny Crawford, Kevin Fehr, Luis Grillo Attendance: 20,093 (sellout) IL: GS - Keith McLeod, Dajuan Wanger, Zarko Cabarkapa Dal - Devean George, DJ Mbenga, Pops Mensah-Bonsu Golden State Warriors REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Baron Davis 48 9-22 2-8 6-9 26 2-7 8 4 3 2 1 Jason Richardson 34 7-19 1-3 7-8 22 2-7 2 4 3 1 0 Troy Murphy 42 8-10 1-2 3-3 20 0-6 4 2 3 0 1 Mickael Pietrus 36 4-8 2-4 2-2 12 2-5 1 4 5 0 1 Andris Biedrins 27 1-2 0-0 1-2 3 3-8 1 0 2 1 3 Monta Ellis 31 5-9 3-4 3-4 16 0-3 3 3 3 1 0 Mike Dunleavy 13 1-2 1-2 3-3 6 0-2 0 0 0 0 0 Matt Barnes 9 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 0-1 0 0 2 0 0 Totals 48 36-73 10-23 25-31 107 9-39 19 17 21 5 6 Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Jason Terry 36 5-15 3-8 2-2 15 0-2 6 2 3 3 0 Devin Harris 34 7-14 2-3 1-2 17 2-6 4 2 3 3 2 Dirk Nowitzki 43 7-10 1-1 11-12 26 1-11 6 3 2 1 0 Josh Howard 15 5-10 2-5 1-2 13 1-3 1 0 2 2 0 DeSagana Diop 13 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 2-3 1 1 3 0 0 Jerry Stackhouse 26 3-12 0-4 0-0 6 2-4 1 2 0 0 0 Greg Buckner 23 5-7 2-4 1-2 13 0-3 1 0 3 0 1 Anthony Johnson 19 2-5 1-3 0-0 5 1-4 3 0 4 1 0 Austin Croshere 16 1-6 0-2 0-0 2 1-1 0 1 1 0 0 Erick Dampier 15 3-4 0-0 1-2 7 1-2 0 1 1 0 0 Totals 48 38-83 11-30 17-22 104 11-39 23 13 22 10 3 patricia