Game 4: New Orleans at Dallas (April 27) The Hornets made a change for Game 4 - not to the lineup, but their uniforms as they broke out their alternate gold unis. It was a highly competitive 1st quarter as neither team could build more than a 4 point lead over the first 8 minutes of the quarter. Dallas scored 8 straight points, capped by a short jumper by Brandon Bass, to go up 22-16 with 3:30 remaining. Peja Stojakovic hit a 3-pointer, but Jason Terry answered with a 3 and then hit another 3-pointer to give Dallas a 28-19 lead with 2:10 to go. David West got 2 up close, Bass got 2 up close, and Morris Peterson hit a jumper with 1:15 left. Neither team scored over the rest of the quarter. Dallas led 30-23 after 1. Terry had 12 points. Devean George opened the 2nd quarter with a layup, but Dallas then went cold and the Hornets took advantage by going on a 15-2 run to take a 38-34 lead with 6:50 remaining - Dallas shot 1-8 FG and had 3 turnovers during the run. Dallas did score the next 4 points to tie the game, but New Orleans answered with consecutive layups and they held a small lead the rest of the quarter. Chris Paul resumed his end of quarter antics by hitting a jumper as the quarter came to a close. New Orleans led 48-44 at the half. Dallas shot just 7-24 FG and settled for jumpers instead of being aggressive to the basket - it resulted in the Mavs not attempting a single free throw in the 2nd quarter. For the half, New Orleans shot 47% FG and Dallas shot 38% FG. As a sign of how the game was being played, New Orleans out-scored Dallas 17-2 in fastbreak points. Stojakovic hit a 3-pointer, but Jason Kidd answered with a 3 to pull Dallas within 49-53 with 10:45 remaining. But the Hornets then went on an 11-2 run, capped by another 3 by Stojakovic, to take a 64-51 lead with 7:10 to go. Dallas did score 7 straight points, capped by a 3-pointer by Dirk Nowitzki, to pull within 63-68 with 2:20 remaining, but New Orleans then hit 4 straight free throws. Paul was fouled near the end of the quarter and hit 2 free throws to give New Orleans a 76-66 lead after 3. Dallas' shooting remained poor in the 3rd quarter as they shot 7-21 FG while New Orleans shot 9-16 FG. West had 10 points in the quarter. The teams traded jumpers to open the 4th quarter, but it was all down hill from there for Dallas as New Orleans then went on an 11-2 run to take their largest lead at 89-70 with 5:50 remaining - Dallas shot just 1-8 FG during the run. A scary moment occurred during the run as Kidd hit Jannero Pargo across the neck as Pargo was going for a fastbreak layup and sent Pargo flying. Fortunately, Pargo was okay. Kidd was (very correctly - an easy call) assessed a flagrant foul level 2 and ejected [the Mavs lucked out and the league opted not to suspend Kidd (and remember, the word "intent" is no where in the definition of flagrant fouls - the key words are excessive and dangerous)]. Nowitzki ended the Hornets' run with a 3-pointer with 5 minutes left, but the teams traded misses and Paul converted a 3-point play with 3:40 left to again make it a 19-point lead. The towel was thrown and the starters were subbed out and the rest of the game was pure garbage time. New Orleans won 97-84. New Orleans leads the series 3-1. Dallas only showed up for 1 quarter in this game. After the first quarter, Dallas shot just 31.8% FG (including 6-20 3-pointers - a ton of 3s thrown up) in the last 3 quarters while allowing New Orleans to shot 51.9% FG during that span. Poor offense plus poor defense makes for a large loss. And the more Dallas struggled, the more they reverted to shooting jumpers. Very seldom did Dallas attack the basket, especially in the 2nd and 4th quarters. A good sign of Dallas' lack of aggression is that Dallas only attempted 16 free throws (while they attempted 38 in their previous game). And, despite having a good rebounding game, the Mavs never got their running game going. New Orleans out-scored Dallas 21-4 in fastbreak points. For the game, New Orleans shot 50% (38-76) FG including 4-10 3-pointers and Dallas shot 36% (32-89) FG including 8-25 3-pointers. New Orleans shot 17-21 FT and Dallas shot 12-16 FT. Dallas did out-rebound New Orleans 47-42 including 16-5 offensive. Neither team did much sharing of the ball as both had just 12 assists. New Orleans had 9 turnovers and Dallas had 11 turnovers. The win snapped a 14 game lossing streak by the Hornets in Dallas (dating to 1998). It is now do-or-die time for the Mavs as loss of Tuesday will mean their season is over. Really it was more Dallas having a very poor outing than New Orleans playing great (unlike the first 2 games). No Hornets player had a stellar outing, though there were a couple of good performances. David West came alive and took advantage of the open looks Dallas gave him. He had 24 points and 9 rebounds. Peja Stojakovic had his outside shot going and had 19 points including 3-4 3-pointers to go with 5 rebounds. He still doesn't have a postup game (no surprise) as he bricked shots each time he tried to do so when a shorter player got switched on to him (this happened at least 3 times). Chris Paul had a well-rounded game, but not dominate. He had 16 points, 7 rebounds, and 8 assists. Morris Peterson scored 8 of his 10 points in the 1st quarter - he only attempted 5 shots in the game (making 4). Tyson Chandler has yet to show much in the series - granted he has been plagued some by foul trouble. He had 2 points and 5 rebounds in 32 minutes. Jannero Pargo had 11 points and 6 rebounds and Julian Wright had 11 points including 5-6 FG. Hilton Armstrong hit his only shot in 13 minutes. Bonzi Wells had 2 points on 1-4 FG in 12 minutes. Ryan Bowen didn't score in 4 minutes of garbage time. Dirk Nowitzki played well, but not great - but remained the only Mav player to really show up for each game in the series. He had 22 points and 13 rebounds. Jason Terry had 12 of his 20 points in the 1st quarter as he continued to start. Brandon Bass had a nice outing with 12 points and 9 rebounds including 6 offensive in 25 minutes off the bench. And that was it for Dallas - no other player was in double-digits. Josh Howard had a miserable night with just 6 points on 3-16 FG in 32 minutes. He also had 7 rebounds. Jason Kidd had 3 points on 1-6 FG, 4 rebounds, and just 3 assists in 29 minutes. Jerry Stackhouse remained MIA for the series with 2 points on 1-5 FG in 15 minutes (getting more playing time than he deserved). Erick Dampier had 4 points on 2-3 FG and 5 rebounds - the only high minute Mavs player to shoot 50% or better. Devean George was the one Mav player to play solid defense - and I was mad when he was pulled at times. He had 4 points on 2-7 FG and 6 rebounds in 19 minutes. J.J. Barea saw some minutes in the 2nd quarter in giving Kidd and Terry a short rest, but wasn't effective. All 8 of his points came in the 4th quarter garbage time and he played 5 minutes. All of Eddie Jones' 7 minutes of court time came in the 4th quarter and he had 3 points and 2 rebounds. Malik Allen and Juwan Howard didn't score in garbage time. Quotes [all the quotes transcribed by me] Byron Scott: "I thought after the 1st quarter, every thing we talked about on the defensive end was special. We really locked in on some of the things that they do. Our rebounding was much better, especially in the 2nd half. Our running game got going, and that's probably why we won this game." Scott on the bench: "Yeah, I thought Julian [Wright] was, you know, athletic enough to match up against against Josh and Jerry and some of those guys. And he didn't play like a rookie. He made some shots for us. He was active. He runs the floor. You know, when you play him in there with some of our veteran guys, you know, he's a pretty good player. And so real happy with the way the bench came in. And, like you said, Pargo has been playing real well this whole series." Scott on Kidd: "Chris [Paul] has done a pretty good job. Our schemes - as far as trying to make him score, try to make him a shooter - has been pretty good. So, I don't think he took a lot of shots tonight. But, again, we worry about Terry and Dirk so much because those 2 guys, they kind of make them guys go and when they're playing real well then it's tough to beat them." Scott on West: "Well, like I said, you know, for the past 2 days, David has been pretty quiet, just kind of kept to himself. And, like I said, knowing him the way I do, I know everything was kind of stirring up in him. That he was not going come out and play the same type of game that he played in Game 3. We kind of banked on that and he came out hit some shots early. 2nd half, really got it going early in the quarter. You know, everything that they tried to do, as far as switching and things like that, we were really able to try to take advantage of that - at least David was. So, he was in an aggressive mindset from the start of the game and he came up big time." Chris Paul on difference from Game 3: "I think we did a better job of guarding without fouling. DWest did an outstanding job on Dirk, so did Tyson when he guarded him, and Peja. And we tried not to let them get into a rhythm. You know, last game, like we said, in the 3rd quarter they shot 22 free throws alone. So we did a good job of getting back in transition. And we made shots, we made a few shots tonight and that got us going." Paul: "It's a great feeling to be up 3-1, but it doesn't mean too much right now. We understand we're in the driver's seat right now, but at the same time, it's really tough to close out a team. That's what Coach has been preaching to us is to get that 4th win. But we feel pretty confident going back home to New Orleans where we'll be back in front of our fans with that intensity. We're just happy to get one here on the road." Paul on not having stellar numbers: "You know, all season long, I've just taken what the defense gives me. You know, those first 2 games of the series, I think people were anticipating 30 points every night. But that's not how it's been all season for us. You know, it's been a balanced attack for us and we just take whatever the defense gives us. DWest got it going tonight, Peja was outstanding, Pargo. It was a collective team effort tonight - and that's how it should be as we go through out the playoffs." David West on his game: "I think it was more just than being a little disappointed [with Game 3]. On the one hand, how I played personally, but how we came out as a team, I thought we could showed better than what we showed in Game 3. I think I was kind of looking forward to playing this game, you know, CP [Paul] and myself we looking forward to play this game immediately after Game 3 was over. And we got the result we wanted." West on open looks: "I definitely felt like we got the same looks. We're going to get the same looks every single night, it's just a matter of whether or not we're going to knock them in. And, you know, we were able to make some. Coming out of the half, we just wanted to be a tad bit more aggressive. We felt like somebody was going to make a run and we just wanted to be us." West: "We felt like if we came in here in attack mode that we'd have an opportunity to win this game. We didn't allow them to put us on our heels at any point in the game. We won big games throughout the year when we've had that mindset." Avery Johnson: "Yeah, we just got kind of stuck in that 2nd quarter. They were on a little run there. Then we kind of got back going again a little bit and we were only down 4 or something like that at the half. Came out and West just took over in that 3rd quarter. He dominated, he made shots. They were much more aggressive than we were. We went back to our old habits of really not trying to get the ball to the basket and being persistent penetrators - and we paid the price for it." Johnson on the flagrant foul: "I saw a review of it. First of all, Kidd wasn't trying to hurt anybody. I just think he got caught in a bad position. It was just a tough call. But by no means was he trying to injure Pargo in that situation. I don't want to see any of our players ever get ejected from the game. I thought he was going for the ball and it just happened to come down around that shoulder area, around that neck area - which he was definitely not trying to do." Johnson on if he was surprised by the game: "Yeah, absolutely. I thought we were primed for a really good win. I thought we were going to come out and just play aggressive from start to finish. I thought our 3rd quarter would be one of our better 3rd quarters, and it wasn't. And then we just started pressing. We didn't make shots. You know, we didn't drive enough - you can tell by the free throws. You know, we go from shooting 38 to 16. You can't shot 16 free throws in a playoff game and shoot 36% from the field. So, again, we weren't as aggressive as we should have been and we're going to have to be aggressive from start to finish in New Orleans." Johnson on Bass: "Bass, you know, again, pretty good 1st half. Made some pretty good plays in there. And he's trying, he's trying to give us some energy off the bench. But again, we're going to need more than, you know, one player to contribute. Tonight they had 2 guys that hurt us off the bench with Pargo and Wright. We're definitely going to need some production off the bench from our guys." Johnson on George: "Yeah, I think he was trying to get after it. But more than anything, we just couldn't make a shot. Like I said, 36% from the field. We missed some wide open 3s that normally go down for us. JET [Terry] was just spent, energy-wise. He was laboring a little bit in that 1st half. And we just weren't scoring the ball at all. But we just got stuck there for a minute. But we tried to comeback and, like I said, we cut it to 4 at the end of the 1st half." Johnson on Howard: "Yeah, again, shots just not going down right now. And obviously we know it's not the best of timing. But again, it can turn around in our next game. It can turn around and, you know, you can forget about what's happened in the 1st 4 games. But it's not going to turnaround with not persistent penetration. It's not going to turnaround with bad decisions. We've got to make better decisions. We've got to penetrate, we've got to move the ball. And then when we get down by 12 or 13 points, or whatever it was at that time, we can't have a homerun play where we try to make a 13-point play to try to get back in the game - we've got to do it possession by possession." Johnson on Kidd: "It was just a tough night. You know, it's been a tough series. But he's trying hard and a couple of his shots that he loves to take, he was in his spots, just didn't go down for us." Dirk Nowitzki on last 3 quarters: "I don't really have an answer for it. I guess we got to go back and look at the film. But I think all season long, we've lost leads all too quick. When things are not going our way, we gave up fastbreak points - way too many. You know, left the shooters some. Yeah, just didn't have the composure or need there when things got tight." Nowitzki on Dallas' offensive struggles: "We just have to be, everybody has to be in attack mode. We got to make shots to win in this league. I thought they double-teamed some of our scorers. If we swing the ball on the weak side, you still got to make plays - you know, that's what this league comes down to. We shot 36% at home, it's been tough. You know, in the 2nd game in New Orleans, we shot 32%. And, you know, it's still about scoring points and just didn't have a great offensive series." Nowitzki on free throws: "I think they really packed up the paint. You know, I felt that on my drives, they really attacked me on the dribble. They sucked in from everywhere really, made me pass the ball off the dribble. They came on catch on my postups. And so they tried to make us beat them from the outside. We jacked up 25 3s, even though they're supposed to be the 3-point shooting team. And, you know, we just didn't shoot the ball well enough to win the game." 2008 NBA Playoffs, First Round, Game 4 New Orleans Hornets 97, Dallas Mavericks 84 at Dallas (April 27) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% New Orleans 23 25 28 21 - 97 .515 .400 .500 .810 Dallas 30 14 22 18 - 84 .375 .320 .360 .750 Halftime: New Orleans 48-44 3rd Q: New Orleans 76-66 Technicals: David West (NO) 8:28 1st Flagrant Fouls: Jason Kidd (level 2) 7:16 4th Refs: James Capers, Steve Javie, Mark Wunderlich Attendance: 20,644 (sellout) IL: New Orleans - Chris Andersen, Rasual Butler Dallas - Tyronn Lue, Jamaal Magloire, Antoine Wright New Orleans Hornets REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Peja Stojakovic 35 6-13 3-4 4-4 19 0-5 0 0 1 0 0 David West 37 10-21 0-0 4-4 24 2-9 2 1 3 1 1 Tyson Chandler 32 1-3 0-0 0-0 2 2-5 0 1 3 0 0 Morris Peterson 27 4-5 0-1 2-2 10 0-3 0 0 1 0 2 Chris Paul 37 6-14 0-2 4-5 16 0-7 8 1 3 1 0 Jannero Pargo 25 4-9 1-2 2-4 11 0-6 2 2 1 1 0 Hilton Armstrong 13 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 1-1 0 2 4 0 1 Bonzi Wells 12 1-4 0-0 0-0 2 0-2 0 1 1 0 0 Julian Wright 19 5-6 0-1 1-2 11 0-2 0 1 1 2 0 Ryan Bowen 4 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-2 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 38-76 4-10 17-21 97 5-42 12 9 18 5 4 Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Josh Howard 32 3-16 0-2 0-0 6 1-7 1 1 3 1 1 Dirk Nowitzki 41 8-18 2-4 4-7 22 3-13 3 2 3 1 0 Erick Dampier 18 2-3 0-0 0-0 4 3-5 0 1 2 0 1 Jason Terry 41 6-16 2-7 6-7 20 0-0 3 1 3 0 0 Jason Kidd 29 1-6 1-4 0-0 3 1-4 3 2 3 0 0 Devean George 19 2-7 0-3 0-0 4 2-6 0 0 3 0 1 Brandon Bass 25 5-12 0-0 2-2 12 6-9 0 0 1 0 1 Jerry Stackhouse 15 1-5 0-1 0-0 2 0-1 1 1 0 0 0 J.J. Barea 5 3-4 2-2 0-0 8 0-0 1 0 1 0 0 Eddie Jones 7 1-2 1-2 0-0 3 0-2 0 0 0 0 0 Malik Allen 4 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Juan Howard_ 3 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 32-89 8-25 12-16 84 16-47 12 11 19 2 4 patricia Go Mavs!