It was no surprise that none of the training camp invitees made the roster and all were released by October 23 (Keith McLeod, Reyshawn Terry, JaJuan Smith, Charles Rhodes, Cheyne Gadson). The Mavs do have an open roster spot available (14 players under contract) and can use that spot if a free agent becomes available that they like or a player gets hurt and someone else at that position is needed - but it may stay empty all season (the Mavs are not focused on filling it). Dallas did make a minor trade during the preseason in sending Eddie Jones, 2 2nd round draft picks, and cash to Indiana for Shawne Williams. Williams is in his 3rd year in the league and just 22.5 years old, but he has been involved in a few off-the-court incidents (he's faced no charges) - which is why Indiana got rid of him as they've been trying to clean up their image problem from the past few years. The 6-9 forward didn't show much in the few games he played in preseason and he is a project (may spend some time in the NBADL). The Mavs did pick up his 09-10 option, so he is under contract through next season. The preseason ended with a dud as they got blown out by a poor Indiana team in a game where Dallas played their regular rotation the entire game yet ended up losing 91-114. It was an ugly game by Dallas with no positives and they had a week to try to figure out some of their problems before the regular season started. As seen in all the preseason games he played in, Dallas tends to struggle when Jason Kidd is not on the court (and could probably expand that to both Kidd and Nowitzki or Kidd and Howard on the court). The NBA announced prior to Friday's home opener that the 2010 All-Star Weekend will be held in Dallas. More specifically, the All-Star game will be played at the new Cowboy stadium in Arlington (where Mark Cuban hopes to have an attendance of over 100,000). All-Star Friday (rookie game) and All-Star Saturday (dunk, 3-point, skills, and shooting contests) [and I assume both rookie and All-Star practices] will be held at the AAC. The Fan Jam (no players, various basketball related things for the fans) will be held at the Dallas Convention Center. Houston at Dallas (October 30) Dallas opened the 2008-09 with a game vs Houston in the AAC. Josh Howard made Dallas' first shot of the season, but Houston then scored the next 8 points, capped by 3 free throws by Tracy McGrady as he was fouled attempting a 3-pointer, to take an 8-2 lead 2 minutes in. Dallas then went on a 13-2 run to take a 15-10 lead with 7 minutes to go. But the game stayed close with neither team holding more than a 3 point lead the rest of the quarter. Dallas led 33-32 after 1. Dallas out-scored Houston 16-5 in fastbreak points (but Houston got to the line 7 more times). Yao Ming had 10 points, Josh Howard had 15 points, Dirk Nowitzki had 12 points, and Jason Kidd had 6 assists in the quarter. Dallas' 2nd unit struggled offensively and were pathetic on defense to open the 2nd quarter as Houston scored on their first 7 possessions and went on a 16-1 run to go up 48-34 with 9 minutes left. Dallas did score the next 4 points, but Houston held a double-digit lead over the next 6 minutes. Houston led 58-46 with 4 minutes to go and Dallas went on an 11-2 run to pull within 57-60 with 1:25 remaining. Houston led 62-59 at the half. Nowitzki had 12 points in the 2nd quarter. The game stayed close in the 3rd quarter with the largest lead in the quarter being 5 points - and that on a 3-pointer by Jason Terry that was immediately answered with a 3-pointer by Rafer Alston. Yao scored 5 straight points to give Houston an 85-83 lead with 1:10 remaining, but Nowitzki hit a 3-pointer on Dallas' next possession and neither team scored over the rest of the quarter. Dallas led 86-85 after 3. So after some entertaining basketball (though not much defense), I was looking forward to an exciting 4th quarter. The teams traded buckets early on and the game was tied at 92-92 with 8:30 to go. But the bottom fell out for Dallas as Houston picked up their defense and Dallas started setting for jumpers (shades of last season) and Dallas couldn't get hardly any stops at the other end. Houston went on a 16-2 run, capped by a 3-pointer by Ron Artest, to take a commanding 108-94 lead with 3:10 left - Dallas missed 8 shots during the run and only one of them was attempted in the paint. There was a minor scuffle during the run where Howard got too physical with Yao and Artest came running in - he was trying to separate everyone once he arrived, but he got a technical for running at the group to start [which can escalate things]. Dallas did score the next 6 points to pull within 8 points with 2 minutes remaining, but it was too little, too late as they didn't score over the next minute. Houston won 112-102. It was a disappointing start to the season and the preseason concerns carried over into this game. The team struggled when the 2nd unit was in, while Houston had several solid performances off the bench. And when Dirk Nowitzki and Josh Howard struggle, the team struggles. The two combined for 64 points through 3 quarters and only combine for 3 points in the 4th quarter. Dallas was out-scored 16-27 in the 4th quarter and only shot 6-24 FG in the 4th - and that was with Tracy McGrady sitting out the 4th as he was struggling some and is still recoving from off-season knee and shoulder surgery. For the game, Houston shot 48.1% (38-79) FG including 7-14 3-pointers and Dallas shot 41.7% (35-84) FG including 4-16 3-pointers. Houston shot 29-31 FT and Dallas shot 28-34 FT. Houston out-rebounded Dallas 45-40 and Dallas had a 10-8 offensive edge. Both teams had low turnovers (turnovers were a problem for Dallas in the preseason) with Houston having 11 turnovers and Dallas with 9 turnovers (and none in the 2nd half). Both teams went with a tight rotation as just 9 players played for each. Yao Ming had a grand game against Dallas with 30 points on 11-15 FG and 8-8 FT and 13 rebounds. I still say that Houston needs to go through him more often - there are times where it seems they've forgotten he's on the floor for long stretches. Ron Artest enjoyed his Rockets' debut with 29 points including 3-4 3-pointers and 7 rebounds. 10 of his points and 5 of his rebounds came in the 4th quarter. Though he was wincing on the court at times and didn't play in the 4th, Tracy McGrady had a good all-around game (though his shooting was off) with 16 points on 3-10 FG and 10-11 FT, 5 rebounds, and 7 assists. He did quick-shoot a couple of times, out of Houston's offensive flow. Starters Rafer Alston (3 points on 1-6 FG, 5 assists) and Luis Scola (7 points, 4 rebounds) did do much and, thus were on the bench for the 4th. Nowitzki scored a lot of points when Scola was trying to defend him. But, as I said, Houston got good performances off the bench. Aaron Brooks, who wasn't even supposed to play in the game, had 14 points and 5 assists in 20 minutes. Brent Barry had 5 points and 3 rebounds and Carl Landry had 8 points on a perfect 3-3 FG and 2-2 FT in 8 minutes. Chuck Hayes didn't score, but had 7 rebounds and helped contain Nowitzki in the 4th quarter. It was a 2-man show for Dallas for most of the game, with some assists from Jason Kidd. Dirk Nowitzki had 36 points including 14-14 FT and 7 rebounds (but no assists), but only had 1 point (off the technical free throw) in the 4th quarter. Josh Howard had 28 points including 11-19 FG and 11 rebounds, but only 2 of his points came in the 4th quarter. Jason Terry was the only other Mav in double-digits with 15 points, but he shot just 4-13 FG including 1-5 3-pointers. He also had 4 assists. Kidd had 7 points, 7 rebounds, 12 assists, and 4 steals. Antoine Wright struggled with just 2 points on 1-6 FG and 3 rebounds in 17 minutes. Erick Dampier had 2 points and 2 rebounds in 22 minutes - he did a decent job defending Yao. DeSagana Diop didn't attempt a shot and had 3 rebounds in 3 fouls in 11 minutes - he did a poor job defending Yao. Brandon Bass had 9 points and 6 rebounds, but shot a poor 4-11 FG. And to finish on the Dallas poor shooting theme, Jerry Stackhouse had 2 points on 1-6 FG. Quotes Rick Adelman: "The guys really played well. The 1st half, we struggled trying to control. Then in the 2nd half, I thought we really controlled the tempo. We didn't allow them so many easy baskets. You can't say enough about the 2nd group. Aaron [Brooks] was a huge lift and Brent [Barry] and Chuck Hayes was terrific defensively in the 2nd half. Just showed we can be pretty good if we just stay with it. We've got a lot of guys that can help." Adelman on Artest: "Ron was terrific the whole game. Took some big shots, defended well. It was a great team win. A great team win." Adelman on Yao: "You can go right down the list. He was great. He carried us in the 1st half and he came out in the 2nd half and was a real handful for them. He opens it up for everyone else. They can't help off Yao. But like I said, everybody who played, played well." Adelman on Hayes playing in the 4th: "He was getting to the line. He got a lot of stuff in the open court. And all along I was hoping to play Chuck. I didn't even worry about Chuck getting 3 fouls in the 1st half, I had to put him in. He's got to do the best job, he's got to stay solid. He does so many things for us when he's on the court." Adelman on Brooks: "They said when he warmed up tonight, he was great. He was moving good. He had no pain. He said he wanted to play. I didn't know how he was going to be after sitting around for 3 or 4 days. He's young. When you're young, you think you can do anything - and I guess he was right." Yao Ming: "We played with a lot of patience great patience - in the 4th quarter. When the game is close we need to play more effectively and with high percentage [of plays] - we don't need to take a lot of rushed shots, we don't take a lot of shots under [pressure]. And on the defensive side we really helped each other to push them into jumpers and into a rebound." Yao: "When we were up 108-98 and they scored 4 to 6 points in a row, we shut them [down] for a few possessions. I think that means something for us - we know what we need at a certain point. There only 2 minutes and the next couple possessions we really contained them and controlled them." Yao on Artest's technical: "Ron's a very good teammate. That happened once in the preseason and he did the same thing. He's trying to help a teammate, sacrificing himself." Tracy McGrady on what has been learned from the 1st 2 games: "Nothing. Nothing at all. We just won a ball game. We can handle pressure. We can handle a team playing on a high. This was their home opener and they were running on a lot of adrenaline and a lot of emotion. We did a good job of handling that, but it's the 2nd game of the season." McGrady on the 4th quarter defense: "We're a great defensive team. That's what's going to keep us in ball games all year. Tonight it took us 3 quarters to really figure out we've got to stop them in transition and got to make them a halfcourt team. We did that in the 4th quarter. We're a great halfcourt team - it's just tough to score on us in the halfcourt. In the 4th quarter, we locked down defense; the first 3 quarters we didn't get back and that's where they got a lot of their points. The game really shouldn't have been close - if we would of shut down their transition offense it would of been a different outcome." McGrady on not playing in the 4th quarter: "I'm in a position where I want to be professionally in my career, especially after 12 years, not having to carrying the burden night in and night out. That takes a toll on your body. Like I said, in the 4th quarter, I was enjoying watching somebody else go out there and carry the team. Ron did a great job. That's why we brought him in here. I'm not 100% right now, so I can't be me. But if I can have a guy like Ron and Yao play the way they played and get you numbers all across the board, we're a great team." McGrady on Artest: "That's all we've got to get. Another option for us offensively, defensively, and he really sets the tone on the defensive end. And he can also score and score in a variety of ways. It was just fun to not play the 4th quarter and sit back and watch him go to work. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed that." Ron Artest on his technical: "It happens. No punches thrown, no cursing at the referees. It was a part of the game type of thing. Somebody threw an elbow at Yao and I just reacted. It's nothing to get upset about, nothing to hold a grudge about." Chuck Hayes on Nowitzki: "He killed us the first 3 quarters. He absolutely had his way with us. For us to be able to win, I have to do my best to keep him out of those scoring situations." Aaron Brooks on playing despite being injured: "The doctor said I wasn't going to do anything worse to it by playing. There was a little pain, but I played through it. I got retaped at halftime and it was fine." Brooks: "It was real good warming up. I was already cleared. The doctor said I couldn't do anything worse to it, so it was just about playing through the pain. For the most part, it was good." Rick Carlisle: "We had a good start to the game initially and in stretches we were good. The consistency on the defensive end wasn't there. We needed to be better and they were better tonight. They played a great game, and McGrady wasn't even on the floor 30 minutes. Their bench was, I think, plus 20 as a group, at least 3 or 4 of them were. That was probably the difference in the game. We had shots at times that didn't go in, but the consistency on D is probably the biggest factor. This is a tough matchup. They've got 3 guys that are really difficult. You know, Yao and Artest both played huge games and McGrady really played well, but he didn't need to play his best game tonight to win. That tells you a little bit about how good they are right now." Carlisle on the 4th quarter: "They start on a 23-8 run, I think, and a lot of that was with their bench guys in. Brooks and Hayes and maybe Barry, you know, and so hey, give them credit for playing well. We have got to play better. It is not just our bench guys, it is everybody. The positives were we didn't turn it over in the 2nd half, which I thought was good. But, you know, giving up 48% to that caliber of team is going to get you beat more times that not." Carlisle: "As I just said, their bench really performed well. They were able to hit timely baskets at times when we needed to answer with either a hoop or a critical stop, or put 2 stops together and we were just unable to do it. We are obviously putting an emphasis on running and I think we were 13-18 [FG] on the break in the 1st half, but those were all off stops. Their field goal percentage went up in the 2nd half and that was a good indicator of where we were in the game." Carlisle: "You know, 10 minutes after the game is not the time to do an analysis. I got to look at the tape. I have to get up tomorrow when my perspective is probably a little bit different and talk to the staff. We will figure it out, you know, we've got enough good players. We've just got to be better for longer stretches of the game. We did a lot of good things out there, but overall, we needed to be better at both ends." Carlisle on the offense: "You know, we have our menu of stuff. We are going to have to tweak it as we go and we are going to have to adjust some things. With the 2nd group we may have to approach it a little different than with the starters. But again, you got to be careful about overreacting to one game. The caliber of opponent can also skew things a little bit. Against a team like Houston, you've got to defend well and you've got to shoot well. They held us to 42% and we couldn't keep them below 48.1 and that was a decisive factor in the game." Carlisle on Dallas energy in the 4th: "I thought we had enough bounce. I was trying to keep the key guys fresh for that last run. Brooks made a couple of really key shots. He was supposed to be out for 2 or 3 weeks or something [with an injury] and he played, which was whatever, fine, but he was a guy that was a difference maker. Their other depth guys really have a good feel for playing with their stars and so that was probably the difference in the game. I don't think conditioning is a problem, I don't. For them, they played poorly last night. I think they would tell you that they didn't play a great game against Memphis and Memphis had a lot to do with that and so for them, getting some of that out heading into the night was probably helpful to them. But, our aggressiveness was good, we just needed to be better." Jason Kidd: "We put enough points up, but we didn't stop anybody. I think we've got to look back and this is a lesson learned. You're playing one of the best teams in the league and we've just got to stop people. We've got to get stops and take better care of the ball. We shot a lot of jump shots there in that 4th quarter and we've have to be aggressive and it's a lesson learned." Kidd: "We put ourselves in a position there and once again we just settled for the jump shots, but they were good looks - they just didn't go down. On the other end, they made almost everything. They almost shot 50% and anyone that shoots close to 50%, you're not going to beat them." Kidd on Houston: "They have confidence for one and they all know their roles and I think you look at Brooks, but you look at Brent Barry and he controls that bench and he makes sure guys understand what they have to do and that's what a veteran player is suppose to do." Josh Howard on the 4th quarter: "We didn't execute like we should have, should have got to the basket instead of settling for jump shots; but it's the first game, a learning situation, turn the page and get ready for Minnesota." Howard on his game: "I'm not even worrying about me. I'm just trying to win games and I know I was going to take care of myself, but it's about this team so we need to go back to the drawing board." Howard: "We let a lot of their role players get off and that's not what we do. So it's the first game and we'll learn from this loss." Howard on Artest: "Ron's a hell of a player no matter where he goes. He's going to always help and contribute so he finished the game with 29 when TMac couldn't finish the game." Howard on the fastbreaks: "It was fun. Guys got out and ran. We just got to get the ball to JKidd and he will take care of the rest." Jason Terry: "We played well in stretches, we just didn't sustain it to beat a good team. We'll get there. We're not there yet." Houston Rockets 112, Dallas Mavericks 102 at Dallas (October 30) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Houston 32 30 23 27 - 112 .477 .500 .481 .935 Dallas 33 26 27 16 - 102 .456 .250 .417 .824 Halftime: Houston 62-59 3rd Q: Dallas 86-85 Technicals: Ron Artest (Hou) 4:13 4th Refs: Tom Washington, Bill Kennedy, Zach Zarba Attendance: 20,066 (sellout) IL: Houston - Shane Battier, Steve Francis Dallas - Devean George, Shawne Williams Houston Rockets REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Tracy McGrady 30 3-10 0-0 10-11 16 2-5 7 1 0 2 0 Rafer Alston 29 1-6 1-4 0-0 3 0-1 5 2 2 0 0 Ron Artest 39 10-22 3-4 6-6 29 1-7 0 1 3 1 0 Luis Scola 22 3-5 0-0 1-1 7 0-4 0 2 4 0 0 Yao Ming 41 11-15 0-0 8-8 30 4-13 3 3 3 0 2 Brent Barry 27 2-5 1-2 0-0 5 0-3 2 0 1 1 0 Chuck Hayes 25 0-1 0-0 0-1 0 1-7 1 0 3 1 1 Aaron Brooks 20 5-12 2-4 2-2 14 0-3 5 1 2 0 0 Carl Landry 8 3-3 0-0 2-2 8 0-2 0 0 5 0 0 Totals 48 38-79 7-14 29-31 112 8-45 23 11 23 5 3 Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Jason Kidd 37 3-6 1-2 0-0 7 2-7 12 1 1 4 0 Antoine Wright 17 1-6 0-2 0-0 2 0-3 0 2 3 0 0 Josh Howard 41 11-19 0-1 6-9 28 2-11 4 0 3 0 1 Dirk Nowitzki 39 10-22 2-4 14-14 36 2-7 0 2 3 0 2 Erick Dampier 22 1-1 0-0 1-2 3 0-2 1 0 3 0 1 Jason Terry 31 4-13 1-5 6-7 15 0-0 4 0 2 0 1 Brandon Bass 24 4-11 0-0 1-2 9 3-6 0 1 3 2 0 Jerry Stackhouse 18 1-6 0-2 0-0 2 0-1 1 1 1 0 0 DeSagana Diop 11 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1-3 1 1 3 1 0 Totals 48 35-84 4-16 28-34 102 10-40 23 9 22 7 5 patricia