Philadelphia at Dallas (November 13) Tim Thomas did not play due to a bruised tailbone and Clarence Weatherspoon played with the flu. The Mavs went up 9-3, that included 3 consecutive dunks by the Mavs (two by Michael Finley and one by Shawn Bradley). Philly then went a 24-15 run to go up 27-24 after 1. Allen Iverson scored 14 points in the quarter. The game stayed close in the 2nd quarter even though Philly was shooting very poorly (7-21 FG in the quarter). Dennis Scott hit a jumper and Finley intercepted the Philly inbounds pass and hit a 10-footer at the halftime buzzer to give Dallas a 48-44 lead at the half. A.C. Green had 12 points on 6-6 FG and Bradley had 11 points and 6 rebounds. Iverson did not score in the quarter. Jerry Stackhouse had 11 points. Dallas shot 54% (21-39) FG and 6-11 FT. Philadelphia shot 47% (18-38) FG and 7-9 FG. Dallas went 56-48. Dallas took their biggest lead off of a layup by Khalid Reeves to put the Mavs up 65-57 with 6:27 left. Reeves then collected his 4th foul and went to the bench. Philly proceeded to go on a 8-0 "run" (not really a run since it took forever for points to be scored) to tie the game at 65-65 with 3:49 remaining. During the run, Scott Williams went down with a sprained left ankle and had to be helped off the court. Despite the fact that Philly had Clarence Weatherspoon guarding Bradley for the last 5 minutes of the quarter, the Mavs never took advantage of the mismatch. Dallas led 71-69 after 3. Derrick Coleman scored 9 points in the quarter. Coleman opened the 4th with a 3-pointer. A jumper from Coleman put Philly up 74-71 with 10 minutes remaining. Dallas led 85-81 before slumping again that included two consecutive 24-second violations. Philadelphia was up 87-81 with 3:39 left before Dallas went on a 7-0 run - a 3-pointer and bucket from Hubert Davis and a layup by Reeves. Dallas led 88-87 with 2:47 to go. Stackhouse responded with a 3-pointer. Iverson also hit a 3 to put Philly up 93-88 with 1:37 left. Bradley responded with a layup with 1:20 left and Jim Jackson drove to the basket for the layup to give Philadelphia a 95-90 lead with 1:02 remaining. Coleman capped the 10-2 run by hitting 2 free throws with 33 seconds left. Finley hit a 3-pointer, Iverson hit 1-2 free throws, and Finley hit another 3-pointer at the buzzer for the final points. Philadelphia won 89-88. Yuch. From watching them, Philly is a lousy team. The fact that the Mavs lost to them speaks volumes. The Mavs play in spurts. Some minutes they look great - offense is smooth and defense is solid. And then it looks like they forgot what they were doing and their offense is stagnant with the ball not even getting inside the 3-point arc until only a couple of seconds are left on the shoot clock and they can't stop anyone on defense. It's like the team doesn't realize what is working and goes away from it. Bradley was great in the minutes he played in the first quarter. He was dominating offensively. But did they ever go back to him after the first quarter? Not until the game was almost out of reach. Quotes Larry Brown: "I want [Iverson] to be perfect every night. Tonight he made some big plays with the game on the line. I don't even care about the 31 points. I want him to run the club and defend. He's making great progress. Tonight he was phenomenal." Brown: "D.C. was phenomenal. He got every big rebound, made a couple of big shots. He was sensational, plain and simple. As an opposing coach, it's the kind of game you always assume he's going to have. I coached against him at Indiana, and [my assistants] were telling me how one of the guys on my team usually does a great job against him. D.C. goes out and has 39 points and 15 rebounds that night." Brown: "The biggest thing is they got up eight and we didn't let it get worse than that. I thought we picked up our defense in the 4th quarter." Brown: "[When Dallas went up 88-87 was] when Allen and Jerry stepped up big for us. D.C. was great all game long, but Jerry hit some big baskets for us, and Allen ran the show superbly again." Derrick Coleman: "We played hard on defense and we took our time and ran our offense. I'm really trying to take what the defense gives me." Coleman: "I'm really taking what the defense is giving me. Just trying to really go to the boards and rebound." Coleman: "It always feels good to get a win, especially when we play the way we've been playing. We've taken advantage of the opportunities that have come our way, didn't make crucial mistakes with the game on the line, and kept our composure. It wasn't about me. It was about [the team]." Coleman: "Each game, I'm feeling better. Coach has been stressing the importance of a big guy getting down on the block, passing the ball. I've never had a problem rebounding, because it comes naturally to me. But the main thing is that we're getting on the right track. We're playing hard every game. The ones we've lost, it's not as if we've been blown out. Some nights our offense isn't there, but we've played hard and that's what's important." Allen Iverson: "D.C. played like a veteran. He played like our leader. It's never easy out there, but when you have a guy playing like that, it makes me want to play harder and do good things on the basketball court. It's contagious." Terry Cummings: "[Coleman] was carrying us tonight. Tonight was the first time I didn't hear him asking to come out. He wanted to play." Jim Jackson: "It doesn't mean anything if you come back and score 40 and lose. I wanted to win. That's the biggest statement you can make." Jackson: "The best statement I could make is coming back here and winning. It's better than me scoring 40 and us losing. I stepped up with a big play, and we hit some key shots. I think I made a good impression." Jim Cleamons: "We didn't shut the middle down in the fourth quarter. That happened at an inopportune time for us." Cleamons: "There's no such thing as a must-win game this early in the season." Cleamons: "We did what we wanted to make them to do [at the end of the game], take outside shots under pressure. Those were killers." Cleamons: "We made [Iverson] take tough shots, but he made them. When he's draining the jumper, he's a double-edged sword. We were at his mercy." Cleamons: "Stackhouse and Iverson's two big three-pointers coming down the stretch with the clock running down were two very good shots. We forced them to do what we wanted them to do, take deep perimeter shots. But give them credit, they knocked the shots down." Cleamons: "We failed to find Shawn in that crucial stretch. Hopefully, we'll learn from our mistakes and profit from them in the future." Shawn Bradley on the team not getting him the ball when he had much shorter players guarding him: "Let's just say we didn't recognize mismatches as a team tonight. That should about cover it." Dennis Scott: This is a team with a lot of talent, but it's not a great team. Derrick Coleman made it tough on us inside and outside." Scott: "That was a game we should've won against a team we should've beat. But look at it, it's an `L'." Hubert Davis: "Those two 3-pointers [by Iverson and Stackhouse with 2 1/2 minutes left]killed us. Before that, we had momentum. Hats off to them. Iverson's no joke. He's a great player." A.C. Green: "Obviously, we're stunned that we lost this one. We knew it was possible, but we're still surprised. Hopefully it hurts. Hopefully it's one of those that sticks in your craw." Michael Finley: "I couldn't hit anything all game. Those two [3-pointers in the last 20 seconds of the game] count, but it's too late. It definitely hurts, but we've only got seven games under our belt. I know we've been saying that a lot lately, but hopefully we can stay positive." Philadelphia 76ers 99, Dallas Mavericks 98 at Dallas (November 13) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Philadelphia 27 17 25 30 - 99 .544 .545 .544 .704 Dallas 24 24 23 27 - 98 .521 .357 .494 .563 Halftime: Dallas 48-44 3rd Q: Dallas 71-69 Philadelphia's largest lead: 97-90 0:33 4th Dallas' largest lead: 65-57 6:27 3rd Dallas' last lead: 88-87 2:47 4th Lead changed: 18 Technicals: none Refs: Joe Forte, Nolan Fine, Joe Borgia Attendance: 11,084 (cap 18,042) Philadelphia 76ers REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Jim Jackson 35 3-10 0-1 2-2 8 4-7 3 3 3 0 0 Derrick Coleman 39 9-14 2-3 5-6 25 1-14 3 2 0 3 1 Eric Montross 14 0-2 0-0 1-2 1 0-1 1 1 4 0 0 Allen Iverson 41 12-18 2-3 5-10 31 1-3 6 2 2 4 0 Jerry Stackhouse 42 7-12 2-3 5-6 21 0-3 5 4 1 0 0 Terry Cummings 19 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 1-2 0 1 3 0 1 Mark Davis 16 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 0-2 1 1 0 0 0 Clarence Weatherspoon 15 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-3 1 2 1 1 1 Scott Williams 9 3-4 0-0 1-1 7 1-3 0 0 3 1 0 Doug Overton 8 2-2 0-0 0-0 4 0-1 1 1 0 0 0 Rex Walters 2 0-1 0-1 0-0 4 0-1 1 1 0 0 0 Totals 48 37-68 6-11 19-27 99 8-39 21 18 17 9 3 Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Michael Finley 37 7-18 2-3 2-4 18 1-4 7 1 1 2 0 A.C. Green 35 7-9 0-0 0-1 14 3-8 2 0 1 0 0 Shawn Bradley 32 9-16 0-0 2-2 20 4-13 1 1 5 1 1 Khalid Reeves 31 6-9 1-2 1-2 14 0-0 8 4 6 3 0 Hubert Davis 31 4-9 1-3 1-3 10 0-1 4 1 3 3 0 Samaki Walker 14 2-3 0-0 1-2 5 0-2 0 0 0 1 0 Dennis Scott 29 2-11 0-5 0-0 4 0-1 3 1 0 0 1 Erick Strickland 9 1-2 1-1 0-0 3 0-0 0 1 6 0 0 Kurt Thomas 14 4-7 0-0 0-0 8 3-6 0 3 0 0 0 Kevin Ollie 8 0-1 0-0 2-2 2 1-1 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 42-85 5-14 9-16 98 12-36 25 14 22 10 2 If the game wasn't bad enough, worse news came down Friday. Kurt Thomas has again fractured his right ankle. Although he doesn't know exactly when the fracture occurred, it is believed it occurred during Thursday's Dallas-Philly game. It is the same ankle he has fractured 4 times since last November. He will undergo lots of tests and get recommendations from several doctors to see what his best option is. He will likely undergo surgery and will possibly miss the rest of the season. Don Nelson will probably petition the league for permission to carry four players on IR as the team already is at the maximum 3 players (Ace Custis with a torn ACL and out for the season, Robert Pack with a broken finger and out until late December, and Martin Muursepp with a sprained right foot and out for a few more weeks). Kurth Thomas: "I'm devastated. We knew the ankle was going to get sore. We knew there were going to be some good days and some bad days. I just thought this was going to be one of the bad days." Thomas: "I'm going to sit back and see what the doctor has to say, and who comes up with the best opinion on what I should do." Thomas: "When coach Cleamons took me out in the 4th quarter my ankle was throbbing a little bit. But I didn't really pay it any mind, because I always have the brace on too tight and I just thought it cut off the blood. I didn't think it was as serious as it was." Thomas: "Some people are going to say I'm a great player and some people are going to say I'm a terrible player. But I'll be back. I'm young, and I've got a lot of years ahead of me. Basically right now, it's all about getting healthy." Don Nelson: "No question we definitely still want to hang with him and want him to be part of our future. He's still a part of what we have in my mind for our future. We just have to wait a little longer." Nelson: "We think a lot of him, and we want to try to get him healthy so he can try to be the player we all know he is." In other Mavs news, the Dallas city council approved the new arena proposal and sent the funding issue of raising car rental and hotel taxes to the voters. The increase in taxes with be what the city uses to pay for their portion of building the arena. The vote will take place January 17. As part of the proposal, the new arena site has be announced. The site is a 50 acre plot of land that includes the old TU Electric plant off of Stemmons Freeway (I-35) just north of Woodall Rogers Freeway (not too far from the Westend). The arena will sit on 13 acres of land and a 2,000 car parking garage will be build. Two other surface lots will also be constructed. Rose Perot also has additional plans to build things around the new arena, but nothing is guaranteed. In addition, the teams removed the requirement to demolish Reunion Arena (it may still be demolished later if Reunion proves to no longer be profitable with the new arena in place). patricia