Chris Anstey, whose Australian team lost in the NBL finals, has finally joined the team. He was signed to a 3 year, $2,935,600 contract and will be able to play in tomorrow night's home opener. With the addition of Anstey, the Mavs released Adrian Caldwell. A.C. Green and Robert Pack were elected as team captains. Michael Finley will fill-in for Pack while he is injured. The Mavs are currently the 2nd youngest team in the league (only Boston is younger). Dallas at Vancouver (October 31) Erick Strickland did not travel, Kurt Thomas did not dress. Trivia question: who scored the first point of the 1997-98 season for Dallas? Dallas took a small lead at 14-10 with 7 minutes left in the 1st quarter. Vancouver was getting a lot of offensive rebounds, but couldn't convert. On of the most impressive plays of the nights was when Shawn Bradley blocked Shareef Abdur-Rahim's layup attempt against the backboard while standing flatfooted. The Mavs built up a 26-14 lead before Vancouver rattled off the last 4 points of the quarter. Dallas led 26-18 after 1. Michael Finley led the way for Dallas by hitting 4 of his first 5 shots and dishing out 4 assists in the quarter. Dallas shot a blistering 63.2% FG in the quarter. How things change from one quarter to the next. The Mavs couldn't hit anything in the 2nd quarter. With Dallas only shooting 1-9 FG, Vancouver pulled within 30-29 with 7:10 left in the quarter. The game stayed close the rest of the quarter and Vancouver led 45-43 at the half. Vancouver shot 60% FG and Dallas shot 14% FG in the quarter. For the half, Dallas shot 42% FG and Vancouver shot 43% FG. Abdur-Rahim had 16 points and 6 rebounds and Bryant Reeves had 10 points. Michael Finley had 13 points and Bradley had 10 points. Vancouver had 14 2nd chance points. The game still stayed close in the 3rd and was tied 60-60 with 4:40 left. Led by the surprising play of rookie free agent Kevin Ollie, the Mavs rattled off the next 9 points. Hubert Davis hit a 3-pointer to end the quarter and give Dallas a 74-66 lead after 3. Early in the 4th, everyone with the Mavs cringed. Finley made a small ball fake and George Lynch went flying at him and his knee hit Finley in the cheek causing a 3 inch gash that required 14 stitches. Finley did not return to the game. Dallas was up 78-71 with 8:55 left when Abdur-Rahim rattled off the next 6 points. Vancouver pulled even at 79-79 with 5:30 left. A.C. Green converted the 3-point play to give Dallas a 84-81 lead with 3:38 left. After trading points, Dallas was up 86-83 with 2:41 left. Neither team scored for about a minute (nice defensive play by Ollie and a great block by Bradley). Davis hit a long 2 at the 24 second buzzer to give Dallas a 88-83 led with 58.4 seconds remaining. Blue Edwards hit an 18-footer with 40 seconds left and Green hit 1-2 free throws . Dallas led 89-85 with 10.6 seconds to go. To keep it an exciting game, Edwards hit a 3-pointer with 5.4 seconds left. Ollie hit 1-2 FT and Vancouver had a chance to send the game into overtime or win it. Fortunately, Anthony Daniels' 3-pointer bounced off the back of the rim. Dallas won 90-88. The hero of the game: Kevin Ollie. He played solid defense and provided the spark the team needed. The play of the game: a sweet dish from Hubert Davis to Michael Finley under the basket who took it up one-handed while leaning away from the basket and slammed it over Otis Thorpe. The future $100,000,000 player: Shareef Abdur-Rahim. This kid is going to be really good. I've seen it before (including by the Mavs in prior seasons), but it was really obvious in the Vancouver game - it's amazing how much the presence of Shawn Bradley affects an opponent. Several times a player would get the ball inside and pass it back out instead of going up with a shoot. Trivia answer: Shawn Bradley Quotes Jim Cleamons: "We played about as well as we could under the circumstances. It wasn't pretty, but we were scrappy and got it done." Kevin Ollie: "I just tried to do something positive. This is all new to me. But I think I made a positive difference." Ollie: "It's a dream come true. With all the point guards we have, I came in as a practice player. I guess that's what they mean about being in the right place at the right time." A.C. Green: "This was a momentous win. This game was humongous. I mean, it breaks us into the regular season. It sort of closes the chapter on a rough pre-season and at the same time opens a new chapter, a new outlook." Dallas Mavericks 90, Vancouver Grizzlies 88 at Vancouver (October 31) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 26 17 31 16 - 90 .492 .091 .432 .781 Vancouver 18 27 21 22 - 88 .447 .154 .404 .700 Halftime: Vancouver 45-43 3rd Q: Dallas 74-66 Dallas' largest lead: 12 points 1st Vancouver's largest lead: 5 points Technicals: Shareef Abdur-Rahim 3:00 2nd Refs: Bill Oakes, Violet Palmer, Mark Wunderlich Attendance: 17,021 (cap 19,193) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Michael Finley 28 5-9 0-0 6-6 16 2-5 5 2 3 1 0 A.C. Green 40 6-11 0-0 3-6 15 3-14 1 0 1 0 0 Shawn Bradley 45 7-19 0-0 3-4 17 2-5 2 2 3 0 8 Hubert Davis 38 8-13 1-3 1-2 18 1-1 2 2 1 0 0 Khalid Reeves 22 1-5 0-1 0-0 2 1-2 4 3 4 2 0 Kevin Ollie 27 3-5 0-0 5-6 11 0-4 3 2 2 1 0 Dennis Scott 29 2-11 0-7 3-4 7 0-2 1 5 4 1 0 Samaki Walker 8 0-1 0-0 4-4 4 1-4 0 0 3 0 0 Adrian Caldwell 3 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 32-74 1-11 25-32 90 10-37 18 18 21 5 8 Vancouver Grizzlies REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Shareef Abdur-Rahim 36 14-24 0-1 3-5 31 7-9 2 1 4 0 1 Otis Thorpe 33 1-7 0-0 2-2 4 3-9 2 4 5 2 1 Bryant Reeves 35 7-16 0-0 1-1 15 6-7 0 5 5 1 0 Anthony Peeler 25 2-10 1-5 0-0 5 1-4 4 0 2 0 0 Antonio Daniels 23 2-8 0-1 2-4 6 0-1 4 4 3 1 0 Pete Chilcutt 14 1-5 0-2 2-2 4 1-1 0 0 2 1 0 Blue Edwards 21 6-10 1-2 1-2 14 2-2 2 0 2 0 1 Lee Mayberry 25 0-4 0-2 0-0 0 0-2 7 1 1 0 0 George Lynch 23 2-4 0-0 3-4 7 3-8 4 1 1 1 1 Ivano Newbill 5 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 1-1 0 0 2 1 0 Totals 48 36-89 2-13 14-20 88 24-44 25 16 27 7 4 Dallas at Seattle (November 1) Erick Strickland did not travel and Kurt Thomas did not play. Michael Finley did play despite receiving stitches the night before. He had a thick bandaid on his left check. Ugly, ugly, ugly. Neither team could shoot worth a darn. The game was tied 8-8 with 7:25 left. Dallas led 10-12 when Dale Ellis got hot and Seattle went on a 15-2 run to close the quarter. Seattle led 25-14 after 1. Dallas had 8 turnovers in the quarter. The uglyness continued for Dallas in the 2nd quarter as Seattle built a 20 point lead at 38-18 with 6:20 remaining. Dallas went on a 17-4 run to get back in the game. Seattle led 42-35 with 2:30 left and 48-39 at the half. Dallas shot 42% FG and Seattle shot 39% FG (but also shot 4-7 3-pointers). The key stat was that Dallas had 13 turnovers and Seattle had 1. Seattle slowly rebuilt the lead and it seemed to be a blowout when Seattle went up 64-44 with 4:20 left. Seattle led 71-55 after 3. Dallas got within 73-62 with 8:35 left when Seattle pushed their lead up to 79-66 with 5:20 remaining. Then a miracle happened. Point guard Khalid Reeves decided that the triangle offense wasn't working and threw it out the window (without consulting with Cleamons) and started running basic pick-and-rolls. Dallas rattled off the next 13 points to tie the game at 79-79 with 2:49 left. A.C. Green stole the ball and Finley hit 2 free throws to give Dallas the lead at 81-79 with 2:08 to go. Hersey Hawkins responded with a 19-foot jumper and Reeves came back with a quick 18-footer with 1:40 left. Seattle missed. Dallas missed, Samaki Walker rebounded, and Gary Payton committed a stupid foul as Dallas was about to call a timeout (Seattle was in the penalty). Reeves hit the two free throws to give Dallas a 85-81 lead with 59.7 seconds left. Seattle turned the ball over and Kevin Ollie missed with 27 seconds left. Ollie stripped Payton and Reeves was fouled on the break. He hit both free throws with 12.3 seconds left. Reeves stole the ball and Finley had the slam dunk for the game's last points. Dallas won 89-81! Wow! Seattle did not score in the last 1:55. Dallas out-scored Seattle 23-2 in the final 5 minutes and 34-10 for the quarter. Seattle shot 4-16 FG and committed 6 turnovers in the 4th quarter. The 20 point comeback is the 3rd largest comeback in team history. The mildly disappointing news (considering this great win) is that Dallas did not hit a 3-pointer in the game - breaking their 303 consecutive games with at least 1 3-pointer streak. That was over 3 1/2 seasons. Orlando holds the record with 318 consecutive games and counting. [no one else is close] The hero of the game: who else but Khalid Reeves for having the sense to toss out the triangle offense (now if only Cleamons would follow Reeves' lead). Quotes Jim Cleamons: "And the way we started the third quarter, giving up 2 layups, I wouldn't have given 2 nickels for our chances of coming out with the win." Khalid Reeves on the triangle offense and abandoning the triangle at the end of the Seattle game: "[The triangle is] a little tough to learn. It's very confusing. I think the team is kind of suffering. Time was running down. We were losing. [Cleamons was] going to have to deal with it." Cleamons: "Khalid did what a good point guard should do. He saw some situations and took advantage of them. [But] the triangle is anything you want it to be. They just have to learn to get to [those spots]. We're not just going to come down and run screen and roll every time." Cleamons: "As we got momentum, they lost momentum, and then the tide swung. We were the ones with the hot hand." Cleamons: "We just didn't succumb. There's nothing about this team that says give up. It's a huge shot in the arm for our self-esteem." Michael Finley: "When they got the big lead, we put our heads down for a minute. Then we started to press and we cut the lead to 11, then 7." A.C. Green: "We're obviously young, and we've got miles to go. But the one thing we have going is that we're hungry. We're like bloodthirsty sharks looking for anything to feed our confidence. So far we've had a nice couple of snacks." Shawn Bradley: "I don't think anyone expected this, including myself. We expected to win in Vancouver, but not in Seattle. But that didn't stop us from playing our hearts out. The hardest thing for this team is learning how to win. This is a big step in that direction." George Karl: "The last 4 minutes of the game, you can't give teams free throws, second shots and turnovers. And we did all of them. We gave them hope - and it snowballed on us. We got embarrassed by a team that kept playing hard." Karl: "It just snowballed on us. We lost our composure and couldn't find any confidence." Detlef Schrempf: "We had no offense and no defense you can't expect to win playing like that. We just all of a sudden didn't make any plays." Hersey Hawkins: "We should feel embarrassed and ashamed of how we played in the 4th quarter. We just stopped playing on the offensive end and the defensive end. I don't know what you call it. Complacent. Stupid. We as a team have a lot of gut-checking to do if we want to be what we say we want to be at the end of the year." Gary Payton: "We were thinking the game is over and we started doing things that we weren't supposed to do. Instead of being aggressive and taking our shots, we started being tentative by passing the ball and being lackadaisical." Payton: "We should have won this game easily and we didn't. It's a lot of different things. We have to be on the same page and we are not on the same page right now. It's hard because we've been losing games for the past 2 years that we shouldn't be losing." Dallas Mavericks 89, Seattle Sonics 81 at Seattle (November 1) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 14 25 16 34 - 89 .508 .000 .438 .758 Seattle 25 23 23 10 - 81 .356 .417 .365 .824 Halftime: Seattle 48-39 3rd Q: Seattle 71-55 Seattle's largest lead: 64-44 4:20 3rd Seattle's last lead: 79-76 3:04 4th Dallas' largest lead: 89-81 final Technicals: Jim Cleamons 3rd, Shawn Bradley 4:55 3rd, Vin Baker 4:55 3rd Flagrant fouls: Jerome Kersey 3:04 4th Refs: Joe Forte, Joe Borgia, Greg Willard Attendance: 17,072 (sellout) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Michael Finley 44 5-13 0-1 10-14 20 6-10 3 2 1 1 1 A.C. Green 38 5-9 0-0 1-2 11 3-12 1 1 2 2 0 Shawn Bradley 39 7-14 0-0 3-3 17 4-14 1 5 5 0 4 Khalid Reeves 30 5-12 0-3 6-6 16 0-1 3 2 2 3 0 Hubert Davis 35 4-10 0-4 4-4 12 0-1 4 2 1 0 0 Kevin Ollie 24 4-7 0-0 1-2 9 1-3 5 0 4 0 0 Dennis Scott 16 1-4 0-2 0-0 2 0-2 0 0 3 0 0 Samaki Walker 13 1-4 0-0 0-2 2 3-7 0 3 2 0 0 Bubba Wells 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 32-73 0-10 25-33 89 17-50 17 17 20 6 5 Seattle Sonics REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Detlef Schrempf 34 5-13 0-2 4-4 14 2-8 3 1 2 0 1 Vin Baker 34 5-11 0-0 4-6 14 2-4 1 0 2 2 2 Jerome Kersey 29 2-8 0-0 0-0 4 2-5 0 0 5 0 0 Gary Payton 38 4-13 0-2 4-4 12 4-6 12 4 5 1 0 Hersey Hawkins 35 4-10 2-3 1-1 11 1-4 1 3 5 3 0 Sam Perkins 21 2-6 2-3 1-2 7 0-4 0 2 1 0 0 Dale Ellis 23 7-13 1-2 0-0 15 0-0 0 0 3 1 0 Greg Anthony 16 2-8 0-0 0-0 4 0-2 4 0 1 2 0 Jim McIlvaine 10 0-3 0-0 0-0 0 2-4 0 0 2 0 0 Totals 48 31-85 5-12 14-17 81 13-37 21 10 26 9 3 patricia