Dallas at Golden State (February 7) Gag! Call it the game that wouldn't end. This was ugly, ugly, ugly and neither team deserved to win. The Mavs opened up the first quarter looking like it would be a blow out as Golden State couldn't hit anything. Dallas went on an 11-2 run to go up 17-9 and led 26-15 after 1. Golden State shot only 3-24 FG in the quarter. The Mavs led 38-27 in the 2nd quarter and then fell to pieces as Shawn Bradley and Steve Nash picked up their 4th fouls. Despite having a 14 point lead early in the quarter, Golden State came back and the game was tied 46-46 at the half. With the 3rd quarter, the trend continued where only one team showed up for each quarter. Dallas pulled ahead and led 77-63 after 3. So it was now Golden State's turn. And the Mavs rolled over for them as the Warriors scored the first 15 points of the quarter while Dallas went 0 for 9 from the field. Nash finally scored for the Mavs with 2 free throws at 4:47 and Golden State led 80-79. The game was tied at 82-82 and at 84-84 with 1:14 remaining. Michael Finley put Dallas up 86-84 with a jumper with 30 seconds left, but Golden State went to Terry Cummings (who had been killing the Mavs all game) who nailed the short baseliner with 10 seconds left to tie the game. The Mavs called timeout. Cedric Ceballos' long jumper from the left corner missed at the buzzer and we had overtime. Ceballos opened the overtime by hitting the same shot he had just missed, but from the right corner this time. John Starks responded with a bucket and the game was tied at 88-88 with 4:13 left. There wasn't much offense [but much was offensive] going on over the next 2 1/2 minutes - just 2 free throws from Ceballos and a Chris Mills' jumper. The game was tied at 90-90 with 1:44 remaining. John Williams hit 1 of 2 free throws with 37 seconds left. Cummings hit another jumper with 27 seconds left to give Golden State the lead at 92-91. The Mavs set up the play for Nowitzki, but he was called for traveling. Golden State had the ball out of bounds at half court with 10 seconds left. The Mavs played good defense on the inbounds and Golden State used their last timeout. Finley stole the ball and was fouled on the way in for the layup on the break away (and was some how not given continuation even though he never put the ball back on the floor after the foul). Finley choked and missed both free throws and Mills was immediately fouled. Mills hit both free throws to give Golden State a 94-91 lead with 6 seconds left. The Mavs called timeout and moved the ball to half court. They inbounded the ball to Dirk Nowitzki who handed it off to Finley who drove to the right along the arc, elevated and swished the 3-pointer with about 2 seconds left. Starks' half court fling missed and we had a 2nd overtime with the game tied at 94-94. The poor offense continued in the 2nd overtime. A Ceballos jumper and a Cummings jumper left the game tied at 96-96 with 3:24 to go. Ceballos nailed a 3-pointer. Muggsy Bogues hit an open jumper (the Mavs were doubling off him all night) and Dallas led 99-98 with 2:33 remaining. Nowitzki hit 1 of 2 free throws and Cummings hit 1 of 2 free throws. The Mavs had the ball with 31 seconds left, but could do nothing with it. With the shot clock running down, Nash handed the ball to Ceballos, who passed it to Nowitzki, who passed it to the cutting A.C. Green for the layup, but it was too late as the 24 second clock had expired. Golden State ball with 7.4 seconds left. Golden State got the ball to Cummings and he tried to drive to the basket, but was stopped by Williams and Ceballos and Cummings fumbled the ball and Ceballos grabbed the loose ball and was immediately fouled with .6 seconds left. He hit both free throws. Finley tipped away the long inbounds pass and that was game. The Mavs won 102-99. As I said, it was pretty ugly and it was hard to believe it was the same team that played so well Friday night against Seattle. I guess it's called playing to the level of your competition. Golden State is a bad team. Don Nelson did reach into his bag of tricks and pulled out a funny looking one. He had 7-0 Dirk Nowitzki guarding 5-3 Muggsy Bogues. Well, he wasn't really guarding him as he would double whoever had the ball. As for individual performances, I can't give praise to anyone (well, except Cummings). Ceballos led the team with 26 points (including 7 in the 2nd overtime), but made a number of mistakes and his offensive focus was very evident (and somewhat determental) in this game. At least twice he had the ball in the paint and three Warriors converged on him and he still tried to go up with the shot (and failed) instead of passing out to the open man. Nowitzki was a vast improvement over Friday's game as he hit his first two shots and actively went after the boards. He finished with 16 points and 12 rebounds. But he did make big mistakes late in regulation and overtime - the travel and 24 second violation. Finley did not have that great of a game - the missed free throws were the most glaring thing. Still, he finished with 22 points, but only had 3 rebounds and 1 assist. Nash was offensively absent with only 6 points including 1-6 FG, but did contribute 12 assists. Bradley looked good defensively, but got in foul trouble early and only played 16 minutes. Chris Anstey was key in the 3rd quarter with his aggressive play and picked up his 6 fouls pretty quickly. As for Golden State, Cummings was great. He finished with 23 points and 15 rebounds and was the goto man for the Warriors. But once you get past John Starks (20 points, 12 assists), they have nothing. Quotes Don Nelson: "I don't know what to tell you. We were really good, we were really bad, like a young team is supposed to be. We don't know how to win yet, and neither do they, but we're learning." Michael Finley: "I guess that's what they call winning ugly." Finley on the missed free throws and game tying 3-pointer: "It was both ends of the prism. My head was so down, but the guys said to keep my head up because we were going into overtime again. I knew if I got the opportunity, our team would pull it out." P.J. Carlesimo: "We're kind of making a habit of digging huge holes and trying to climb out of it." Muggsy Bogues: "It's tough to walk away each night with games we felt we should have won. These are very difficult to swallow when you're so close. But we just have to keep fighting our way through it." Dallas Mavericks 102, Golden State Warriors 99 2OT at Golden State (Feb. 7) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th OT 2OT - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 24 22 31 9 8 8 - 102 .417 .444 .423 .651 Golden State 13 33 17 23 8 5 - 99 .383 .200 .365 .677 Halftime: 46-46 3rd Q: Dallas 77-63 End of 4th: 86-86 End of 1st OT: 94-94 Technicals: Dallas Illegal D 1:31 2nd Refs: Bill Spooner, Eddie F. Rush, Rodney Mott Attendance: 12,039 (cap 19,200) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK A.C. Green 29 2-8 0-0 2-3 6 1-4 0 4 2 1 0 Dirk Nowitzki 33 6-10 2-4 2-4 16 3-12 3 4 0 1 0 Shawn Bradley 16 0-0 0-0 2-2 2 2-5 1 1 5 0 4 Michael Finley 49 7-16 3-6 5-8 22 0-3 1 1 1 2 0 Steve Nash 42 1-6 0-3 4-6 6 0-1 12 1 5 1 0 John Williams 23 1-2 0-0 1-2 3 0-2 0 1 5 0 3 Samaki Walker 12 2-7 0-0 0-0 4 2-5 0 0 1 0 0 Cedric Ceballos 37 9-19 2-4 6-6 26 2-8 1 6 2 1 0 Robert Pack 19 1-5 0-0 3-4 5 0-1 3 1 3 0 0 Hubert Davis 9 2-2 1-1 0-0 5 0-0 0 0 1 0 0 Gary Trent 7 0-1 0-0 1-4 1 2-3 0 1 1 0 0 Chris Anstey 14 2-2 0-0 2-4 6 1-3 0 0 6 1 0 Totals 58 33-78 8-18 28-43 102 13-47 21 21 32 7 7 Golden State Warriors REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Jason Caffey 32 5-8 0-0 2-5 12 2-6 0 2 2 0 0 Chris Mills 33 2-6 0-2 2-3 6 0-4 1 1 3 1 2 Erick Dampier 20 2-5 0-0 4-6 8 1-4 1 3 4 0 2 John Starks 43 7-14 2-4 4-4 20 2-5 12 2 5 1 0 Muggsy Bogues 33 4-13 0-0 1-1 9 1-5 4 1 4 0 0 Adonal Foyle 14 2-10 0-0 1-2 5 6-8 0 1 3 0 2 Terry Cummings 35 8-16 0-0 7-8 23 7-15 0 2 6 1 0 Bimbo Coles 26 1-7 0-1 0-0 2 1-4 6 3 4 1 0 Tony Delk 14 0-6 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 1 3 0 1 Donyell Marshall 24 3-9 0-2 0-2 6 2-4 0 1 1 0 1 Antwan Jamison 16 4-10 0-1 0-0 8 5-9 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 58 38-104 2-10 21-31 99 27-64 24 18 35 4 8 patricia