Dallas retired Rolando Blackman's #22 during halftime of the Phoenix game. The attendees on the court for the retirement ceremony, in addition to his family, included Dick Motta, Richie Adubato, Gar Heard, Derek Harper, Mark Aguirre, Brad Davis, James Donaldson, Tom LaGarde, Scott Lloyd, Randy White, Clyde Drexler, Charles Smith, Bob Lanier, Ted Gustus, Norm Sonju, Don Carter, and Mark Cuban. [John MacLeod was at the game (Phoenix assistant), but did not join the halftime ceremony.] After the buzzer sound at the end of the game, Michael Finley went over and gave the game ball to Ro. Quotes Rolando Blackman on his night: "The most important thing for me was the sharing part. I wanted them [his guests] to know they had a big part to do with it. Each and every person who was on [the floor] had a big part in my growth. It wasn't just me." Blackman: "I didn't make it here alone. I had help all along the way." Blackman on the fans: "It didn't matter if it was against a good Portland team or a great Lakers team, the fans were always loud. They would make a crescendo of noise even before you played. It was during a great time of playing basketball in Dallas." Blackman on his talk with the current team: "I wanted guys to understand the responsibility that goes with it." Blackman: "I'm glad they won the game. It helped make the night special." Derek Harper: "Nobody deserved it more than Ro. He conducted himself the right way. A lot of young guys can't really appreciate what Ro did." Harper: "I don't think that anybody would argue that he has been just a tremendous person, on and off the basketball court. Ro is one of those guys that you pick as someone you would want your son to be like." Mark Aguirre on the ceremony: "I loved this. I loved every minute of it. It was smooth - about as smooth as Ro." Dick Motta: "He was the epitome of consistency. He was the ultimate pro." Motta: "Whenever he walked out of that tunnel, I knew what I was going to get. Ro was the epitome of consistency." Clyde Drexler: "I remember during the playoffs. I did a helluva job defensively on him. And he had 41. You think I'm kidding, but I'm not. When he missed, it was a big deal. Nobody was more efficient with the ball." Erick Strickland on the win: "I got to meet Ro at a team dinner for him last night. I got to know him, where he came from, how he got where he got. It was like looking inside myself. It gave me a renewed focus. This game was definitely for Ro." The Mavs have hired 3, yes 3, new assistant coaches. They are Del Harris, Brad Davis, and Gar Heard. Harris, who has a long NBA coaching history and was last seen coaching the Lakers, was brought in as a defensive coach and was even given the football title of defensive coordinator. He ran the Mavs' practice on Monday (and, thus, the comments about Harris after the Phoenix win on Tuesday). Davis, of course, played for the Mavs for many years, was an assistant coach for Dallas for 2 years under Dick Motta's 2nd stint, and has been the Mavs' radio color commentator for the past few years. Davis' job will be to coach the guards on defense. Davis will also keep his job as radio color commentator for the rest of the season. Heard was an assistant for Dallas for 4 seasons and interim head coach for 4 months and last seen as head coach for Washington this season (before being fired by new owner Michael Jordan). Heard's job will be to coach the big men on defense. The 3 join Kiki Vandeweghe as special assistant coaches and are in addition to regular assistants Donn Nelson, Charlie Parker, and Scott Roth. The special assistants do not sit on the bench during games as the bench is limited to a maximum of 3 assistant coaches - but they can sit in the row behind the bench. [The Morning News also mentioned free throw consultant Gary Boren and player development Bill Peterson as assistants, but they aren't true assistants.] The Mavs also talked to Derek Harper and Rolando Blackman about becoming assistant coaches, but Harper decided to stay with the business side of the Mavs and Ro has prior commitments with ESPN and CBS radio for college basketball broadcasting. Mark Cuban: "I told Nellie to find the best possible people. There are no limits. The more brains you have, the better." Del Harris: "It will take a lot of time. Defense is a matter of habits. If we reawakened some habits in some of the players now, then good. But basically, to be a good defender, it's a matter of developing defensive habits - and of course, just having the desire to want to do it." Michael Finley: "Every team in this league is capable of playing defense on a night in, night out basis. The main thing is for teams and individuals to take it personally. I think in the past, we've been more reliant on our offense. While we have had one of the better offensive teams in this league, we forgot that defense wins ballgames." John Williams is scheduled to undergo back surgery April 11. The Mavs activated Bruno Sundov on Tuesday. Sundov filled the open roster spot that was created when the Mavs released Dennis Rodman. Phoenix at Dallas (March 20) Phoenix found out on game-day that Tom Gugliotta was going to be out 7 to 8 months with a torn ACL and MCL in his left knee. Dallas took an early 13-7 lead with 7:30 left including 9 points from Erick Strickland, but Phoenix responded with a 11-4 run to go up briefly 18-17 with 4:15 left. Phoenix led 25-24 after 1. Strickland had 12 points and Jason Kidd had 8 points and 4 assists. Phoenix built a small 31-26 lead with 10:15 remaining, but Dallas went on a 6-1 mini-run to tie the game at 32-32 with 8:45 to go. The game stayed close the rest of the quarter with neither team having more than a 4 points lead. Phoenix led 51-50 at the half on a layup by Kidd at the buzzer. Strickland had 23 points and Kidd had 15 points. The game stayed close in the 3rd quarter as neither team could mount much of a rally. Dallas led 67-63 with 4:25 left and Phoenix went on a 10-2 run to go up 73-69 with 2 minutes remaining. Phoenix led 77-73 after 3. Phoenix led 83-79 with 8 minutes to go and Dallas rattled off the next 10 points including 6 points by Strickland to go up 89-83 with 5:45 remaining. Clifford Robinson converted the 3-point play and also hit a 3-pointer to tie the game at 89-89 with 4:45 left. The game was tied at 93-93, 96-96, 98-98, and 99-99 with 1:20 left. Strickland missed a jumper, but Dirk Nowitzki got the offensive rebound, passed out to Robert Pack, who passed to the open Finley, who drained the 3-pointer with a minutes to go. Kidd drove to the basket and ran into Strickland and was called for the offensive foul - his 6th foul. Strickland was fouled with 37 seconds left, but missed both free throws. Shawn Marion's 3-point attempt was blocked by Shawn Bradley and Finley was fouled with 17 seconds left. But Finley also missed both free throws. Anfernee Hardaway's 3-point attempt was blocked by Greg Buckner with 7.5 seconds left and Finley collected the blocked shot. Finley was fouled and made both free throws to ice the game. Dallas won 104-99. What a great game. After Dallas' early 9 point lead in the 1st quarter, neither team had more than a 6 point lead the rest of the way. The only down side to the game was that the refs were a little whistle happy - Dallas attempted 43 free throws (but 6 came in the last 40 seconds) and Phoenix attempted 35 free throws. Erick Strickland was on all night and had a career night with 36 points on 11-19 FG and 13-17 FT and 8 rebounds. Michael Finley chipped in 22 points and 7 rebounds, Dirk Nowitzki had 15 points including 5-14 FG (he started shooting 1-8 FG), and Shawn Bradley continued his string of good performances with 17 points, 12 rebounds, and 5 blocks. For Phoenix, Clifford Robinson had his usual good game against Dallas with 29 points and 7 rebounds. Jason Kidd had a near triple-double with 19 points, 10 rebounds, and 9 assists before fouling out. And Shawn Marion had a nice game with 18 points and 6 rebounds. Quotes Don Nelson: "We did a lot of things that could have cost us this game. I don't know how we one this one, to be quite honest, but we did." Nelson: "We did a lot of things that could have cost us this game like missing 4 straight free throws. But we really defensed it at the end, got 2 big blocks and probably had a couple of breaks along the way." Nelson: "The bottom line is that we rode Strickland on offense and Bradley on defense. We played as hard as we could. I don't think we played very well. Offensively we sputtered again and struggled, but it was good enough." Nelson: "Mike didn't have a very good game. You go down our roster and you know who played very well, it was one guy, Strickland offensively." Erick Strickland on the end of the game: "This was finally the time that we actually sucked it up defensively and said that we're going to get some stops. Shawn stepped out and got a nice block on Shawn Marion in the corner. We made some big plays tonight and that's what you have to do in the clutch." Strickland: "I want to give a lot of praise to that man [Blackman]. I went to his dinner last night and I was totally inspired by that man. It kind of broke me down to talk to him and [learn about] all the things he did in this league. It definitely gave me a new love and appreciation for the game of basketball." Strickland: "I really got to look inside Ro when I went to his dinner. I really got to know the man and where he came from, his upbringing and all the people that helped him. It was like looking within myself. He totally gave me a new found focus and just re-channeled my love for this game." Strickland: "Ro told me I just need to keep enhancing my skills, keep studying the game, keep learning the game and playing it to best of my ability and go hard the whole way. After all, you never know when you get another day." Strickland: "He told me I have the skill, but I need to go hard and play to the best of my ability. He totally inspired me." Michael Finley on Strickland and Kidd: "They're two energetic guys. Two guys who, when they have the ball, you never know what's going to happen - whether it's going to be a good thing or a bad thing. Tonight, both of those guys played tremendous. Strick just played a little bit better." Finley: "The Reunion Rowdies made a re-appearance tonight with Rolando's night and helped us get over the hump. Defense was emphasized in practice as far as transition, talking, and helping each other. It was evident out there tonight. Hopefully, we'll learn that defense does win ballgames." Scott Skiles: "Not only could we not get anything offensively, but we couldn't stop them. Every loss is frustrating, regardless of when and who it is against. Strickland was able to do anything he wanted to do - penetrate, shoot jumpers, coast-to-coast - you name it, he did it." Skiles: "They had 10 steals and 10 blocks and it becomes very difficult to win a game under circumstances like that." Skiles on Kidd fouling out: "Of course it had an effect on us. But those things happen in an NBA game. We should not be in that position, such a close game, whether Jason is in or not." Anfernee Hardaway: "I missed 5 [free throws] in the 2nd half, and that was a big key. I have to knock those down at crucial times in the game. And then they got a big offensive rebound, Michael Finley hit a 3 and that's the way it works." Hardaway: "We just didn't do a very good job overall as a team, but we are going to bounce back." Hardaway: "We have to bounce back and do better one-on-one defense and play better team defense. That was something that was really helping us win. Now we are struggling with that a little bit. It started early with Erick Strickland coming out on fire and it never stopped." Jason Kidd on Strickland: "I'm happy for him. The sky's the limit [on how good Strickland can be]. Tonight he showed he definitely can score some points. When you get like that, you just want the ball." Clifford Robinson: "They did a good job defending and Strickland got it going to keep them in the game. They just made a few more plays down the stretch. It really wasn't a game where we did things tremendously bad, they were just able to make shots. We made shots, but we didn't make enough." Dallas Mavericks 104, Phoenix Suns 99 at Dallas (March 11) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 24 26 23 31 - 104 .429 .375 .418 .744 Phoenix 25 26 26 22 - 99 .508 .222 .444 .657 Halftime: Phoenix 51-50 3rd Q: Phoenix 77-73 Phoenix's largest lead: 75-70 1:02 3rd Dallas' largest lead: 13-4 7:31 1st Lead changes: 21 Technicals: None Refs: Ken Mauer, Tim Donaghy, Gary Benson Attendance: 18,187 (sellout) Did not play due to injury: Tom Gugliotta (torn ACL and MCL left knee) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Michael Finley 45 7-13 2-2 6-9 22 1-7 3 2 4 3 0 Dirk Nowitzki 40 5-14 3-7 2-4 15 1-5 0 0 3 0 3 Shawn Bradley 33 5-11 0-0 7-8 17 3-12 1 4 4 2 5 Erick Strickland 43 11-19 1-6 13-17 36 0-8 3 1 3 4 0 Hubert Davis 8 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 0 0 1 0 0 Sean Rooks 11 1-6 0-0 0-0 2 4-6 1 1 4 0 0 Cedric Ceballos 31 4-14 0-1 3-3 11 0-6 0 4 2 0 0 Robert Pack 21 0-2 0-0 1-2 1 0-1 8 1 4 1 0 Greg Buckner 8 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-2 0 1 3 0 2 Totals 48 33-79 6-16 32-43 104 9-48 16 14 28 10 10 Phoenix Suns REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Clifford Robinson 41 10-19 1-5 8-9 29 2-7 2 2 4 0 0 Shawn Marion 40 7-16 0-1 4-4 18 1-6 1 1 4 0 0 Jason Kidd 37 7-12 2-2 3-4 19 0-10 9 4 6 2 1 Anfernee Hardaway 32 3-10 0-3 3-8 9 1-4 6 0 5 3 0 Rodney Rogers 30 3-10 1-4 1-4 8 3-11 1 2 5 0 0 Luc Longley 16 4-7 0-0 2-2 10 1-2 1 2 2 0 0 Rex Chapman 15 2-6 0-2 1-2 5 1-2 0 0 2 0 0 Randy Livingston 11 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0-2 2 3 2 1 1 Corie Blount 7 0-0 0-0 1-2 1 1-3 0 2 4 1 0 Totals 46 36-81 4-18 23-35 99 10-47 22 16 34 7 2 Indiana at Dallas (March 13) Dale Davis was back in Indiana with leg cramps. Dallas led 6-4 early and scored the next 9 points to go up 15-4 with 6:50 left. Dallas led 29-11 with a minute left and rattled off the last 7 points of the quarter, capped by an in-bounds interception by Greg Buckner and putback by Michael Finley at the buzzer, to go up 36-18 after 1. Erick Strickland opened the quarter with a jumper to give Dallas a 20 point lead and Larry Bird benched his starters for most of the 2nd quarter. The move worked as the reserves cut Dallas' lead down to 10 points at 53-43 with 1:20 remaining. Dirk Nowitzki drained a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give Dallas a 60-46 led at the half. Dallas came out of halftime like a storm, led by Nowitzki with 13 points during the run, as the team scored the first 15 points of the 3rd quarter to go up 75-46 with 8:30 to go. Indiana finally scored their first basket of the 3rd with 8 minutes left. Dallas held their largest lead at 80-48 with 5:50 left and the blowout continued. Dallas led 86-61 after 3. Garbage time continued in the 4th and the final score did not indicate how much of a blowout this game was. Dallas won 111-90. Holy cow! Where did this team come from??? All hail Del! The Mavs actually played solid defense all game long. I was stunned. And Steve Nash completely shut Reggie Miller down - yup Nash was on Miller and Finley was on Jackson. Indiana only shot 33% (31-94) FG and Dallas shot 48.4% (46-95) FG. Some of it was simply Indiana's poor shooting, but you have to give the Mavs some credit for their good defense. And the Pacers couldn't blame the refs for this game as they shot 23-25 FT and Dallas shot only 10-10 FT. While a lot of the Phoenix win was Erick Strickland, this was a complete team victory. You can pick any one of the starters and say that they had a good game. In addition to Nash's defense, he had 21 points including 8-11 FG and 4-5 3-pointers and 5 assists. Dirk Nowitzki led the blowout surge in the 3rd quarter with 15 points in the quarter and finished with 28 points including 10-13 FG and 4-5 3-pointers and 5 rebounds. Michael Finley chipped in 16 points, 6 rebounds, and 11 assists and Strickland had 11 points and 5 assists and did a good defensive job. Though he didn't have the numbers (2 points and 6 rebounds), Shawn Bradley was a defensive presence and had 4 blocks. Greg Buckner played a nice role off the bench with 10 points and 11 rebounds (and his numbers didn't all come in garbage time). Mark Jackson, Reggie Miller, and Rik Smits combined for only 11 points including 5-26 FG. Only Travis Best seemed to have any affect against the Mavs. Best finished with 26 points including 9-12 FG, but 11 of his points came in the 4th quarter. Jalen Rose had 18 points including a poor 6-20 FG and 13 rebounds and Austin Croshere was the only other Pacer in double figures with 10 points. Quotes Don Nelson: "This is one of the first blowouts of the year and it couldn't come at a better time. This was what a coach likes to see. When you have a big lead and you find a way to keep it. You know they are going to make some runs at you. You know you going to go through cold spells. Keep the pressure on them and keep doing the same things that got you the lead. We did a good job of that tonight." Nelson, joking about the improved defense after bring Del Harris on: "We're going to add 4 more coaches." Nelson: "I really did see a step in the right direction, in terms of effort and individual effort. Defensively we haven't had that, and it could be my fault." Nelson: "I think you saw just really the start of a defensive emphasis that maybe we were lacking. That could be my fault, but we have a defensive specialist in now and that's good. The guys know it's a high priority for us and they're responding." Nelson: "It was quite clear we were hot and making shots. But, that's just half of the story." Del Harris, joking: "I quit. Job's too easy." Harris: "If coaching was this easy, we'd see a lot more people doing it - or nobody doing it. You have to do it every night, not just once. There's nothing I know about defense that Nellie doesn't know about it defense. I just think the owner got the players' attention by bringing me. If anything, it just showed what this team is capable of doing. They just needed a reminder that defense is important." Harris: "Everybody who has the talent to play in the NBA can play defense. Hopefully this is something we can build on. Everybody took it upon themselves to improve on their defensive approach." Harris: "I wouldn't take any of the blame if [Indiana] had scored 120 points, so I'm not about to take any of the credit for holding them to 90." Steve Nash: "They're a terrific team and for us to win was very nice because we avenged a loss that we didn't think we should have had early in the season at their place. We feel as though we should have swept the series. We're just trying to get as many wins as possible before the season's over. We're pretty much out of the playoffs. Now's a chance to get better and play for our pride." Nash on the defense: "I think it's contagious and perpetual. It's not going to be that way every night, but the good thing is that we played defense and when you do that you give yourself a chance to win." Nash: "We played defense tonight and when you do that, that gives you a chance to win no matter how you shoot. [Harris] had us aware of what we needed to do defensively." Nash on defending Miller while Finley took Jackson: "Tonight we used it to our advantage. It can work either way. It was a dilemma for them. You either let Finley go one on one and I went to spot up, and by the time they got to me it was too late." Dirk Nowitzki: "This is a good win against a great team. We played with great energy tonight. Our defense has been the worst in some of our games. Tonight it was good." Nowitzki: "I felt good. I felt good yesterday in practice. I knew in the 2nd half when I got the ball and I was open that I just had to get it up. That's what I did." Cedric Ceballos on if the win was more satisfying due to the 1 point loss in Indiana: "Yeah, there is extra satisfaction. We did the same thing in Indiana. We took over the game, and then 3 other people [refs] started getting involved." Larry Bird: "[jokingly] Del's wonderful isn't he? He makes a big difference in 2 minutes." Bird: "We just didn't play. We just didn't play tonight. When you don't play against a team that on the defensive end gets up into you and makes a lot of shots at the other end, you are going to lose the game." Bird: "Austin Croshere had no clue what he was doing out there tonight. Austin usually plays decent defense, but tonight Nowitzki was the better player by far." Reggie Miller: "They clearly outworked us." Travis Best: "We just have to concentrate on playing our tempo. We're really rushing shots and we weren't getting back on defense. That's stuff you have to talk out. The communication is a little broken down right now." Best: "We've been digging ourselves a hole, night in, night out. That's just not going to get it done. It's going to catch up with us sooner or later, so it was a big factor. We could never really fight our way back. You've got to give them credit. They played really well." Jalen Rose: "Anytime you allow a team to score 36 points in the 1st quarter, which was their season high, and we shoot 33%, that's a combination of things. It's not just that their defense was so overwhelming that we couldn't get shots. We got the shots. We were just unable to knock them down." Rose: "We got a lot of open looks we weren't able to knock down. We weren't able to establish an inside presence. Their defense wasn't overwhelming. We just didn't hit our shots." Rose: "We always come ready to play. You don't get the record we have by being a team that doesn't come ready to play. We come to play. It's just a matter of us finding a way to get off to a good start. We're not going to panic. We're going to continue to play hard. We have a game tomorrow in Atlanta and I feel like we are going to show up and play to win." Austin Croshere: "They were on fire tonight." Croshere: "We've had a little bit of a history of playing poorly on the road and a recent history of digging ourselves into a hole. We've been able to win a lot of those games because we've been playing at home. When you do that on the road against an up-tempo team, it can come back and bite you. It certainly did tonight. So I don't know if it's so much of a carry over of the last game as it is a recent trend of how we've been playing." Croshere on Nowitzki: "He's a great shooter to begin with. He got a lot of open shots breaking out on defense, my fault in particular, but at the same time he hit a lot of shots with a hand in his face. You have to give him a lot of credit." Dallas Mavericks 111, Indiana Pacers 90 at Dallas (March 14) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 36 24 26 25 - 111 .463 .600 .484 1.00 Indiana 18 28 15 29 - 90 .356 .238 .330 .920 Halftime: Dallas 60-46 3rd Q: Dallas 86-61 Indiana never led Dallas' largest lead: 32 points Technicals: Shawn Bradley 5:15 1st, Reggie Miller 7:18 3rd Refs: Jim Clark, Luis Grillo, Leon Wood Attendance: 15,761 (cap 18,187) Did not play due to injury: Dale Davis (leg cramps) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Michael Finley 39 8-15 0-0 0-0 16 1-6 11 4 3 3 1 Dirk Nowitzki 29 10-13 4-5 4-4 28 1-5 2 0 3 0 0 Shawn Bradley 19 1-4 0-0 0-0 2 0-6 1 3 2 2 4 Steve Nash 33 8-11 4-5 1-1 21 0-2 5 1 5 1 0 Erick Strickland 34 5-12 0-2 1-1 11 0-3 5 2 2 1 2 Sean Rooks 24 3-11 0-0 0-0 6 2-9 1 0 5 0 3 Greg Buckner 24 4-8 0-1 2-2 10 5-11 0 2 1 0 0 Cedric Ceballos 23 4-15 0-0 2-2 10 4-7 1 3 2 0 0 Hubert Davis 8 1-2 1-1 0-0 3 0-1 3 0 1 0 0 Damon Jones 4 1-3 0-1 0-0 2 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Bruno Sundov 3 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 0-0 0 0 1 0 0 Totals 48 46-95 9-15 10-10 111 13-50 29 17 25 7 10 Indiana Pacers REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Jalen Rose 38 6-20 2-4 4-4 18 1-13 3 5 4 1 1 Austin Croshere 33 4-12 0-2 2-3 10 5-13 0 5 4 0 0 Rik Smits 17 2-8 0-0 0-0 4 2-4 0 2 1 0 1 Mark Jackson 21 0-8 0-3 2-2 2 3-4 1 3 2 1 0 Reggie Miller 26 3-10 0-2 1-1 7 1-2 2 1 1 3 0 Travis Best 25 9-12 1-2 7-8 26 0-0 5 0 3 1 0 Zan Tabak 29 3-8 0-0 2-2 8 4-7 1 4 4 1 1 Sam Perkins 17 1-3 0-1 0-0 2 2-4 0 0 1 0 2 Derrick McKey 12 1-2 1-1 0-0 3 0-0 0 0 0 1 1 Chris Mullin 10 1-5 1-4 2-2 5 0-2 0 0 0 0 0 Jonathan Bender 12 1-6 0-2 3-3 5 1-3 0 0 1 1 0 Totals 48 31-94 5-21 23-25 90 19-52 12 20 21 9 6 patricia (off to San Antoine)