The games have begun!!! [Okay, not the real games yet, but at least games.] Before I talk about the Charlotte game, some other stuff. Finally, finally, finally!!! The Mavs are going to raise #22 to the rafters. The team announced that they will retire Rolando Blackman's #22 during halftime of March 11's game vs Phoenix. Kudos to whoever finally pushed through getting it retired [I had been asking for it for the past 3 years and I know it has been talked about in the front office in the past]. Owner Ross Perot also said that Derek Harper's #12 and Mark Aguirre's #24 will also be retired sometime in the future (00-01 and/or 01-02). IMHO, Aguirre's number should not be retired. I'm not an Aguirre hater; in fact, I've defended him a number of times and recognize the large contribution he had to the team's success in the 80s. However, the way he acted in 1989 was disgraceful and you don't honor someone who acted the way he did by retiring his number. The Mavs signed Kebu Stewart to a one year, non-guaranteed contract on October 7 and released Anthony Miller on the 8th. Look for Stewart to be on the opening day roster as the team needs a backup power forward and the team released Zendon Hamilton and Ben Davis October 15. That leaves Jason Sasser, Kevin Ollie, Greg Buckner, and Stewart as the free agent invitees still in camp. Buckner will likely start the season on IR (he had knee surgery right before the start of camp), Ollie is a guard, and Sasser is a small forward. Hot Rod Williams did not participate in any of training camp and will not participate in any of the pre-season games. He has a bad back and has received 2 steroid injections in his spinal column and is scheduled to receive one more . He'll likely start the season on IR. The Mavs held an open scrimmage on Thursday at Reunion. It was announced that about 5,000 fans attended [that seemed a little high - I'd say maybe 4,000]. Dirk Nowitzki and Cedric Ceballos put on a show of who could score more. The defense in the game was, of course, almost non-existent out side of a couple of sweet block shots. And it was a fast paced game. Cedric Ceballos tied the game at 97-97 on a putback with 2 seconds left. The blue team did not call timeout [for which Shawn Bradley got a lecture from Don Nelson afterwards] and did not get a shot off. Nelson let the game end that way instead of playing an overtime [much to my disappointment]. For the white team, Ceballos had 29 points and 16 rebounds, Gary Trent had 21 points and 11 rebounds, and Steve Nash had 13 points and 10 assists. For the blue team, Nowitzki had 26 points and 10 rebounds, Michael Finley had a quiet 18 points, Bradley had 15 points, and Robert Pack had 14 points. From watching the scrimmage, I thought that Zendon Hamilton (who looked absolutely lost at times), Ben Davis, and Jason Sasser weren't going to be with the team very long, but was surprised when two of the three were cut the next day. The play of the night, IMHO, was when Ceballos came from no where to stuff Finley's dunk attempt back in his face. For the real game... What fun was had by all! Well, there weren't that many in the "all", but we had a blast. The attendance for the game was as sorry as I've seen it in a _long_ time - before tipoff, there were fewer there than at the open scrimmage (the late-comers probably put the real attendance around 5,000 [the official attendance of 10,400 includes season ticket holders who didn't attend]. Unlike most early pre-season games, it was a competitive game with the players who will play during the season getting a lot of minutes. Nelson used a tight rotation and gave the fans their first surprise with the starting lineup of Gary Trent, Dirk Nowitzki, Sean Rooks, Michael Finley, and Robert Pack. Nelson said not to read anything into the starters as he'll probably use a number of different opening lineups during the pre-season. The first quarter was sloppy at times, but contained surprisingly good shooting and ended at a high scoring 32-32 tie. The Mavs had shot an amazing 68% FG in the quarter and Charlotte shot around 54% FG. The 2nd and 3rd quarter were highly competitive and mostly good basketball. With Charlotte's sharp shooting of 5-10 3-pointers and the Mavs poor free throw shooting, Charlotte had a small lead of 58-56 at halftime. The 3rd quarter had a great matchup of Anthony Mason and Trent really going at each other. The Mavs closed the quarter with an 8-2 run to go up 79-73 after 3. With the run, the Mavs were really clicking and Charlotte's shooting touch had gone down the drain. Dallas opened the 4th with a 15-6 run over the first 5 minutes and Charlotte inserted the training camp fodder. Nelson followed suit a few minutes later and the Mavs blew out Charlotte 114-88. Charlotte shot 0-8 3-pointers in the 2nd half. Dallas out-scored Charlotte 60-30 in the 2nd half, including 35-15 in the 4th quarter. For the Hornets, Eddie Jones was non-existent the whole game as he only produced 4 points including 1-8 FG. Mason led the way with 15 points (I believe 13 points came in the 3rd). Brad Miller and David Wesley had 11 points. The Hornets were out-rebounding Dallas by 10+ through most of the game until into the 4th quarter. The Mavs played a very up tempo, running game that was a blast to watch. The team's 114 points exceed last season's game high of 112 points. They also shot the ball very well and their 54.4% FG exceed last season's high of 52.9%. Defensively they struggled some. A lot of times they were playing a switching defense and a number of times a Mav would get lost or miss the switch and leave a Hornet wide open [at one point I said, "will somebody get Mason" who was wide open under the basket]. I like the concept and it did work sometimes - Charlotte's poor 32.7% FG wasn't purely a bad shooting night for the team - but it is going to take time and work for it to be effective most of the time. The Mavs also need to work on rebounding and blocking out. They only had 7 offensive rebounds and allowed Charlotte 24 offensive boards. Surprisingly, the refs weren't too bad. They missed a couple of fouls and travels (mostly against Charlotte, so I wasn't complaining) and they weren't whistle happy. The first whistle didn't blow until over 3 minutes into the game. They also caught a couple of things that I thought they wouldn't have - a carry, an over-and-back, and a kick ball in traffic. The kick ball led to an "oops" by the PA announcer with his reflexive "a new 24 on the kick ball" (the clock wasn't reset per the new rule as there were 17 seconds left). My understanding of illegal defense has been completely shot out of the water with the new rules. One of the Mavs (Nash, I think) was preparing to pass into Trent on the post and a Hornet came in from the paint to double and got there before the ball arrived and the ref whistled illegal D. It looked okay to me as the new rules say you can double team a player without the ball on the strong side, but I guess that you (and the man you were guarding) have to be on the strong side when you come to double. [ Now I'm back amongst those who don't understand the details of Illegal D.] For the players... Dirk Nowitzki looked great and showed the shooting touch that everyone has been raving about during camp. He had 20 points including 9-14 FG and 6 rebounds. He does need to be more aggressive going after the boards. Cedric Ceballos also looked great and had a good touch. He got a number of his points in the flow of the game and a number of his points in his garbage man role. He had 19 points and 8 rebounds. As I said, the Gary Trent-Anthony Mason matchup was fun to watch. The two were banging against each other for a good chunk of the game. Trent had 15 points and 8 rebounds. He missed his first two free throws, but made the next 3. Michael Finley had a pretty quite night - guess he was too busy containing Eddie Jones. :) He had 13 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists. Sean Rooks did a nice job in his role and dished out 5 assists. He had 13 points on 3-4 FG and 1-4 FT and 5 rebounds. He needs to _really_ work on his free throws as he clanked his no-arc 3 misses off the front rim. He also needs to hustle down the court more - there were a number of times where he didn't even make it to half court and the Mavs were playing 4-on-5. Robert Pack was his usual beep-beep self with his slashes through the lane. Unfortunately, he picked up 3 fouls in the 1st quarter and was limited by foul trouble (he took the 3rd one covering for a big man's mistake on the switching defense). Steve Nash did a nice, quite job at point and had 11 points including 4-6 FG and 8 assists. Shawn Bradley was also limited some by foul trouble but did snag 7 rebounds in his 18 minutes. He only had 3 points. Erick Strickland saw a number of minutes as Hubert Davis was out sick. He was his usual self - spectacular plays at some points and his out-of-control, out-of-team-structure play at others. I cheered "All right Strick" a number of times and growled "Come on Strick" at others. He had 13 points. Kevin Ollie was the first of the garbage time players off the bench and had 5 points. Jason Sasser came in next and did nothing. And then Bruno Sundov came and got 4 quick points and a block shot. Kebu Stewart had a stomach virus. Charlotte Hornets 88, Dallas Mavericks 114 - at Dallas (October 15) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 32 24 23 35 - 114 .553 .400 .544 .609 Charlotte 32 26 15 15 - 88 .337 .278 .327 .654 Halftime: Charlotte 58-56 3rd Q: Dallas 79-73 Technicals: none Refs: Hugh Evans, Mike Callahan, Derek Collins Attendance: 10,381 Did not play due to injury: Greg Buckner (right knee injury), Hubert Davis (flu), Kebu Stewart (stomach virus), John Williams (injured lower back), Derrick Coleman (right knee injury), Tyrone Grant (hand injury), Eddie Robinson (flu) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Gary Trent 30 6-12 0-0 3-5 15 3-8 2 2 3 0 1 Dirk Nowitzki 31 9-14 0-0 2-3 20 1-6 3 1 4 3 3 Sean Rooks 27 3-4 0-0 1-4 7 2-8 5 0 1 2 2 Michael Finley 31 6-11 0-0 1-2 13 0-5 5 4 0 0 1 Robert Pack 23 2-5 0-0 0-0 4 0-2 1 3 4 0 0 Steve Nash 30 4-6 0-0 3-3 11 0-2 8 3 2 2 0 Shawn Bradley 18 1-3 0-0 1-3 3 0-7 1 1 4 1 1 Cedric Ceballos 22 8-19 1-4 2-2 19 1-8 1 0 1 1 0 Erick Strickland 17 6-10 1-1 0-0 13 0-3 3 1 1 0 0 Kevin Ollie 4 2-3 0-0 1-1 5 0-0 0 0 1 1 0 Jason Sasser 4 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Bruno Sundov 3 2-2 0-0 0-0 4 0-1 0 0 1 0 1 Totals 48 49-90 2-5 14-23 114 7-50 29 15 22 10 9 Charlotte Hornets REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Bobby Phills 25 5-11 1-4 0-0 11 2-4 2 4 1 1 0 Anthony Mason 29 6-9 0-0 3-3 15 2-4 2 1 2 0 0 Elden Campbell 21 2-8 0-0 2-4 6 2-11 1 2 4 0 2 David Wesley 24 4-11 2-4 1-2 11 1-3 4 1 1 1 0 Eddie Jones 29 1-8 1-4 2-4 5 0-2 2 1 1 3 0 Ricky Davis 19 4-14 0-0 2-2 10 2-3 0 2 1 0 1 Eldridge Recasner 16 1-5 1-2 0-0 3 0-1 3 0 3 1 0 Brad Miller 27 3-13 0-0 5-7 11 6-12 0 1 1 0 1 Baron Davis 24 2-10 0-3 1-2 5 2-7 6 1 4 0 1 Derek Hood 19 5-10 0-0 0-0 10 6-8 0 2 4 1 0 Jason Miskiri 7 0-2 0-1 1-2 1 1-1 0 2 0 1 0 Totals 48 33-101 5-18 17-26 88 24-56 20 17 22 8 5 patricia