Tonight's game against Sacramento ends a tough month for Dallas. Since December 22, Dallas has faced: (a - means back-to-back) Sea-Por, Pho-Pho, GS, Hou, Hou-Ind, Uta, LAC-Den, Mia-SA, Orl, NY-Sea, Uta-Sac. At the time we faced those teams (Denver has since slipped under .500), only 3 opponents of those 18 games were under .500. Dallas faced the 4 hottest teams in the leage since Wednesday - Orlando, New York, Seattle, and Utah. Including tonight's game, Dallas will have played 5 games in 7 days. Dallas at Utah (January 23) Roy Tarpley and Terry Davis did not play due to injuries. Former Mav reunion week continued as the Mavs faced James Donaldson at starting center for Utah as well as Walter Bond coming in off the bench. 1st Q: The Mavs played and shot really well and had built a 7 point lead with 2:30 left. Utah cut 4 points off that lead and it was 27-24 Dallas after 1. Antoine Carr came off the bench to score 10 points including 4-4 FG in about 7 minutes. Jamal Mashburn had 12 points and Jim Jackson 9 points. Dallas shot 62% FG. 2nd Q: The Mavs were able to build on their lead and a 10-3 run over 2 minutes late in the quarter put the Mavs in front by 10 points as the Mavs were shooting 60% FG. Dallas was up 52-47 with 1:30 left in the half. Utah cut it down to a 5 point lead and it was 52-47 Dallas 1:30 left. Dallas was up 56-49 at the half. Jason Kidd had 7 points and 4 assists, Jackson had 17 points, Mashburn had 13 points, and Morlon Wiley had 9 points on 3-3 3-pointers - all in the 2nd quarter. Karl Malone had 9 points, Jeff Hornacek had 8 points, and Carr had 12 points including 5-7 FG in 13 minutes. Dallas was shooting 59% FG and Utah 49% FG. Dallas was out-rebounding Utah 20-16. Dallas had 8 turnovers and Utah had 6 turnovers. 3rd Q: Dallas was up 65-60 with 8:25 left. Utah scored 4 consectutive points to cut the Mavs' lead down to 1 point. The game was tied 71-71 with 4:50 to go in the quarter. Mashburn collected his 4th foul after two consecutive offensive fouls. Utah obtained their first lead of the game at 75-73 with a layup by Malone with 2:30 left. Dallas was able to get the lead back at 79-77 with 1:12 and closed the quarter at 84-82 Dallas. Malone had 18 points and Jackson 27 points. 4th Q: Dallas scored the first 5 points of the quarter with 3 points by Jackson and a jumper by Doug Smith to lead 89-82. Dallas was up 101-94 with 6:30 left. 2 points by Mashburn followed by a steal by Mash to Jackson for the slam put the Mavs up 107-98 with 4:36 left. Malone then scored 4 consecutive points and Dallas was up 107-102 with 3:30 left. Hornacek got 2 after a turnover by Jackson and another Dallas turnover lead to a jumper by Malone. Jason Kidd made 2-2 free throws to put the Mavs up 111-108 with 1:45 left. John Stockton drove for the layup and Mashburn committed another offensive foul. Carr nailed the pull-up jumper to give the Jazz the lead at 112-111 with 41 seconds left. Jackson lost the ball driving and Popeye Jones picked up the loose ball and nailed the banker - but the basket was waived off as the ref blew the call and called a double dribble on Jackson, who never touched the ball again after loosing it. David Benoit was fouled to stop the clock and made 2-2 to put the Jazz up 114-111 with 13 seconds left. Lucious Harris turned the ball over and Benoit made two more free throws to close the game. Utah won 116-111. Utah had gone on a 18-4 run over the last 5 minutes of the game. Dallas committed 5 turnovers in the last 2:45 minutes and Malone scored 6 points over that same time span. Dallas did not make a field goal in the last 4 1/2 minutes. Utah switched Malone on Mashburn in the last 5 minutes and Mash did not score during that time frame. Utah made 15-20 FG in the 4th quarter. Quotes: Dick Motta: "We played well enough to win tonight. We has a couple of turnovers, and that call at the end [the double-dribble] was really wrong. It's unfortunate, but we're getting more than our share of unfortunate stuff." Motta: "The Jazz are so exprienced. They have two Dream Team I players and we have three CBA players." Mashburn: "They are just a veteran ball club. They've been together for a while and they are very motivated." Antoine Carr: "We don't believe in quitting. We're going to keep coming and coming and coming and eventually you're going to have to break a little bit." Jerry Sloan: "It was a good move for us to change Karl over to Mashburn defensively near the end. And our guys really stepped it up on defense in the last few minutes." Karl Malone: "We didn't ever give up. We just hung in there and started turning the screws up. There is a different feeling on this team that I've never had and you look at this team and every guy on this team wants to win. In the past, I don't know if that was always the case." 1 2 3 4 Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Utah 24 25 33 34 - 116 .611 .125 .563 .739 Dallas 27 29 28 27 - 111 .614 .444 .573 .739 Halftime: 56-49 Dallas 3rd Q: 84-81 Dallas Technicals: Dallas: Illegal D 9:40 2nd, Illegal D 8:18 2nd, Illegal D 10:15 3rd, Illegal D 7:12 4th; Utah: Illegal D 11:43 4th, Illegal D 8:24 4th, Illegal D 2:55 4th Refs: Mike Mathis, Jim Clark, Ron Olesiak Attendance: 19,911 (sell-out) Utah Reb Player Min FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA Pts O-T Ast PF Stl TO Blk Karl Malone 43 11-20 0-1 6-8 28 2-11 1 3 0 3 1 Bryon Russell 13 2-5 0-2 0-0 4 0-2 1 3 1 1 0 James Donaldson 8 1-3 0-0 0-0 2 0-2 0 0 0 0 1 John Stockton 38 4-5 1-2 3-3 12 3-4 17 3 2 3 1 Jeff Hornacek 39 7-14 0-2 4-4 18 1-2 4 4 1 2 1 John Crotty 10 0-1 0-0 1-2 1 0-0 1 1 0 0 0 Antoine Carr 29 9-11 0-0 4-4 22 1-3 3 4 0 2 1 David Benoit 26 5-8 0-1 5-6 15 0-5 4 3 1 0 1 Tom Chambers 16 4-8 0-0 1-2 9 3-4 1 0 0 0 0 Adam Keefe 6 0-3 0-0 1-2 1 2-2 0 0 0 0 0 Jaime Watson 10 2-2 0-0 0-0 4 0-0 1 3 0 0 0 Walter Bond 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 240 45-80 1-8 25-31 116 12-35 33 24 5 11 6 Dallas Reb Player Min FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA Pts O-T Ast PF Stl TO Blk Jamal Mashburn 38 11-22 1-5 3-6 26 1-3 6 5 3 6 0 Popeye Jones 37 4-4 0-0 3-4 11 1-8 2 2 0 0 0 Lorenzo Williams 37 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 2-10 2 5 0 0 2 Jason Kidd 38 4-8 2-4 5-6 15 0-2 5 4 2 5 0 Jim Jackson 44 14-22 0-1 6-7 34 1-3 5 3 0 5 0 Doug Smith 14 2-8 0-1 0-0 4 0-2 0 3 0 0 1 Morlon Wiley 19 4-6 4-6 0-0 12 0-1 3 0 0 0 0 Donald Hodge 8 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 2-3 3 2 0 0 1 Lucious Harris 5 4-5 1-1 0-0 9 2-2 0 0 0 1 0 Totals 240 43-75 8-18 17-23 111 9-34 26 24 5 17 4 patricia