Indiana at Dallas (January 6) Indiana coach Larry Brown stayed in the locker room with the flu. Thus, former Mav assistant coach and (briefly) head coach Gar Heard was at the reigns for Indiana. Once again, the reffing was pretty poor. And for a change, Dallas got the benefit of some of the poor calls (of course, they also got some off/ticky-tacky calls against against them too). If I was a Pacer fan, I would have been screaming my head off at the officiating. I was surprised that it took so long for Heard to get his T for complaining about the aweful calls (midway through the 4th). When are the refs going to learn any sort of consistency? The first quarter went pretty evenly - each team having a couple of runs. Reggie Miller carried the load for Indiana and scored 15 points. 25-21 Indiana. The 2nd quarter was quite a change from last year's game (something like 9-5 Ind over the first 10 minutes of the quarter). The Mavs were really gunning and it was a high scoring quarter. Miller went cold and Jim Jackson played good D on him. Miller only had 2 points in the quarter. Rik Smits was having fun shooting over whoever the Mavs put on him (Smits is 7'4" and the Mavs' tallest player is 7'0"). Terry Davis looked good in the several minutes he got in the quarter - hustling and grabbing some rebounds. Morlon Wiley knocked down 3 shots in the quarter, including a 3, to have 7 points. After out-scoring Indiana 40-28, including a 22-14 run the last 6 minutes of the quarter, Dallas was up 61-53 at the half. Miller had 17 points, Jamal Mashburn 18 points, and Jackson 15 points. The Mavs were shooting 54% FG. The teams almost matched each other in turnovers with Indiana having 1 more (9-8, if I recall correctly). The teams got about the same number of points off the turnovers, so shooting (Indiana was something like 48%) and rebounds (Dallas out- rebounded them by about 12) was the difference. Miller got a T in the quarter for kicking the ball about 30 feet into the air after a charge was called on him. The Pacers stayed in the locker room until about 3 minutes left 'til the start of the 3rd quarter. They must have been getting an earfull from Brown. And it must have made a difference. The Pacers started the quarter strong. They knocked about 5 points off the Mavs' lead in the first 4 minutes of the quarter. They played pretty evenly for the next 5 minutes or so and then both teams got cold at the end of the quarter. Dallas was up 81-77 after 3. Indiana scored on 1 points in the first 6 minutes of the 4th. The Mavs went up 92-78 with 6:26 left. Indiana pulled off an 8-0 run including baskets by McKey and Smits. The Mavs were up 92-86 with 3:55 left. Then it became the Jason Kidd show. Kidd scored Dallas' next 6 points - a driving basket, two free throws, and a lay up to put the Mavs up 98-88 with 3 minutes left. The Mavs held onto the lead to win 103-92. It was Jason Kidd's game. He had a solid performance, including offense for a change, with 15 points, 10 assists, 8 rebounds, 4 steals, and only 2 turnovers in 40 minutes. He twisted his ankle in the first half and came back in later in the half with it taped. Jim Jackson continues to out-play his opponents. He out-scored Miller 30-19 and shot incredibly well on 11-18 FG and 7-8 FT. He has out-scored the opposing starting shooting guard 745-411 this season and has been out-scored by the opposing shooting guard in only 3 games. Despite starting the game cold on 2-10 FG, Mashburn came back to have a good offensive performance with 29 points on 8-21 FG and 11-13 FT. He also had 5 assists and 7 rebounds, but still needs to work on his D. He has a tendency to slack off on defense when he doesn't get a call on the other end of the court. Terry Davis had a great game off the bench - and got a lot of minutes in primetime for a change. He had 10 points on 4-5 FG and 2-7 FT (ouch) and 11 boards in 23 minutes. Roy Tarpley had an utterly lousy game. He looked lost in the 16 minutes he played. Popeye Jones also had a poor game. He was plagued with fool trouble and couldn't find his shot, but he did get 8 rebounds. Rik Smits enjoyed his height advantage and better skills and gathered 18 points on 7-12 FG and 4-4 FT and 13 rebounds over (mostly) Lorenzo Williams and Terry Davis. After a strong 1st quarter of 15 points including 6-10 FG and 3-4 3-pointers, Reggie Miller went cold and only made 1-8 FG for the rest of the game to finish with 19 points. He also gathered 5 fouls. I did enjoy watching him work without the ball. He seems to give an extra burst of speed once he hits that screen. At 14-14, the Mavs have now surpassed last year's win total of only 13 games. 1 2 3 4 Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 21 40 20 22 - 103 .477 .375 .457 .697 Indiana 25 28 24 15 - 92 .471 .300 .449 .950 Halftime: 61-53 Dallas 3rd Q: 81-77 Dallas Indiana's largest lead: 33-25, 9:34 2nd Q Dallas' largest lead: 92-78, 6:26 4th Q Lead changes: 4 Attendance: 17,502 (sell-out) Technicals: Miller 3:37 2nd Q, Ind illegal D 6:40 4th Q, Ind coach Gar Heard 6:33 4th Q Officials: Jack Nies, Ted Bernhardt, Tony brothers. Dallas FG 3pt FT Reb Player Min M-A M-A M-A Pts O-T Ast TO F Stl Blk Jamal Mashburn 43 8-21 2-6 11-13 29 2-7 5 2 3 0 1 Popeye Jones 22 1-6 0-0 0-0 2 3-8 3 4 6 1 0 Lorenzo Williams 33 1-3 0-0 1-3 3 2-5 0 2 4 0 1 Jason Kidd 40 6-14 1-4 2-2 15 4-8 10 2 1 4 0 Jim Jackson 40 11-18 1-2 7-8 30 0-5 2 2 4 0 0 Roy Tarpley 16 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 0 1 2 1 0 Morlon Wiley 9 3-6 1-3 0-0 7 1-2 0 1 1 0 0 Terry Davis 23 4-5 0-0 2-7 10 5-11 1 2 4 0 0 Lucious Harris 9 3-6 1-1 0-0 7 0-1 0 0 2 1 0 Doug Smith 5 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 240 37-81 6-16 23-33 103 17-48 21 16 27 7 2 Indiana FG 3pt FT Reb Player Min M-A M-A M-A Pts O-T Ast TO F Stl Blk Derrick McKey 29 6-12 0-0 2-2 14 1-3 3 1 5 0 2 Dale Davis 39 3-11 0-0 2-2 8 2-8 1 2 4 0 0 Rik smits 30 7-12 0-0 4-4 18 4-13 2 1 2 0 1 Mark Jackson 32 4-6 0-1 2-2 10 2-7 6 4 5 0 0 Reggie Miller 33 7-18 3-7 2-2 19 0-0 2 3 5 1 0 LaSalle Thompson 15 0-1 0-0 2-2 2 0-2 1 0 3 3 0 Sam Mitchell 15 1-3 0-0 0-0 2 0-0 1 0 4 0 0 Vern Fleming 17 2-4 0-1 0-0 4 0-1 2 0 2 1 0 Byron Scott 16 2-6 0-1 3-4 7 0-0 1 4 0 0 0 John Williams 8 1-3 0-0 0-0 2 0-2 1 0 0 0 1 Duane Ferrell 5 2-2 0-0 2-2 6 1-1 0 0 2 0 0 Haywoode Workman 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 240 35-78 3-10 19-20 92 10-37 20 15 32 5 4 patricia