Rolando Blackman is back in town. He has been offered a job as the color commentator for Ch. 11 (most Mavs road games). The position was vacated when Seattle hired Bob Weiss as an assistant coach. Ro wants to wait a week to make a decision. He is still hoping to play for a team this season. Ro also helped out at Friday's practice. I also saw him sitting next Mavs' radio broadcaster Ted Davis at Saturday's game. Don't know if he helped with the broadcasting or if he just was enjoying the excellent seats. Mark Aguirre was also at Saturday's game doing, of all things, color commentary for the Chicago radio station. Mark did grow up in Chicago. Dick Motta on 7'6" Shawn Bradley: "He's tall, really tall." Anything else? "He's tall, really tall. Good athlete. He's tall." Jim Jackson has an excellent work ethic. There was a nice article about his ethic in the Morning News. Both he and Morlon Wiley stay after practice and shot from 5 spots around the 3-point line and stay until each hits 75 shots. Jackson also credits Derek Harper for showing him the kind of work ethic need to excel in the NBA. Aguirre on Mashburn's 50 point performance which broke his team record of 49 points: "I can't believe he did it (broke the record) in the fourth game. It took me 10 years to get that." [Actually, Mark did it in his 4th season.] Jason Kidd did injure his thumb during the Sacramento game, but that was not the reason he played so few minutes. It was just a minor sprain, nothing serious. The game(revenge): Chicago at Dallas To put it simply, Chicago, and especially Pippen, wanted revenge for Mashburn's 50 point performance the week before. They got it. First, time for a little ref bashing. They were aweful. I guess Phil Jackson's whinning worked - for a little bit. In the first quarter, Chicago seemed to be getting some borderline calls and the Mavs not getting some obvious calls. Then it got worse. The refs decided to throw any consistency out the window - for both teams. They would call a ticky-tacky touch foul one time, and not call an obvious foul where a player bumped into another player, actually moving him, the next time. It got so bad that they were arguing amongst themselves for one call over who's ball it was. One ref called Dallas', the other Chicago's. They got together and huddled for a noticable amount of time, came out of the huddle and one ref blew his whistle and signaled Dallas, the head ref (Ron Garretson) blew his whistle, over ruling, and signaled Chicago. Then there was what should have been a charge against Mashburn that was called a blocking foul against the Bull. And several travels were not called. Motta said that the key to the game was when Jim Jackson picked up his 3rd foul less than a minute into the 2nd quarter. Chicago was leading 37-31 at the time. Jackson did not return until the 3rd quarter. That is not to say that better reffing would have resulted in a Mavs' win - the game might have been more competitive though. The Bulls came in with a mission and were well prepared for the game. They had an answer for the play that the Mavs burned them on the last game. The play where Jackson was on the post, Mashburn outside the 3-point line, and Popeye at the top of the key (and the other two players staying out of the way) resulted in a steal or turnover most of the night. Pippen, although he may be a jerk, is an awesome basketball player and showed the Mavs fans plenty of highlights. He had several thunderous jams, a couple of good steals, and was ripping down rebounds like crazy. His 36 points and 14 rebounds was even more impressive considering that he did not play in the 4th quarter. The Mavs also didn't help themselves by missing 9 free throws in the 1st half. Chicago led 58-48 at the half. The 3rd quarter was all Chicago. Interestingly, Tarpley played some garbage minutes in the 4th. I guess Motta was trying to get him used to playing and used to the plays. Some quotes: Pippen: "When he (Mashburn) scored 50 on me last week, it was kind of tough. Especially for a guy of my caliber. I take a lot of pride in my defense. I just felt like tonight was a night when we needed to come out and get some revenge. Especially myself." Mashburn on Pippen's T for taunting after dunking and glaring at Mash: "That's immaturity right there, if you've been in the league eight years. That's immaturity on his part. When I was up there (Chicago) I didn't say anything. That's not my game. I guess that's his game." Mashburn: "He (Pippen) had a good game, but I'm not claiming to be one of the best defensive players in the league." Motta on Chicago's prepration for the game: "It's a honor that they got so high for us. They were probably embarrassed that we beat them and two of our guys had career nights." Chicago FG 3pt FT Reb Player Min M-A M-A M-A Pts O-T Ast TO F Stl Blk Scottie Pippen 29 13-29 3-9 7-9 36 4-14 3 3 2 3 1 Corrie Blount 23 3-7 0-1 0-0 6 0-2 1 2 2 1 0 Will Perdue 16 5-7 0-0 1-2 11 3-8 1 1 2 0 0 Ron Harper 24 3-4 1-2 2-2 9 0-2 4 1 4 3 0 B.J. Armstrong 22 2-8 1-2 1-1 6 0-4 3 0 3 1 0 Toni Kukoc 31 4-8 3-4 1-2 12 2-5 5 1 1 0 0 Bill Wennington 13 4-7 0-0 2-4 10 2-3 2 0 6 0 1 Steve Kerr 27 3-6 1-3 0-0 7 0-0 0 1 2 0 0 Dickey Simpkins 15 3-4 0-0 0-0 6 0-2 1 2 0 0 0 Greg Foster 19 1-4 0-0 0-0 2 0-8 4 2 3 0 1 Pete Myers 11 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 1-1 1 0 2 0 0 Jud Buechler 10 3-3 0-0 0-0 6 0-1 2 0 1 0 1 Totals 240 44-89 9-21 14-20 111 12-50 28 12 28 8 4 Dallas FG 3pt FT Reb Player Min M-A M-A M-A Pts O-T Ast TO F Stl Blk Jamal Mashburn 28 5-15 1-1 5-9 16 0-2 1 3 4 1 0 Popeye Jones 28 1-5 0-0 1-2 3 2-5 2 1 4 0 1 Lorenzo Williams 16 2-3 0-0 1-4 5 2-5 1 1 2 0 0 Jason Kidd 26 2-4 0-0 0-0 4 0-3 5 2 0 0 0 Jim Jackson 25 7-11 0-2 4-5 18 0-2 2 3 3 0 0 Roy Tarpley 22 5-13 0-0 4-4 14 3-10 2 3 3 3 3 Terry Davis 9 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-2 0 0 1 0 0 Donald Hodge 26 3-10 0-1 0-0 6 2-6 3 0 2 0 0 Lucious Harris 30 1-8 1-1 1-1 4 1-4 3 1 0 2 1 Morlon Wiley 5 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 0-0 1 1 1 1 0 Doug Smith 13 3-5 0-1 0-0 6 1-1 0 2 1 0 0 Tony Dumas 12 3-5 0-1 1-2 7 0-2 1 0 0 1 0 Totals 240 33-81 2-7 17-27 85 11-42 21 17 21 8 8 1 2 3 4 Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Chicago 34 24 34 19 - 111 .515 .429 .494 .700 Dallas 31 17 15 22 - 85 .419 .286 .407 .630 Halftime: 58-48 Chi. 3rd Q: 92-63 Chi. Chi's largest lead: 94-63 11:29 4th. Dal's largest lead: 8-2 10:15 1st. Dal last lead: 13-12 6:49 1st. Lead changes: 3. Attend 17,502 (sellout). Technical fouls: Pipen 2:06 3rd, Chi illegal D 5:52 2nd, Dal illegal D 9:09 3rd. Officials: Ron Garretson, Luis Grillo, Sean Corbin. patricia