Motta: "We were at Golden State in 1980, my first year here. They had a halftime act with a huge Bengal tiger and a monkey. The monkey would shoot basketballs and the tiger would go retrieve them. I watched the act for awhile and then I asked the trainer if she would do me a favor and let me borrow her tiger. I said, 'Is it a nice tiger?' and she said it was. I said, 'Will it bite me?' and she said no. I had her knock on the door when her act was over. We were still in the dressing room at halftime. she knocked on the door, and I reached out and got that tiger by its leash and collar and walked it in. The players all scattered. I said, 'If you guts don't start rebounding, I'm soing to let this tiger eat.' At the time, the players didn't think it was funny. They didn't laugh. But it _was_ funny. It was great." The Mavericks radio network is up to 20 stations. They are: KLIF 570 (Dallas) KCUB-FM 98.3 (Stephenville) KRYS 1360 (Corpus Christi) KNET 1450 (Palestine) KKYN 1090 (Plainview) KYYD 1340 (Abilene) KGAF 1580 (Gainseville) KFWN 1420 (Bonham) KZEE 1220 (Weatherford) KDHN 1470 (Dimmitt) KAND 1340 (Corsicana) KFRO 1370 (Longview) KHSP 1400 (Texarkana) KGVL 1400 (Greenville) KTBB 600 (Tyler) KSST 1230 (Sulphur Springs) KROD 600 (El Paso) KFCA 1330 (Little Rock) WTAW 1150 (College Station) KTOD-FM 92.7 (Little Rock) The Mavs have 6 Dallas Morning News/Dr Pepper Family Nights left for this season. For $39.95 you get 4 tickets ($15 seats), 4 hot dogs, 4 Dr Peppers, and a parking pass. You need the ad from the Morning News and can call 214-939-2800 for more information. The Family Nights games: Golden State 12/30 (Friday), Miami 1/14 (Saturday), Sacramento 1/28 (Friday), Atlanta 2/17 (Friday), Philadelphia 3/17 (Friday), and Minnesota 4/7 (Friday). Terry Davis' dislocated finger is still bothering him. He did not play in the Seattle or Portland games. Motta said that Terry might want to go on IR so to give the finger a chance to heal. The games: Dallas at Seattle (December 22) 1st Q: Seattle played well and both Kidd and Popeye got into foul trouble early. Popeye picked up 3 fouls in the quarter and Kidd two. Morlon Wiley came in for Kidd and played really good defense on Payton. Seattle was up 31 to 22 after on. 2nd Q: The Mavs bench actually out-played Seattle's deep bench. Morlon continued his good D and actually hit two tough shots (Wiley normally does not shoot). Lucious Harris came in for Jackson and played very well. He had 8 points in the quarter on 3-3 FG including 2-2 3-pointers. And Hodge actually played well. He had several good defensive plays a grabbed several rebounds. Kidd picked up his 3rd foul early in the quarter. Dallas' bench out-scored Seattle's 19-11 in the half. Seattle was up 53-49 at the half. 3rd Q: The teams played pretty evenly, matching each other point for point with Dallas finishing the quarter with a slight edge of 34-31 in the quarter. Popeye had 11 points and 5 rebounds during the quarter, but also picked up his 4th foul. It was 84-83 Seattle. 4th Q: Most of the quarter belong to Dallas. The team was playing very well on both offense and defense. The Mavs built a 9 point lead at 99-90 with 4:57 left in the game. The Mavs were able to keep their lead around 7 points over the next 2 minutes. The Mavs were up 101-94 with 2:28 left when they fell to pieces. Two turnovers by Popeye and a turnover by Jackson allowed Seattle to cut the lead down to 101-99 with 1:43 left. Payton got the ball and sprinted down the court (out racing Kidd for the loose ball) for the layup to tie the game with 30 seconds left. Mashburn had the ball in the post and made an over-the-shoulder pass to the cutting Jackson (who wasn't expecting the pass - he thought he was a decoy but said that he should have caught the pass) and Gill reached over and stole the pass and passed the ball over to Payton who streaked down the court for the winning layup. The Mavs had two attempts to tie or win the game but missed both. Seattle 103, Dallas 101. Hard to believe with Seattle's home record of 11-1, but this was a game that Dallas should have won and let slip away. The Mavs committed 3 turnovers and shot 0-6 over the last 2 minutes of the game. For the game, Dallas committed 23 turnovers which Seattle converted into 27 points. Dick Motta was upset with the officiating. He refused to comment after the game saying, "I'm not going to make any comment. I might say something that might get me fined." Seattle attempted 30 free throws to Dallas' 20 for the game, including a 12-4 advantage in the 4th quarter. Despite the officiating, the blame for the loss rests on the youngsters' mistakes and not being able to score at the end of the game. 1 2 3 4 Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Seattle 31 22 31 19 - 103 .540 .308 .500 .767 Dallas 22 27 34 18 - 101 .508 .333 .470 .850 Seattle FG 3pt FT Reb Player Min M-A M-A M-A Pts O-T Ast TO F Stl Blk Shawn Kemp 40 7-10 0-0 3-5 17 4-10 2 2 4 3 2 Detlef Schrempf 42 8-12 0-1 8-10 24 1-4 6 2 3 3 0 Sam Perkins 37 3-9 1-5 1-1 8 1-5 1 0 2 0 0 Kendall Gill 37 3-12 1-2 5-7 12 2-4 3 3 4 0 1 Gary Payton 41 12-19 1-3 3-3 28 1-3 8 7 4 2 0 Vincent Askew 20 3-7 1-1 0-0 7 0-2 1 2 3 1 0 Sarunas Marciulionis 15 2-6 0-0 3-4 7 2-2 0 0 3 0 0 Ervin Johnson 6 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Nate McMillan 2 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0-1 0 1 0 0 0 Totals 240 38-76 4-13 23-30 103 11-31 21 17 23 9 3 Dallas FG 3pt FT Reb Player Min M-A M-A M-A Pts O-T Ast TO F Stl Blk Popeye Jones 26 6-10 0-0 3-3 15 3-6 1 4 4 0 1 Jamal Mashburn 42 10-23 1-6 3-3 24 0-0 6 6 4 2 0 Lorenzo Williams 17 2-5 0-0 0-0 4 2-7 1 2 2 0 0 Jim Jackson 41 6-15 2-4 6-15 21 2-6 4 3 2 1 0 Jason Kidd 33 4-8 0-3 2-2 10 0-1 9 3 3 4 0 Morlon Wiley 16 2-6 1-2 0-0 5 0-2 1 0 1 2 0 Roy Tarpley 31 4-9 0-0 0-2 8 4-9 2 1 3 0 1 Donald Hodge 22 2-4 0-1 2-2 6 1-5 0 4 5 0 2 Lucious Harris 12 3-3 2-2 0-0 8 0-1 1 0 2 0 0 Totals 240 39-83 6-18 17-20 101 12-37 25 23 26 9 4 Dallas at Portland (December 23) A blowout, pure and simple. Credit either the disappointing loss in Seattle or the Mavs looking ahead to the Christmas break, but they were never in this game. The Mavs shot 1-8 to start the first quarter and finished the quarter with only 5-19 FG. Portland (the league leading rebounding team) out-rebounded Dallas (2nd in the league in rebounding) 14-3 the first 9 minutes of the game. Give Portland credit to for their game plan of running the Mavs right out of the building. Clifford Robinson and Clyde Drexler also had strong first quarters and halfs. Portland nailed 4 3-pointers in the 1st quarter and added 2 more in the 2nd. Dallas did manage to cut Portland's lead down to 11 twice (once in the 1st half and in the 3rd quarter), but the Mavs made mistakes when they got to that point and Portland wouldn't let them get closer than that. The Dallas starters finished a combined 12-41 FG. The only bright spot for Dallas was the performance of Doug Smith in garbage time. Doug had 18 points including 7-12 FG. 1 2 3 4 Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Portland 32 25 31 30 - 118 .457 .444 .455 .800 Dallas 17 23 20 32 - 92 .382 .250 .364 .735 Halftime: 57-40 Portland 3rd Q: 88-60 Portland Portland's largest lead: 112-82, 2:09 4th Q Dallas' largest lead: none Attendance: 12,888 (sell-out) Technicals: none Officials: Ted Bernhardt, Jess Kersey, Tony Brothers. Portland FG 3pt FT Reb Player Min M-A M-A M-A Pts O-T Ast TO F Stl Blk Clifford Robinson 33 12-18 4-7 3-4 31 1-5 2 1 2 2 2 Buck Williams 30 2-6 0-0 0-0 4 1-8 3 2 2 0 2 Chris Dudley 34 1-4 0-0 0-2 2 3-10 0 2 3 0 3 Rod Strickland 30 4-14 0-4 5-6 13 4-7 10 2 4 4 0 Clyde Drexler 29 5-13 3-4 5-6 18 1-6 6 5 3 3 1 James Robinson 12 3-6 1-2 0-0 7 2-2 1 0 0 0 0 Harvey Grant 12 3-4 0-0 3-3 9 1-2 0 0 1 0 1 Mark Bryant 14 3-10 0-0 0-0 6 4-6 0 0 4 0 0 Steve Henson 18 1-4 0-1 2-2 4 0-3 8 0 3 0 0 Jerome Kersey 12 6-8 0-0 0-0 12 1-3 3 2 2 0 1 James Edwards 9 3-6 0-0 0-0 6 0-1 0 0 1 0 1 Tracey Murray 7 2-6 0-0 2-2 6 1-1 1 0 1 1 0 Totals 240 45-99 8-18 20-25 118 19-54 34 14 26 10 11 Dallas FG 3pt FT Reb Player Min M-A M-A M-A Pts O-T Ast TO F Stl Blk Jamal Mashburn 18 4-14 1-4 5-6 14 1-2 0 2 4 1 0 Popeye Jones 24 1-8 0-1 0-0 2 1-5 0 3 0 0 0 Lorenzo Williams 20 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-3 0 1 2 1 1 Jason Kidd 28 2-5 0-2 0-2 4 1-4 4 3 2 1 1 Jim Jackson 27 5-14 0-1 0-0 10 2-5 1 4 1 0 0 Roy Tarpley 29 6-13 1-1 4-4 17 1-8 1 1 3 1 0 Doug Smith 28 7-12 0-0 4-6 18 0-3 1 1 4 1 0 Donald Hodge 24 3-10 0-0 4-4 10 3-6 1 1 1 0 1 Lucious Harris 17 3-5 1-1 5-6 12 1-3 2 0 1 0 1 Morlon Wiley 15 0-3 0-2 2-2 2 0-1 6 1 3 1 0 Tony Dumas 10 1-4 0-0 1-4 3 1-2 1 1 1 0 0 Totals 240 32-88 3-12 25-34 92 11-42 17 18 22 6 4 patricia