Doug Smith sprained his right knee in practice Thursday and will be out 7 to 10 days. Tony Dumas re-aggravated his knee in practice Thursday and did not play in Friday's game. Look for the Mavs to sign George McCloud for the rest of the season next week, Doug to go on IR, and Tarpley to be activated from IR [pure speculation on my part]. Director of Player Personnel Keith Grant says that he wants to come to a decision regarding the above 3 things Monday. If he does decided to sign McCloud for the rest of the season and activate Tarpley without placing anyone else on IR, Morlon Wiley or Donald Hodge will most likely be the player to go. If they cut Hodge, he still is guaranteed $1 million for next season. The Dallas city council has 3 total idiots on it. The 3 want to put the issue of whether or not Reunion Arena should be renovated on the May 6th ballot (by the residents). A) The Mavs will not stay in a renovated Reunion and B) where the Mavs will play in 3 years will have long since been decided by the time May 6 rolls around. As far as the Mavs are concerned, they will only commit to a new arena and owner Donald Carter will pay $65 million towards building a new arena. Irving still seems the front runner to get the Mavs and Dallas Stars (hockey), but Lewisville and Arlington are also in the race. Everything seems to indicate that Dallas is so clueless that they have no hope of keeping the teams within the city limits (and will leave the city as the largest metropolitan without a major professional team). But Mayor Steve Bartlett is supportive of building a new arena, but the opposition on the city council is having balls of fun throwing monkey wrenches into the fray and Bartlett is not running for re-election. The city council is taking a vote on something regarding the arena this Tuesday and the Mavs have tentatively said that they will come to a decision regarding the Mavs staying in Dallas on Friday [bye bye, Dallas]. GM Norm Sonju said that an opening date for the 97-98 season for the new arena has already been missed and that he is very disgusted by that fact. The good news: Tarpley was at Reunion Arena for Friday's game and stood in the huddles during the timeouts. [While Dumas, who also was in a suit, sat on the bench during most of the timeouts.] Atlanta at Dallas (February 17) The first quarter saw the Hawks shooting incredibly well (something like over 70% FG), but free throws kept the Mavs in the game. I believe the first 8 points by Dallas came from free throws. Atlanta was up 33-26 after 1. Both teams had 9 rebounds. On the back of Jim Jackson, Dallas stayed in the game and threatened Atlanta's lead. Atlanta was taking full advantage of the pick-and- roll and Steve Smith and Mookie Blaylock got several baskets off of the play. Grant Long made a layup just prior to the end of the half to put Atlanta up 59-55 FG. For the half, Atlanta shot 65% (26-40) FG including 4-9 3-pointers and shot 3-4 FT. Dallas shot 48.8% (21-43) FG and 12-13 FT. Atlanta had 20 rebounds and Dallas 14. 8 Atlanta turnovers led to 14 Dallas points. 5 Dallas turnovers led to 7 Atlanta points. The Hawks had 36 points in the paint and the Mavs had 30 points in the paint. Stacey Augmon had 7 points including 3-3 FG, 5 rebounds, and 3 turnovers, Smith had 13 points including 5-7 FG and 3-4 3-pointers, Blaylock had 11 points, 5 assists, 2 steals, and 3 turnovers, and Ken Norman had 14 points on 7-9 FG in 15 minutes. Jamal Mashburn had 13 points, Jason Kidd had 8 points, 5 assists, and 3 steals, and Jackson had 22 points including 9-17 FG and 6 assists. Dallas cut Atlanta's lead to 68-64 on a 3-pointer by Mashburn. Atlanta then went on a 13-6 run which ended with a 3-pointer by Smith to go up 81-70 with 2:35 left. Atlanta led 83-71 after 3. Mashburn scored 11 points in the quarter, but Jackson did not score his first points of the quarter until he made a free throw with 1:44 left. Popeye Jones got his 5th foul with just under 10 minutes left. The Mavs went on another run to get within 88-83 with 7:08 left. Blaylock nailed a 3-pointer. Smith collected his 6th foul with 5:44 left. Jackson hit a jumper with 5:07 left and Atlanta was up 91-85. Blaylock responded with another 3-pointer to give the Hawks a 94-85 led with 4:44 to go. The Hawks coasted the rest of the way as the Mavs fell even more to pieces. Mashburn scored his only points of the quarter on a 3-pointer with 1:07 left. Jackson and Mashburn combined for 3-10 FG in the quarter. Atlanta 110, Dallas 90. Dallas only scored 35 points in the 2nd half. Lorenzo Williams had a lousy game. He was sick all day Friday and it showed. The Hawks just killed the Mavs on the pick-and-roll. At least 2/3rds of Steve Smith's and Mookie Blaylock's points must of come off of a screen. The Hawks had a great game and were hitting everything. Well, this was the point guard match up I had been looking forward to. Everyone has made comparisons between Kidd and other players, but Kidd's style reminds me of Blaylock. Even when the points are not there, Blaylock will have the numbers for assists and rebounds. Blaylock showed that he is the veteran and Kidd is the rookie. He saw that Kidd just could not get around those picks quick enough and burned him all night long. Quotes: Dick Motta: "None of us did a very good job of getting over the pick- and-roll tonight." Motta: "I think the score was a lot closer than the game. They hit everything they shot up early. They were very, very active. We made a nice little run during the first half and tied it, but they whipped us pretty good. We didn't do a very good job defensively." Jamal Mashburn: "Our weakside help wasn't all that great tonight. Every time they shot the ball, it went in." Jason Kidd: "On some nights when teams double-team us, we look pretty good when we get the right spacing. This was a night when we were cluttered and bunched up a lot. And our shots weren't falling." Kidd: "We just have to work on our defense. (The pick-and-roll is) probably one of the most important plays in the league. And one of the toughest to guard." Lenny Wilkens: "The guys have settled in and are starting to play real well. The entire team has started to pick it up." Ken Norman: "You know (Mashburn and Jackson) are going to get their points, you just don't want them to go crazy." Stacey Augmon: "The morale in the locker room is different now. When you win a couple games, you just have to keep going. It is fun out there when we are working hard." 1 2 3 4 Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Atlanta 33 26 24 27 - 110 .574 .526 .563 .769 Dallas 26 29 16 19 - 90 .456 .167 .395 .905 Halftime: 59-55 Atlanta 3rd Q: 83-71 Atlanta Atlanta's largest lead: 110-90 final Dallas' largest lead: 16-13 6:59 1st Dallas' last lead: 20-18 5:45 1st Lead changes: 4 Technicals: Ken Norman 7:44 2nd (taunting) Refs: Billy Oakes, Jim Kinsey, Ted Bernhardt Attendance: 17,502 (sell-out) Atlanta Reb Player Min FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA Pts O-T Ast TO F Stl Blk Stacey Augmon 39 4-11 0-0 5-6 13 7-9 2 2 1 1 2 Grant Long 26 5-9 0-0 2-2 12 1-12 0 2 2 2 0 Andrew Lang 39 5-10 1-1 1-2 12 3-8 2 2 2 2 1 Steve Smith 32 9-15 5-6 0-0 23 1-3 1 1 6 0 0 Mookie Blaylock 34 10-18 4-11 0-0 24 0-2 9 3 0 5 0 Ken Norman 26 7-10 0-1 0-0 14 0-3 2 1 2 0 0 Tyrone Corbin 21 4-4 0-0 2-3 10 2-5 4 1 1 0 0 Jon Koncak 9 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 0-1 0 0 1 1 1 Jim Les 14 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 3 2 1 0 0 Totals 240 45-80 10-19 10-13 110 14-43 23 14 16 11 4 Dallas Reb Player Min FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA Pts O-T Ast TO F Stl Blk Jamal Mashburn 38 9-18 3-5 6-6 27 0-1 1 5 3 1 0 Popeye Jones 32 3-9 0-0 2-2 8 3-12 2 0 6 0 0 Lorenzo Williams 38 1-2 0-0 2-2 4 2-4 3 3 5 0 2 Jason Kidd 34 4-12 0-4 2-2 10 4-5 6 3 1 5 0 Jim Jackson 42 11-26 0-4 5-7 27 4-8 6 3 2 0 0 Lucious Harris 20 2-6 0-2 2-2 6 1-2 1 0 1 1 0 George McCloud 19 3-9 0-3 0-0 6 0-1 3 1 0 0 0 Terry Davis 17 1-4 0-0 0-0 2 3-6 0 1 2 1 0 Totals 240 34-86 3-18 19-21 90 17-39 22 16 20 8 2 patricia