Scott Brooks, who has played with a few NBA teams, on his intro to the Mavs: "The day after the trade, they sent a dozen roses to my wife and had a note that said, `Welcome to the Family.' That's never happened. And they've given me everything I could want. I'm staying at a hotel there and they are paying for everything - the hotel, car, everything. I told them I'd split with them and they wouldn't let me." Dallas at Portland (April 15) Rod Strickland did not start and sat out the 1st quarter due to skipping practice Saturday morning. Dallas started well and Portland was missing a lot of shots. Dallas was up 10-3 with 8:14 left. Chris Dudley got 2 inside and Lucious Harris hit a 3-pointer. Portland was only shooting 2-10 FG. Clifford Robinson drove for 2 and Dallas was up 13-7 with 5:50 to go. Dallas scored the next 4 points to go up 17-7 and Portland was only shooting 3-14 FG. The teams traded baskets and Popeye Jones hit a 20-footer. Portland was shooting 4-17 FG and Dallas 10-17 FG. The teams traded baskets and Otis Thorpe scored 4 points. Roy Tarpley hit a jumper, Harvey Grant drove for 2, and Tarpley made a hook shot. After 1, Dallas 27-17. Dallas was shooting 59% FG, but had several turnovers. Popeye had 10 points on 5-5 FG. Portland opened the quarter by scoring the first 4 points. Tarpley hit a 20-footer. The teams traded many possessions. The teams traded points and Grant drove for 2. Dallas was up 31-25 with 7:55 remaining. Jerome Kersey hit a 15-footer, Thorpe hit a fade away, and Tony Dumas hit a 3-pointer. The teams traded 4 points. Dallas led 38-33 with 4:20 left. Jamal Mashburn made 2 layups. Kersey collected a T for complaining and Jason Kidd made the free throw. Clifford Robinson hit 1 of 2 free throws and Thorpe slammed it home. Dallas 43-36 with 1:45 left. Kidd rattled in a 3. Dudley missed both free throws, but Thorpe slammed in the second miss. Grant got 2 and Mashburn hit a 3-pointer at the end of the quarter. At the half, Dallas 49-40. Dallas shot 51% FG and Portland shot 41% FG. Dallas was out-rebounding Portland 22-18. Mashburn had 13 points, Popeye had 12 points (and sat most of the 2nd with 3 fouls), Kidd had 6 points and 4 assists, and Tarpley had 8 points on 4-6 FG in 10 minutes. Grant had 14 points and Thorpe had 12 points. Dudley got a slam. Mashburn hit a 3. Buck Williams made a hook shot and Dallas ran back and Kidd fed Lorenzo Williams for the slam. Rod Strickland hit a 3-pointer. Dallas was up 54-47. C Robinson scored the next 7 points to tie the game at 54-54. Mashburn hit a fade away and Dallas led 56-54 with 5:47 left. Mashburn made 2 free throws. C Robinson hit a 20-footer and Harris nailed the 3-pointer. [Dallas had 15 turnovers in the game thus far.] Mashburn also hit a 3-pointer. Dallas led 64-56. Thorpe hit a jumper and Kidd made 1 of 2 free throws. Tarpley got a basket and Dallas was up 67-58 with 3:12 remaining. The teams traded points and Grant made 2 baskets. Mashburn hit a 3-pointer. Thorpe hit a hook shot. After 3, Dallas 72-66. Mashburn had 26 points including 13 points in the 3rd. Thorpe had 18 points. Dallas opened the 4th strong with a 7-0 run to go up 79-66 with 10 minutes remaining. C Robinson got a hook shot and Kersey fed Thorpe for the slam. The battle of the free throw shooters continued as Lorenzo missed both his free throws. C Robinson banked in a 3 to cut Dallas' lead down to 79-73 with 8:20 left. C Robinson got 2 up close and Tarpley converted the 3-point play. George McCloud hit a jumper and Dallas led 84-75 with 7:10 to go. C Robinson hit another 3. Kidd drove for 2. Kidd fed Lorenzo for 2. Dallas 88-78 with 6:10 left. C Robinson hit another 3 and Grant got a slam. Kersey got a slam on the break to cut Dallas' lead to just 88-85 with 4:20 left. Mashburn made 2 free throws and Lorenzo got a putback. Dallas 92-85 with 2:25 left. C Robinson missed 2 free throws and Mashburn made 1 of 2 free throws. The teams traded baskets and Kersey made 1 of 2 free throws. Dallas 95-88 with 1:25 to go. Kidd missed 2 free throws. Kersey drove for 2. Harris made 1 of 2 free throws. Dallas 96-90 with 1:09 left. Harris made 1 of 2 free throws, but McCloud rebounded the miss and was fouled. McCloud made both free throws. 3 more free throws closed out the game for Dallas. Dallas 102, Portland 90. Quotes Dick Motta: "We just have great resolve. They're basically young enough that they don't know the difference." Motta: "This was a good win for us. I think it's been good for us to be in the playoff race. In reality we all know it's going to be difficult to get ahead of two teams with only a week left to play, but the fact that we still have that chance has given us a real incentive during this last couple of weeks." Jason Kidd on his left shoulder that was re-aggravated by a hard foul by Otis Thorpe: "It's killing me. I can't raise my shoulder. We'll see about [Sunday]. It was just getting better too." Kidd: "We came out with a lot of energy tonight and took it to them. They've beaten us good a couple of times this year and we wanted to prove that we can play with them." Kidd: "But getting 35 [wins], that makes the pain go away. Everybody must have laughed at me when I said that. I mean, not out loud, but they must have thought I was crazy." Jamal Mashburn on his sore back: "I just had to get unwound. [My back] was hurting pretty bad. I wasn't going to play, but I felt this was one we could probably get." Clifford Robinson: "We're just trying to get ready for the playoffs. It looks as though no matter what we do we're locked in to that seven spot. And so we just gotta be ready when the playoff bell rings." 1 2 3 4 Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 27 22 23 30 - 102 .536 .421 .507 .563 Portland 17 23 26 24 - 90 .434 .417 .432 .474 Halftime: Dallas 49-40 3rd Q: Dallas 72-66 Dallas' largest lead: 79-66 10:10 4th Lead changes: none Technicals: Jerome Kersey 2:44 2nd Refs: Joe deRosa, Dan Crawford, Sean Corbin Attendance: 12,888 (sell-out) Dallas Reb Player Min FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA Pts O-T Ast TO F Stl Blk Jamal Mashburn 38 10-19 4-7 5-8 29 1-5 5 7 3 1 0 Popeye Jones 29 6-9 0-0 0-0 12 3-10 1 2 3 1 0 Lorenzo Williams 39 4-5 0-0 0-3 8 2-10 0 0 5 0 2 Jason Kidd 34 3-10 1-5 2-6 9 1-3 10 3 3 2 0 Lucious Harris 25 3-8 2-2 2-5 10 1-4 1 1 1 0 0 Roy Tarpley 26 8-11 0-1 4-5 20 2-10 0 4 4 1 0 Scott Brooks 14 1-3 0-1 0-0 2 1-2 4 1 0 0 0 George McCloud 17 2-3 0-0 5-6 9 1-4 0 1 0 0 0 Tony Dumas 16 1-7 1-3 0-0 3 0-0 1 1 1 0 1 Donald Hodge 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Doug Smith 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 240 38-75 8-19 18-33 102 12-48 22 20 20 5 3 Portland Reb Player Min FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA Pts O-T Ast TO F Stl Blk Clifford Robinson 38 10-17 4-6 1-4 25 2-7 2 2 5 1 0 Buck Williams 29 3-6 0-0 0-0 6 1-7 0 2 1 0 1 Chris Dudley 25 2-6 0-0 0-4 4 4-7 0 0 3 0 1 Aaron McKie 10 0-2 0-0 1-2 1 0-1 1 1 1 0 0 Terry Porter 20 1-4 0-3 0-0 2 0-2 6 1 4 1 0 Harvey Grant 38 8-15 0-0 4-4 20 2-4 4 0 2 3 2 Otis Thorpe 31 9-17 0-0 2-3 20 1-6 1 1 5 1 0 Rod Strickland 29 2-13 1-3 0-0 5 1-1 8 1 4 0 0 Jerome Kersey 20 3-8 0-0 1-2 7 0-3 3 1 3 0 0 Totals 240 38-88 5-12 9-19 90 11-38 25 9 28 6 4 Dallas at LA Lakers (April 16) (Game notes taken from wire reports.) Sedale Threatt strained abdominal muscle DNP. Dallas led 30-26 after 1. Jamal Mashburn had 13 points. Dallas was up by 5 at 56-51 late in the 2nd quarter. The Lakers closed the quarter with a 9-0 run, including 3-pointers by Eddie Jones and Vlade Divac. The Lakers led 60-56 at halftime. Dallas cut the Lakers' lead down to 70-67 with 7:07 left. The Lakers then went on a 25-16 run, including 7 points by Cedric Ceballos. After 3, the Lakers 95-83. Dallas missed 6 free throws in the quarter and missed their last 3 field goal attempts. Ceballos continued his hot hand and scored 6 of the Lakers first 10 points of the 4th. The Lakers were up 105-90 with 9:19 remaining. The Lakers built a 17 point lead with 3:38 left and won the game 125-111. Quotes Cedric Ceballos: "It's crunch time now. We did a great rebounding job tonight. If Dallas goes to the hole, they usually send three of four guys. If they don't get the rebound, you make them pay for it at the other end. We are a quicker team and more athletic. They don't have a lot of athletes." Del Harris: "We played a very good second half. We rebounded with them on even terms in the second half, which was my biggest concern for the game. We're the number 26 rebounding team playing against the number 2 team." Dick Motta: "We had trouble defending everything. We had trouble making our free throws too. We had trouble getting back when they made a basket. We're on a hellacious schedule now. We've had five games in seven games now we'll have six games in nine days." Jason Kidd: "We let them get away from us in the fourth. We couldn't come back from that lead. Their inside game really hurt us. We had a long trip, with back-to-back games in Portland and here tonight." Popeye Jones: "We knew that they were going to run. We did a terrible job of getting back on defense. They ran the floor very well, with Nick Van Exel pushing the ball." 1 2 3 4 Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Team Reb LA Lakers 26 34 35 30 - 125 .589 .400 .557 .618 9 Dallas 30 26 27 28 - 111 .487 .368 .463 .571 11 Technicals: LA Lakers - Illegal Defense. Officials: Hue Hollins, George Toliver, Tommy Nunez A: 17,505. T: 2:03. LA Lakers Reb Player Min FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA Pts O-T Ast TO F Stl Blk Elden Campbell 33 9-17 0-0 0-1 18 1-5 1 3 1 0 2 Cedric Ceballos 35 13-21 2-5 5-9 33 3-8 4 3 1 4 0 Vlade Divac 38 9-12 1-1 4-6 23 4-13 9 3 2 4 4 Eddie Jones 39 9-14 1-2 7-10 26 3-8 2 3 4 0 0 Nick Van Exel 35 3-9 1-4 1-2 8 0-3 14 2 1 2 0 Sam Bowie 16 2-2 0-0 0-0 4 1-3 2 1 0 0 3 George Lynch 13 3-5 0-1 2-2 8 1-2 0 4 0 0 0 Tony Smith 13 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0-1 2 2 0 2 1 Anthony Peeler 8 1-2 1-1 1-2 4 0-0 1 0 0 0 0 Anthony Miller 8 0-2 0-0 1-2 1 0-1 0 0 0 0 0 Antonio Harvey 2 0-3 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 1 0 0 0 Totals 240 49-88 6-15 21-34 125 13-44 35 22 9 12 10 Dallas Reb Player Min FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA Pts O-T Ast TO F Stl Blk Popeye Jones 28 4-11 0-0 2-6 10 4-8 2 5 0 1 1 Jamal Mashburn 32 9-19 2-6 6-8 26 1-2 4 1 0 3 0 Lorenzo Williams 25 2-4 0-0 0-0 4 2-5 2 4 1 0 1 Lucious Harris 28 5-10 2-3 2-2 14 2-4 2 2 1 5 0 Jason Kidd 32 2-8 2-4 2-4 8 2-4 9 2 1 6 0 Roy Tarpley 30 10-17 0-1 0-2 20 6-18 0 3 2 3 1 Scott Brooks 16 1-5 0-2 0-0 2 0-0 5 2 1 0 0 Tony Dumas 15 0-4 0-1 0-0 0 0-1 4 1 0 1 0 George McCloud 19 7-9 1-2 1-2 16 4-5 2 3 0 1 0 Doug Smith 13 4-6 0-0 0-0 8 1-4 0 3 0 0 1 Donald Hodge 2 0-2 0-0 3-4 3 0-0 1 0 0 0 0 Totals 240 44-95 7-19 16-28 111 22-51 31 26 6 20 4 The race for 8th: Denver (38-40) lost to San Antonio last night. Sacramento (37-41) is 1 game behind Denver for the last playoff spot in the Western Conference. The magic number for Dallas (35-43) is 1 [either a Denver win or a Dallas loss knock Dallas out of the playoffs]. If the lottery were to occur today, Dallas would get the 12th draft pick and the 22nd draft pick (New York's). patricia