There is a brain in Minnesota: New owner Glen Taylor nixed future Timberwolves GM Kevin McHale's idea to hire Quinn Buckner as Director of Player Personnel. Taylor had heard too many horror stories about Buckner's lack of people skills while in Dallas last season. Jason Kidd was named as Rookie of the Month for March. Dallas was 10-6 during March, despite Jim Jackson's absence. Jason averaged 16.1 points, 7.6 assists, 4.3 rebounds and 1.4 steals during March. Jim Jackson needs just 91 more points to qualify for the league's final season rankings. As for his return, it is still not known when it will be. Jimmy practiced with the team on Tuesday, but had some minor swelling in the ankle afterwards. He is still on IR, but there is still a chance he will be activated for this weekend's games. LA Lakers at Dallas (April 5) Roy Tarpley did not play due to the flu. Cedric Ceballos played, but was recovering from food poisoning (and did not play well). 1st: Dallas started the game well and built up at 13-6 lead. Eddie Jones hit a 3-pointer to bring the Lakers within 15-11. Jamal Mashburn scored the next 4 points and Dallas had shot 9-10 FG. Dallas 19-11 with 7:03 left. Lorenzo Williams scored 2 and Mashburn added 2 free throws to give Dallas a 25-11 lead with about 4 minutes remaining. Dallas was up 29-16 when the Lakers closed the quarter with a 9-2 run. After 1, Dallas 31-25. Dallas was shooting 54% FG and had out- scored the Lakers 22-8 in the paint. 2nd: E Jones continued the Laker's run by scoring the first 5 points of the quarter. Tony Dumas hit a short jumper and the teams traded points for a while. Dallas was up 39-38 with 8 minutes left when George McCloud hit a 3-pointers. E Jones answered with a slam and Nick Van Exel hit 2 free throws to tie the game at 42-42. The game was tied at 44-44 with about 6 minutes to go. Jason Kidd hit a 3-pointer with 4:20 remaining to give Dallas a 52-48 lead. The game continued to remain close as Dallas led 53-51 with 3:20 to go and at 56-55 after a 3-pointer by Van Exel. Elden Campbell hit a hook shot to give the Lakers a brief lead at 57-56 with 1:40 remaining. Mashburn got the reverse lay up and Kidd fed Mashburn for the lay up. The teams traded points and Van Exel tied the game with a 3-pointer. At the half, 62-62. Both teams were shooting about 50% FG. Dallas shot 6-8 FT and the Lakers shot 14-15 FT. Dallas was out-rebounding the Lakers by 8. Mashburn had 20 points, Kidd had 11 points, 6 assists, and 5 rebounds, and McCloud had 5 points. E Jones had 18 points including 7-8 FG, Van Exel had 14 points, and Campbell had 8 points. (2nd half notes a little more sketchy since the annoying buzz returned to the radio and I had difficulty understanding much of what was being said.) 3rd: Kidd scored the first 4 points of the quarter. Van Exel hit a 3-pointer and Lucious Harris drove for 2. Dallas was up 68-65 with 9:30 left. The teams traded points and Dallas scored the next 4 points. Dallas 74-67 with 8:08 remaining. The game stayed relatively the same over the next few minutes and Dallas was up 78-73 with about 5 minutes left. The Mavs were leading 85-79 when they went on a 7-0 run, including 4 points from Lorenzo, to close the quarter. After 3, Dallas 92-79. 4th: Dallas was still by 13 at 98-85 with 8:44 left. The teams traded points. Then Dallas went on a 11-4 run to go up 111-91 with about 6 minutes remaining. The Lakers scored the next 4 points, but Mashburn drove for the jam. Dallas was up at 116-97. Sedale Threatt scored the next 4 points, but Mashburn again responded with a slam off a feed from Kidd with less than 4 minutes remaining. The assist gave Kidd his first triple-double. The Lakers were not able to make any more dents into Dallas' lead. Kidd sat with just under 2 minutes remaining. Dallas won 130-111. Dallas just dominated the boards out-rebounding the Lakers 58-37. Jason Kidd became the 5th Maverick to have a triple-double with 19 points, 12 assists, and 10 rebounds. He was the first rookie this season to do so. He joins Mark Aguirre (twice), Detlef Schrempf, and Rodney McCray as Mavs who have had triple-doubles. Jamal Mashburn led the Mavs in scoring with 32 points and had 8 rebounds. Lorenzo Williams had a career high 19 points (previous high was 11 points) on 9-12 FG and 1-2 FT (he made a free throw! yeah!) and had 15 rebounds and 3 blocks. Way to go Lo! George McCloud again had a strong 4th quarter with 13 points. He had 18 points for the game including 4-6 3-pointers in 20 minutes. Lucious Harris contributed 16 points and Popeye Jones had another double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Nick Van Exel led the way for the Lakers with 24 points including 4-8 3-pointers. Eddie Jones had a great 1st half, but only had 4 points on 2-5 FG in the 2nd half. He finished with 22 points including 9-13 FG. Sedale Threatt contributed 16 points and Vlade Divac had 10 points and 10 rebounds. The win snapped an 8 game losing streak against the Lakers. And the Mavs have now won 10 of their last 13 games. The loss ended the Lakers' 3 game winning streak, but the Lakers did play in Denver the previous night. Quotes: Jason Kidd: "I never want anyone to tell me what my stats are during a game. I knew I was close, but I didn't want to think about it. The important thing is that we learn now to keep a lead and not let teams back into games." Kidd on his neck injury: "I felt comfortable, but at times when I was sitting or standing straight up, my neck bothered me. I definitely wanted to come out and get a chance to perform. The whole team played well." Kidd on the playoff race: "It's still in the air. But even if we don't make it, we've still had a good season." Dick Motta: "I wasn't going to take him out until he got [the triple- double]. I took him out earlier in the season when he was close to getting one and he fell short. This doesn't hurt his chances for rookie of the year and Jason also had a lot of help out there tonight." Motta: "I'm not into stats too much but they were swarming all over me and I wasn't going to take Kidd out until he got it this time. He was rookie of the month and then a triple-double and it doesn't hurt his chances for rookie of the year." (Motta recently started a small campaign for Kidd getting Rookie of the Year.) Motta on Kidd: ""I think that he is a player that can take over a game for minutes at a time even in the NBA. Tonight he had it all going, even his three-point shot was working. Obviously when he gets his shot on a consistent basis, he is going to be an All-Star player every year." Motta: "Any time you have your rebounders like Lorenzo and Popeye cleaning up the boards and not giving up too many second shots you're in good shape." Nick Van Exel on Kidd: "It's hard to stop him when he's coming at you full-speed. You can tell he's playing with a lot of confidence. He's only going to get better." 1 2 3 4 Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 31 31 30 38 - 130 .500 .438 .490 .793 LA Lakers 25 37 17 32 - 111 .458 .400 .446 .808 Halftime: 62-62 3rd Quarter: Dallas 92-79 Technicals: none Refs: Steve Javie, Nolan Fine, Mark Wunderlich Attendance: 17,502 (sell-out) Dallas REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST PF STL TO BLK Jamal Mashburn 37 12-25 0-1 8-11 32 5-8 3 0 2 0 0 Popeye Jones 26 5-8 0-0 2-2 12 5-10 0 2 0 2 0 Lorenzo Williams 35 9-12 0-0 1-2 19 8-15 1 5 0 1 3 Jason Kidd 33 8-16 3-6 0-0 19 2-10 12 2 1 3 0 Lucious Harris 39 5-14 0-3 6-6 16 1-3 4 3 0 1 0 Donald Hodge 13 1-4 0-0 0-0 2 1-2 0 3 0 0 0 Scott Brooks 13 2-4 0-0 0-0 4 0-1 2 0 0 1 1 Doug Smith 17 1-7 0-0 4-4 6 1-5 3 4 1 0 2 Tony Dumas 7 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 0-0 0 1 0 0 0 George McCloud 20 6-11 4-6 2-4 18 4-4 1 1 2 2 0 Totals 240 50-102 7-16 23-29 130 27-58 26 21 6 10 6 LA Lakers REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST PF STL TO BLK Cedric Ceballos 19 1-6 0-1 0-0 2 2-2 0 1 0 1 0 Elden Campbell 26 5-13 0-0 2-5 12 0-2 5 1 1 1 1 Vlade Divac 29 3-6 0-0 4-4 10 3-10 3 3 1 1 0 Nick Van Exel 32 7-15 4-8 6-6 24 0-0 4 3 2 2 1 Eddie Jones 32 9-13 2-3 2-3 22 3-6 2 5 3 2 2 Anthony Peeler 31 3-12 1-4 4-4 11 2-4 3 3 0 2 0 Lloyd Daniels 10 2-4 1-3 0-0 5 0-2 1 3 0 0 0 Sedale Threatt 27 7-14 0-1 2-2 16 1-2 1 2 1 0 2 Anthony Miller 17 2-5 0-0 1-2 5 4-5 1 0 0 2 2 Antonio Harvey 11 2-4 0-0 0-0 4 1-3 0 3 0 0 1 Sam Bowie 6 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 1 0 0 0 0 Totals 240 41-92 8-20 21-26 111 16-37 21 24 8 11 9 The race for 8th: Dallas is now 2 1/2 games behind Sacramento and Denver for the 8th playoff spot. Sacramento and Denver both have a record of 35-37 while Dallas has a record of 32-39. San Antonio plays in Sacramento and Seattle plays in Denver tonight (Thursday). patricia