Gary Trent missed the Minnesota game with a bruised right knee. Under concerns that he had a stress fracture, Vernon Maxwell underwent a bone scan on his ankle that came back negative. Tests did show that Maxwell has a hot spot on the ankle. A hot spot is a weakened area that could develop into a stress fracture. Maxwell played limited minutes in the Minnesota game. Minnesota at Dallas (March 15) The Mavs started out red hot shooting 7-8 FG - and even got the offensive rebound off the one miss and then a jumper - and took an early 16-5 lead with 8:40 left. Minnesota scored 2 buckets and then Dallas rattled off the next 12 points, including 8 points from Dirk Nowitzki, to go up 28-9 with 2:35 remaining. Dallas led 33-16 after . Nowitzki had 12 points. Dallas shot 12-21 FG and Minnesota shot 6-24 FG. Dallas led in the teens the entire 2nd quarter. Minnesota pulled within 10 points at 35-45 with 2:40 to go, but Dallas scored the last 5 points of the quarter. Dallas led 50-35 at the half. The missing man returned for Dallas as Howard Eisley had 9 points on 3 3-pointers in the 2nd quarter. Kevin Garnett was trying to carry Minnesota with 13 points in the quarter, but wasn't getting any help as only 2 other Timberwolves scored in the quarter (6 points). Dallas led semi-comfortably by 16 to 21 points the entire 3rd quarter. Dallas led 75-54 after 3. It was Michael Finley's turn to shine as he had 11 points in the quarter. Minnesota got as close as 68-81 with 7 minutes remaining, but Dallas responded with a 12-2 run put the game away at 93-70 with 4 minutes left. Eduardo Najera made his first career 3-pointer for the final points of the game. Dallas won 103-83. Wow. I didn't expect this big of a win. This was the Mavs 4th straight blowout - and Minnesota is currently a playoff team. Despite the Mavs leading in the teens or more from 2 minutes left in the half on, it was a tough game until the Mavs' final run. The Mavs stepped on Minnesota early and never let them back in the game. And they did it playing a tight rotation - basically only 7 players [Vernon Maxwell made his first court apprarence with less than a second left in the 3rd]. A different Mav lead the way in each quarter and Minnesota only had Kevin Garnett trying to carry them - he got no help. Garnett finished with 28 points on 8-23 FG and 12-17 FT and 16 rebounds. The only other 'wolf in double digits was Felipe Lopez with 15 points. The Mavs out-rebounded Minnesota 52-44 and had 3 players with double-doubles. Michael Finley had 22 points and 10 rebounds, Dirk Nowitzki had 14 points including 5-15 FG and 14 rebounds, and Shawn Bradley had 11 points and 13 rebounds. Dallas has out-rebounded their opponent in 4 of the last 5 games, with the 5th game being equal on the boards. Steve Nash chipped in 18 points and 7 assists, but 5 turnovers. Hopefully as a sign that his slump is over, Howard Eisley re-emerged with 16 points including 5-5 FG and 4-4 3-pointers - and some of those came at key points. Juwan Howard was the 6th (yes, 6th) Mav in double-digits with 10 points on a poor 3-10 FG. He did have the scary moment of the night. Howard was going to the basket on the break and LaPhonso Ellis took him down (the take down wasn't intentional - Ellis is one of the real good guys and he made sure Howard was okay) and Howard went down hard. Fortunately, he was okay. Ellis was called for a flagrant foul. Quotes Don Nelson: "I didn't expect a 20 point win, and I didn't expect to keep a lead like that the whole game. I think we owe this game to scheduling in the NBA. They had a really tough game in San Antonio last night, and they lost that in overtime, and they didn't have a lot of energy for tonight's game. I feel that they gave a great effort for what they had left in the tank, but we just were a little lucky [that they were] playing on a back-to-back." Nelson: "We have to continue to play well and play a little better than we did for a couple of quarters tonight. We were definitely playing pretty well together, and the coach is pretty happy." Nelson: "We're very difficult to play right now. We're difficult to defend." Nelson: "Welcome back Eisley. He's really been struggling here. It's good to have him get some confidence back and make some shots." Michael Finley: "I've always had high expectations for this team. I'm not shocked at where we are right now." Dirk Nowitzki: "They had a tough game yesterday and we knew that. We watched parts of it, so we knew we had to come out early and try to put the game behind us. And that's what we did." Steve Nash: "I think it was a little bit of both. We played well and they may have been tired. But you have to take advantage of that. That's the way the league goes." Juwan Howard: "This was a big step for us. We want to continue to win and keep creeping up." Howard on the flagrant foul: "That's the way it's going to be in the playoffs. Each game is going to get tougher, and tonight was a prime example of that." Shawn Bradley: "I love this time of year. I love that we're pushing toward the playoffs." Flip Saunders: "We didn't really give ourselves a chance. They came out and jumped on us. The last 3 times we've faced them, we've been down 15 or 18 after the 1st quarter and we've been playing catchup. We're not a great team as far as playing catchup." Saunders: "If you're going to feel sorry for yourselves, you shouldn't play in this league. We never gave ourselves a chance. ... We just didn't have the juice that we needed to compete against a team at this level." Saunders: "KG played as hard as I've seen him play both offensively and defensively." Saunders: "I'm not worried about Houston [just behind Minnesota in the standings], I'm worried about us. If you lose your way into the playoffs, you're not going to be there very long. The idea is not to be in 'em, the idea is to win. So when you've got 16 games to go, you want to be playing well." Kevin Garnett: "You can't say anything about playing last night - everybody has to do it. You've got to have the mindset of leaving it out there. We can't keep getting blasted by 20." Garnett: "The last 2 times we played these guys, we got blasted by 20. I hope I'm not the only one in here that feels like that. We've got these guys 2 more times. It's getting to the point where we've got to set some kind of tone." Garnett: "Dallas didn't care that we played last night; why should we care? We have to win back-to-backs. We have to have a sense of urgency that these games are very, very important. We can't go out and get blasted like this." Garnett: "We came out slow and we never recovered from that." Dallas Mavericks 103, Minnesota Timberwolves 83 at Dallas (March 15) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 33 17 25 28 - 103 .397 .667 .449 .793 Minnesota 16 19 19 29 - 83 .380 .214 .353 .690 Halftime: Dallas 50-35 3rd Q: Dallas 75-54 Technicals: Shawn Bradley 5:32 2nd, Minnesota Illegal D 5:59 4th Flagrant Fouls: LaPhonso Ellis 4:26 3rd Refs: Ronnie Nunn, Ron Olesiak, Dee Kantner Attendance: 17,472 (cap 18,187) Did not play due to injury: Gary Trent (bruised right knee) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Juwan Howard 31 3-10 0-0 4-6 10 1-6 4 5 4 2 2 Dirk Nowitzki 38 5-15 2-4 2-2 14 2-14 2 1 3 2 1 Shawn Bradley 35 4-9 0-0 3-3 11 2-13 0 1 2 1 3 Michael Finley 44 10-21 1-3 1-2 22 2-10 4 1 2 0 0 Steve Nash 34 4-10 2-3 8-8 18 0-2 7 5 0 1 0 Greg Buckner 17 1-3 0-0 2-2 4 1-1 0 0 3 0 0 Howard Eisley 27 5-5 4-4 2-4 16 0-2 1 0 5 0 0 Vernon Maxwell 6 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 0 0 0 0 0 Eduardo Najera 4 2-2 1-1 1-2 6 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Donnell Harvey 2 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 0-2 0 0 0 0 0 Mark Bryant 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1-1 0 0 1 0 0 Totals 48 35-78 10-15 23-29 103 9-52 18 13 20 6 6 Minnesota Timberwolves REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Kevin Garnett 42 8-23 0-2 12-17 28 5-16 0 2 4 1 1 Wally Szczerbiak 34 4-9 0-0 1-1 9 1-2 1 2 1 1 0 Reggie Slater 9 1-5 0-0 1-2 3 1-2 1 0 4 0 0 Terrell Brandon 29 2-6 0-1 0-0 4 0-2 5 1 1 1 1 Anthony Peeler 29 4-11 1-4 0-0 9 0-0 1 2 1 2 0 Dean Garrett 3 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Sam Mitchell 14 1-5 0-0 0-0 2 2-4 0 0 2 2 0 LaPhonso Ellis 29 1-7 0-1 0-0 2 1-8 2 0 3 1 1 Chauncey Billups 19 0-2 0-1 2-2 2 0-3 4 2 3 0 1 Felipe Lopez 21 6-13 1-3 2-5 15 2-5 1 1 5 1 0 Radoslav Nesterovic 6 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 2-2 0 0 1 0 0 William Avery 5 2-3 1-2 2-2 7 0-0 1 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 30-85 3-14 20-29 83 14-44 16 10 25 9 4 patricia