Dallas finished the season with a record of 53-29. That nets them the 5th spot in the playoffs and a matchup with Utah in the first round. The first game is Saturday, the second game is Tuesday, and the third game (in Reunion) isn't until the following Saturday. The Mavs have decided to travel home after the first game instead of staying in Salt Lake City between games 1 and 2. The schedule for the series: Game 1 April 21 Saturday Dallas at Utah 2:00 pm NBC Game 2 April 24 Tuesday Dallas at Utah 9:30 pm TNT Game 3 April 28 Saturday Utah at Dallas 2:00 pm NBC *Game 4 May 1 Tuesday Utah at Dallas TBA *Game 5 May 3 Thursday Dallas at Utah TBA *if necessary Quotes on the series vs Utah Don Nelson: "There are a lot of lessons to start to learn now. It couldn't happen with a better team because they are teachers. You have to beat Utah. You have to play well. You have to find ways to maneuver around all of their idiosyncrasies. It's going to be veterans playing against rookies - very talented rookies, really. It is our first smell of the playoffs and they have been there so many times. They are going to have an advantage over us. We are really going to have to play well." Michael Finley: "I think we match up well with Utah. We've had some good games against them. More importantly, we've beaten them. More importantly than that, we've beaten them on their home court. That's some positives going in for us. We just have to remember that and go in with that mentality." Finley: "Don't confuse [confidence] with overconfidence. Our confidence comes from beating them twice on their home floor." Malone after beating the Clippers to clinch #4: "But that's only half of it. Now we'll have to get ready for a very, very talented Dallas Mavericks team." Malone on what Utah needs to do vs Dallas: "Hopefully, we'll go into the series thinking we aren't going to get into a track meet with them. Make them play us and back them down and try to take the ball inside. Make it tough going to the basket. They're a dangerous team and a very talented team." Some random team records that the Mavs set this season Most road wins in a season: 25 [old: 20] Longest road winning streak: 7 12/15/00 - 1/10/01 [old: 5] Dirk Nowitzki made 3 4-point plays [only 13 prior in team history with Dirk already having 2 last season] Steve Nash has the highest FT% in a Mavs career at .884 [old: .857] Shawn Bradley upped his Mavs career block total to 879 [2nd most is 615] Shawn Bradley's 228 blocks in 00-01 bested the team's pervious high for blocks in a season (214 in 97-98, also by Bradley) Dallas had 492 blocked shots in 2000-01 [old: 476] Dirk Nowitzki's 635 defensive rebounds were the 2nd most in a season (highest 678 in 86-87 by Donaldson) Dallas had 2,579 defensive rebounds in 2000-01 [old: 2,495] but only 831 offensive rebounds [old: 931 (excluding 98-99 where only 50 games)] Finley's 51 minutes without a turnover 4/13/01 tied the team record Only 1 triple-double this season and an ugly one at that with Finley's 13 points, 13 rebounds, and 10 assists 12/2/00 at Golden State No opponent had a triple-double Finley had 10 steals in a game [old: 9], 8 in a half [old: 6], and 5 in a quarter [tied] 1/23/01 vs Philadelphia Finley added 5 more complete games to his already ridiculous 23 times playing all 48 with Dallas Finley also tied the record for minutes in a double-overtime game with 57 Finley upped his team record of consecutive games played to 331 and consecutive starts to 352 The Dal-Por game 12/20/00 was a tech fest with 12 technicals [old: 11] and only 1 of those was for illegal defense Shaquille O'Neal attempted 71 free throws in only 4 games vs Dallas [old: 68 by Adrian Dantley in 6 games] - but only made 39 of them Steve Smith did the opposite by hitting all 19 free throws he attempted And the Clippers only shot 39.4% FT (13-33) 11/13/00 Minnesota at Dallas (April 18) It was a completely mean-nothing game and Minnesota took it a step further by placing Kevin Garnett on IR prior to the game with an "injury". This game would have no affect on the playoff positions and both teams started out playing without much effort. With Dallas' talent on the court was superior to Minnesota's and Dallas took a 23-15 lead with 4 minutes left in the 1st quarter and pushed it up to 34-18 with 1:35 remaining as Dallas made 5 consecutives shots. Dallas led 39-22 after 1. Michael Finley had 14 points. Dallas shot 17-26 FG and Minnesota shot 9-26 FG. Dallas led in the teens the entire 2nd quarter as the bench players for both times saw lots of playing time. Dallas led 63-50 at the half. Dallas led 65-52 with 10:30 left in the 3rd quarter and made the game a complete blowout by going on a 20-5 run to go up 86-57 with 5 minutes to go. Dallas led 96-67 after 3. Dallas shot 14-22 FG and Minnesota shot 8-22 FG as Dallas out-scored Minnesota 33-17 in the 3rd. Dallas led in the high 20s and low 30s for most of the 4th. Minnesota scored the last 12 points of the game to make the final score closer than the game was. Dallas won 120-100. It was a mean-nothing game Dallas took care of it early and Minnesota never showed life without their leader. Dallas shot 54.9% (50-91) FG and Minnesota shot only 41.1% (39-95) FG. All available Mavs players played and all scored. Dallas had 6 players in double-digits. Michael Finley led the way with 24 points including 10-14 FG, 6 rebounds, and 7 assists in only 28 minutes. Dirk Nowitzki was the high minute man with 29 minutes and had 15 points and 8 rebounds. Chauncey Billups was the high man for Minnesota with 21 points, but 16 of those came in the 4th quarter. Felipe Lopez was the only player (both teams) with a double-double with 18 points including 7-11 FG and 10 rebounds. Thus ends the 2000-01 regular season for Dallas. The playoffs are coming! Quotes Don Nelson: "This was just a fitting last ballgame. This couldn't happen to a better bunch of guys. We're a pretty tough team, and I'm real proud of that team and what they accomplished this year. 53 wins. Who would ever have thought this team would win 53 games at the beginning, especially in the West?" Nelson: It's one that I wanted [to win], but I wasn't going to overemphasize this game. But I told the team I'd like to win it if possible. It worked out just like I had hoped." Greg Buckner: "We ended Reunion with a bang. The game was meaningless, but we wanted to win." [This is the last season at Reunion Arena.] Flip Saunders: "For the last week, every practice has been geared toward working on stuff for San Antonio, offensively and defensively. Maybe the reason we've played the way we have lately is [that] my emphasis has not been on playing Houston or Dallas. It wasn't important for me to drive our guys so hard, because we had to drive two weeks ago when it looked like we might not make the playoffs." Felipe Lopez: "Obviously, this was not the real Timberwolves team." Dallas Mavericks 120, Minnesota Timberwolves 100 at Dallas (April 18) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 39 24 33 24 - 120 .608 .294 .549 .750 Minnesota 22 28 17 33 - 100 .405 .455 .411 .654 Halftime: Dallas 63-50 3rd Q: Dallas 96-67 Technicals: Tom Hammonds 2:28 4th Refs: Bennett Salvatore, Derrick Stafford, Monty McCutchen Attendance: 18,187 (sellout) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Juwan Howard 25 6-9 0-1 1-1 13 0-4 6 2 3 0 0 Dirk Nowitzki 29 5-10 1-3 4-4 15 1-8 3 1 1 2 4 Calvin Booth 17 6-11 0-0 0-0 12 1-7 1 0 1 0 3 Michael Finley 28 10-14 3-4 1-2 24 1-6 7 1 2 3 1 Steve Nash 23 6-9 1-3 0-0 13 0-2 7 2 2 0 0 Howard Eisley 25 3-4 0-1 0-0 6 0-2 4 0 2 1 0 Shawn Bradley 10 1-2 0-0 2-2 4 0-1 0 1 1 0 0 Eduardo Najera 22 4-9 0-1 0-0 8 3-7 3 1 2 1 1 Vernon Maxwell 20 0-6 0-3 1-1 1 0-3 2 3 1 0 0 Wang Zhizhi 17 5-10 0-1 3-4 13 0-3 0 0 2 0 0 Donnell Harvey 7 2-2 0-0 1-2 5 0-1 0 3 3 0 0 Mark Bryant 17 2-5 0-0 2-4 6 0-1 0 0 3 1 0 Totals 48 50-91 5-17 15-20 120 6-45 33 14 23 8 9 Minnesota Timberwolves REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Sam Mitchell 20 2-6 0-0 0-2 4 1-3 1 1 0 0 0 Wally Szczerbiak 23 4-10 0-0 3-3 11 0-4 2 1 1 1 1 Dean Garrett 15 3-7 0-0 2-3 8 2-3 0 0 0 1 1 Terrell Brandon 10 1-6 0-0 2-2 4 0-2 2 1 0 1 0 Anthony Peeler 21 2-6 0-0 0-0 4 0-0 1 1 1 1 0 LaPhonso Ellis 28 2-7 0-0 4-6 8 3-7 3 0 3 0 0 William Avery 23 1-11 0-5 0-0 2 0-2 8 0 0 0 0 Felipe Lopez 27 7-11 2-2 2-4 18 3-10 2 2 0 2 0 Radoslav Nesterovic 24 5-11 0-0 2-4 12 3-8 2 0 3 0 0 Reggie Slater 14 2-2 0-0 0-0 4 0-6 0 3 2 0 0 Tom Hammond 16 2-5 0-0 0-0 4 2-2 0 3 6 0 0 Chauncey Billups 19 8-13 3-4 2-2 21 0-1 2 0 1 1 0 Totals 48 39-95 5-11 17-26 100 14-48 23 14 17 7 2 patricia Go Mavs!