Dallas at Houston (October 11 - pre-season) (from listening on the radio) Now we know how much Don Nelson cares about a road, first of a back-to-back, pre-season game. Steve Nash did not dress - more of a coach's decision but he did also have a sore left shoulder. Eduardo Najera also DNP-CD. Michael Finley and Shawn Bradley did not play in the 2nd half (and Bradley did not play in the 1st quarter). Dirk Nowitzki only played a little over 2 quarters and sat in the 4th. Tim Hardaway did not play in the 1st half and I don't think he played in the 4th quarter either. Despite the interesting lineups Nelson threw out and the Mavs big names getting little to no minutes, a game was played. Houston was without Maurice Taylor and Glen Rice to legitimate injuries and Marc Jackson couldn't play as he hasn't yet cleared the 15 day waiting period where Golden State can match Houston's contract offer. So Dallas started Khalid El-Amin (who did not play in the Philly game), Finley, Nowitzki, Juwan Howard (only 20 minutes), and Evan Eschmeyer and Houston started Steve Francis, Oscar Torres, Walt Williams, Kenny Thomas, and Kelvin Cato. Houston used a 9-2 run to go up 13-6 with 7 minutes left. Eschmeyer picked up his 4th foul with 4 minutes left in the Dallas foul-fest 1st quarter. Houston led 30-26 after 1. Francis had 11 points, Nowitzki had 10 points and 8 rebounds (after heavy harassment from his teammates for his donut rebounds against Philly), and Finley had 9 points. Rudy Tomjanovich strangely got a T while Houston still had the ball with 9:30 remaining - apparently he said something to the ref. El-Amin made the technical free throw to pull Dallas within 31-34. Houston then rattled off the next 7 points capped by a 3-pointer by Damon Jones to give Houston a 41-31 lead with 8:15 to go. Dallas was proceeding to shoot themselves in the foot by missing 7 free throws in the first quarter and a half of the game. Houston led 58-53 at the half. Francis had 15 points and 8 rebounds, Moochie Norris had 14 points, Finley had 13 points, and El-Amin had 10 points (Nowitzki did not play in the 2nd). Eschmeyer was back in the game for the 2nd half and managed not pick up his 6th foul until 2:30 left in the 4th. A long jumper by Adrian Griffin after an Eschmeyer block briefly gave Dallas a 69-68 lead with 5:30 remaining. Houston answered by scoring the next 9 points to go up 77-73 with 3:35 left, but Dallas closed the quarter with 14 straight points to take a 83-77 lead after 3. Houston pulled within 85-86 with 8:47 to go, but Donnell Harvey thundered down a tomahawk dunk, Greg Buckner nailed a jumper, and El-Amin hit a 3-pointer to give Dallas a 93-85 lead with 7:27 remaining. Dallas was in the penalty early with 7 minutes left, but Houston was not able to capitalize. 4 quick points after Houston misses gave Dallas a 99-89 lead with 5:18 to go. Dallas led 107-101 with 1:30 left and Williams drained a 3-pointer to make the ending a little exciting. Houston stole the ball and Terence Morris got a layup on the break to cut Dallas' lead down to 107-106 with 50 seconds left. But Danny Manning tipped in a miss with 40 seconds left. The teams traded 1-2 free throw shooting and Dallas led 110-107 with 19 seconds remaining. El-Amin stole the ball and Buckner got the layup on the break. Francis nailed a quick 3, but Houston stupidly fouled with 6.4 seconds left before the ball was inbounded - that meant one free throw and Dallas retaining the ball. El-Amin made the free throw and was fouled after the inbound and made 2 more free throws to cap the scoring. Dallas won 115-110. If felt sorry for Houston. Loosing to a team that was throwing lineups out like Dallas was had to be a little bit embarrassing, even if it was just a pre-season game. I also felt sorry for the almost 9,000 people who paid to see this game. The Mavs dominated the rebounds with 48 rebounds including 18 offensive compared to Houston's 36 rebounds and 9 offensive. The Mavs improved their turnovers and only had 14 (guess the key is to play without a point guard :) ). Dirk Nowitzki was a monster in the limited minutes he played (26) with 18 points and 16 rebounds - half of which were offensive. Khalid El-Amin played well with 23 points including 8-11 FG and "led" the team with 4 assists. He and Greg Buckner played the most minutes with 31 minutes. Buckner also played well with 16 points and 3 steals. For Houston, Steve Francis was the man with 34 points including 7-10 FT and 10 rebounds and Walt Williams chipped in 22 points and 6 rebounds. Quotes (not many out there) Dirk Nowitzki on his high number of rebounds: "Sometimes the ball just bounces your way." Khalid El-Amin: "I felt very comfortable in this offense. And I felt like I got stronger as the game went on." Greg Buckner on Dallas' sometimes point guardless lineups: "I don't think many other teams can do that. Maybe the Lakers." Dallas Mavericks 115, Houston Rockets 110 at Houston (October 11) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 26 27 30 32 - 115 .500 .267 .463 .697 Houston 30 28 19 33 - 110 .481 .400 .456 .757 Halftime: Houston 58-53 3rd Q: Dallas 83-77 Technical fouls: Dallas Defensive 3 sec 7:33 1st, Nwankwo, 11:01 2nd, Tomjanovich, 9:32 2nd Dallas Defensive 3 sec 7:54 2nd, Dallas Defensive 3 sec 9:11 3rd, Dallas Defensive 3 sec 3:50 3rd Flagrant fouls: Cato, 1:07 2nd Refs: Joe Forte, Mike Mathis, Ed Malloy Attendance: 8,892 (cap 16,285) Did not play due to injury: Walt Williams, Ruben Wolkowyski [Steve Nash did not dress at coach's decision and other Mavs placed limited minutes due to coach's decision - no injuries] Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Juwan Howard 20 4-12 0-0 0-0 8 1-2 0 1 2 0 0 Dirk Nowitzki 26 6-12 1-2 5-7 18 8-16 2 4 3 0 1 Evan Eschmeyer 31 1-5 0-0 5-6 7 2-6 3 0 6 1 2 Khalid El-Amin 27 8-11 1-3 6-8 23 0-1 4 2 2 0 0 Michael Finley 21 6-12 1-3 0-2 13 0-2 2 2 1 0 0 Greg Buckner 31 8-14 0-1 0-2 16 0-3 1 1 3 3 0 Adrian Griffin 22 4-8 0-1 0-0 8 0-3 0 2 3 2 0 Danny Manning 24 3-7 0-0 5-6 11 3-4 2 0 5 2 0 Shawn Bradley 10 0-4 0-0 2-2 2 2-3 0 1 2 0 1 Tim Hardaway 12 2-6 1-5 0-0 5 0-2 2 1 2 1 0 Donnell Harvey 16 2-4 0-0 0-0 4 2-6 0 0 3 0 0 Totals 48 44-95 4-15 23-33 115 18-48 16 14 32 9 4 Houston Rockets REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Kenny Thomas 23 0-3 0-0 2-2 2 0-4 1 2 5 1 1 Walt Williams 35 7-16 3-6 5-7 22 3-6 4 4 3 0 0 Kelvin Cato 30 3-7 0-0 5-6 11 0-4 0 2 6 0 2 Steve Francis 39 12-23 3-5 7-10 34 2-10 3 2 3 2 1 Oscar Torres 23 3-5 1-2 1-2 8 1-2 1 0 2 0 1 Terence Morris 22 1-3 0-2 2-2 4 2-4 2 1 2 0 0 Ike Nwankwo 17 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 0-3 0 0 1 0 1 Moochie Norris 32 5-10 1-3 5-7 16 1-2 9 4 3 3 0 Damon Jones 15 4-8 2-6 1-1 11 0-0 0 0 0 1 0 Tierre Brown 4 0-2 0-1 0-0 0 0-1 2 1 0 0 0 Totals 48 36-79 10-25 28-37 110 9-36 22 18 25 7 6 patricia