Good news on Tuesday night - Mark Cuban announced to the crowd prior to the game that Dallas had signed Dirk Nowitzki to a 6 year contract extension. The exact amount of the contract will not be known until next summer when the salary cap for 02-03 is computed - his salary for that season will be 25% of that amount. The extension will be worth over $85 million. He does have an opt-out clause after 05-06. Dirk Nowitzki: "It's a great contract, and I'm very happy with it. Money isn't everything in life, everyone knows that. But it's nice." Nowitzki: "This is a very special day for me. I love playing basketball for the Dallas Mavericks. We have a great organization and great fans. I am very happy that I will continue to play in Dallas." Nowitzki: "There was no question since day one that I would stay here. I love it herae I love Dallas and I love the fans. I feel very comfortable here." Don Nelson: "Dirk started his NBA career as an unknown. In the last 3 seasons, he has developed into one of the finest players in the NBA. This is a proud day for me and the Dallas Mavericks organization to sign him to a contract extension. I am very happy to have Michael Finley, Steve Nash, and Dirk Nowitzki with us for a very long time." Del Harris: "He's just made phenomenal improvement. He's totally dedicated to the game. I remember last year when we'd play a number of games in a short period of time, and Nellie gave us a day off, Dirk said to me, 'I hate days off.'" Greg Buckner did not play in the Orlando game due to a mild sprained ankle he suffered during Monday's practice. Orlando at Dallas (October 23 - pre-season) This was the final pre-season game for Dallas and the 2nd to last pre-season game for Orlando so both teams were taking this game seriously. Orlando was playing without Mike Miller (out for a few weeks) and Tracy McGrady (sore lower back). The Mavs started with what I expect to be their starting lineup for most of the games during the season - Juwan Howard, Dirk Nowitzki, Shawn Bradley, Michael Finley, and Steve Nash. The games stayed pretty close most of the way with Dallas mostly holding single-digit leads. Dallas led 28-20 after 1 and 62-54 at the half. Adrian Griffin again nailed a 3-pointer right before the half ended [not as dramatic as the one in the Clippers game as he was set in the corner and received a nice pass from Tim Hardaway]. Orlando opened the 3rd quarter with a 13-2 run to take a 67-64 lead. The game stayed close in the quarter and Dallas scored the last 6 points of the quarter to go up 85-82 after 3. Dallas came out strong in the 4th quarter as Orlando seemed to faulter as Dallas used a 12-4 run to go up 97-96 with 6:30 remaining. Orlando was not able to rally back and Dallas won 113-104. No question who the player of the game was for Dallas for this game: Adrian Griffin. He was a stud hitting 9-16 and 3-6 3-pointers for 22 points, snagging 9 rebounds, and 2 steals while defending Orlando's best player on the court (often Grant Hill). Speaking of which, no question who was the best player for Orlando: Grant Hill. He was awesome and looked to be back to his old form. His shot was clicking no matter the defense as he had 27 points, 8 rebounds, and 6 assists. The Mavs also need to do better with their defensive rotation as Pat Garrity was given far too many open looks at the basket (and the one thing Garrity can do is hit the open shots). Danny Manning's shot was really clicking as he hit 7-9 FG as part of his 16 points. And a big shocker: Dallas out-rebounded Orlando 50-47 including 15-7 offensive. Michael Finley got in foul trouble and sat most of the 3rd quarter with 5 fouls. Dirk Nowitzki got popped in the mouth a couple of times and took his frustration out on Jeryl Sasser with a hard slash across his arms which resulted (correctly) in a flagrant foul. Speaking of which, the reffing was foul - both ways. It always happens - I point out one of the refs as being one of the better ones in the league (Ed Rush in this case) and the crew goes on to have a terrible night. Don Nelson got ejected in the 3rd quarter after the refs let some hacking go on before finally blowing the whistle - the 2nd T was pretty quick. Doc Rivers would have been ejected with less than a minute left in the game as he was yelling in one of the ref's ear for the entire minute, but the ref decided not to stop play with a T. Oh, and Patrick Ewing is slower than molasses. The game definitely has passed him by. Quotes Donnie Nelson on Adrian Griffin: "He really stepped it up with a huge game." Michael Finley: "Believe it or not, we thought we were a little better than we are. We're not a pretty team that can coast through games. We have to play every game hard." Adrian Griffin: "I don't think I'm great at just one thing. Rodman was a great rebounder. Jordan is a great scorer. Myself, I think I'm just good at a lot of things. That's my main strength on this team." Doc Rivers: "It hasn't been a good pre-season for us. We haven't accomplished a lot of the things we had hoped to get done, and a lot of that is due to injuries. It's frustrating, but there's nothing you can do about it right now." Rivers: "Grant looked great, although he looked tired at the end. That's from being off for so long. He's come back strong. What he lost during the year off, it's coming back." Rivers: "I'm not worried about Tracy. He's been here. But I am concerned about the timing with the other guys on the floor. It doesn't look real good right now because he hasn't played with them. Patrick comes back, then Tracy goes out. Then when Tracy is close, Mike Miller goes out. We've had a rough time of it." Dallas Mavericks 113, Orlando Magic 104 at Dallas (October 23) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 28 34 23 28 - 113 .451 .381 .435 .676 Orlando 20 34 28 22 - 104 .516 .389 .488 .679 Halftime: Dallas 62-54 3rd Q: Dallas 85-82 Technicals: Dallas Illegal D 11:13 2nd Refs: Ed F. Rush, Monty McCutchen, Rodney Mott Attendance: 15,940 (cap 19,200) Did not play due to injury: Greg Buckner, Tracy McGrady Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Juwan Howard 30 3-8 0-0 4-6 10 4-8 3 2 4 0 0 Dirk Nowitzki 30 3-11 2-5 6-8 14 1-6 1 2 5 0 0 Shawn Bradley 25 3-7 0-0 3-4 9 1-7 0 1 2 3 4 Michael Finley 28 5-13 0-1 3-8 13 4-9 4 2 5 0 0 Steve Nash 34 5-13 2-5 3-3 15 0-1 3 2 0 1 0 Tim Hardaway 24 3-12 1-4 2-3 9 0-1 4 1 2 4 0 Danny Manning 23 7-9 0-0 2-2 16 3-6 2 0 1 1 0 Donnell Harvey 9 1-1 0-0 0-1 2 0-3 1 1 1 0 0 Adrian Griffin 32 9-16 3-6 1-1 22 2-9 3 0 5 2 0 Eduardo Najera 5 1-2 0-0 1-1 3 0-0 0 0 1 1 0 Totals 48 40-92 8-21 25-37 113 15-50 21 11 26 12 4 Orlando Magic REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Bo Outlaw 27 5-6 0-0 0-0 10 2-4 1 0 2 2 1 Horace Grant 29 5-9 0-0 4-5 14 0-4 0 0 2 0 0 Patrick Ewing 20 1-3 0-0 5-8 7 1-6 0 3 2 0 0 Grant Hill 39 10-20 1-2 6-8 27 0-8 6 4 2 2 2 Darrell Armstrong 35 4-12 1-5 3-3 12 0-5 3 2 6 0 0 Monty Williams 19 0-4 0-0 0-2 0 3-10 1 0 3 0 0 Pat Garrity 29 5-10 3-7 0-0 13 0-3 3 1 2 0 0 Don Reid 8 2-3 0-0 0-0 4 0-2 0 0 2 0 0 Troy Hudson 20 6-11 2-3 0-0 14 1-3 5 2 2 2 0 Jeryl Sasser 10 1-2 0-1 1-2 3 0-0 1 3 2 0 0 Andrew DeClercq 4 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-2 0 3 4 1 0 Totals 48 39-80 7-18 19-28 104 7-47 20 19 29 7 3 Dallas finished the pre-season with a record of 5-3. The pre-season showed a number of things. Adrian Griffin was a great pick up and will be in the rotation. Besides his defense (which he is known for), he is great at getting the steal and actually has a good shot. First time he threw up a long shot, I was stunned as I didn't think he had a shot. He shot 31-61 FG and had 17 steals in just 26.6 minutes in 8 games. Danny Manning can still shoot. He shot 59.6% FG during pre-season and that shoots up to 67.5% if you take out his one poor game where he shot 1-7 FG. Tim Hardaway is going to drive me nuts with his quick shots. During this game I said "Stop it!" when he threw up his 3rd 3-pointer after just having brought the ball up court - of course, it was also the only 3 he made. He is a good addition to the team, though. Donnell Harvey still can not shot free throws. It looks like he will be on the active roster and will see limited minutes as the 10th man as he can rebound. Greg Buckner is still a tenacious defender, but unfortunately is still injury prone. Evan Eschmeyer is as nothing as I feared he'd be. He'll be DNP-CD a lot of games. The exceptions will be blowouts and when the opponent has a big man center and Esch's 6 fouls will come in handy. Even if Bradley gets in foul trouble, you'll see Nowitzki or Howard sliding to center before you'll see Esch on the court. Look for Eduardo Najera to start the season on IR with a phantom injury (only 11 active spots since the NBA ruled that Wang Zhizhi has to occupy an active roster spot even though he is not here). Najera did not work out this summer as he was letting his injuries from last season heal and has not looked good in the pre-season. The last 2 IR roster spots will likely go to 2 of Muggsy Bogues, Ruben Wolkowyski, Khalid El-Amin, and Darrick Martin. Bogues has a guaranteed contract for this season and next season and his salary could be beneficial to have now or next summer to make a trade work (you take his salary and add it to another salary and get back a player with that higher salary). Wolkowyski did not impress me in pre-season. I feel that there are other big men floating out their right now that we could bringing in if we needed another big man that would be better than Wolkowyski that it is not worth holding a roster spot for him. [For instance, Todd Fuller and Reggie Slater (released today) and even Chris Gatling if he was still out there and willing to take minimum.] Unless there is a surprise and both are kept (not all that bad of an idea), a roster spot will likely go to one of El-Amin and Martin. I like Martin - haven't seen him play this year and he hardly played much last year - but he can defend and give solid veteran play. And that is something I'd want if Nash or Hardaway got injured and the IR guard was promoted to backup point guard. El-Amin showed flashes, but no consistency and the point guard needs to be the floor leader. If it was my decision, I'd give the last two spots to Bogues and Martin. I'm not going over the pre-season for the big 5. You know what their strengths and weakness are and nothing in the pre-season showed any changes. [Bradley is Bradley. You either know that by now or you'll never learn. To suspect something different is to just frustrate yourself.] patricia