Note: per request, I'm now listing the teams' record going into the game. Milwaukee (13-16) at Dallas (25-4) (December 30) Dallas hopped out to an early 12-4 lead with 7:30 left as everything was going Dallas' way. The Bucks responded by playing a hacking games and the refs let them do it. Milwaukee scored 6 straight points to pull within 12-14 with 5:50 remaining, but Dallas then went on a 13-4 run to go up 27-16 with 2 minutes to go. Dallas led 28-19 after 1. Dirk Nowitzki had 11 points. Dallas scored 5 straight points to take their largest lead at 38-21 with 9:45 remaining. Dallas led 47-31 with 5:15 to go, but Milwaukee came storming back with a 17-2 run to pull within 48-49 with 1:25 left. Dallas shot 1-10 FG during that run. Dallas led 53-50 at the half. Neither team was shooting well as Dallas shot 42% FG and Milwaukee shot 39% FG. Nowitzki had 18 points. Dallas was clinging to a single-digit lead early in the 3rd quarter. Milwaukee took their first lead of the game on a 3-pointer by Sam Cassell to go up 65-64 with 6 minutes left. The teams traded leads a couple of times and Dallas scored 7 consecutive points to go up 75-69 with 2:35 to go. Dallas led 83-77 after 3. Nowitzki was up to 31 points and 10 rebounds with still a quarter to go. Dallas led 89-82 with 9 minutes to go and Milwaukee scored the next 9 points to go up 91-89 with 7 minutes remaining. Dallas scored the next 4 points to retake the lead as the game stayed close. A jumper by Michael Finley gave Dallas a 105-100 lead with 1:09 left. Michael Redd found Tim Thomas inside for the slam and Nowitzki missed a jumper with 45 seconds to go. Cassell hit 2 free throws with 37 seconds left and Finley drove and lost the ball with 20 seconds remaining. Milwaukee called timeout and then had nice passing to find the open man, which was Thomas in the corner who nailed the 3-pointer and put Milwaukee up 107-105 with 10 seconds left. Dallas called timeout and then inbounded the ball to Steve Nash, who decided to take the contested 3-pointer with 6 seconds still on the clock and it hit nothing but air. Cassell hit 2 free throws with 4 seconds remaining to give the Bucks a 4 points lead. Dallas used their final timeout. Nowitzki was fouled on the inbound and hit both free throws and the Mavs immediately fouled Thomas with 2 seconds left. He only hit 1 of 2 free throws to give the Mavs a slight chance, but Nick Van Exel's half court fling clanged off the corner of the basket and the backboard at the buzzer. Milwaukee won 110-107. Dallas had a major edge in the 1st half and should have put the Bucks away early. But they let the lack of calls during the Bucks big run bother them, instead of clamping down defensively. It didn't help any that Dallas never found their shooting touch while Milwaukee did. Dallas only shot 38.5% FG in the 2nd half while Milwaukee shot 57% FG. Dallas stayed in the game due to the fact that they attempted 10 more field goals than the Bucks in the 2nd half, largely due to the turnover difference. Milwaukee also helped out by missing 3 straight open outside shots midway through the 4th quarter. Dallas also hurt themselves by shooting 0-10 3-pointers in the 4th quarter. For the game, Milwaukee shot 47.7% FG including 7-20 3-pointers and Dallas shot 40.2% FG including 3-19 3-pointers. Dallas only committed 6 turnovers while the Bucks had 15. Sam Cassell led the way for Milwaukee with 28 points and 5 assists. The Bucks got a big help off the bench with the return of Jason Caffey (had missed the past several games with a finger injury). Caffey had 16 points on 8-11 FG, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists before fouling out. Ray Allen had a balanced game with 15 points, 7 rebounds, and 7 assists. [Allen did tweek his ankle late in the 4th, but kept playing. He missed the next game due to a sore ankle.] Michael Redd had 16 points and 9 rebounds and Tim Thomas had 17 points and 7 rebounds. Anthony Mason was the 6th Buck in double-digits with 12 points and also had 8 rebounds. The Mavs wasted a wonderful game by Dirk Nowitzki. Nowitzki tied his regular season career high with 40 points (had 42 in the playoffs) including 14-16 FT. He also had 14 rebounds and 5 assists in playing all but 7 seconds. He did have 2 turnovers to snap his string of consecutive games without a turnover at 4 games. Michael Finley and Steve Nash struggled with their shots - which didn't keep them from shooting. Finley had 16 points including 7-20 FG and 9 rebounds and Nash had 17 points including 7-19 FG and just 4 assists. Raef LaFrentz started and went back to his old ways of doing nothing - and got ripped for it by Don Nelson during the press conference. LaFrentz had 2 points on 1-5 FG and 3 rebounds in 16 minutes. He did not play in the 2nd half. Shawn Bradley started and got the quick pull a mere 13 seconds in as the Bucks surprising started Michael Redd and Nelson subbed in Raja Bell for matchup reasons. Despite that, Bradley had a nice game with 13 points and 8 rebounds in 30 minutes. Bell also had a nice game with 12 points and 5 rebounds in a season high 39 minutes. Nick Van Exel was also worthless and forced too many shots without any accuracy. He had 6 points on 3-11 FG and 0-6 3-pointers in 20 minutes. He did have 5 assists. Adrian Griffin and Popeye Jones didn't do much in a handful of minutes (though Griff did have a great steal). I would have complained about this even if Dallas had won, the officiating was terrible. They were allowing lots of hacking and were inconsistent in their calls. They would allow lots of contact and then turn around and call a touch foul. In one instance, Sam Cassell was bodying up Michael Finley - really up on him with his hands and body - with no call and Finley got the ball and turned, bumping Cassell, and Finley got called for the offensive foul. And the hacking throughout the game, especially in the 2nd quarter, drove me nuts. I boo'ed the refs when they left at halftime. Quotes George Karl: "I still think our team is better than our record shows. We needed a win like this to give us a boost. We've been talking about winning a big game on the road and that's what we did tonight." Karl on Thomas' 3-pointer: "We were actually going to go to Ray. They came out in a zone and we were able to swing it out to Timmy and he hit a big shot." Karl on Caffey: "Jason came up great for us. He gave us a good physical game, which is what we were looking for out of him tonight. He gave us great minutes and great offense." Sam Cassell: "That's a big win, definitely a big win. We needed it. But we've got to get an effort like that every night and good things will happen. That's the Dallas Mavericks. They don't have the best overall talent. They just keep on playing their game and give themselves a chance to win. Do that and good things will happen. That's a sign of a winning team. We've got to do that. Don't worry about missed shots, just keep on playing." Cassell: "The key for them is that they just keep playing even when they miss shots, and that's what you have to do and that's what we started to do. You can't get down when you miss shots." Cassell: "That 2nd quarter, we were allowing Dallas to do whatever they wanted. We just tried to tighten it up and then made a run and built off of that." Tim Thomas: "It should be a stepping stone for us to move forward - playing like that against a team like that. Hopefully this will put a stopper in the drain and keep the water in the tub." Thomas on his 3-pointer: "We saw that they were playing a lot of zone, especially in the 4th quarter. I was just trying to get open, so I started to run the baseline. Nobody played me and I was able to hit it." Thomas on his 3-pointer: "No possession is run for me. We just played. You always love it when you're open like that." Don Nelson: "My mother told me there would be days like this. We played against a team equally able to score. We got beat at our own game. They came in here and beat us. I didn't think that was going to happen, but it did." Nelson: "I was very disappointed with our 2nd period. I thought that set the tone for the entire game. I thought the way they were able to attack our rim and get easy baskets down the stretch was a nightmare for us." Nelson on Nash's airball 3-point attempt: "I think he made up his mind that he was going to be open, and I don't think he was open. Certainly, nobody is going to blame anybody on a last second shot." Nelson when asked about LaFrentz's performance: "What performance? He didn't perform tonight. I played him a lot of minutes the night before and I thought that got him over the hill. There was nothing there. I had to go with the regulars most of the way and you saw the fatigue set in towards the end of the game. I'm really tired of hearing about confidence problems. He's a guy who has had enough opportunities to get his game in order and hasn't. It's time to get it in order and we are going to start tomorrow. There will be no punches pulled anymore. We need him to be an effective player, and he hasn't been. It's really that simple." [and with that, Nelson left the podium] Michael Finley: "Hopefully, we can remember it because the feeling right now on this team is not a good one. We have to make a negative into a positive." Finley: "Defensively we made some slips and they started to get their confidence. Then we started worrying about the refereeing and started falling apart." Finley on his late game turnover: "It's all about coming through and I didn't come through. It was a terrible game for me overall." Dirk Nowitzki: "We've jumped out to big leads all year and have struggled to hold onto them, but we always found a way to hold on. Tonight we didn't." Nowitzki on his strong game: "A loss is a loss, and numbers don't mean anything in a loss." Steve Nash: "We didn't battle and didn't challenge tonight and that's what's disappointing. We let them do whatever they wanted and that's why we lost." Nash: "We just had so many letdowns defensively and we just gave them confidence and opportunities to win. We really just gave them a lot of momentum by our lack of defense. I was disappointed because that was a game we could have easily blown them out in." Raef LaFrentz: "You don't ever want to be out there feeling lost, feeling like you're not helping the cause. I definitely have a role on this team. To say I don't would be implying I don't need to be here. I hope the feeling is that I need to be here." LaFrentz: "I'm not going to lash out at Nellie for not playing me in the 2nd half. He understands what he wants to see out of me. And he didn't see it." Milwaukee Bucks 110, Dallas Mavericks 107 at Dallas (December 30) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Milwaukee 19 31 27 33 - 110 .515 .350 .477 .950 Dallas 28 25 30 24 - 107 .458 .158 .402 .846 Halftime: Dallas 53-50 3rd Q: Dallas 83-77 Technicals: Dirk Nowitzki 1:53 2nd Refs: Derek Collins, Ted Bernhardt, Tony Brothers Attendance: 19,939 (sellout) Did not play due to injury: Walt Williams (strained left knee) Milwaukee Bucks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Tim Thomas 35 6-13 2-4 3-4 17 2-7 1 4 3 0 0 Michael Redd 39 7-15 2-6 0-0 16 3-9 2 2 2 1 3 Anthony Mason 37 4-10 0-0 4-4 12 3-8 3 1 2 1 0 Sam Cassell 36 9-18 2-5 8-8 28 0-3 5 3 5 0 2 Ray Allen 34 5-12 1-5 4-4 15 0-7 7 1 2 1 2 Dan Gadzuric 5 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 0 1 5 0 0 Kevin Ollie 16 2-5 0-0 0-0 4 0-3 4 0 0 0 0 Ervin Johnson 6 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1-1 0 0 3 0 0 Marcus Haislip 8 1-3 0-0 0-0 2 0-3 0 1 0 0 0 Jason Caffey 24 8-11 0-0 0-0 16 2-6 5 2 6 1 0 Totals 48 42-88 7-20 19-20 110 11-48 27 15 28 4 7 Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Dirk Nowitzki 48 12-25 2-6 14-16 40 4-14 5 2 1 2 1 Raef LaFrentz 15 1-5 0-1 0-0 2 2-3 0 0 2 1 1 Shawn Bradley 30 5-10 0-0 3-3 13 3-8 0 0 3 0 1 Michael Finley 41 7-20 0-2 2-2 16 3-9 4 1 3 1 1 Steve Nash 35 7-19 1-3 2-3 17 2-4 4 1 1 0 0 Raja Bell 39 6-11 0-1 0-0 12 2-5 4 0 3 3 0 Nick Van_Exel 20 3-11 0-6 0-0 6 0-1 5 1 2 0 0 Adrian Griffin 8 0-1 0-0 1-2 1 0-2 1 1 0 2 0 Popeye Jones 4 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 1 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 41-102 3-19 22-26 107 16-46 24 6 15 9 4 patricia Happy New Year!