Reminder: Thursday's game vs Houston has a _6:30_ start time instead of the usual 7:30 home game start time. The game is being broadcast on TNT. Evan Eschmeyer underwent arthroscopic surgery on Tuesday on his right knee to repair cartilage damage. He is expected to be out 4 to 6 weeks. LA Lakers at Dallas (November 19) The Lakers came in to town with a poor record and Shaquille O'Neal still out with an injured toe. It was a game that the Mavs were heavily favored to win and should have been an easy time. It didn't look that way in the 1st quarter as the game stayed close and the Lakers mostly held a small lead. Kobe Bryant tweaked his ankle a mere 3 minutes in, but was able to continue playing on it (and grimaced a lot). Derek Fisher made a dumb, dumb mistake by barreling into Steve Nash as the quarter end and Nash's 2 free throws tied the game at 25-25 after 1. Dallas came out better in the 2nd quarter and scored the first 6 points of the quarter. Dallas led 33-31 with 8 minutes left and went on a 14-2 run, with Dirk Nowitzki scoring the last 6 points of the run, to go up 47-33 with 4 minutes left as the Lakers only shot 1-10 FG during the run. With 10 seconds left, Nash drove, was bumped and threw the ball up, and Bryant made the dumb move of swatting it away for the clear goaltending. Nash converted the 3-point play to give Dallas a 54-39 lead at the half. Nash had 17 points, Nowitzki had 9 points and 12 rebounds, and Michael Finley had 9 points and 9 rebounds. Bryant was the high man for the Lakers with 13 points. The Lakers only shot 35% FG in the half, including just 7-27 FG in the 2nd quarter. And not only was Dallas shooting 45% FG, but they were out-rebounded the Lakers 36-24 - if you aren't shooting well, you have to rebound to have a chance of winning. The Lakers' woes continued in the 3rd quarter as they still couldn't find their shooting touch or rebound and Dallas opened the quarter with a commanding 15-3 run, capped by a 3-pointer by Finley, to go up 69-42 with 5:40 left. Bryant's injury woes also continued as he jammed his thumb when Adrian Griffin stole the ball from him with 8:30 left. Bryant got the thumb taped up and continued playing, but got a permanent rest at the end of the quarter. Dallas led 81-57 after 3. The Lakers only shot 5-19 FG in the 3rd quarter. The Mavs joined in the uglyness to start the 4th quarter as neither team scored over the first 3 minutes of the game and Dallas did not put a point on the board until 8:10 remained and their first basket of the quarter came with 7:20 to go. Despite Dallas' dry spell, the Lakers were only able to get as close as 19 points, and Dallas quickly pushed their lead back into the 20s. The only interest the rest of the game was if the Mavs were going to hit 100 and give the fans chalupas. With the Mavs stuck at 98, the last minute was a comedy of errors as a couple of open shots were missed, the Mavs didn't find a wide-open Mark Strickland near the basket, a jumper by Strickland wedged between the rim and the backboard, and Raja Bell goaltended a shot that looked like it was going in with a couple of seconds left on the clock. No chalupas, but Dallas won 98-72. Pure and simple, the Lakers are not a good team without Shaquille O'Neal. Kobe Bryant is an awesome player but without O'Neal teams can focus on him defensively and the triangle offense's many weakness are exposed. The Lakers never really looked into this game. At one point, a loose ball was rolling between 2 Lakers heading out of bounds and neither made a move towards the ball, much less dive after it, even though it was uncertain who had touched it last. The refs ruled it was Dallas' ball. The Lakers set a Laker team and Dallas opponent team record by only shooting 30.8% FG. And if you take out Robert Horry (4-7 FG) and Samaki Walker (4-7 FG) [the only Lakers to shoot 50% or better], the rest of the Lakers shot a mere 26.9% FG. And they only grabbed 11 offensive rebounds while Dallas out-rebounded them 64-51. Poor shooting and poor rebounding is a recipe for a blowout. Dallas tied the team record for longest winning streak at 11 games. There were good performances across the board for Dallas. The Mavs had 3 players with double-doubles. Dirk Nowitzki had 18 points and 17 rebounds. Michael Finley had 18 points and a career high 15 rebounds. Shawn Bradley had yet another good game (and got a standing ovation when he was pulled in the 4th) and had 16 points including 6-8 FG and 12 rebounds. Steve Nash was the high man with 21 points as the Lakers could not contain him. He also had 6 assists and 3 steals. The most shocking aspect of his performance was the he went to the line and missed _both_ free throws at one point. Adrian Griffin only had 6 points, but his job was to pester Kobe Bryant. Eduardo Najera only had 2 points on 1-4 FG, but a couple of his 6 rebounds came at good times. Walt Williams only had 5 points but also snagged some good rebounds and had 5 total. Avery Johnson contributed 8 points and 5 assists in 17 minutes and Raja Bell did not score in his 15 minutes. Both Adam Harrington (free throws) and Mark Strickland (layup) had their first points as a Mav (and for Harrington, in the NBA). With all his injuries, Kobe Bryant did not have a good game, for his standards. He had 16 points including 7-21 FG, 5 rebounds, and 5 turnovers. A couple of his shots were amazing, though. He didn't get much help. Rick Fox had 11 points including 4-15 FG, 9 rebounds, and 5 assists. Robert Horry was the only other Laker in double-digits with 10 points and 8 rebounds. He was limited some due to foul trouble. Starters Samaki Walker had 8 points and 9 assists and Derek Fisher had 8 points including 3-9 FG and just 2 assists. Quotes Don Nelson: "It was another example of a break we received this season by playing this Laker team without Shaq. I thought he would be back for our game. I heard he would be back around this time. We caught a bit of a break by not having him tonight. The Lakers have been struggling the last few games. This isn't the same Laker team we will see the next time we play. We will take the win not say much else than we took advantage of a good situation. A lot of good things happened and we were able to not overplay our players and we took advantage of that situation as well." Nelson: "It was another example of a break we received early in the season. It would have been totally different if Shaq had been in the game. We all know that." Nelson: "Kobe tweaked his ankle a little, but I thought Grif did a good job." Nelson on Bradley: "Shawn has been playing this kind of basketball. It would be totally different if Shaq had been in the game, no question. [Shaq] is the focal point and allows other players to get open. He is the most dominant player in the game today and you take him away from any team and they'll suffer. Again, it was something we took advantage of and we are not thinking too much of this win. It was nice. And when [the streak] ends it will probably end in a very unlikely situation. You never know where your wins are coming from, we have been surprised a couple of times, and you never know where your losses are coming from or how well a team is going to play. That is what makes it so interesting." Michael Finley: "We're going to take it no matter who is on the rosters. Who we're going up against, whoever they put on the court, we're going to come out and play hard against. Unfortunately for them, they didn't have Shaq. But if we were missing a guy they wouldn't take it easy on us." Finley on the streak: "That's a tough thing to do, not just for our organization but for any team in the league. If you think about it, that's a lot of games. We're going to continue to build on it." Finley: "Winning 11 in a row, that's a lot of games for any team. At the end of the season, I'm sure we'll look back at it knowing that we were part of something historic." Dirk Nowitzki: "Shaq is the Lakers, pretty much. We know it's still early. When it comes to April and May, the Lakers will be the Lakers. They'll be the team to beat." Nowitzki: "We knew we had to start playing harder after the 1st quarter. Our offense will come and go, but as long as our defense is solid we should be in every game." Nowitzki: "Our zone was looking good. And our man-to-man was also looking good." Nowitzki: "It doesn't matter about stats. We just want to win the game collectively as a team." Steve Nash: "They're not the same without [O'Neal]. Without Shaq, they're just another team. With Shaq, they're one of the best teams in history." Shawn Bradley: "The Lakers are a good ball club. Even tonight without Shaq, they are a team to be reckoned with. The NBA is the NBA; you have to be ready to play every night. They've got some guys that can play good basketball. We can't take anyone lightly. A win is a win with Shaq or not. We would hope teams are 100% and give us an opportunity to put their best ball against our best ball. They put the players on the court and that is who we have to go against. We have guys that are sitting on the side with injuries that are big part of our team. The teams have to play with who they have." Bradley on the streak: "Our attitude is looking at it as, 'we need to win the next game.' In fact, guys even talk about winning the next 5 minutes, winning the next quarter, winning the next game. Beyond that, we are not talking about that. We are focused on those things first. If we do those things, the rest will take care of itself. Adrian Griffin on Bryant: "He's an extraordinary player. You're not going to shut him down and he really has no weakness to exploit." Avery Johnson: "Obviously, this team is a different team without Shaq. There is no doubt about it. We got a chance to see it first hand. They have some players out there that have been a major part of their championship run, but they are a different team without Shaq and we had to take advantage of it." Johnson: "Tonight wasn't an awesome defensive night. There are some things on the film that Nelson will keep us humble with. When we come in, we'll continue to work on [defense]. We'll have a practice that is based on defense tomorrow, and we'll just keep plugging away at it. We know we were so far behind [defensively] to becoming a championship team. We have to continue to practice. We can't really get too excited about what's going in November." Johnson: "We are contesting shots. Guys aren't playing with their hands down by their sides. Guys are really getting their hands up; guys are playing physical and we're giving hard fouls. Shawn Bradley is a big part of that. He has been clogging up the lane for us, and we have been moving the ball better on offense which affects our defense. Phil Jackson: "Well this was not one of our scintillating nights I'll tell you that. This is a game which we want to forget about. Although we played a good 1st quarter, they don't count at the end of the game. I was disappointed in my players as far as being competitive tonight coming out in the 2nd half and not taking care of the basketball. I didn't think that the Mavs played particularly well, they didn't shoot well tonight. We had an opportunity to play better than we did and be in this ballgame." Jackson: "They're beating up a lot of teams. They can have their fun, because we'll be back together again." Jackson: "We said we weren't going to panic at this time, and we're not. We can take some losses and go ahead from here. It's just the resolve that I'm disappointed at, that the ingredient of being tough and being tough-minded is limited out there." Kobe Bryant: "Teams know that what comes around goes around. They know that we'll be back and we usually have the last laugh." Bryant: "I look around the locker room and I don't see any fire in anybody's eyes. Everybody's just kind of dozing off a little bit. I don't know if they're waiting for Shaquille to get back or whatever. I don't know. But there's just no intensity." Bryant on his teammates: "I can't really tell you what they're thinking. I don't know. The shots that they're getting should be going down. They're the same type of shots they're going to get when Shaquille gets back, that they're going to have to make. They have to be more aggressive and play within themselves and things will work out for them." Bryant: "Each individual player has to dig inside themselves and find the confidence within themselves. I try to do that throughout the game." Bryant: "It's frustrating, but it just kind of fuels my hunger. It makes me even hungrier. I hear the fans in the stands talk this, talk that. It's a long season. We're going to be there at the end of the season." Rick Fox: "I don't think that we gave up tonight. It may have looked that way and I don't think that we necessarily played all together too smart and that will get you beat on the road against a team like Dallas who's improved and has a nice streak going and is playing good basketball." Fox: "Now we are marred in a 3-8 record, which is not something any of us envisioned. We knew that we would be without Shaquille, but we definitely thought that we would compete, which we're trying to do right now, but it isn't resulting in a whole lot of wins." Brian Shaw: "Everything boils down to effort. We just have to come out and play with better effort than we have. We're using Shaq coming back too much as a crutch. In the meantime we have to still play better while he's out. We were playing a team tonight that's undefeated, that's in our conference and that we know is gunning for us and there is no excuse. We should have come out and played with a lot more heart tonight." Dallas Mavericks 98, Los Angeles Lakers 72 at Dallas (November 19) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 25 29 27 17 - 98 .410 .357 .402 .864 LA Lakers 25 14 18 15 - 72 .324 .235 .308 .667 Halftime: Dallas 54-39 3rd Q: Dallas 81-57 Technicals: Dallas defensive 3 seconds 4:29 1st, Dallas defensive 3 seconds 7:29 3rd, Kobe Bryant 0:57 3rd Refs: Dick Bavetta, Kevin Fehr, Michael Smith Attendance: 20,096 (sellout) Did not play due to injury: Popeye Jones (sore back), Evan Eschmeyer (arthroscopic surgery right knee), Devean George (tendinitis right ankle), Soumalia Samake (suspended) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Adrian Griffin 22 2-5 0-0 2-2 6 2-3 4 1 2 1 1 Dirk Nowitzki 35 7-19 1-3 3-4 18 2-17 0 2 4 0 0 Shawn Bradley 29 6-8 0-0 4-4 16 2-12 1 1 4 1 2 Michael Finley 35 7-19 3-3 1-1 18 3-15 2 5 1 3 0 Steve Nash 31 8-16 0-2 5-7 21 1-1 6 1 2 3 0 Raja Bell 15 0-3 0-2 0-0 0 1-3 2 2 3 0 0 Avery Johnson 17 3-8 0-0 2-2 8 0-0 5 0 1 0 0 Walt Williams 23 2-5 1-3 0-0 5 0-5 1 0 2 0 0 Eduardo Najera 24 1-4 0-0 0-0 2 2-6 0 1 2 1 1 Adam Harrington 5 0-3 0-1 2-2 2 0-0 0 1 0 0 0 Mark Strickland 4 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 2-2 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 37-92 5-14 19-22 98 15-64 21 14 21 9 4 Los Angeles Lakers REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Robert Horry 28 4-7 2-3 0-0 10 3-8 2 2 5 0 2 Rick Fox 39 4-15 1-4 2-4 11 1-9 5 2 2 0 0 Samaki Walker 21 3-6 0-0 2-2 8 2-9 0 1 2 0 1 Derek Fisher 26 3-9 1-3 1-2 8 0-1 2 2 4 1 0 Kobe Bryant 33 7-21 0-1 2-4 16 1-5 3 5 2 3 0 Stanislav Medvedenko 17 1-6 0-0 1-2 3 3-6 1 3 4 1 0 Kareem Rush 22 2-11 0-3 2-2 6 1-5 2 0 0 1 1 Brian Shaw 24 3-9 0-1 0-0 6 0-3 2 1 0 1 0 Tracy Murray 14 1-4 0-2 2-2 4 0-2 1 1 1 0 0 Jannero Pargo 16 0-3 0-0 0-0 0 0-3 0 1 3 0 1 Totals 48 28-91 4-17 12-18 72 11-51 18 19 23 7 5 patricia