Houston at Dallas (November 21) This was a game that I worried about as Houston usually plays Dallas tough and Steve Francis normally goes nuts against the Mavs. Dallas got off to a rough start as Shawn Bradley picked up his 2nd foul just 3 minutes into the game (and added a technical to that) and sat for the rest of the quarter. Houston led 7-6 with 9 minutes left and Dallas went on a 15-4 run to go up 21-11 with 3:50 to go. Rookie Yao Ming was subbed in and proceeded to score the next 7 points to pull Houston within 21-18 with 1:45 left. But Dallas closed the quarter with an 8-2 run, including 2 3-pointers by Michael Finley to go up 29-20 after 1. Yao had 9 points and 2 rebounds in just 3 1/2 minutes. Finley had 9 points on 3-3 3-pointers and Adrian Griffin was a mad man on the boards with 7 (more than he's had in a game all season). Dallas was able to maintain their single digit lead and led 37-29 with 7:50 left. Houston then went on an 11-2 run to take a 40-39 lead with 3:35 remaining. The teams traded leads a couple of times over the end of the game and it was tied 46-46 with less than a second left when Eduardo Najera intercepted a mid-court pass and flung the ball at the rim and Moochie Norris committed the dumb, dumb foul which resulted in 3 free throws for Najera and he hit them all. Dallas led 49-46 at the half. Houston shot 10-12 FT and Dallas shot 5-5 FT (including the last 3 with .4 seconds left). Yao had 21 points on 7-9 FG and 7-7 FT and 7 rebounds (both already career highs) [8 points and 3 rebounds while Bradley defended him]. Happy with his strong performance, Houston started Yao in the 2nd half, but Dallas held on to a single-digit lead for the first 4 minutes of the 3rd quarter. A 3-pointer by Glen Rice and a dunk by Francis tied the game at 62-62 with 7:40 remaining. Dallas then scored the next 11 points, capped by a 3-pointer by Dirk Nowitzki, to go up 73-62 with 4:25 left. But Houston responded with a 7-1 mini-run to cut Dallas' lead back to 74-69 with 2:15 to go. The teams traded buckets, Avery Johnson got consecutive layups, and Rice drained another 3-pointer to close the quarter. Dallas led 80-74 after 3. Yao had 8 points and 5 rebounds in the quarter. A 3-pointer by Francis pulled Houston within 77-83 with 9 minutes remaining, but Dallas went on a 16-5 run to take their largest lead at 99-82 with 3:30 to go. Yao was subbed back in early into that run, but was held scoreless as Najera (giving up 9 inches) did a good job of fronting Yao and Houston did a poor job of trying to get the ball to Yao and Dallas played a box-and-one zone defense. Najera also got a key offensive rebound, layup, and was fouled (made the extra) during the run. Dallas won 103-90. It was a tough game and Houston gave Dallas all they could handle for a little over 3 quarters. And once again, Dallas did a good job of making a player look like a superstar. But, in the end, Dallas' better shooting and puzzling the opponent with a zone defense won out to give Dallas their team record 12th straight win. The Big 3 deserve their usual credit, but the heros of the game were Eduardo Najera and Avery Johnson. The 2 came off the bench to give the team a needed spark and lift. Najera was fantastic in the 4th quarter and had a plus/minus value of +14 for the game (points Dallas scored minus points Opponent scored while he was on the floor). He even got the chalupa bucket. He had 14 points including 5-7 FG and 11 rebounds including 5 offensive. 4 of AJ's 5 shots came from layups (a couple with Yao Ming in the middle). He had 10 points on 5-6 FG in just 12 minutes. Michael Finley was really on in this game and had 28 points including 6-8 3-pointers and 6 rebounds. Dirk Nowitzki finished with 24 points and 9 rebounds. I was concerned when I saw him head to the locker room after subbing out with seconds left in the 2nd quarter (and he was late coming out at halftime) and he headed straight to the locker room when subbing out with a little over a minute left in the game. He said that his Achilles tendon was bothering him. Hopefully it's nothing serious. He did not practice today and is listed as probably for Saturday night's game. Steve Nash had an off shooting night at just 6-17 FG, but did have 15 points (including a floater over Yao) and 8 assists. He also had 6 turnovers. Adrian Griffin was awesome in the 1st quarter, but kind of quiet after midway through the 2nd. He had 8 points and 8 rebounds in 22 minutes. He also stunned me when he took the ball in hard at Yao and finished with a the slam dunk - I can't recall him dunking before. Shawn Bradley had a poor outing with no points, just 2 rebounds, and 5 fouls in 20 minutes. Bradley picked up his 5th foul late in the 3rd quarter and sat the rest of the game. He again showed that he struggles when playing against a mobile, offensive minded center. Yao lit him up for 16 points and 8 rebounds when the two were on the court at the same time. Zydrunas Ilguaskas had a career night with 34 points and 14 rebounds in the Cleveland game a week ago. Walt williams had 4 points on just 1-5 FG and 2-5 FT and 4 rebounds in 28 minutes. Raja Bell had no points in 8 minutes and Adam Harrington and Mark Strickland got in the game for the last minute. Obviously from the above, the talk of the game was the great performance by rookie Yao Ming. He finished with career highs 30 points (on 10-12 FG and 10-12 FT) and 16 rebounds. From watching him shooting around prior to the game, he does have a nice shooting touch (but stuck to layups and dunks during the game). He has tree trunk legs, but needs to develop his upper body and should become a better player as he does so. But he did only have 1 point in the 4th quarter (and that in the last 30 seconds of the game) as Dallas' box-and-one and Najera's fronting him resulted in his teammates shooting from the outside instead of running the ball through Yao [and with his defender a player 9 inches shorter, they should have been able to lob it up high to start the offense through the post]. Steve Francis was quiet during the 1st half with just 7 points and passed up a number of open looks, but had 15 points in the 2nd half, including a number of baseline drives for layups or dunks [and drove me nuts with the defense allowing that to occur]. Glen Rice still has one of the sweetest shots in the league and had 16 points including 5-10 3-pointers (all his field goals attempted were 3s). No other Rocket was in double-digits. Cuttino Mobley had an awful night with just 3 points including 0-8 FG. Eddie Griffin started well with a 3-pointer and jumper in the first 5 minutes of the game, but only shot 1-6 FG the rest of the game. He had 7 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 assists. Quotes Don Nelson: "That was a good basketball game. It was fun to coach and I am sure it was fun to play. They countered a lot of things, we made a lot of adjustments and it was just one of those fun games as a coach and it makes it a lot more fun when you win. The Rockets are going to be good. We all knew Yao Ming was going to be good. I didn't think he was going to be good for 2 years, but he was good tonight. He's got the whole package. All he needs to do is learn a little bit about the way we play. Rudy has got him running some simple things, using his strengths and staying away from his weakness and he is some factor. We are keeping it going the best we can and played what we considered to be a really good team in the West. People who underestimate him are going to be sorry. I was really proud of our team tonight. It wasn't always easy. Shawn ran into foul trouble and we are a little light with our big players and Eddie did a great job. I got bench production. Avery came through a gain in a short period of time with big numbers and Eddie was really sensational. I thought Walt Williams was trying a little bit too hard against his old team and didn't have the game he wanted. He was still quite a factor in our win." Nelson: "It wasn't easy. Shawn ran into foul trouble, and we finally went with a box-and-one defense on Yao and that seemed to work best. Eddie was really sensational and we relied on our zone to take care of the other guys." Nelson: "I thought Finley was sensational. I thought he kept our heads above water when things weren't going well for us. He always seemed to walk into a shot or make some sort of sensational play and did it on both ends of the floor. I thought he was good defensively tonight." Nelson: "When Nash is on and he's healthy, he's very tough. He has the ability with his speed to just play the game at a pace that not many people can play it at. As a result, bolts start flying around out of his body once in a while, because he goes too fast for his own good. So we have to watch him and not overplay him." Nelson on Bradley: "He played hard and he played well. We just ran into a buzz saw in Yao. Nobody we put on him could stop him." Nelson: "We don't ever think of anything as a test. It is just another good team coming in. And we have another good team [Seattle] coming in and surprised everybody. I just think the longer the winning streak goes, the more vulnerable you become because somewhere along the line someone is going to get hot and you are going to get cold. It is kind of fun because you never know what is going to happen. It could very well have ended tonight because I thought they played really well. Again, we are just having fun with it to see how long it will go." Nelson when ask if he's forgotten what it's like to lose: "I have almost a thousand losses and I know exactly how every one of them feel. And it's not good; it's not fun. Losing is the worst part about my job. [But] how many perfect people do you know? Well, here's one, baby. [laugh] But, anyway, that's what we're trying to do with it - have fun." Nelson on high rankings in defensive stats: "Points allowed isn't what defense is all about. Shooting percentage is probably more accurate. But I don't think we're the 2nd best defense in the league. I'm not going to take anything away from our defense, don't get me wrong. We've worked hard at it." Michael Finley on the 2nd half defense of Yao: "We wanted to get him out of his comfort zone and make him work for his shots." Finley on Yao "He has good post-up moves and an excellent touch for a man his size. Tonight, for the first time since I've been watching them, they utilized him more." Finley: "[Nash's] driving ability attracts a lot of attention and then he can kick it out to me. I got a lot of open looks and was able to knock down my shots." Finley on if this game would hurt Bradley: "Shawn's a smart guy. He knows this is just one game. He knows he has to come back the next game, put this one behind him and rebound from it. A couple of blocks the next game, a couple of shots and he'll be fine." Dirk Nowitzki: "Houston has a lot of young players with unbelievable talent. The future is bright for their team. But we're kind of both [present and future]. We have a long way to improve. We've got young players, including myself, who can get better. But we're already one of the best teams in the league, too." Nowitzki: "Our zone takes them out of their 1-on-1 game. We also did a good job containing Yao at the end." Nowitzki: "Yao is the real thing. He can be a scary player." Steve Nash: "Well in general, our zone is our best defense and it was good again tonight. Yao had a big game and Rice got hot for a little while, but we still were pretty good defensively." Nash on Yao: "He showed tonight how good he's going to be. He gave us a lot of problems. We came back well and showed that we have a lot of character." Nash on the streak: "We feel confident, but it's going to end sooner or later. We're really not concerned about the streak. We just want to get better." Eduardo Najera on Francis and Mobley: "We concentrated on those 2 guards the whole time. We didn't really talk about Yao Ming at all. But he showed why he's the #1 pick. He surprised Shawn, as he did all of us." Najera on defending Yao: "I just used my quickness against his height and it usually worked out pretty well. I was just trying to stay in between the ball and Yao Ming. I knew if they were going to throw a lob, Dirk was behind me trying to help me out. I get to guard Shawn Bradley [in practice], so it's not any difference." Najera on if this game will affect Bradley: "That stuff happens. He's just got to be mentally tough to bounce back. I'm sure he's going to come out against Seattle and play well." Avery Johnson: "The main thing is we kept Cuttino Mobley under control all night. If you can keep him under control when he's one of the top 2 players on the team, we'll take it." Johnson: "Steve Nash and Michael Finley are two of the best guards in the league. Even though we are playing against other terrific guards, we feel like Steve and Mike can match up against any backcourt." Johnson on the effectiveness of the zone: "It was effective. More in 2nd half than in the 1st half. Yao kind of got behind us quite a bit and made us pay. Del Harris is a terrific zone coach and he came in at halftime and we made some adjustments and it worked out great for us in the 2nd half. The zone is not designed to be played the whole game, but it is designed to throw you off a little bit and that's what we fortunately have been doing." Johnson: "The main thing with me is that I just play to my strengths. You never see me come off the bench and try to play like Steve Nash. Our games are totally different. I'm more of a guy who likes to get to the basket consistently. He has the 3, he has the in between, he just has a lot of things that Avery Johnson had dreamed of having. I just try to help the team in ways that best fits my game and that's the way that Nellie uses me and that's what makes me comfortable." Rudy Tomjanovich: "They are really good, very hard to guard. Everybody makes mistakes in a game. They're so good that if you just miss an assignment or leave a guy open for a couple feet, they're just nailing it. That's what they had today. I was happy with the way we were playing. Against a lot of teams, that would have been a good win for us. I thought we did a lot of good things, but they just keep coming at you and at you. I thought we did a real good job in the 1st half; we were over 50% against the zone. Then in the 2nd half, they made some adjustments and we didn't get the ball inside as much and ended up in the 4th quarter not really getting much out of [the middle] at all." Tomjanovich on Yao: "He's had great practices, doing things that you don't think a guy his size can do. He's got quickness and the guy has a heart. He really does have a heart. He does it at a really even temperament, he loves the games, and he is so unselfish. Late in the game, he gets a one-on-one underneath and could have gone for the points, but passes the ball off to an open guy. He's just a class player." Tomjanovich on sitting Yao at the end of 3rd and into 4th: "My coaches were telling me he was a little tired. We thought it was a good time to rest him." Steve Francis: "Don Nelson's not stupid, he knows they can't beat us unless they play the zone, so he packed that zone in for 48 minutes. That's probably one of the smartest things he's done this season. They did a good job of packing it in on Yao late in the game. I thought they sat a guy in his lap, so every time he got the ball, he was away from the bucket. I still think we can build from this. I thought we did a good job of executing against the zone. They just capitalized on every one of our mistakes." Francis: "We've seen better teams than that. They hid in a zone for 48 minutes. I'm not afraid to say that because that's what they did. They know better than to match up man-to-man against us." Francis on Yao: "I thought he was real aggressive on the inside and when we got him the ball, he finished. That is all we can ask him to do." Glen Rice: "I think any time you have a big fellow that is doing damage in the middle like [Yao] was doing, you have to tighten it up. When they were tightening it up in the middle, it's up to us, on the outside, to loosen it back up. Tonight we just couldn't get other guys hitting the kind of shots they normally are hitting. That's going to happen from time to time. The great thing about it is that we see that there are openings. And when you have the big fellow rolling like he was rolling, there's no way you can cover all the grounds defending him." Rice on Yao "Tell you what, he's just getting his feet wet. The more he plays, the more you're going to see games like tonight." Yao Ming: "I definitely had more confidence tonight. From a technical standpoint, I felt very good. Today they called a lot of plays that used me more. Of course I like that." Yao: "You have to understand, I look at the game in 2 parts. One part is just the enjoyment of playing. The other part is, of course, winning. Today I achieved half of that." Yao on possibly starting: "I played a lot of minutes today. Of course, I want to play more. But I also realize I still have to build up my endurance. Their defense was very tight on me and I did not have very many opportunities." Yao on playing against Bradley: "I don't get many chances to play against a player as tall as me, so I was very excited. I know I'm not the skinniest player in the NBA." Maurice Taylor: "We were just missing some shots. They played the zone pretty good. We had a run. We were getting inside. But then we stopped getting inside like we were." Dallas Mavericks 103, Houston Rockets 90 at Dallas (November 21) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 29 20 31 23 - 103 .465 .615 .488 .722 Houston 20 26 28 16 - 90 .439 .348 .413 .727 Halftime: Dallas 49-46 3rd Q: Dallas 80-74 Technicals: Shawn Bradley 9:10 1st, Dallas defensive 3 seconds 6:47 2nd, Dirk Nowitzki 3:37 2nd, Dallas defensive 3 seconds 4:35 4th Refs: Joey Crawford, Jason Phillips, Violet Palmer Attendance: 19,853 (sellout) Did not play due to injury: Evan Eschmeyer (knee injury), Bostjan Nachbar (personal reasons) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Adrian Griffin 22 4-6 0-0 0-0 8 0-8 0 0 3 2 0 Dirk Nowitzki 45 11-21 1-1 1-2 24 1-9 4 1 2 0 0 Shawn Bradley 20 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-2 3 1 5 1 1 Michael Finley 42 9-19 6-8 4-4 28 0-6 2 1 1 1 1 Steve Nash 35 6-17 1-4 2-2 15 1-1 8 6 1 1 0 Eduardo Najera 26 5-7 0-0 4-4 14 5-11 0 0 4 2 0 Walt Williams 28 1-5 0-0 2-5 4 1-4 2 0 2 0 1 Avery Johnson 12 5-6 0-0 0-1 10 0-1 2 1 0 1 0 Raja Bell 8 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 2 0 0 0 1 Mark Strickland 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Adam Harrington 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 41-84 8-13 13-18 103 8-43 23 11 18 8 4 Houston Rockets REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Kenny Thomas 15 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 0-1 0 1 3 0 0 Glen Rice 29 5-10 5-10 1-1 16 0-5 1 1 4 1 0 Eddie Griffin 23 3-9 1-4 0-2 7 1-7 5 1 1 1 1 Steve Francis 40 9-20 2-6 2-3 22 1-2 5 3 0 2 0 Cuttino Mobley 36 0-8 0-2 3-4 3 1-6 3 2 3 1 0 Yao Ming 33 10-12 0-0 10-12 30 4-16 1 3 4 0 2 Juaquin Hawkins 20 1-5 0-1 0-0 2 2-5 2 1 2 0 0 Maurice Taylor 23 2-10 0-0 0-0 4 1-4 1 1 2 1 0 Moochie Norris 19 2-4 0-0 0-0 4 0-2 4 3 3 1 0 Jason Collier 2 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 33-80 8-23 16-22 90 10-49 22 17 22 7 3 patricia