No surprise that the Mavs were heavily represented in the monthly awards. The big surprise is that the NBA didn't simply pick one of the big 3 for the Player of the Month award (and with the team having gone 15-1 [includes October], the award pretty much had to go to a Mav), but they selected all 3 as Players of the Month for the Western Conference. It was the first time that 3 players were selected as Players of the Month for a conference or league (the league started doing it by conference last season). Michael Finley averaged 21.3 points and 6.9 rebounds, Dirk Nowitzki averaged 21.6 points and 11.3 rebounds, and Steve Nash averaged 18.3 points and 7.8 assists in November and October. Only once before (Mark Aguirre) had a Mav been named as Player of the Month. Tracy McGrady (Orl) was named as Player of the Month for the Eastern Conference. And no surprise that Don Nelson was named as Coach of the Month for November. Dick Motta twice had been named as Coach of the Month with the Mavs. Isiah Thomas (Ind) was named as Coach of the Month for the Eastern Conference. Dallas activated Raef LaFrentz and Nick Van Exel prior to Saturday's game vs Chicago and placed Evan Eschmeyer (arthroscopic surgery right knee) and Adam Harrington ("sprained left knee") on IR. Eduardo Najera did not play in the Chicago game due to a sore right knee. He underwent an MRI on Monday and it showed that there is no structural damage. His knee was still sore and he did not play in the Toronto game (despite wanting to). And news today is that he won't travel with the team for the upcoming 3 game trip to the West coast. Chicago at Dallas (November 30) It was a bizarre night when the Bulls came to town on Saturday. The game started out with no indication as to what was to come as Dallas led 10-4 3 minutes in. Despite poor shooting, Chicago lived off of offensive rebounds and didn't allow Dallas' lead to balloon larger than 7 points. Dallas led 20-18 with 4:15 remaining and rattled off the next 9 points to go up 29-18 with 45 seconds left. Dallas led 31-21 after 1. Chicago only shot 34.6% FG, but had 7 offensive rebounds. Dirk Nowitzki had 9 points. Dallas continued to roll and scored the first 5 points of the 2nd quarter to go up 36-21 with 10:45 to go. Chicago scored 7 straight points to pull within 47-38 with 4:15 left, but Nick Van Exel answered with a 3-pointer to push Dallas' lead back into double-digits and it remained there for the rest of the quarter. And then the bizarreness occurred. With about 1:15 left and Dallas running the offense, flashes of light appeared around the area and then the scoreboard went blank and then an announcement came on announcing that an emergency has been reported and to evacuate the building. During this time, Raja Bell drained a 3-pointer and the refs then stopped the play as the fans were filing out of the building. The upper bowl emptied and most of the lower bowl emptied, but the players remained on the court. After about 5 minutes, the all clear announcement came as it was a false alarm. Play shortly resumed (being so close to halftime, there wasn't a delay for the fans to return) and it seemed to disrupt the Mavs as they couldn't score and Chicago scored on consecutive layups. Dallas led 57-46 at the half. Van Exel had 11 points in the quarter. The strangeness continued in the 3rd quarter with the 2nd funniest thing I've seen (live) during a game. Early in the quarter, Jalen Rose snagged a rebound on the Mavs end while Tyson Chandler fell to the floor half out of bounds. Rose, standing there holding the ball in one hand, extended his other hand down to help his teammate up. As soon as the 2 made contact, the ref blew his whistle signaling Dallas ball. Since Chandler was out of bounds, contact with him by a person with the ball made the ball also out of bounds. Chicago did open the quarter with a 6-1 mini-run to pull within 52-58 with 8:20 left as Dallas looked out of sync. Dallas finally woke up and responded with 9 straight points, capped by a 3-pointer by Michael Finley, to go up 67-52 with 6 minutes remaining. Chicago still had fight in them as they scored 10 straight points, capped by a 3-pointer by Rose, to pull within 68-73 with 1:41 to go. Shawn Bradley hit 2 free throws and Van Exel hit a jump-hook to give Dallas a 77-68 lead after 3. Rose had 11 points in the quarter. Dallas decided that they had enough fooling around as Nowitzki opened the quarter with a dunk and 3-pointer (his first points since the 1st quarter) and Van Exel drove for 2 to give Dallas a 84-68 lead with 9:50 remaining. Dallas' lead remained in the teens the rest of the game (Chicago did pull within 10 points with 1:30 left, but it was too little, too late). Dallas won 103-90. It wasn't a pretty game, but a win is a win is a win. And fortunately a not sharp Dallas team was facing a poor Chicago team. Dallas negated Chicago's poor shooting by allowing 17 offensive rebounds. Chicago shot just 38.6% FG while Dallas shot 50% FG. Despite the Mavs' lackluster play, the team led from start to finish. Dallas also had a very high 26 assists. The Mavs were very glad to welcome back Nick Van Exel and Reaf LaFrentz. Van Exel provided the much needed in this game spark off the bench with 17 points including 3-7 3-pointers and 7 assists in 29 minutes - he didn't look like a player fresh from IR. LaFrentz had a quieter game with 5 points in 15 minutes. Steve Nash had a solid performance with 18 points on 9-10 FG (and, shockingly, missed both free throws he attempted), 6 rebounds, and 7 assists. Michael Finley was quiet with just 13 points (and just 12 FG attempted), 5 rebounds, 5 assists, and 5 turnovers. Dirk Nowitzki started strong with 9 points, but then disappeared offensively for 2 quarters. At least he still rebounded even though he wasn't aggressive offensively during the 2nd and 3rd quarters. He finished with 14 points (just 10 FG attempted) and 11 rebounds. Shawn Bradley played well with 9 points, 10 rebounds, and 3 blocks. Adrian Griffin was foul plagued and had 6 points and 5 fouls in just 8 minutes. Raja Bell filled in nicely for Griffin with 10 points and 3 steals. Walt Williams' shooting touch was lacking with 7 points on 3-10 FG, but he did have 8 rebounds. Avery Johnson and Popeye Jones had 2 points in a handful of minutes. Jalen Rose tried to carry the Bulls with 31 points including 5-6 3-pointers (all 3-pointers in the 2nd half) and 6 rebounds, but he didn't have much help. Donyell Marshall started and had 20 points and 9 rebounds. Jay Williams was the only other Bull in double-digits with 11 points. Williams also had 6 turnovers. Despite 2 starters being regulated to the bench, Chicago only got 15 points off the bench. Quotes Don Nelson: "These games aren't always the easiest games to play in. It ended up being a closer game than I anticipated, but there were some good things that happened. We kept our minutes down, that was the main thing. We got a chance to see Van Exel and he looked good. We got a chance for everyone to get their nose wet a little bit, which was good. The numbers looked better than we played, I thought. That is to be expected once in a while. We will take the win and go on from there." Nelson: "We weren't particularly sharp. I think the numbers were better than we showed, but we'll go and take the win." Nelson: "Raef still has some swelling and it is going to be longer for Raef than Van Exel. I don't know why, but it will be a few weeks before he is back in playing shape." Nelson: "We got a chance to see Nick on the new knee and he looked good. Nelson on Najera: "When he stops taking his medication, his knee gets sore and he has tendinitis. We are going to get him an MRI on it to make sure there is no structural damage. He did have a lot of pain today and we will change his medication. We missed him. We don't have anybody to do that job. When Eddie is not available, it is a little tougher for us." Don Nelson on his 200th win as Dallas' coach: "It's good to be here. Of course, at my age, it's good to be anywhere." Michael Finley: "The whole game was sluggish. I think the fire alarm thing made it even more sluggish. We just couldn't get things going." Finley on the 10 game win streak vs Chicago: "We've been able to get out to good leads against them and we've been able to maintain them." Finley: "We've worked on our zone more this year as far as giving our defense a different look, giving our opponents something else to prepare for. For the most part it has been successful, but you can't rely on the zone in every game. When it comes down to it you have to play guys man-to-man. You want people to spend a day preparing for the zone, take them out of the offense they are comfortable with. It gives us a different look and puts added pressure on other teams offense. The zone gives us a chance to go big. Get bigger guys to guard smaller guys and gets us in a position to grab rebounds and get out on breaks. For us it has been a benefit." Finley on the return of Van Exel and LaFrentz: "They came in and gave us an added boost tonight. It was good to have those guys back on the court. We have our full roster back. It was a good showing tonight." Steve Nash on Dallas' sluggish performance: "I think it was a letdown after the streak ended. A lot of us were kind of down - it hurt to lose [the Indiana] game - and it was tough for us to come back and be focused." Nash: "I got to the basket a lot and made some layups. You're going to have nights like that, but you're also going to have nights when it doesn't go in for you." Nash on Van Exel's and LaFrentz's return: "They came back at the right time. Without Nick's performance, we would have been in trouble." Nick Van Exel: "I actually played pretty good tonight. I felt good out there. It was definitely good to get back out there. I felt pretty comfortable getting into the game. I wasn't nervous at all. That was the best I've felt in a long time." Van Exel on his knee: "It was like night and day. It was a piece of bone that kept coming out. It would totally lock my right leg up and I couldn't get any push off of it. When they did the surgery, it was worse than they thought because the MRI didn't show a tear behind my kneecap." Van Exel on his knee: "I had no pain. It was definitely good to get back out there with the guys. It's like night and day. You can never get a new knee. But it just feels better." Raef LaFrentz on his first game back: "It felt like it was going to be when you're off a month. It was a little sluggish, but it's a work in progress. It's really no big deal. I've been through this before." Bill Cartwright: "I was happy with our effort. I thought our guys came out and played hard. It felt pretty good what we were doing. What hurt us was turnovers and carelessness with the basketball. That cost us because they came down and made us pay at a time when I felt like we were really rolling. For the most part I was happy with the way our guys fought." Cartwright: "I thought we did a better job defensively and rebound-wise. I felt we played with a little more poise. Also, we had real nice opportunities around the basket. You look at the shots we get sometimes and it's darn near amazing that we miss them." Cartwright on the fire alarm: "What a great place to go. If you're going to go, you've got to go on the court. It can't get any better than that." Jalen Rose: "I think we did pretty good. Dallas is the best team in the league right now. They just had too much firepower tonight, especially on their home court. Once we found a way to get a basket, they would get it to one of their hot hands. They have a lot of guys that can get it in the basket and they make you match up with that." Rose: "We are going to rebound from this. We are a better team and obviously when you have a long road schedule and play quality opponents, you can't predetermine a lot of victories. Now we feel like the schedule will work in our favor and we will be a better team." Rose on the new starting lineup: "But we will get better because this is our first time playing with the new lineup, and we did it against the best team in the league right now. Plus, we will have 11 home games in December where as we had 11 road games in November." Rose on arguing to the ref that Bell's 3-pointer shouldn't have counted with the fire alarm going off: "That's how it is right now. I'm trying to scrap for everything I can get. I knew there was nothing going on. Mark Cuban wasn't going to let anything happen to his new building." Jay Williams on the fire alarm: "They told us players to stay on the court and I said, 'Why should we stay and everybody leave?'" Eddy Curry on not starting: "That's the easy way out. It would be easy to go somewhere else. I think the best thing right now for me to do is just prove that I'm a bigger person and no matter what, I'm going to play through it. I was upset about it, but it's out of my hands. I can either pout or I can try to play through it. Hopefully, I'll get back in the lineup." Curry on the fire alarm: "I started looking for the nearest exit because I didn't want to play with anything like that. You never know whether it's a real emergency." Marcus Fizer on his return to play: "I felt very rusty. I had some pretty good shots. I just didn't get them down. There was a 7-6 totem pole down there altering the shots. So that made it a little bit harder. That's the first time I've gone through something like that before. It's been a learning process. It's made me, I think, a better player. I was able to play pretty good defense, get a couple rebounds. I've just got to continue to polish my game." Dallas Mavericks 103, Chicago Bulls 90 at Dallas (November 30) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 31 26 20 26 - 103 .525 .429 .500 .750 Chicago 21 25 22 22 - 90 .371 .444 .386 .667 Halftime: Dallas 57-46 3rd Q: Dallas 77-68 Technicals: Dallas defensive 3 seconds 7:13 1st, Chicago defensive 3 seconds 7:39 2nd, Jalen Rose 4:42 4th Refs: Bob Delaney, Hue Hollins, Rodney Mott Attendance: 19,940 (sellout) Did not play due to injury: Eduardo Najera (sore left knee) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Adrian Griffin 8 3-6 0-0 0-0 6 0-1 0 2 5 1 0 Dirk Nowitzki 35 5-10 1-2 3-3 14 1-11 2 3 2 0 0 Shawn Bradley 30 2-7 0-0 5-6 9 4-10 2 0 5 0 3 Michael Finley 36 5-12 2-4 1-1 13 0-5 5 5 2 2 0 Steve Nash 31 9-10 0-1 0-2 18 1-6 7 3 2 2 0 Raja Bell 24 4-7 1-1 1-2 10 0-1 1 1 2 3 1 Nick Van_Exel 29 6-13 3-7 2-2 17 0-3 7 1 2 0 0 Avery Johnson 4 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 0-0 0 0 1 0 0 Walt Williams 26 3-10 1-4 0-0 7 2-8 1 1 3 2 0 Raef LaFrentz 15 2-4 1-2 0-0 5 0-1 1 1 3 0 0 Popeye Jones 2 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 0-0 0 0 1 0 0 Totals 48 41-82 9-21 12-16 103 8-46 26 17 28 10 4 Chicago Bulls REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Eddie Robinson 34 3-10 0-0 0-0 6 5-8 2 2 2 1 0 Donyell Marshall 40 8-19 0-1 4-5 20 4-9 2 1 0 0 1 Tyson Chandler 19 3-7 0-0 1-6 7 2-7 0 1 2 0 1 Jalen Rose 39 9-19 5-6 8-9 31 3-6 1 3 4 2 0 Jay Williams 35 5-12 1-5 0-0 11 1-4 4 6 2 1 0 Eddy Curry 12 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 1-3 0 2 2 0 0 Trenton Hassell 19 2-3 1-2 0-0 5 0-4 7 1 2 1 0 Marcus Fizer 17 2-10 0-1 1-1 5 1-7 1 2 1 0 0 Jamal Crawford 14 2-4 1-3 0-0 5 0-1 0 0 0 0 0 Corie Blount 3 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Fred Hoiberg 8 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 34-88 8-18 14-21 90 17-50 17 19 15 5 2 Toronto at Dallas (December 2) Dallas opened on fire with a 12-1 run 3 minutes in, but unfortunately they could not maintain their hot start. The teams traded jumpers and Toronto went on a 14-2 run to go up 17-16 with 5:20 left. The teams traded leads a couple of times and Toronto led 25-24 after 1. Morris Peterson had 12 points. The game stayed close in the 2nd quarter with neither team holding more than a 3 point lead. Raef LaFrentz tipped in a miss by Nick Van Exel to give Dallas a 53-52 lead at the half. Dallas shot 51% FG while Toronto shot just 38% FG - but Toronto got 13 more attempts than Dallas. Peterson had 18 points. Vince Carter picked up his 4th foul a minute into the 3rd quarter. The teams traded leads over the first half of the 3rd quarter and Dallas used a 9-2 run to go up 74-65 with 4:30 left. Toronto answered by scoring the next 6 points to pull within 71-74 with 3 minutes to go. Dallas was able to hang on to their single-digit lead and led 82-78 after 3. Dallas scored the first 4 points of the 4th quarter, but Toronto pulled within 84-87 with 9:35 remaining. Dallas scored the next 8 points, including Dirk Nowitzki's first field goal since 3 1/2 minutes into the game, to go up 95-84 with 8:30 left, but Toronto answered with a 10-2 run to pull within 94-97 with 5:40 to go. Nowitzki hit a jumper and Carter converted an alley-oop and Dallas exploded over the next minute as Nowitzki drove for 2, Finley intercepted a bad pass and Nowitzki got the dunk on the break, and Peterson turned the ball over inside and Steve Nash drained the pull-up 3-pointer to give Dallas a 106-96 lead with 3:55 left. Alvin Williams hit a jumper, but Nash was _twice_ able to drive and hit the scoop shot to give Dallas a 110-98 lead with 1:50 to go. Dallas won 113-102. Dallas again did not look sharp for most of the game as Toronto's physicalness seemed to bother them, but the Mavs stepped it up when it counted during the 4th quarter and shot 62% FG during the quarter and capitalized on Toronto's 4 turnovers during the quarter. Dallas shot 55.4% FG and Toronto shot 46% FG and Dallas shot 25-30 FT and Toronto shot 16-18 FT. Dallas also had 31 fast break points while Toronto only 11 fast break points. Steve Nash again had a strong game where he only missed 1 shot (16-18 FG over the past 2 games) with 25 points on 7-8 FG and 10-10 FT and 7 assists. Dirk Nowitzki got tossed around and left the game during the 3rd quarter to get a padded wrap on his right elbow, which had developed a knot after falling on it, and did return to play. He hit his first 2 shots and then proceeded to miss his next 12 shots. He did finish with 23 points including 7-20 FG and 6 rebounds. Michael Finley had a nice night with 15 points including 7-11 FG and 5 rebounds. Finley was also a victim of the rough play as he was seen grabbing his upper thigh and was soon subbed out to be checked out - he did resume playing. Nick Van Exel again was the spark off the bench with 17 points including 3-6 3-pointers. The Big 3, Van Exel, and Shawn Bradley played most of the 4th quarter. Bradley was the big man in the middle and had 11 points and 8 rebounds. He had a _great_ steal where he basically ripped the ball out of Vince Carter's hands. Raef LaFrentz started and is still not quite back, but did have a better performance than the Chicago game with 13 points including 6-7 FG and 3 rebounds in 20 minutes. Adrian Griffin also started and had 2 points and 5 rebounds in just 15 minutes as he got pulled after defensive lapses (such as loosing Carter which allowed some alley-oop dunks). Raja Bell had some of his minutes with 3 points and 3 rebounds in 12 minutes, but I'm still trying to figure out what he did that deserved a 1-T ejection. [The only thing that I could think of was that the ref might have thought he threw an elbow (he didn't).] Walt Williams was the only other Mav to see minutes and he had 4 points on 2-2 FG in 10 minutes (don't know why he only played 10 minutes, I thought he did well when he was on the court). Alvin Williams went nuts in this game and had 27 points including 12-19 FG and 7 assists. Morris Peterson had a very strong 1st half, but only had 6 points in the 2nd half. He finish with 24 points including 4-8 3-pointers and 7 rebounds. Antonio Davis had 18 points and 9 rebounds and Vince Carter had just 17 points on 8-20 FG and 1-7 3-pointers (no free throws) in 32 foul plagued minutes. He did have a couple of ohh-ahh alley-oop dunks, but they still only count for 2 points. Toronto only played 8 players due to the many injuries the team has been plagued with. This game also featured some levity when a shot attempted by Shawn Bradley rested at the base of the rim and stayed there, resulting in a jump ball. Quotes Don Nelson: "It was a hard game for us. I thought they played well and shot the ball extremely well. When they had shots they made them and put a strain on our defense. We had to really play the whole game. We found a way to win and I think that is the important thing, win these 2 home games before we go on the road. Now we will be tested. We are in the West and going on our first extended road trip. We are looking forward to that to see where we are and do what we need to do there. I thought Raef LaFrentz did a really good job for being an injured guy. He seemed fairly active and got some rebounds and he looked a lot better than he did the first game. I think that is very positive. We did a lot of good things. The game didn't look that good because everyone expected that we would win the game, but it was a very tough game for us. We played as a hard as we could and pretty darn well at times. Dirk was struggling again and when he struggles, I guess we struggle. He has had a little problem with his hip and didn't work out yesterday. Normally he does quite a bit of shooting on a day off and didn't work out. I was real proud of the guys with the way they hung in there. It was a physical game and we withstood the challenge and found a way to win." Nelson: "We didn't zone much tonight. We thought last time we played them they ran a lot of good stuff and I was a little afraid. We certainly tested them and every time we did, they scored. We basically played them man-to-man except for maybe the last 7 minutes of the game. For what ever reason we tried to surprise them with our zone and we got a couple of turnovers and I don't think they scored again against it. We played them the best we could on a man-to-man basis and I thought they found a lot of holes in our defense." Nelson: "For whatever reason, people are allowed to play us more physically and teams are certainly trying to do it. You would hope that the referees would straighten that out, and when they don't, well, then you have a physical game and then you have to do what you have to do to protect yourself and still try to win the game. The fact that Indiana knocked us off and played us physically up there was an indicator." Nelson: "It was a hard game for us. For whatever reason, people are allowed to play us more physical now. Other teams are seeing that and are saying, 'Hey, let's beat them up.' So if the refs don't control it, we'll be forced to survive in that environment." Michael Finley: "We started having fun on the defensive end in the 4th quarter and once we got that going, it turned the game around." Finley on the physicalness: "They're quote-unquote 'from the Eastern Conference' so they're supposed to be the bad boys of the league. They tried to be a little physical as far as bumping us and not letting us go where we wanted to go, and it got a little physical to the point where there was some flagrant fouls happening. When you go against playoff teams, that's what to expect. We can receive it and we can dish it out as well. But we're not going to let no team come in here and just try to punk us and I think they tried to do that." Finley: "It was physical. They were trying to bump us to the point where we got out of our game. But we can receive it and we can give it out too." Finley: "We're pretty good right now, but not to the point where I think we can be. But we're going in the right direction." Dirk Nowitzki: "We have to be tougher. They can't play soft with us. They know that's not going to do it. So they have to get in the paint and get physical. We have to find a way to match that." Nowitzki on his elbow: "It's just a little swollen. I fell on it and it's a little like last year. It didn't really affect me because my shot was pretty much broken in the 1st half." Nowitzki on his injured elbow: "It didn't really affect me. I played at least 30 games with it last year, so I'm pretty much used to it." Steve Nash: "We believe we're a championship team and it's nice to be winning. We're just trying to compete because everybody wants to beat the best." Raef LaFrentz on the game being physical: "It got to that point. A couple calls here and there and all of a sudden in turned into a physical game. It was physical, but controlled, just a good physical basketball game." LaFrentz on opponents playing physical: "Teams try to do that anyway. You've got to expect that because they are trying to get us out of our comfort zone and that's a way you can attempt to do it. I'm sure teams will throw everything at us." LaFrentz on his ankle: "It's coming. Everyday my jumps get a little bit higher, a little bit more explosive, but I'm just trying to be patient." Shawn Bradley: "In the first 3 quarters we weren't in a really good rhythm, but the 4th quarter we came out and we were able to get in the kind of rhythm we needed to. We were really predictable in the first 3 quarters in our defensive sets. They made some long shots against our zone, but in the 4th quarter we were able to mix things a little more and keep them guessing." Bradley: "We're on a winning streak right now. We're having a lot of fun, and teams are going to try to get into our heads and try to disrupt that." Bradley: "We're not known to be a real physical team, a real tough team. We're on a winning streak right now, we've won a lot of games and we're having a lot of fun and teams are going to try to get into our heads and try to disrupt that. We've got to play through all of that." Bradley: "Teams are going to try to do whatever they can to get into our heads. We just have to not let it bother us." Bradley on Bell's ejection: "Any time a player gets into that situation, it's nice to have the team around him step up. We used that as a springboard for energy." Lenny Wilkens on the turnovers in the 4th: "We got anxious and turned the ball over 2 times in a row. We were right there and getting into foul trouble didn't help. We had a golden opportunity. We were right in that game. That's when you almost have to be perfect down the stretch. You can't afford to turn the ball loose and let the other team get some breakaways." Wilkens: "You almost have to be perfect down the stretch against them and we made a couple of mistakes. I told them, 'Keep your heads up, you played hard and were right there.'" Wilkens: "We turned it over 2 times. We were in between. A guy was going away from us and we tried to pass it to him, twice. You can't do that. You never make a pass unless you have eye contact." Wilkens: "We told Michael [Bradley] to use the board going to the basket so Bradley couldn't get to his shot. When he did that, he actually shot it off the board one time and came up under the other side, it made a difference." Alvin Williams: "They are a tough team; a tough match-up for anybody. They have a lot of shooters and a lot of offensive threats. They are really tough to guard." Williams: "It's tough, the 4th quarter, you're playing hard and a couple of turnovers get you. I had a turnover, we made another mistake, and they're a dangerous team. They hit a 3, they open it up and with Steve Nash running the team, they're tough." Williams: "We can learn from all situations. That's the best team in the NBA, with the best record, and that's a game we could have won. That shows us something." Williams: "Taking a loss like this, there's no plus to it. But every game you can learn something from. We made some bad turnovers near the end and it hurt us." Williams: "We can definitely learn from it. We can learn from the situation. We can learn how to guard the elbow screen-and-roll better. It was hard for us to guard, so we can learn from all our mistakes. We get a loss out of this and there is no plus to that, but every game you can learn from." Dallas Mavericks 113, Toronto 102 at Dallas (December 2) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 24 29 29 31 - 113 .574 .462 .554 .833 Toronto 25 27 26 24 - 102 .507 .300 .460 .889 Halftime: Dallas 53-52 3rd Q: Dallas 82-78 Technicals: Raja Bell (ejected) 0:27 3rd, Toronto defensive 3 seconds 10:38 4th, Antonio Davis 9:32 4th Refs: Ken Mauer, Scott Wall, Steve Javie Attendance: 19,696 (sellout) Did not play due to injury: Eduardo Najera (sore left knee), Lindsey Hunter (sore right knee), Voshon Lenard (sore back), Jerome Williams (sore left elbow), Mamadou N'diaye (stress fracture right foot), Nate Huffman (right knee injury) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Adrian Griffin 15 1-3 0-0 0-0 2 1-5 1 1 2 2 0 Dirk Nowitzki 38 7-20 1-3 8-8 23 1-6 3 1 0 2 1 Raef LaFrentz 20 6-7 0-0 1-2 13 1-3 0 2 4 0 2 Michael Finley 43 7-11 1-3 0-2 15 0-5 4 3 0 2 0 Steve Nash 41 7-8 1-1 10-10 25 0-4 7 2 3 1 0 Raja Bell 12 1-1 0-0 1-2 3 1-3 0 0 3 1 0 Shawn Bradley 28 3-8 0-0 5-6 11 2-8 0 0 3 2 2 Walt Williams 10 2-2 0-0 0-0 4 0-0 2 0 1 0 0 Nick Van_Exel 33 7-14 3-6 0-0 17 2-2 6 1 0 2 0 Totals 48 41-74 6-13 25-30 113 8-36 23 10 16 12 5 Toronto Raptors REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Morris Peterson 44 9-17 4-8 2-2 24 0-7 0 2 3 1 0 Antonio Davis 45 6-14 0-0 6-6 18 4-9 2 3 4 1 1 Greg Foster 32 1-5 0-0 2-2 4 2-7 0 1 4 0 1 Vince Carter 32 8-20 1-7 0-1 17 1-1 4 3 5 0 0 Alvin Williams 42 12-19 1-4 2-3 27 1-2 7 2 4 2 0 Jermaine Jackson 24 0-2 0-0 4-4 4 1-3 5 1 2 2 0 Michael Bradley 18 4-9 0-1 0-0 8 4-8 1 1 0 0 0 Chris Jefferies 3 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 40-87 6-20 16-18 102 13-38 19 13 22 6 2 patricia