Atlanta (20-33) at Dallas (40-12) (February 18) Atlanta forgot that there was a game this night and came out ice cold while Dallas couldn't miss and shot out to a 17-2 lead with 7 minutes left. Atlanta shot 0-9 FG and had 4 turnovers in the stretch while Dallas shot 7-8 FG (and Michael Finley got the steal and dunk following his miss). Atlanta finally put a basket on the board 6 minutes in and scored the next 6 points to keep the game from being an early blowout. Dallas led 28-19 after 1. Finley and Dirk Nowitzki had 10 points each. Dallas shot 55% FG and Atlanta shot just 27% FG, but did benefit from shooting 7-8 FT and 7 offensive rebounds. Dallas scored the first 4 points of the 2nd quarter and the Mavs' lead stayed in that range - growing no larger than 15 points and no smaller than 8 points. It wasn't the prettiest quarter for Dallas, but the team still led 49-39 at the half. Dallas shot 53% FG while Atlanta was still pitiful at 26% FG. But Dallas committed an uncharacteristically high 11 turnovers in the half (the team only averages 11.2 turnovers per game). After a halftime lecture by Don Nelson about their lackluster 1st half, Dallas came out playing better in the 2nd half. Dallas led 53-45 with 9:40 remaining and went on a 12-2 run to go up 65-47 with 6:30 left. Dallas led 52-68 with 4:15 remaining and went on an 11-3 run to go up 79-55 with 1:45 to go. The game got Keystoneish with bodies and the ball flying everywhere. A pass from Nick Van Exel deflected off a Hawk's hand, off of Raja Bell's head, and into Shawn Bradley's hands and he dunked it. Then Jason Terry threw a simple pass to an unexpecting Shareef Abdur-Rahim and the ball bounced off his head out of bounds. Bradley scored the last 6 points of the quarter to give Dallas a commanding 85-57 lead after 3. Dallas out-scored Atlanta 36-18 in the 3rd quarter. Finley had 12 points in the quarter. The 4th quarter was pure garbage time as Dallas opened the quarter with consecutive 3-pointers, by Walt Williams and Adrian Griffin, for their first 30 point lead. It was an even uglier than usual garbage time as Dallas got into the penalty a mere 2 minutes into the quarter and the refs kept blowing their whistles and Atlanta kept missing free throws. Atlanta shot 6-16 FT in the quarter. Dallas won going away 105-79. Dallas let up some after building a large early lead, but it ended up being a blowout anyways. Atlanta simply looked like a bad team. Their big 3 combined for only 33 points including 10-30 FG. As a team, Atlanta shot just 31.6% (25-79) FG while Dallas shot 51.3% (40-78) FG. Atlanta shot 26-37 FT and Dallas shot 16-17 FT. And after being out-rebounded by 6 at halftime, Dallas finished the game tied with Atlanta with 46 rebounds. Both teams finished with 18 turnovers - the 2nd most Dallas has had this season. Dallas led from start to finish - the 9th time this season that has occurred. Michael Finley had a solid game with 26 points including 3-4 3-pointers, 5 rebounds, and 3 steals in 30 minutes. Dirk Nowitzki had 14 points and 6 rebounds in 28 minutes. Steve Nash had 8 points and 3 assists in just 18 minutes. Walt Williams provided the boost off the bench with 15 points - 10 of which came before garbage time. He also got the chalupa bucket on a nifty reverse layup. Raef LaFrentz had 9 points including 4-4 FG and 5 rebounds and Shawn Bradley had 10 points and 5 rebounds in 17 minutes each. Shareef Abdur-Rahim was the high man for Atlanta with just 14 points, but he only attempted 6 shots. Glenn Robinson had 13 points including 5-14 FG and Jason Terry had 6 points on 2-10 FG and 2-8 3-pointers and just 2 assists to go with 4 turnovers. Theo Ratliff had 11 points including 3-9 FG, 9 rebounds, and 3 blocks. Rookie Dan Dickau had 10 points including 4-11 FG and was the high assist man with 4 assists. Quotes Don Nelson: "This was a tune-up game. The day after tomorrow will be the biggest game of the season, I think. It seems like nobody is going to beat San Antonio, so we are going to have to take care of our own business and be ready to play. That's why I was very disappointed with the way we were playing in the 1st half because we have to start playing at a higher level if we are going to compete with the good teams. We have a good one coming in here. They've won 10 straight now. I like the 2nd half very much. As much as I disliked the 1st half, I liked the 2nd half just as much. The team competed and played as if it was a competitive game, which was the way I wanted it to be. We took care of business and got the job done in the 2nd half and I was very pleased." Nelson on the 1st half: "There are certain times when you play down to the level of your opponent and I thought that was what was happening in the 1st half. It was no disrespect to the Hawks, but there are some games when teams are sharp and some games when they are not and that was obviously not a sharp team that showed up tonight. I expected us to dominate them and when we didn't, I just didn't like the 1st half at all. The players in the locker room know that. The 2nd half was a big turn around. I'll take what I got after reminding our team that this was an important game to get back on the right track." Nelson: "As upset as I was with the 1st half, I was just as happy with the 2nd." Nelson: "We've played a lot of games and close games and I think it has been a mental fatigue as anything. Going from All-Star to the road to playing 4 games in 5 days. It kind of wore everyone out. Every game was a close game. We lost some and won some, but still couldn't pull away from anybody. It was like pulling teeth. We just have to shake out of it. If you lay around and feel sorry for yourself, you will never get over it. There is nobody feeling sorry for anybody here. It is time to get on with it." Nelson on Finley: "Michael was the only guy that I thought played with the intensity that I wanted for this particular game. I think he senses what's coming up and nobody else did. You can't just turn it on for a big game, you have to be playing well. I think San Antonio proved it. They go on the road and beat everybody." Nelson on Eschmeyer: "He's just coming back. He's like Eddie. He's not in tip-top shape. He's missing balls, but he is a factor in what he does. He rebounds and sets good picks and bangs and those kinds of things. He can be effective, but he has to play at a higher level like most everybody else. I could talk about the whole bench that way. They have to pick it up." Michael Finley on being ready to play against Atlanta: "That's my role on this team. I need to lead this team, if not vocally, but by example. I just want to go out there tonight and let our team know not to look past Atlanta and not to look forward to the San Antonio game. Going into the game, I thought that if I came out more aggressive offensively and defensively, the team would feed off of that. We didn't play well the 1st half, but in the 2nd half we picked it up a bit. We won the game tonight and that's the most important thing. We can't come out in the 1st half and play lackluster against any team if we want to be considered one of the better teams in this league. We need to play hard the entire game, night in and night out." Finley: "In a way, it's kind of disappointing, but we won the game, and that's the most important part. But we learned that we can't come out in the 1st half and play lackluster against any team if we want to be one of the better teams in this league. We have to play hard for 48 minutes, night-in and night-out and get on a consistent roll going into the playoffs. I think coach Nelson hit that at halftime when he got on us a little bit." Finley: "If anything, we were taking this game a little too lightly, especially when we got up 17-2. We picked it up in the 2nd half and learned from our mistakes. Coach Nelson hit that at halftime when he got into us a little bit and that opened up our eyes and we responded in the 2nd half." Finley when asked about the Spurs game: "We're going to enjoy this win for the night and then it's time to start getting mentally prepared to go to battle against San Antonio on Thursday." Steve Nash: "I'm not sure that we played great at any stretch tonight. We've got a tough game Thursday, so we're going to have to play a lot better." Nick Van Exel on Nelson at halftime: "He was disappointed, real disappointed. He expects so much of us, and when we play as poorly as we did in the 1st half, he's going to get on us." Eduardo Najera on Nelson not being happy with the 1st half: "We weren't happy either as a team. We were playing very well and we played at their level in the 1st half. We know that we are a better team than Atlanta. Nellie yelled at us a little bit at halftime and we came out and played better in the 2nd half." Najera: "We wanted to feel good about tonight's game especially facing San Antonio on Thursday. We played pretty good tonight in the 2nd half. We got some rhythm going and we really did what we wanted to do. We played better defensively and we feel good going into the game on Thursday." Walt Williams on the bench's 2nd half performance: "Tonight the bench took the challenge and came up big for us. We take a lot of pride and try to stay competitive and get some consistency." Terry Stotts: "You can't have a bad game when you are playing the best team in the league on the road. That's what we did. We didn't shoot the ball well, got off to a bad start. To be down 10 at halftime, I thought we worked hard to get it to 10. We were on the boards and came up with steals, but they are too good a team. They have spurts that they can take a lead from 10 to 20 pretty quickly. That is what they did tonight." Stotts on the 3rd quarter: "I thought we let them shoot a jumper and 3 that got them started and I thought we could have dug in harder. On those shots in particular." Glenn Robinson: "We lost to a good team on the road. We didn't have anything going offensively. They got that big run on us and we just didn't play well against them. They are the best team in the West. You have to give them a lot of credit, they've got a good team, a lot of depth. We made runs, but they are an explosive team." Robinson: "They made shots and we missed shots. In the 1st half we missed shots too, but I think we had better looks. They made shots. We shot poorly all around the board. Everyone shot bad. I think we only shot 30 something percent. We can't win against anybody shooting like that. They made that run and it is hard to come back from the run they got in the 1st quarter, let alone 2 runs. We have to come back tomorrow and get ready for the next one. We can't let this zap our confidence. We have a good team and we still have some games that we can go out and get on this next road trip." Robinson on management's announcement a few weeks ago that all the players were available for trading: "I think it is a distraction. You can't bring a group together and say anybody is tradeable. Guys are not going to play hard for you. I understand how you got to come out every night and compete to win, but this is a young ball team and you kill people's confidence that way." Theo Ratliff: "We didn't play no different than how we usually play. It's a steady diet of the same thing - taking bad shots, playing bad defense. That's how we always play." Dallas Mavericks 105, Atlanta Hawks 79 at Dallas (February 18) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 28 21 36 20 - 105 .500 .563 .513 .941 Atlanta 19 20 18 22 - 79 .367 .158 .316 .703 Halftime: Dallas 49-39 3rd Q: Dallas 85-57 Technicals: Dirk Nowitzki 5:40 3rd Refs: Jim Clark, Marc Davis, Tony Brothers Attendance: 19,783 (sellout) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Dirk Nowitzki 28 5-12 2-3 2-2 14 0-6 2 2 1 0 1 Raef LaFrentz 17 4-4 0-0 1-2 9 2-5 2 2 4 1 0 Evan Eschmeyer 24 1-2 0-0 2-2 4 1-6 2 1 6 1 1 Michael Finley 30 10-19 3-4 3-3 26 1-5 2 3 0 3 0 Steve Nash 19 3-6 0-1 2-2 8 0-1 3 1 1 0 0 Nick Van_Exel 17 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 3 2 0 0 0 Shawn Bradley 17 3-5 0-0 4-4 10 1-5 4 0 4 0 2 Eduardo Najera 17 2-2 0-0 0-0 4 1-3 1 1 2 0 0 Adrian Griffin 17 1-4 1-1 0-0 3 3-8 1 2 3 1 0 Raja Bell 20 3-4 0-1 0-0 6 0-1 2 3 0 0 0 Walt Williams 22 5-11 3-6 2-2 15 1-3 2 1 4 2 2 Antoine Rigaudeau 12 3-9 0-0 0-0 6 0-2 0 0 2 0 0 Totals 48 40-78 9-16 16-17 105 10-46 24 18 27 8 6 Atlanta Hawks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Shareef Abdur-Rahim 27 3-6 0-0 8-8 14 3-4 3 3 2 2 0 Glenn Robinson 26 5-14 0-4 3-3 13 0-4 2 4 3 0 0 Theo Ratliff 29 3-9 0-0 5-6 11 4-9 1 0 2 4 3 Dion Glover 23 1-6 0-1 2-2 4 2-4 0 1 2 0 0 Jason Terry 26 2-10 2-8 0-0 6 0-1 2 4 2 2 0 Ira Newble 21 2-6 0-1 3-6 7 0-6 0 0 1 0 0 Dan Dickau 30 4-11 1-5 1-2 10 1-1 4 3 2 0 0 Alan Henderson 9 1-5 0-0 0-0 2 1-1 0 0 1 0 0 Nazr Mohammed 17 2-8 0-0 2-4 6 3-6 0 0 2 3 1 Darvin Ham 20 1-2 0-0 2-4 4 5-8 0 3 0 1 1 Jermaine Jackson 12 1-2 0-0 0-2 2 0-2 1 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 25-79 3-19 26-37 79 19-46 13 18 17 12 5 patricia