Minnesota (41-24) at Dallas (48-14) (March 10) Dallas forgot there was a game this night and came out ice cold while Minnesota did not look like they had played the night before. Minnesota went up 12-2 with 7 minutes left as Dallas shot 1-11 FG (and I spent the rest of the night watching Dallas' field goal percentage slowly rise to from absolutely pathetic to merely dismal). Minnesota led 24-11 after 1. Kevin Garnett had 12 points. The only thing good about Dallas' performance was that they were rebounding. They out-rebounded Minnesota 17-13 including 8 offensive in the 1st quarter, but that doesn't amount to much when you shoot just 20% FG while your opponent shots 52% FG. Dallas scored the first 6 points to open the 2nd quarter, but could get no closer than 4 points. Minnesota led 37-31 with 3:50 to go and scored the next 8 points to go up 45-31 with a minute remaining. Minnesota led 47-33 at the half. Dallas' shooting percentage was all the way up to 25.5% FG including 0-11 3-pointers while Minnesota was still shooting strong at 52.6% FG (but only 1-7 3-pointers). Dallas out-rebounded Minnesota 36-21 including an amazing 20 offensive boards, but the team still struggled with the 2nd shots. Garnett had 18 points including 8-9 FG and 9 rebounds and Dirk Nowitzki was the only Mav able to score with 16 points. The torture continued in the 3rd quarter as Minnesota scored the first 4 points to take their largest lead at 51-33 a minute in. Minnesota led 53-37 with 9:30 to go and Dallas scored the next 9 points, capped by a 3-pointer by Michael Finley, to pull within 46-53 with 7:45 left. But Wally Szczerbiak answered with a 3-pointer and a 9-3 mini-run by Minnesota pushed their lead back into the teens at 62-49 with 4:10 left. A jumper by Nick Van Exel closed the scoring for the quarter and Minnesota led 65-55 after 3. Dallas continued to try to climb out of the deep hole they had dug for themselves by opening the 4th with a 10-2 run to pull within 65-67 with 6:35 remaining as Minnesota struggled to score with their first points of the quarter not coming until 3 1/2 minutes in. A 3-pointer by Nowitzki pulled Dallas within 68-69 with 6 minutes left, Wally Szczerbiak answered with a jumper, and a 3-pointer by Finley tied the game all up at 71-71 with 5:20 to go. But Szczerbiak immediately answered with a 3 to put Minnesota back up. Finley got a layup, but Szczerbiak hit another 3-pointer to give Minnesota a 77-73 lead with 3:30 left. Finley missed, Rasho Nesterovic hit 1 of 2 free throws, Nesterovic blocked a layup attempt by Eduardo Najera, and Garnett hit a jumper (his first shot attempted in almost 6 minutes) to give Minnesota an 80-73 lead with 2:20 remaining. And Minnesota had an answer for every point Dallas scored the rest of the way as their lead literally flip-flopped between 5 and 7 points for the next 2 minutes as both teams scored on every possession. Finley missed with 30 seconds left and Dallas started intentionally fouling and Minnesota hit their free throws. Minnesota won 92-83. Well, that was an ugly performance by Dallas - an absolutely amazing comeback in a game the team had no business being in, but you have to be able to shoot better then 32% FG no matter how well you rebound. And Minnesota played a great game (granted they should have never allowed Dallas to get back in it) and was really clutch down the stretch. But the key to the game was shooting. Dallas shot a season worst 32% (33-103) FG including 5-25 3-pointers. The 103 field goals attempted was a season high, but you have to make some of them. Minnesota shot 47.9% (35-73) FG including 4-15 3-pointers. Minnesota shot 18-23 FT and Dallas shot 12-16 FT. In the only positive from this game, Dallas dominated the rebounds in out-rebounding Minnesota 60-41 including 30-7 offensive. The 19 rebound edge was the largest difference in over 3 seasons (had 18 once during 00-01) and the 30 offensive boards was just 3 off the team record. It was only the 2nd game this season where Dallas never held a lead. Kevin Garnett continued his MVP performance with 31 points on 14-20 FG and 3-7 FT (missed his first 3), 18 rebounds, and 5 assists. Most of Dallas' runs came when he was on the bench. I was surprised that the ball wasn't going through him for a good stretch during the 4th quarter, but then he hit 2 straight tough shots with 2 minutes left. Wally Szczerbiak stepped up his performance in the 4th quarter as 14 of his 27 points came in the last 5:30 of the game, including 2 killer 3-pointers. Rasho Nesterovic was the only other T'wolf in double-digits with 11 points including 3-11 FG. He also had 6 rebounds and a career high 9 blocks. Troy Hudson had 9 points and 11 assists. Dirk Nowitzki was the only Mav to put up halfway decent numbers. He had 37 points including 15-33 FG and 13 rebounds (and _5_ offensive [most of his boards come from the defensive end]) before fouling out on an intentional foul in the waning seconds. And the Mavs should have gone to him more than they did as Wally Szczerbiak was guarding him most of the time and Dirk can easily take Szczerbiak if the double-team doesn't arrive or arrives late. Michael Finley was the only other Mav in double-digits with 17 points including 7-27 FG and 2-11 3-pointers and 13 rebounds including 6 offensive. He only shot 1-12 FG in the 1st half, but made his first 3 shots of the 3rd quarter. Steve Nash had 8 points on 4-13 FG and 0-4 3-pointers, 5 rebounds, and 9 assists. Raef LaFrentz had 9 points as the only other Mav to shot half way decent (4-9 FG - besides Dirk, everyone else shot below 31%) and had 9 rebounds. Dallas got almost nothing from the bench as Nick Van Exel had 7 points including 2-10 FG, 3 rebounds, and 4 assists in 31 minutes, Eduardo Najera had 2 points including 1-5 FG and just 3 rebounds in 26 minutes, Shawn Bradley had 3 points on free throws and 4 rebounds in 13 minutes, Walt Williams shot 0-2 FG and had 5 rebounds in 13 minutes, and Adrian Griffin shot 0-2 FG and had 3 rebounds in 9 minutes. Quotes Flip Saunders on what he said during an early timeout: "I tell them to keep on playing that way. I thought, defensively, we were really active. We really contested a lot of shots. We made a conscious effort to contest on the perimeter, and what it did do was open up the rebounds and they had a lot. They pummeled us on the offensive boards. With them, you have to pick your poison. We pummeled them on the glass before, we just thought we would try to guard them on the perimeter better and contest more shots." Saunders on Szczerbiak: "He had a big 4th quarter, had a big shot. We played a lot of Kevin Garnett. We got Garnett the ball, played off him. They played a lot of zone and we had problems when we didn't have Wally in the game against the zone. Wally picked some open seems, and our guys found him, and he knocked down some big shots and he knocked down big free throws. Those are the things that he can really do." Kevin Garnett: "I don't think a lot of people know about us, at least as far as character, they don't know. But I do know these were 2 games that we had to have, and we had to do whatever we had to do to win them." Garnett: "We are aggressive. It's only when we are passive, we let the defense come at us, or we are not going back as hard as they are coming at us; that's is the only time I am bothered. When we are playing aggressive, we can play with anybody." Garnett: "They have a team that can cut a 12-point lead to single-digits in a heartbeat. I wasn't going to let the defense rest or have the chance to relax a little bit. I just continued to attack even though they were in a zone. I told Wally, [Peeler], and even Troy, 'If they come and double-team, be ready to shoot.'" Wally Szczerbiak: "I was saying all along, let's learn from our mistakes and we played well down the stretch. We didn't get down, we didn't play scared, and we continued to get better. Now we just have to stay focused. The little things are what is going to get us over the hump. Any time we are clouded by someone's opinion of us, we are not going to play our best. If we just stay together and play our butts off, we will be fine." Szczerbiak on keeping their heads up when Dallas tied the game: "We have guys with a lot of heart. It's not easy playing the last game of a 5 game road trip, but tonight we banded together like a band of brothers, and said we weren't going to lose. Kevin Garnett was huge again and I was able to get going in the 4th quarter. Every one on this team never loses faith in anyone, and that was certainly the case tonight and throughout this season. That's why we are in the position we are in, and I think that if we stay positive and keep working toward good things, good things are going to continue to happen." Szczerbiak: "I just remember hitting a bunch of shots at the end. I was so focused on getting us over the hump I can't comment on one shot." Troy Hudson: "In the huddles, we were saying, 'It's a must win.' We said that last night in Phoenix: 'It's a must win.' And we said that here: 'It's a must win.' That's the way we came out and played." Kendall Gill: "If we hadn't won these last 2, I'd be kind of worried about our confidence. But we came through and we closed it out. And we really wanted to beat Dallas." Don Nelson: "All these games are high priority games for us and this one we let slip away. I don't know what we could have done about it. We just chose a terrible time to have a cold night. We missed so many shots that we normally make and we were out played and they basically beat us. We tried the best we could and tried to win the game. I thought we could still pull it out, but they started to make some 3-point baskets and that was the end of that. You experience a lot of things when you go through a season and it doesn't always turn out the way the coach wants and this was one of those situations. I thought we were ready to play and maybe we weren't at the beginning of the game for whatever reason. Again, we had a bad start and we have to do something about bad starts. I don't know what it is yet and I have a couple of days to think about that. We shoot ourselves in the foot almost every other game when we get off to the bad starts and we have to pick it up and scratch around and find ways to get back in games. Eventually, it was going to catch us and it did tonight. We never recovered from our shooting touch. We never really got it back. We had shots, but give them a lot of credit. They zoned us and maned-to-maned us and out-played us and they got the win and we didn't. It was a very important game as far as I was concerned because now we go on the road for 3 tough games. We are playing the iron every night out including teams you may not consider good teams. Seattle is definitely a good team, Golden State is definitely a good team at this time of year and none of them are going to be easy. We have to find a way to get our game together and compete and we have to scratch these games out." Nelson on Garnett: "That was our game plan, but we couldn't stay with it because it was going to be a runaway. We couldn't guard him man-to-man, which is what we wanted to do. Our zone was much better and got us back in the game, but when you play that too much they found some holes and made a couple of 3s. The zone was good to us tonight, it got us back in the game. We had a game plan, but we couldn't stick with it because of the score. We had to make substitutions and find different combinations that would get us back in the game. We finally did, but then my selection of going with Eddie down the stretch, he hasn't been able to finish shots the last 3 games. He had been very good around the basket in the past and he had plenty of opportunities to make his shot around the basket. He had most of them blocked. I don't know if the knee is bothering him, if he can't accelerate anymore. I'm told by the doctor he needs to play through this and he is going to have some pain and as long as there is not swelling there, we should continue to play him. We wanted to use him, but we couldn't because he couldn't finish his shots and made 2 defensive errors that cost us 2 baskets." Nelson on if Garnett is the MVP: "He's got my vote. He had it before. He didn't have to prove anything to me. There are several guys that are having MVP seasons, but nobody is playing better than he is." Nelson on Szczerbiak: "We've been watching them play on the road and he has been struggling with his shooting. As you might know, against us everybody gets healthy. He got his rhythm early by us not guarding in our man-to-man coverage and then he got his confidence and then when he got shots down the stretch he made them." Michael Finley: "We did everything that we needed to do to win the game except shoot well. We defended them as best as we could during crucial times in the game, we got hustle points on offensive rebounds, and we dominated them on the boards, but we forgot how to shoot tonight. Who would have ever thought that a Dallas team would shoot so low? You have to tip your hat to their team. They are playing well and they executed well down the stretch when they needed big buckets." Finley on the comeback and then Minnesota hitting shots: "It was frustrating and it took the air out of us a little bit. That's the way that they have been playing all year. Kevin made big shots down the stretch; Szczerbiak as well. We were unable to make shots." Dirk Nowitzki: "If you would have told me we'd out-rebound them by 20 and still lose the game, I would have told you that you were crazy. We just had an unbelievable off night. I've never been in a game where a team shot the ball 103 times. That's just amazing. We had 30 offensive rebounds. It's crazy that we lost that game. It was just a weird game." Nowitzki: "30 offensive rebounds - it's crazy we lost that game. We just had an unbelievable off night. I haven't seen us shoot like that in my 5 years here." Steve Nash: "We didn't have any answers." Nick Van Exel: "They made big buckets down the stretch. KG and Wally hit the shots that they needed to make for them and we just couldn't get any stops. Tonight was a night where offensively we didn't play like we normally do. We rebounded well, but didn't shoot well tonight." Van Exel on the slow start: "It's been happening a lot to us against the good teams. We just start off slow and have to fight our way back. It took a lot of energy out of us to get back into the game. They played last night, but they played like they wanted it a little bit more than us down the stretch." Van Exel if anything can be taken from coming back: "No because we are at the point now where we shouldn't have to be coming back this late in the season because we are suppose to be sharpening up on everything." Minnesota Timberwolves 83, Dallas Mavericks 92 at Dallas (March 10) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Minnesota 24 23 18 27 - 92 .534 .267 .479 .783 Dallas 11 22 22 28 - 83 .359 .200 .320 .750 Halftime: Minnesota 47-33 3rd Q: Minnesota 65-55 Technicals: Minnesota delay of game 4:05 3rd Flagrant fouls: Gary Trent 11:02 4th Refs: Danny Crawford, Michael Smith, Scott Foster Attendance: 20,049 (sellout) Minnesota Timberwolves REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Wally Szczerbiak 43 9-17 3-9 6-6 27 0-2 3 4 4 1 0 Kevin Garnett 41 14-20 0-1 3-7 31 3-18 5 0 2 1 1 Radoslav Nesterovic 37 3-11 0-0 5-6 11 2-6 2 0 3 1 9 Troy Hudson 43 3-8 1-3 2-2 9 0-4 11 2 0 1 0 Anthony Peeler 29 1-3 0-1 0-0 2 0-3 3 0 2 0 1 Kendall Gill 20 4-7 0-1 0-0 8 1-1 0 0 2 0 1 Gary Trent 12 1-3 0-0 0-0 2 1-6 1 0 2 0 0 Mike Wilks 5 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 1 1 0 1 0 Marc Jackson 10 0-2 0-0 2-2 2 0-1 0 2 3 0 0 Totals 48 35-73 4-15 18-23 92 7-41 26 9 18 5 12 Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Michael Finley 41 7-27 2-11 1-2 17 6-13 2 1 0 0 0 Dirk Nowitzki 45 15-33 2-5 5-6 37 5-13 2 0 6 1 0 Raef LaFrentz 19 4-9 0-0 1-2 9 8-9 1 1 1 0 0 Raja Bell 8 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1-2 0 0 1 0 1 Steve Nash 35 4-13 0-4 0-0 8 3-5 9 4 2 0 0 Shawn Bradley 13 0-1 0-0 3-4 3 1-4 2 1 1 1 0 Eduardo Najera 26 1-5 0-0 0-0 2 1-3 1 0 6 0 0 Nick Van_Exel 31 2-10 1-5 2-2 7 2-3 4 2 0 1 0 Adrian Griffin 9 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 1-3 1 0 0 1 0 Walt Williams 13 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 2-5 0 1 1 1 0 Totals 48 33-103 5-25 12-16 83 30-60 22 10 18 5 1 patricia