Game 1: Portland at Dallas (April 19) The playoffs are here! And game 1 started Saturday with a rowdy crowd and Dallas hopping out to an early 11-2 lead with 8:25 left as Dirk Nowitzki scored 7 points. It was fools gold though as Portland picked up their game coming off the timeout and took the ball inside and went on a 12-2 run to go up 14-13 with 5 minutes remaining. The game stayed close the rest of the quarter with the teams trading leads. A 3-pointer by Steve Nash as the quarter ended gave Dallas a 23-21 lead after 1. Nowitzki had 14 points. The game stayed close early in the 2nd quarter before Portland started asserting themselves and Dallas' defense was non-existent and their offense went down the drain. The game was tied at 29-29 with 8 minutes left and Dallas would score just 13 points the rest of the quarter. Portland went on a 20-7 run to take their largest lead at 49-36 with 2:30 to go. Nick Van Exel kept the game from getting too far out of hand by scoring Dallas' last 7 points of the quarter (2 3-pointers and a free throw). Portland led 52-42 at the half - and Dallas had to be glad to be down just by 10 points after that dismal quarter. Portland out-scored Dallas 31-19 in the 2nd quarter and shot 54.5% FG while Dallas shot just 40% FG and the Blazers out-rebounded Dallas 15-6 in the quarter. Damon Stoudamire had 13 points in the 2nd quarter. For the half, Portland shot 55% FG including 3-6 3-pointers and Dallas shot 40.9% FG including 4-11 3-pointers. Portland had a major advantage at the free throw line, but didn't take advantage of it by shooting just 5-12 FT while Dallas shot 2-3 FT. [Normally a difference like that would spark a complaint from me about the officiating, but the difference was warranted in this game. Portland was the aggressive team and took the ball inside while Dallas stuck mostly to the outside.] Nowitzki was doing everything himself for Dallas as he had 23 points and played all but the final second of the half [which is why he technically is listed with 47 minutes]. Dallas scored the first 4 points of the 3rd quarter, including Michael Finley's first points, and Portland held a single-digit lead for the next 8 minutes. Rasheed Wallace tweaked his ankle with 7:25 to go with Portland up by 8 points and he had to leave the game. He got his ankle re-taped and returned with 3:45 left. Portland lead 60-51 with 6:25 left and Dallas went on an 11-2 run, capped by a 3-pointer by Nowitzki, to go up 62-61 with 3 minutes left. At that point, Nowitzki had 32 of Dallas' 62 points. Dallas' run continued as Nowitzki hit 1-2 free throws and Finley drained a 3-pointer to give Dallas a 66-61 with 1:40 left. It was a 15-1 run and Portland missed 9 straight shots during the run. Finley nailed a fade-away baseliner at the buzzer to give Dallas a 70-64 lead after 3. It was quite a different 3rd quarter from the 2nd quarter as Dallas out-scored Portland 28-12 [12 was tied the lowest opponent playoff quarter in Mavs history]. Dallas was the aggressor in the quarter and shot 6-13 FG and 14-15 FT while Portland shot just 4-21 FG and 3-6 FT. Dallas also out-rebounded Portland 15-12. Nowitzki had 12 points and Finley had 7 points on 3-3 FG in the 3rd. A 3-pointer by Finley opened the 4th quarter to give Dallas a 9 point lead. Portland went on a 9-2 run, capped by a 3-pointer by Wallace, to pull within 76-77 with 8 minutes remaining. A layup by Eduardo Najera and 3-pointer by Nowitzki [his 40th point] ended the run. Portland pulled within 80-83 with 6:25 to go, but Dallas got 3 straight layups to go up 89-90 with 4:40 to go. And Portland was unable to get a stop and start a run the rest of the way as every time Portland scored, Dallas scored as the lead flip-flopped between 7 and 9 points. Portland did not score in the last minute of the game and a free throw by Finley gave Dallas their largest lead at 10 points. Dallas won 96-86. It was a game of 2 quarters. Portland was great and Dallas was terrible in the 2nd quarter and Dallas was great and Portland was terrible in the 3rd quarter. I don't think either team proved anything to the other during this game - neither one was able show more than their one quarter strong performance, neither had a good performance for 48 minutes. Dallas needs to come out better in the 1st half [and how many times has that been said this season (a lot)] and needs a more balanced production than they got during this game. The fact that they were able to overcome such a dismal 1st half performance and picked up their defense and rebounding (I can't tell you how many times I screamed "REBOUND" during the 1st half) in the 2nd half was good, but it would be so much easier if they started the game that way. If Portland is going to win, they need to shot better and hit their free throws. For the game, Dallas shot 46.6% (34-73) FG including 8-18 3-pointers and Portland shot 42.7% (35-82) FG including 5-18 3-pointers. Dallas shot 20-24 FT and Portland shot just 11-21 FT - 52.4% FT set the Dallas opponent record for lowest free throw shooting in the playoffs. Portland did out-rebound Dallas 40-48 including 17-7 offensive, but Dallas out-rebounded Portland 25-22 in the 2nd half. Dallas leads the series 1-0. [It's the best of 7.] Game 2 is Wednesday at 8:30 pm in Dallas. Portland had planned on returning to Portland after this game, but their plane had mechanical difficulties and, thus, they remain in Dallas. All hail Dirk! Talk about carrying a team. Dirk Nowitzki had a Mavs playoff high and a career high 46 points. He did it all in shooting 16-27 FG, 4-5 3-pointers, and 10-11 FT, 10 rebounds, and even had 2 assists in playing all but a fraction of a second. And he should have shot even more than he did. The team really need him this night and he came through. He scored 23 points each half and had 11 in the 4th quarter. Michael Finley looked pathetic and gave the team nothing in the 1st half (0-6 FG, 0 rebounds). He hit his first shot early in the 3rd quarter and everyone went, "Finally". He had a great 2nd half and looked like the Finley of old with all 13 of his points (on 5-6 FG and 1-2 FT) and all 7 of his rebounds coming in the 2nd half. Steve Nash struggled with his shot in shooting just 3-11 FG and had just 10 points, but did have 9 assists. No other Mav was in double-digits. In going with a big lineup, Shawn Bradley and Raef LaFrentz started and contributed. LaFrentz had 7 points and 7 rebounds and was on the court for most of the 4th quarter. Bradley had 6 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 blocks (didn't play in the 4th quarter). Eduardo Najera had 6 points on 3-4 FG and 2 rebounds in 28 minutes. Except for the spurt at the end of the half, Nick Van Exel didn't do much (and was pulled during the 4th) with 8 points and 4 assists in 24 minutes. That was the main rotation of 7 players as Adrian Griffin played just 4 minutes and Raja Bell just 3 minutes. Rasheed Wallace led the way for Portland with 26 points on 11-22 FG and 1-4 FT and 7 rebounds (he had 14 points when he tweaked his ankle). Bonzi Wells had a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds. He also had 3 steals. Damon Stoudamire had 10 more than his season average with 16 points, including 13 in the 2nd quarter. No other Blazer was in double-digits. Portland had it's own share of no-shows. Derek Anderson, who averaged 13.9 points during the regular season had a donut on 0-3 FG in 19 minutes. Scottie Pippen, still coming back from injury, had just 5 points on 2-8 FG, but did have 4 rebounds and 5 assists (and also 4 turnovers). Dale Davis had 5 points and 10 rebounds. Zach Randolph didn't have his usual monster game against Dallas and had just 4 points on 2-2 FG and 4 rebounds. Jeff McInnis had 8 points, Ruben Patterson had 6 points and 6 rebounds (4 offensive), and Arvydas Sabonis had 3 points off the bench. Quotes [a lot transcribed from the post-game press conferences] Don Nelson, who has lost his voice: "I felt pretty useless out there tonight because I couldn't communicate with my team and I could barely talk to the coach next to me. I owe a big gratitude to the assistant coaches who did a lot of the coaching, especially in the 2nd half. But hope it [his voice] gets better in the next 3 or 4 days. It was a very strange game and I think the key to the game was probably sticking with Mike Finley. I know Nowitzki had the big game, career high and all of that and I am not trying to demean that performance. Mike didn't look very good in the 1st half and we decided that we would start him, take a look at him [to start the 3rd quarter]. He didn't look very good in the first 4, 5 minutes. We were observing him and it just didn't look like it was going to happen. The assistant coaches wanted to stay with him. I took him out and rested him and then I had to make the decision: should I go with Bell or Griffin or go back with Mike and that was a tough one. We went back with Mike and I thought it really helped us. Part of the reasoning we tried that, even though he didn't play very well in the 1st or 3rd quarters, the team was doing all right. When he wasn't in there, we weren't doing very well. It was a bit of a gamble and it paid off. I was really happy that the assistant coaches helped me in that decision and it was a good one." Nelson: "Nowitzki's performance was just amazing to us. I told him at the end of regulation that he will eventually be one of the best all around players ever to play the game. I keep saying he is scratching the surface, but he has the ability and at his size to handle the ball and understand the game. His passing skills are just starting to come out. If I had to go to a point forward, it would be Dirk Nowitzki at 7 feet. I think that is in the plans, it's my vision of him anyway, that he will eventually be able to do the things that Larry Bird did. I'm not going to say that he will be Larry Bird - there are no Larry Birds - but he will be able to do those things and it there will be a day when the triple-double will be no big thing. That's my vision of Dirk and I think it will probably come true." Nelson: "Simple speech at halftime - we have to guard and rebound and we know we can make shots. I had my biggest team in there and we were getting killed on the boards, we couldn't keep anybody in front of us, and the team did a great job in the 2nd half. We only have 2 defenses, man-to-man and zone. You have to guard in both of them. If you don't contain the ball, neither one of them is worth very much. But we really went to work in the 2nd half and did a much better job and Dirk carried us and that's what you call putting a team on your back and carrying you for a win. He did that for us and we needed him to because we were struggling offensively." Nelson on Finley's struggles: "He doesn't have any rhythm. If he is shooting by himself, his ball goes in some and he rises up, but when you put a good defender on him and put him in a 5-on-5 situation, he just doesn't have good rhythm for a basketball player right now. I think he feels good about his leg, but now it's getting him into a better basketball rhythm and I think you probably see the same thing with Scottie Pippen. It just takes a while to get back from playing some to playing in a NBA game. It's not easy and a lot of players struggle with it when they first come back." Nelson: "I thought we were really active and we changed some of the coverages, but bottom line was we guard better and when we went to our zone, I thought that was very effective. But again, we guarded in the zone and held our own on the boards and that was the difference." Nelson: "The most important game in a series is the 1st game. That's because that's the game. And when that's over, the most important is the 2nd game. And that's going to be coming up Wednesday. The momentum changes with every win and every loss and you just have to win, baby, you just have to win. I wouldn't say there is an important this or that. I've won series where we've got smoked in the 1st game 25 points, hopeless in it, series against - and won that - San Antonio and I think we were the 7th and they were the 1. You just never know. But it sure is good to get that 1st one under your belt. It shortens the series and, especially if you lose the home court after you've worked so hard for the 1st game, it can be a kick in the teeth. So, they're all important, I think, is the bottom line." Nelson on Finley: "I did that a couple of times in the 1st half where I called his number and he was just getting himself in trouble. He didn't seem to be able to beat his guy and then he got in trouble. So I thought that maybe it would be better to just let him play, so that if the ball came his way and he had something then he could try it. But when I couldn't communicate [due to his voice], my son called his number and he scored for my son. He wouldn't score for me [laugh]. Donnie got him a play and, I think, got him his rhythm or confidence or whatever. And I think he thought he could make shots and then he shot a couple that you knew were going in, you know the old Finley - the back spin on the ball, all really good stuff to see. As Michael goes, I think our team will go in a series. So it's good to see. I'm glad I stuck with him and it was a nice moment for us as a team." Nelson: "They have great penetrators. When they get in our paint, they can really pick us apart. So, just basic basketball. We're trying to keep people in front of us and not get beat. We were getting beat in the 1st half. And they're smart, of course. They put you in a bind with the screen-and-roll and the abilities that they have, so you can't always do it, but I thought we did a better job in the 2nd half. We were pretty good the 3rd quarter defensively." Nelson on where Nowitzki's game is at career wise: "Oh, he's still a baby. One of the coaches talked to him a little bit about he's going to have to put us on his back and carry us toward the end of the season. And he didn't understand that and he said, 'I don't know if I can do that.' Of course, he's never known how good he is. Which is nice, actually. But this is kind of what that coach was talking about. That doesn't mean that's going to happen every game or that he can do that all the time, but eventually he has the skill level to do that. He can make shots. And it seem that often times if he wasn't scoring, we couldn't score. It wasn't like he was taking too many shots - he wasn't taking enough. He needed to take every shot because nobody else seemed to have much going. It was a special game for him and we needed it." Michael Finley: "Like anything you are away from for a long time, you finally get back to it, you are going to be a little rusty. I'm no different. I'm human. I was definitely a little rusty, but more from a mental stand point. In the 1st half, I was thinking about everything I was doing. I made up my mind what moves that I wanted to do and everything was pretty much coming up short. At halftime, I took it upon myself to be more aggressive and just go out there and play. I really felt that the reason our deficit was so big in the 1st half was because I wasn't playing up to par - as far as offensively, rebounding, doing all the things that made me the player I am. So I just took it upon myself in the 2nd half just to be my overall self and it seemed to work a little bit and the team responded and we came out victorious." Finley on Nowitzki: "Dirk played awesome. I'm speechless. I haven't seen him play that well. He's been playing all-star ball all year, but tonight he was definitely MVP status. He did everything he had to do just to keep us in the ball game. The 1st half, he was making shots, rebounding, just doing all the things that some people may take for granted, but we know what type of player he is. He definitely carried us tonight throughout the whole game." Finley on the turning point in the 3rd quarter: "I think it was on the defensive end. We were defensively aggressive and then at one point, I had the opportunity to go up and get a rebound and I got up and got the rebound and everything seemed to flow from there. My confidence was up and I knew that the next time I had the opportunity to knock down a shot, I was going to knock it down. It came and I knocked it down. Everybody took a deep breath when it went in. The crowd was like, 'It's about time.' It was a good feeling to finally hit a shot and it couldn't have come at a better time." Finley on if he was surprised by the team's reaction to his success: "Not really because if you look at the 1st half, I didn't give the team anything and we still were some what in the game. So, as a fan, as a teammate, and just as a coach, if you feel that my game steps up just a little bit, we give ourselves a good chance of winning the ball game. In the 2nd half when my shots started to fall and defensively we were more focused and started getting key rebounds, we gave ourselves a real good chance to win the ball game and in that sense, everybody had a relief, so to speak, and now it was time to play and it was just coincidental that it came at the same time that I was doing my thing." Finley on the defense in the 3rd: "I think we were more aggressive defensively, whether we were in a man or zone. Everything was with our aggressive type attitude. I think in the 1st half, we were reacting to their aggression. They made the 1st step and then we were reacting. But in the 2nd half, we were being the aggressor. We were keeping them in front of us defensively, doing all the little things that good teams do in order to win playoff ball games and we did that in the 2nd half." Finley on the 2nd half: "I took the challenge personally. I felt the reason we were down such a big deficit in the 1st half was mainly because of me. Not only was I not hitting my shots, I wasn't rebounding, playing good defense, so I took it upon myself to be more aggressive at all aspects of the game - offensively, rebounding, and defensively as well. I think my team picked up on that a little bit and we got back in the ball game and won it." Finley: "It was good to see everybody contribute in the 2nd half, except for Dirk. In the 1st half, Dirk literally carried us - offensively, rebounding - he tried to do everything for us. If we want to go long in this playoffs, he can't do it every night. He has to get some help. It was good to see other guys pick it up in the 2nd half. Najera, myself in particular. Hopefully we can continue it." Finley: "The 1st win in a series is always good. It gives us a little sense of relief a little bit, but again it makes the 2nd game even tougher." Dirk Nowitzki: "Well, I thought that we just had to rebound the ball better. That's been a key for us all year. When we rebound the ball well, we're usually right there and give ourselves a chance to win. So we played the big lineup and rebounded the ball extremely well in the 2nd half. We actually out-rebounded them in the 3rd quarter and that was the biggest key for us, I think." Nowitzki: "Every thing starts with the defense. I think the zone really mixed us well. We contested every shot and rebounded the ball. If we play defense and rebound the ball, we give ourselves a great chance to win the game." Nowitzki on what was said to Finley at halftime: "Just being aggressive. We all know that in our hearts, he is an all-star for us. He's an all-star and he's our leader. He's just got to be aggressive and take his shots and we always believe in him and he makes big shots for us." Nowitzki on the crowd: "It was great. That's what we played for the whole year, getting home court advantage in the playoffs. They pushed us to a lot of wins at home and it was great. Hopefully we can take care of home court advantage again too as well." Nowitzki on if he can continue his performance: "I don't know. It's about being aggressive. There will always be nights where the shot isn't going that well. Just be aggressive and get to the foul line a little bit - that always helps." Nowitzki: "I just try to be aggressive, that the major thing. Try to get to the basket a little bit, that always helps - getting to the free throw line some and that really opens the basket up. We knew Mike was going to find his rhythm at some point. We always told him to stay aggressive and stay on your shot and it will come back. He made some big shots for us in the 2nd half. But really, what won us the game was I thought we played some solid defense in the 2nd half. I thought we rebounded the ball extremely well in the 2nd half and that was really a key for our victory today." Nowitzki on if he felt he needed to take over: "Not really. I think we have a lot of weapons out there, with Steve and Mike being a good scorer and Nick coming off the bench. So I feel like we have a lot of weapons out there and today I was just the one who was a little hotter than everyone else." Nowitzki on what Nelson said at halftime: "You know what, he really didn't say much because his voice is almost gone. We can barely understand when he says something. He just tried to tell us to be more solid on the boards. We got out-rebounded a lot in the 1st half. If we want to win in the playoffs, we just got to be a little more aggressive on rebounding. And I think that's what we did a good job. I think we even out-rebounded them for the first time in the 3rd quarter. So it's big for us. I think the big lineup worked well for us, rebounding wise, and hopefully we continue to do that." Nowitzki on defenders: "I just try to see who's playing me. When I have a bigger guy on me, I'm taking it more to the perimeter. I'm trying to create some offense off the dribble. When they started covering me with some of the smaller guys - Bonzi was on me a little bit and Ruben and Scottie - I'm just trying to take them down low and try to work my height down there a little bit. I think my post game developed over the years, so it's at a point where I feel comfortable down there, making moves, and so it's just a matter of being aggressive either way they play me. If they're not going to double-team me, I'll keep being aggressive down there and hopefully can make them pay even more." Nowitzki on if he needs to carry the team: "Like I said, I think we have a lot of team leaders. It's not only on me, especially Mike hopefully finding his rhythm even more and more and Steve is going to come along for us and Nick didn't really score great off the bench today, but it can't be on one guy. We have so many scoring weapons out there. We just have to have everyone aggressively. We have to have Raef make shots for us. It's the whole big picture. If we want to continue to be successful in the playoffs, then it can't be on one guy." Nowitzki on the crowd: "They fired us up. That's what we played for all year - for home court advantage. I think we've always said in the regular season that you can always steal a couple of games on the road, but I feel in the playoffs that it means a lot. Home court really means a lot in the playoffs. The fans really fired us up, especially when we made that run in the 3rd quarter and kind of took the lead. It was amazing. The crowd was going nuts and it was just a great feeling. Hopefully we can bank on that in the 2nd game as well. Hopefully we can substain our home court advantage." Nowitzki on the 3rd quarter defense: "In the playoffs, it's all about being tough on defense and I think we really moved well on defense. We made every shot contested. Our zone was working. We were chasing off the 3-point line. If guys were driving, we did all the little plays. We stepped up and took charges and all that little stuff comes to play in the playoffs. Every stop is big in the playoffs and I think we really stepped it up defensively. Defense always stops or ends with a rebound. Sometimes we play good defense for 24 seconds and then we don't get the rebound and possession. As long as we play good defense and rebound the ball, we give ourselves a great chance to be in every game and to give ourselves a chance to win it at the end." Steve Nash on Nowitzki: "Dirk won us the game. He was unbelievable. It was incredible to see him just keep making buckets like that was a beautiful thing. He won us the game. It's hard to say something different because he is like this, maybe not 46 points, but he plays like that every other night, it seems. I thought tonight he was tireless. He kept being aggressive and kept looking to score and he just refused to let us lose." Nash on Finley: "It is a tough thing to come back from injuries and especially a hamstring. That is something that is a huge challenge. Is difficult to get back in a rhythm, to get back into the game. Not only to get over the confidence battle with your injury and the physical ailment, but to get out there and get your rhythm in a game setting is difficult. For him to come through for us in the 2nd half the way he did is incredible." Nash on Bradley: "Shawn really did a great job of making it difficult in the paint for them. He blocked some shots and rebounded, but for the most part, he played hard. When he plays hard and he plays intense, like tonight, he's going to have a huge impact on the game. I thought he was a huge part of our team tonight." Raef LaFrentz on Nowitzki: "Dirk didn't do anything new. He wasn't pulling up from half court or doing 360-degree dunks. So, it was beautiful, in the fact that it was all within his game, all within what he does, all within the offense. We just kept going to him, and he kept delivering, he kept hitting jumpers, he kept taking it to the basket, and getting to the free throw line." Eduardo Najera: "It was a huge game for us, the 1st one. You know the intensity is going to be really high. The pace of the game is going to be really fast. We wanted to come in and take care of business and send a message to them that it's not going to be as easy as they thought." Najera on Nowitzki: "He's the reason we won, obviously, but despite the shots he made, he played really good defensively." Adrian Griffin: "Once Finley started hitting some shots, we took it to another level. Finley was just huge. He's one of our main leaders, if not the leader, and everyone feeds off his intensity." Maurice Cheeks: "First of all, I think that was a game of 2 halves. I think the 1st half we played extremely well. We made shots, they didn't make shots, we defended well, we rebounded well. Dallas is a good offensive team. We knew they would make shots at some point. The 2nd half, I don't think we moved the ball as well as we did in the 1st half. Out of the box in the 3rd quarter, they didn't start out making shots and we didn't make shots and then at some point you knew that they would make shots. The 3rd quarter, obviously Nowitzki, he started making, Finley started making shots. I think he really stepped up and helped them a lot in the 3rd quarter, because in the 1st half he really wasn't making shots and then in the 3rd quarter he started making some shots. They got a lot more confidence and when they're making shots, they're a good offensive basketball team." Cheeks on stopping Nowitzki: "We just got to pay more attention to him. He shot 16-27, 46 points is a pretty good night. He's a pretty good basketball player, but I think our attention will be more to try to deny the ball to him and to try to keep it out of his hands as much as possible." Cheeks: "Like I said, it was a tale of 2 halves. I think the 1st half we were making shots. Our defense was pretty good the 1st half. And then they missed, obviously, a lot of shots. We missed foul shots that could have opened up the game a little more. But they made some shots in the 2nd half. I think our defense was pretty good. They continued to stay with the things they have been doing all year - which was the pinch-post with Nash and Nowitzki. At some point, you knew that they would start making some shots, but our defense has to stay a little more steady." Cheeks: "Nowitzki, I think most of his shots came from the perimeter, so I think it is a little tough to double him from the perimeter. It wasn't like he was making shots down on the box where you can run a guy on down there. His shots came in transition and in little screen-and-rolls. I don't think it was a case of trying to double him on the perimeter; there are only a couple of guys that I've seen get doubled like that on the perimeter. When he gets it going - and all of them gets it going like that - they're a good offensive team." Cheeks: "We stumbled out of the 2nd half. I think that was our fault that we stumbled out of the 2nd half. I think our defense was not where it was in the 1st half and I think they made shots like they normally do - normally, you know, with Nash and Nowitzki and Finley. And I think that when Finley got going, it opened it up a little bit more." Cheeks on defending Nowitzki: "It's no different than it had been before. Rasheed starts out on him and there are times where we switch defense, we switch pick-and-rolls, we switch everything. We had different guys guarding him for the most part, I think Rasheed was guarding him mostly, but we had different guys: we had Scottie guarding some, we had Ruben guarding him some, we had different guys guarding him. When a guy starts scoring like that, it could be anybody guarding him and he's still going to score the basketball, 'cause he's a very good perimeter shooter. he put the ball to the floor a few times getting to the rim, he got fouled a few times. I think when guys are stars scoring the ball are scoring at the rate he's scoring, he's a very good basketball player - give him credit for it. But we have to pay a little bit more attention to him on Wednesday." Bonzi Wells: "We had them and then we gave it away." Wells: "We can beat this team. We're going to beat this team. We're going to go out and play hard the next game and however many games it's going to take. Dirk's not going to get 50 on us again. I don't care if we have to go out there and put a hit out on him during the game." Wells on Nowitzki: "He was taking advantage of us all night. We can't beat a team when a guy is getting 50 on us. Once we contain him, we got this team." Wells on when Wallace went out affecting the team: "Definitely, 'Sheed is our whole offense. He's our main guy. When he went out, it was kind of a let down for us." Scottie Pippen on Nowitzki: "We have to be more aggressive, more physical, we've got to take him out of the game. The most frustrating part is that we allowed Dirk to score too many points. We've got to take him out of the game. We've got to make somebody else beat us." Pippen: "I was terrible. Terrible. I have to give us more. I need to do more for us to stay in this series." Damon Stoudamire: "We had the lead but they came back. Nowitzki played his ass off. There really wasn't nothing we could do about that. We're sitting up here talking 2 good basketball teams. We lost the game tonight, but I think that we have a great chance in this series. We're not going to get dejected by 1 loss. Before this series started, I told you that 1 team, maybe 2 teams, in the 1st round in the Western Conference that won 50 games is going to lose in this 1st round. It's still going to stand that way. I think we can go back and regroup. I don't think that nothing that was done tonight can be worked on and that we can't come back here on Wednesday and try to get a win." Stoudamire: "I don't think there is any way we can lose confidence from it. We can't get dejected by 1 game. It's the best of 7 now. We still have a long ways to go. It's a big game on Wednesday, obviously, but like I said, we can go back and we can work on things that we need to work on because obviously we need to pay a lot more attention to Dirk 'cause he had a heck of a game tonight." Dale Davis: "We have to play to our strengths, being physical and defensive oriented. We controlled the 1st half and didn't respond when they gained momentum. We have to be the aggressors for 48 minutes and really take it to them." Davis: "This was a great opportunity for us. But for whatever reason, we didn't do a good job at stopping their momentum." Jeff McInnis on Dallas' tall-ball: "That's Don Nelson for you. He is an excellent coach in finding mismatches and hurting you with that." Game 1: Dallas Mavericks 96, Portland Trailblazers 86 at Dallas (April 19) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 22 20 28 26 - 96 .473 .444 .466 .833 Portland 21 31 12 22 - 86 .469 .278 .427 .524 Halftime: Portland 52-42 3rd Q: Dallas 70-64 Technicals: Don Nelson 4:06 1st, Portland defensive 3 seconds 11:11 3rd Portland defensive 3 seconds 9:51 3rd, Nick Van Exel 10:40 4th Refs: Steve Javie, Mike Callahan, Ron Olesiak Attendance: 20,336 (sellout) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Dirk Nowitzki 47 16-27 4-5 10-11 46 1-10 2 2 2 1 1 Raef LaFrentz 36 2-6 0-2 3-3 7 2-7 1 1 3 0 2 Shawn Bradley 26 2-4 0-0 2-2 6 2-7 1 2 4 0 5 Michael Finley 37 5-12 2-5 1-2 13 0-7 1 1 2 0 0 Steve Nash 35 3-11 1-3 3-4 10 1-4 9 1 1 1 0 Eduardo Najera 28 3-4 0-0 0-0 6 0-2 0 1 2 1 1 Nick Van_Exel 24 3-8 1-3 1-2 8 1-1 4 2 1 0 0 Adrian Griffin 4 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 0 0 1 0 0 Raja Bell 3 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 34-73 8-18 20-24 96 7-40 18 10 16 3 9 Portland Trailblazers REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Bonzi Wells 30 6-15 0-3 1-3 13 4-10 3 3 5 3 0 Rasheed Wallace 40 11-22 3-7 1-4 26 1-7 2 0 2 0 0 Dale Davis 22 2-4 0-0 1-2 5 4-10 1 2 4 1 1 Derek Anderson 19 0-3 0-1 0-1 0 1-1 0 1 0 0 0 Scottie Pippen 32 2-8 1-5 0-0 5 0-4 5 4 5 0 0 Zach Randolph 20 2-2 0-0 0-0 4 1-4 0 2 3 0 0 Jeff McInnis 24 4-7 0-0 0-0 8 1-3 4 0 2 0 0 Damon Stoudamire 25 5-10 1-2 5-5 16 1-2 2 0 3 2 0 Ruben Patterson 19 2-7 0-0 2-4 6 4-6 0 0 0 0 0 Arvydas Sabonis 9 1-4 0-0 1-2 3 0-1 0 0 1 2 0 Totals 48 35-82 5-18 11-21 86 17-48 17 12 25 8 1 patricia Go Mavs!