Orlando (39-36) at Dallas (56-19) (April 5) The game started with Tracy McGrady sitting on the bench with a bruised rib cage muscle and Dallas took full advantage in beating up on the Magic. Dallas went up 17-6 with 6:40 left and never really looked back. Seeing his team struggle mightly, McGrady decided that he would play despite the injury and came into the game with 3:55 left and Dallas up a commanding 25-9. Despite McGrady's presence, Dallas continued their 9-0 run as Raef LaFrentz completed the 3-point play to give Dallas a 28-9 lead with 3:30 left. Steven Hunter scored the next 2 buckets and Darrell Armstrong hit 2 free throws to pull Orlando within 15-28 with 2 minutes remaining. After a jumper by Adrian Griffin, McGrady drained a 3-pointer for his only points of the quarter - he shot 1-4 FG in the quarter (and had the wrap around his chest removed during the first timeout after he came into the game). Dallas led 33-20 after 1. Dallas shot 52% FG and Orlando shot just 30% FG. Dirk Nowitzki had 15 points and Raef LaFrentz had 11 points. Orlando scored the first 4 points of the 2nd quarter and then missed their next 6 shots (but did hit 2 technical free throws). Dallas led 39-28 with 7:20 to go and went on a monster 17-3 run, started by consecutive 3-pointers by Steve Nash, to go up 56-31 with 2:50 left. Dallas led 63-42 at the half. Dallas continued to shot well and Orlando finally started hitting some shots during the 2nd quarter. For the half, Dallas shot 53.3% FG including 4-7 3-pointers and Orlando shot 37.5% FG including 1-11 3-pointers. Nowitzki was up to 22 points and Steve Nash had 8 points and 11 assists. The rout continued as Raja Bell hit consecutive 3-pointers and, after a free throw by McGrady, Nash hit another 3 to give Dallas their largest lead at 78-50 with 7:30 remaining. Orlando did hit consecutive 3-pointers to pull within 18 points at 85-67 with 2 minutes to go. Nash drained another 3-pointer with 10 seconds left in the quarter to give Dallas a 93-73 lead after 3. It got ugly in the 4th quarter as both teams struggled to score (and Nash and Nowitzki remained in the game). Orlando scored 5 straight points to pull within 84-99 with 6:40 left, but Nash answered the mini-run with a 3-pointer. After 2 buckets by Jacque Vaughn, Dallas scored the next 6 points to go up 108-88 with with 3 minutes to go and the subs came in. Only 2 free throws were scored over the rest of the game. Dallas won 108-90. It was an easy win that Dallas needed with their tough road trip coming up and still battling San Antonio for the best record in the league (the Spurs are just 1 game back in the loss column and have won 8 straight games). Dallas played well to start the game and Orlando never could find an offensive spurt to get them back into the game. Both teams played ugly in the 4th quarter as Dallas had just 15 points and Orlando had 17 points. For the game, Dallas shot 49.4% (42-85) FG including 11-23 3-pointers and Orlando shot 44% (33-75) FG including 5-19 3-pointers. Dallas shot 13-17 FT and Orlando shot 19-26 FT. Orlando did out-rebounded Dallas 45-39, but only had 1 more offensive rebound. Orlando also hurt themselves by committing 21 turnovers. Dallas had a good team game going as there were 29 assists. Dirk Nowitzki was the high man with 29 points and 6 rebounds. Steve Nash had a double-double with 28 points including 10-15 FG and 6-10 3-pointers and 11 assists (all in the 1st half). 6 3-pointers made is a career high for him. Nash was also turnover prone with a season-high tying 6 turnovers. Raja Bell was also a 3 man with 11 points including 3-5 3-pointers and 4 rebounds - he was a surprise starter for this game (DNPed the last game and only 4 minutes the game before). Raef LaFrentz found the basket early and had 11 points, but only 2 rebounds in 20 foul plagued minutes. No other Mav was in double-digits. Nick Van Exel again struggled with 6 points on 3-9 FG, but did have 8 assists. Eduardo Najera had 5 points and 7 rebounds and Tariq Abdul-Wahad had 8 points and 4 rebounds in 18 minutes. I give him kudos for deciding that his team needed him and playing injured, but Tracy McGrady wasn't much help to his team this night. He had just 12 points including 3-14 FG and 6 assists in 25 minutes. Godan Giricek was the high man for Orlando with 18 points and 6 rebounds (but also had 6 turnovers). Jacque Vaughn was shooting lights out with 8-11 FG for 16 points. Darrell Armstrong had 15 points, Steven Hunter had 14 points and 10 rebounds including 5 offensive, and Drew Gooden had 9 points and 8 rebounds. Starters Chris Whitney and Pat Garrity did not score. Quotes Don Nelson: "It was some 1st quarter, wasn't it? It's never easy to get a big lead and it is sometimes harder to maintain it. We were still able to do it, but it was pretty ugly in the 4th quarter. I'm just happy we got the win and won it decisively." Nelson: "McGrady obviously wasn't himself tonight. We didn't expect him to play. We were a little surprised when he did, a little surprised he was in there when we were 28 points ahead. But that is what they chose to do and I was always worried that when he was in there he was going to get hot. He is able to put up big numbers at any time. That was why I was so concerned in the 3rd quarter that we continue to play at a high intensity. I thought we let down a little on our intensity level and as a result, it got kind of ugly in the 4th quarter." Nelson on Orlando: "They're similar to us. They're a little limited at center and they're mostly a screen-and-roll and outside shooting team." Nelson on Nash: "I had to play him and Dirk too many minutes - even with that big lead, I was uncomfortable, especially when they went to their zone. I wanted to make sure that we had our shooters in the game. There aren't a lot around with Mike out. That takes one of our best shooters out of the mix and it is not easy to score sometimes." Nelson on LaFrentz: "Raef got off to a pretty good start. He got into foul trouble and I didn't go back to him because I like Eddie in those situations, especially when they zone. I like Eddie in the middle of that zone and he moves the ball pretty well." Dirk Nowitzki: "We knew Tracy wasn't 100%, so we wanted to put them away early." Steve Nash: "Overall, I thought it was a good performance. We got sloppy in the 2nd half, but it is tough to hold a 30-point lead in this league, so overall it was a good performance." Nash on hitting 6 3-pointers: "I was open a lot and my teammates were finding me and I just kept shooting it. When we move the ball, we are difficult to guard. I thought we did a good job of moving the ball and I was the beneficiary of it." Nash on McGrady playing: "Well, we found out before the game that he wasn't going to play and then to see him come on was a little surprising." Raef LaFrentz: "We were able to get off to a good start and I thought that carried us through the night. We didn't play a perfect game by any means. We made a lot of mistakes; a lot of errors. Fortunately, we gave ourselves a large enough cushion that it didn't matter." LaFrentz on Dallas defeating Orlando's zone: "That's was great. We have the talent of shooters on this team to be able to shoot over it. It's a great luxury to have." Doc Rivers: "Give them credit. They played really well and came out and hammered us early. We knew with T-Mac not going it would be very difficult for us tonight. We got in a hole and we could never get out. I was happy with the 2nd half effort. I thought our guys hung in there for the most part, cut it to 12. We had a little dilemma with the staff, with 6 minutes left going back with your guys or thinking about tomorrow. I just felt we had a better chance tomorrow than we did today." Rivers on McGrady playing: "Tracy said he wanted to play and I told Teddy I'd let him play as long as I saw him moving freely, but if I saw anything he was coming out, because this is not anything that we can afford as a basketball team to be one of those injuries that keeps on lingering. We just aren't good enough without him." Tracy McGrady: "Obviously, I didn't want to go out there and hurt myself worse. I felt like the game was getting out of hand. I just wanted to go in and see what I could give." Pat Garrity: "We're at that point right now where you got to make the decision whether to stay in the moment or look ahead. It's so easy to start looking ahead. Then you drop games and start jeopardizing yourself. It seems to happen every year." Dallas Mavericks 108, Orlando Magic 90 at Dallas (April 5) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 33 30 30 15 - 108 .500 .478 .494 .765 Orlando 20 22 31 17 - 90 .500 .263 .440 .731 Halftime: Dallas 63-42 3rd Q: Dallas 93-73 Technicals: Dallas defensive 3 seconds 10:25 2nd, Dirk Nowitzki 7:50 2nd Refs: Jess Kersey, Joe Derosa, Mark Wunderlich Attendance: 19,800 (sellout) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Adrian Griffin 25 2-4 0-0 0-0 4 0-4 3 0 2 1 0 Dirk Nowitzki 44 10-22 2-6 7-8 29 0-6 4 2 3 0 0 Raef LaFrentz 20 5-8 0-1 1-2 11 0-2 0 1 5 3 2 Raja Bell 33 4-9 3-5 0-0 11 1-4 2 1 0 2 1 Steve Nash 35 10-15 6-10 2-2 28 1-3 11 6 4 0 0 Nick Van_Exel 26 3-9 0-1 0-0 6 0-3 8 3 1 0 0 Tariq Abdul-Wahad 18 4-9 0-0 0-0 8 0-4 0 0 0 0 0 Eduardo Najera 22 2-3 0-0 1-2 5 3-7 0 1 4 2 0 Shawn Bradley 3 2-3 0-0 1-1 5 1-1 0 0 0 0 0 Popeye Jones 4 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-2 0 0 0 1 0 Avery Johnson 7 0-2 0-0 1-2 1 1-1 1 2 0 0 0 Evan Eschmeyer 3 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 2-2 0 0 1 1 0 Totals 48 42-85 11-23 13-17 108 9-39 29 16 20 10 3 Orlando Magic REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Gordan Giricek 34 6-13 1-4 5-6 18 0-6 4 6 1 3 0 Pat Garrity 13 0-3 0-2 0-0 0 0-1 0 2 4 1 0 Drew Gooden 24 2-4 0-0 5-8 9 1-8 0 5 1 0 0 Jacque Vaughn 23 8-11 0-0 0-0 16 0-1 0 1 3 1 0 Chris Whitney 14 0-4 0-2 0-0 0 0-0 0 1 0 0 0 Darrell Armstrong 28 5-7 1-3 4-4 15 0-2 4 2 1 2 0 Jeryl Sasser 21 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1-7 2 0 2 1 1 Shawn Kemp 5 0-3 0-0 0-0 0 3-5 0 0 0 0 0 Steven Hunter 26 6-10 0-0 2-4 14 5-10 0 2 2 1 0 Tracy McGrady 25 3-14 3-8 3-4 12 0-2 6 0 0 1 0 Andrew DeClercq 13 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-3 1 0 2 0 1 Pat Burke 14 3-4 0-0 0-0 6 0-0 0 1 0 0 0 Totals 48 33-75 5-19 19-26 90 10-45 17 21 16 10 2 patricia