LA Lakers at Dallas (January 22) The injured Lakers came to town missing stars Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant, and Karl Malone and were also without Horace Grant and Jamal Sampson. The 1st quarter was a quarter of runs. Dallas scored 7 straight points to go up 14-8 with 7:45 remaining, but the Lakers then scored the next 8 points to go up 16-14 with 6 minutes left. Dallas then scored the next 11 points to go up 25-16 with 3:25 to go and held a single-digit lead the rest of the quarter. Antoine Walker stole the ball and took it in for the layup as the quarter ended to give Dallas a 31-22 lead after 1. Walker had 11 points and Michael Finley had 10 points. Dallas shot 52% FG and the Lakers shot 33% FG. Dallas held a 7 to 12 point lead for the first 6 minutes of the 2nd quarter. Dallas led 43-35 with 6 minutes remaining and went on a 9-1 run to go up 52-36 with 4 minutes to go. Dallas led 59-46 at the half. Antawn Jamison had 13 points in the 2nd quarter. For the half, Dallas was out-scoring the Lakers 30-10 in the paint. Dallas led 63-51 with 10:45 left and the Lakers used a 16-2 run to tie the game at 65-65 with 8 minutes remaining. But Dallas came storming back and the Lakers went ice cold as the Mavs went on a 24-4 run over the rest of the quarter as the Lakers shot a mere 1-13 FG. Dallas led 89-69 after 3. The Mavs out-rebounded the Lakers 15-6 in the quarter. A 3-pointer and hook (yes, hook) shot by Dirk Nowitzki gave Dallas their largest lead at 95-74 with 8:30 remaining. The Lakers would get no closer than 16 points the rest of the way. Dallas won 106-87. Despite the scare in the 3rd quarter, it ended up being the easy win that it should have been. The Mavs do deserve criticism for allowing the Lakers back into the game, but also deserve credit for blowing them away after the Lakers tied the game. Of course, the big story of the game was the Lakers' missing big names, which is why Dallas was _heavily_ favored in this game. The Mavs had numbers you wouldn't expect them to have against a healthy Lakers squad. Dallas out-scored the Lakers 50-28 in the paint and Dallas out-rebounded the Lakers 51-36 including 16-6 offensive. Dallas out-scored the Lakers 29-4 on fast breaks. Dallas had 28 assists while the Lakers had just 13. Dallas shot 48.8% (40-82) FG including 7-13 3-pointers and the Lakers shot 40.3% (29-72) FG including 5-17 3-pointers. It was the 9th straight road loss for the Lakers. Michael Finley had a stellar shooting night with 31 points including 11-18 FG and 4-4 3-pointers and also had 7 rebounds and 4 assists. Antawn Jamison also had the hot hand with 26 points including 10-13 FG and had 9 rebounds in 27 minutes. Antoine Walker shot well with 23 points including 9-16 FG (but still really needs to work on his free throws - 3-7 FT in this game) and had 9 rebounds and 7 assists. For some reason, Dirk Nowitzki was not looking to shot - maybe his thumb, injured in the last game, was bothering him. He did contribute in other ways though, with 9 rebounds and a season tying high 6 assists to go with his 16 points. Steve Nash had an extremely quiet night with just 2 points on 1-6 FG, but did have 8 assists in his mere 23 minutes - Don Nelson took the opportunity to rest Nash a lot with the weakened Laker team and then blowout. Josh Howard struggled, but that was partly Nelson's fault as for some reason Nelson had Howard guard Laker center Stanislav Medvedenko and Howard kept getting called for the foul. Howard had 5 points and 7 rebounds before fouling out in 25 minutes. Travis Best didn't score on 4 attempts and didn't have an assist in 25 minutes, but did manage to snag 4 rebounds despite being the shortest player on the court. Shawn Bradley had 3 points and 3 rebounds in 18 minutes. Mamadou N'diaye got in for a few minutes of garbage time. The Mavs had their own minor injury problems as Tony Delk, Marquis Daniels, and Danny Fortson did not play - which meant some of the stars had to stay on the court for garbage time. Surprisingly it was not Gary Payton who went off against Dallas. I was expecting a strong outing from Payton, but he only attempted 8 shots and finished with just 11 points and 5 assists. Now, Devean George jumped out of his slump and had a team high 24 points including 9-10 FT and 6 rebounds. Stanislav Medvedenko had 18 points and 5 rebounds. Kareem Rush had 18 points including 3-5 3-pointers. No other Laker had more than 4 points. The Lakers got more bad news after the game when x-rays revealed that Brian Cook had fractured his right pinky finger late in the game. A big thumbs down to the marketing genius who had Subway sponsor the Thunder Sticks (balloon clappers) for this game. It looked like there were even more Laker fans in the building with all the yellow balloons. Quotes Don Nelson: "Points in the paint says it all. That's probably the last time we'll ever do that against them. Without Shaq, they're a totally different team." Nelson: "I was happy with the way the game ended up. That's how I was hoping it would end up. It was an opportunity to play the Lakers when they were beat up and injured and we took advantage of it and got a win." Steve Nash: "Winning games is key and more importantly it gives us a chance to kind of find a rhythm that we have aspired for. We are getting closer and closer toward that." Antoine Walker: "Luckily, after they tied the game up we got our focus back. They are a team right now that's struggling for road wins obviously. More importantly, we had to protect our home court." Walker: "We just got to take our time and constantly try to build. We've got good team continuity going right now. Guys know where to be at. We're taking advantage of the mismatches. We're starting to shoot the ball a lot better. We're doing a lot of things well right now, and this is a good time to get it going." Antawn Jamison: "After the first couple of minutes of the 3rd quarter, I think we did an excellent job as far as making it difficult for them to get any kind of easy shot. That's what we want to do defensively and offensively just continue to move the ball and feed whoever is hot." Jamison: "They're still the Lakers. When it says 'Lakers' on their chest, we knew they would fight back. They played with a lot of energy early in the 3rd period, but we stayed poised and patient." Jamison: "I think we did an excellent job of moving the ball around. We just did a tremendous job of getting everybody involved. It makes it difficult to defend us." Phil Jackson on the 3rd quarter: "They just crushed us in the last 5 minutes of that quarter. We just had no answer. We couldn't find a way to score, couldn't find a way to get 2nd opportunities, and defensively we fell apart." Jackson : "I told them that it was a good comeback, but it's not enough. It's a 48 minute game in the NBA." Jackson: "We got the kind of shots we wanted from those guys we put in. There will be nights like that and we just have to look at the positive side of this that Devean George played well." Jackson on Walton: "There was a reason why I had Luke in there, and he showed the reason why he could play. And things happened with Devean George that made it a little bit easier for him to find shots in a rhythm and comfort zone out there to play. All those things are positive, and we have to build from there - because we can't focus on the negative things that are happening." Jackson: "Walker and Jamison and those newer players have seemed to fit in quite well right now and are having an impact on the team." Jackson on the team's struggles: "I think some of our veterans feel frustrated by it. These younger kids, though, they're getting a chance and they're happy for the opportunity." Gary Payton: "We don't know if wins are going to come. That's not guaranteed. I mean, everybody's got to come back. We still got to get a rhythm together. ... It's going to be a couple games to get a rhythm." Payton: "There is not no righting no damn ship. We just got to play and hopefully they can get back in enough time to get us some help." Payton on the team losing another player to injury: "It's hard. I've never seen a team that has got this much bad luck right after each other." Derek Fisher: "Honestly, I'm not sure how this will end up affecting us in the long run. Right now, we just got to chalk it up and take it to the next arena." George: "I tried to get myself going, just trying to help the team, because I know I really haven't been doing that the last few weeks." George on the 3rd quarter: "It felt good. It's like, 'Okay, we're back. This is where it ends. We're going to finish this game.' But somehow we just lost focus again." Dallas Mavericks 106, Los Angeles Lakers 87 at Dallas (January 22) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 31 28 30 17 - 106 .478 .538 .488 .731 LA Lakers 22 24 23 18 - 87 .436 .294 .403 .828 Halftime: Dallas 59-46 3rd Q: Dallas 89-69 Technicals: Dallas defensive 3 seconds 6:44 1st, Devean George 6:22 4th, Shawn Bradley 6:22 4th Refs: Bennett Salvatore, Blane Reichelt, David Jones Attendance: 20,512 (sellout) Did not play due to injury: Tony Delk (sprained left ankle), Danny Fortson (tooth infection), Marquis Daniels (flu), Horace Grant (personal reasons), Shaquille O'Neal (strained right calf), Jamal Sampson (sprained right ankle) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Josh Howard 25 2-5 0-0 1-2 5 4-7 2 0 6 0 0 Antoine Walker 42 9-16 2-4 3-7 23 0-9 7 2 2 1 0 Dirk Nowitzki 42 6-16 1-2 3-3 16 0-9 6 2 2 0 2 Michael Finley 35 11-18 4-4 5-6 31 4-7 4 0 0 1 0 Steve Nash 23 1-6 0-3 0-0 2 1-3 8 3 2 1 0 Antawn Jamison 27 10-13 0-0 6-6 26 4-9 0 0 5 0 0 Travis Best 25 0-4 0-0 0-0 0 1-4 0 1 4 1 0 Shawn Bradley 18 1-3 0-0 1-2 3 2-3 1 1 1 1 0 Mamadou N'diaye 3 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 40-82 7-13 19-26 106 16-51 28 11 22 5 2 Los Angeles Lakers REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Devean George 36 7-15 1-3 9-10 24 2-6 2 3 6 2 0 Luke Walton 23 1-3 0-0 0-0 2 3-7 3 3 1 1 0 Stanislav Medvedenko 38 6-12 0-0 6-6 18 0-5 0 2 3 1 0 Gary Payton 31 4-8 1-2 2-2 11 1-4 5 0 0 0 0 Kareem Rush 31 7-13 3-5 1-3 18 0-2 1 1 3 0 2 Bryon Russell 22 1-9 0-3 0-0 2 0-4 1 0 2 0 0 Brian Cook 20 1-3 0-0 2-2 4 0-4 0 0 3 0 0 Derek Fisher 28 1-5 0-4 2-2 4 0-3 1 0 0 1 0 Ime Udoka 11 1-4 0-0 2-4 4 0-1 0 1 3 2 1 Totals 48 29-72 5-17 24-29 87 6-36 13 11 21 7 3 patricia