Don't forget that tonights game vs Indiana has an early 7 pm start time. The game is being broadcast on ESPN2. Josh Howard has been sitting out with a strained left hamstring. He hopes to return to action next week. Dallas signed Mamadou N'diaye to a 10-day contract on Tuesday. He's a 7-0 center who has been in the league for 3 seasons (all with Toronto) and hasn't played much nor shown much. He probably won't play much for Dallas either, unless there is a blowout. Dallas at Utah (January 5) Not only was Utah missing top scorer Matt Harpring (strained right knee), but they were also without head coach Jerry Sloan, who was home with his ill wife. Long time assistant Phil Johnson was at the helm in Sloan's absence. But Dallas did not take advantage of Utah's missing pieces as the Mavs came with a very lackluster performance. Utah played a slow-down pace and Dallas seemed content to play at that level. Utah hopped out to an early 12-5 lead with 8:30 remaining and held a small single-digit lead the rest of the quarter. Utah led 28-24 after 1. Consecutive 3-pointers by Antoine Walker tied the game at 32-32 with 9 minutes to go, but Dallas could not take the lead as they simply were not aggressive in this game. Utah held a 1 to 5 point lead over the next 8 minutes and Dallas tied the game against at 46-46 with a minute left. Greg Ostertag got a layup as the quarter ended and Utah led 50-48 at the half. With as poorly as they were playing, the Mavs had to be happy that it was just a 2 point game. Utah was out-rebounding Dallas 27-16. After a layup by DeShawn Stevenson early in the 3rd quarter, Dallas scored the next 6 points to go up 54-52 with 10 minutes to go. Utah then scored the next 8 points and Dallas then scored the next 7 points and Dallas led 61-60 with 7 minutes remaining. Dallas' continued poor play then bit them in the tail as the Mavs went scoreless over the next 4 minutes as they missed 7 shots (including 3 Utah blocks) and had 2 turnovers and the Jazz scored the next 12 points to go up 72-61 with 3:15 left. Utah led 78-66 after 3. Things quickly got out of hand as Utah opened the 4th quarter with a 13-3 run, capped by consecutive 3-pointers by Raja Bell, to go up 91-69 with 9 minutes to go. There was no comeback in the Mavs this night as the Jazz led in the 20s over the next 5 1/2 minutes and the 5 Mavs stars were soon all sitting on the bench watching the blowout. Marquis Daniels scored the last 6 points of the game, so the final score was not as much of a joke as the game was. Utah won 108-94. Yuch. Dallas got the blowout they deserved with the pathetic effort and energy they showed for this game. And kudos to the Jazz for playing so hard despite having handy excuses if they had a poor performance (missing key player and coach). Dallas has no excuse for their performance. The easiest way to point out Dallas' lack of effort was in rebounds. Utah out-rebounded Dallas 52-33 including 17-9 offensive. Utah shot 47% FG (39-83) FG [up from their 44% FG at halftime] and Dallas shot 40.2% (33-82) FG [down from the 45% FG at halftime]. Dallas only had 13 fact break points - Utah had more with 17 points off of fast breaks. Dallas simply never showed up. Dallas is just 4-12 on the road. Raja Bell had a grand time playing against his former team. He had a game high 25 points including 4-5 3-pointers and 6 rebounds in 29 minutes off the bench. 14 of his points came in the 4th quarter. Andrei Kirilenko had a solid all-around game 21 points including 9-12 FT, 12 rebounds including 5 offensive, 3 steals, and 3 blocks. DeShawn Stevenson had a double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds. Carlos Arroyo had 11 points and 6 assists and Greg Ostertag had 10 points and 8 rebounds including 5 offensive. Dallas only had 3 players in double-digits. Dirk Nowitzki had 24 points (17 in the 1st half) and 9 rebounds and the next highest player only had 11 points. Antoine Walker had 11 points on 4-12 FG and 6 rebounds in 28 minutes and Marquis Daniels had 10 points and 4 steals. Steve Nash had 8 points, Michael Finley had 9 points including 3-12 FG, and Antawn Jamison had 9 points including 4-13 FG. Nash did tweak his back during the 3rd quarter and probably wouldn't have played in the 4th even if it wasn't a blowout (Nelson usually sits him late in the 3rd quarter and re-inserts him a few minutes into the 4th quarter). Quotes Phil Johnson: "It was a great way to jump back after a couple of disappointing losses. We are so much more aggressive at home and we have more confidence." Johnson: "Our energy tonight was huge." Johnson: "It's nice to get the scoring, but the rebounding out of the 2 guard is important." Andrei Kirilenko: "We were extremely concentrating on defense." Kirilenko: "I think it's amazing we outscore the most-scoring team in the NBA." Kirilenko: "Everybody played good - except Raja [joking]. Actually, he gave us that big lead, and they can't come back." Kirilenko on Bell: "I think he's the real player of the game today. And he just gave us this big lift, 3-points lift, and they can't come back. There were a couple shots from perimeter - like all-around. I was like, watching. I was like a fan. I'm like going back, play a little defense, and then I'm going to watch - 'Okay Raja, that's good."' Raja Bell: "They gave us a good beating at their place this year and that was on our minds. We didn't want that to happen again. It was a little more special because it was my old team." Bell: "It was nice to get it going like that. You get sick of losing, and the only thing you can really control is how hard you play. ... We showed how hard tonight." Bell: "We had to prove to ourselves and to other people that we can beat these teams. That's big." Bell on missing Harpring: "Sometimes the most dangerous animal is a wounded one. That was a case in point tonight." DeShawn Stevenson: "We just kept going at them. I've never seen Dallas slow down the ball like that. We kept pushing it and a lot of people made big shots." Stevenson: "We have a lot of guys banged up, so I think as a total we just came out and worked hard." Don Nelson: "We were terrible and they were terrific. We didn't have any player that I thought played worth a damn in that locker room." Nelson: "I'm pretty disappointed with our performance. I thought the Jazz did a great job. They zoned us most of the game and we just never got into a rhythm and attacked the zone like we should." Nelson on Bell: "He was terrific. We really do miss him, too. He was one of my favorite players last year. He was a good guy, he guarded every night, and did all the dirty work. I'm really happy for him." Dirk Nowitzki: "It went so quick. We had a couple of good looks that didn't go in and on the other end they scored every time they came down. They did everything they needed to do." Nowitzki: "We can't guard anyone right now. It didn't matter what defense we played. It looked like a layup drill." Nowitzki: "We can't guard anyone right now. It doesn't matter if we play man-to-man or zone, they got layups. If you want to win on the road, especially down the stretch, you have to make stops." Nowitzki: "The bottom line is the guys on the floor have to pick it up defensively. If it's the top 5 guys or whatever. It was a layup drill out there. They got whatever they wanted." Nowitzki on Bell: "We would have liked to have him tonight. Obviously he's comfortable with his surroundings here and you can see what he is capable of." Steve Nash: "We've got to defend better. To me, it's rebounding and defense." Nash: "I'm not really surprised. They kicked our butts twice in the preseason. They're extremely well coached. They play together extremely well, play hard." Nash on Bell: "Raja had a great game and really hurt us. We miss him. He was a great addition to our team last year." Nash on Bell: "He killed us. No question he was fired up." Nash on the back spasms he suffered in the 2nd half: "I could have kept playing [in the 4th], but it was a pain in the butt." Antoine Walker: "We've got to find a way to win games on the road. We've got to find a way to beat teams we're supposed to beat. We come out strong, but we're not finishing those games." Tony Delk: "We had a bad 3rd quarter. They were making a lot of shots and it seems like we couldn't get a stop." Utah Jazz 108, Dallas Mavericks 94 at Utah (January 5) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Utah 28 22 28 30 - 108 .472 .455 .470 .758 Dallas 24 24 18 28 - 94 .419 .350 .402 .875 Halftime: Utah 50-48 3rd Q: Utah 78-66 Technicals: Utah defensive 3 seconds 6:57 2nd Refs: Bill Kennedy, Joe DeRosa, Sean Corbin Attendance: 19,911 (sellout) Did not play due to injury: Matt Harpring (strained right knee), Michael Ruffin (abdominal strain), Josh Howard (strained left hamstring) Utah Jazz REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Aleksandar Pavlovic 17 2-5 1-2 2-2 7 0-1 1 2 4 0 0 Andrei Kirilenko 40 6-13 0-1 9-12 21 5-12 3 4 1 3 3 Greg Ostertag 38 4-10 0-1 2-6 10 5-8 4 2 2 0 3 Carlos Arroyo 24 4-10 0-0 3-3 11 1-2 6 3 2 2 0 DeShawn Stevenson 31 8-16 0-2 1-1 17 2-11 1 1 0 0 1 Jarron Collins 32 3-4 0-0 2-2 8 2-6 1 1 5 0 0 Raja Bell 29 8-16 4-5 5-6 25 1-6 3 2 1 1 0 Raul Lopez 24 3-7 0-0 1-1 7 0-5 4 2 2 1 0 Paul Grant 3 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 1-1 1 0 2 1 0 Maurice Williams 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 1 0 0 Totals 48 39-83 5-11 25-33 108 17-52 24 18 20 8 7 Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Michael Finley 35 3-12 1-6 2-2 9 0-4 4 1 3 1 2 Antoine Walker 28 4-12 3-6 0-0 11 2-6 2 1 3 0 0 Dirk Nowitzki 38 8-15 2-3 6-7 24 2-9 1 0 2 1 4 Steve Nash 29 4-9 0-1 0-0 8 1-2 3 4 1 1 0 Tony Delk 22 2-5 0-2 4-5 8 1-1 1 2 2 1 1 Antawn Jamison 26 4-13 1-1 0-0 9 0-0 2 0 2 1 0 Shawn Bradley 12 0-2 0-0 3-4 3 1-3 0 0 1 1 2 Travis Best 12 2-3 0-0 2-2 6 0-0 3 0 3 0 1 Marquis Daniels 26 5-10 0-1 0-0 10 1-3 4 3 2 4 2 Danny Fortson 12 1-1 0-0 4-4 6 1-5 0 2 5 1 0 Totals 48 33-82 7-20 21-24 94 9-33 20 13 24 11 12 Golden State at Dallas (January 7) The game stayed close in the 1st quarter with neither team holding more than a 6 point lead. Consecutive buckets by Jason Richardson gave Golden State a 24-23 lead with a minute left and that ended up being the quarter score. Golden State hit a bucket at the buzzer, but after review the refs disallowed the basket saying it came after time expired. Nick Van Exel came alive early in the 2nd with 8 points (he had none in the 1st quarter) to help Golden State to a 35-29 lead with 9:30 remaining. Golden State wasn't able to build their lead larger than 6 points. Dallas used an 8-3 "run" to go up 41-40 with 7 minutes left and the teams exchanged leads over the next few minutes. Dallas was able to build a 55-49 lead with 1:45 left, but Richardson hit a jumper and 3-pointer to make it 1 point game. A jumper by Steve Nash, who was playing with a bad back, (it was his only basket of the game) gave Dallas a 57-54 lead with 30 seconds to go and that was the halftime score. Golden State was staying in the game from the arc where they shot 7-10 3-pointers. Richardson had 19 points. Both teams had mini-runs early in the quarter as Golden Stat scored 7 consecutive points to go up 63-59 with 9:45 remaining and a little later a 3-pointer and jumper by Antoine Walker gave Dallas a 66-65 lead with 8:15 left. Golden State led 70-69 with 7:25 to go and Dallas went on a legitimate run by scoring the next 12 points to go up 81-70 with 3:20 remaining as Golden State missed 6 straight shots and turned the ball over twice. However, Dallas was unable to substain their surge as Golden State scored the next 6 points to pull within 76-81 with 1:45 remaining. Dallas led 83-78 after 3. Golden State scored 6 straight points to go up 88-87 with 8:25 left, but Dallas scored the next 4 points to retake the lead and the game stayed close the rest of the game. 2 free throws by Clifford Robinson cut Dallas' lead down to just 97-95 with 2 minutes left. Dirk Nowitzki hit a _tough_ jumper and got the block on the other end. Nash missed and Van Exel missed a 3-point attempt with 1:15 remaining and Dallas pushed the ball the other way and Nash found Antawn Jamison for the layup to give Dallas a 101-95 lead with 1:10 to go. Mike Dunleavy missed on a quick attempt, Dallas ran the shot clock down, and Nowitzki missed with 43 seconds left and Golden State called timeout. Nash stayed up on Van Exel in not allowing him a 3-point attempt, so Van Exel drove for the layup with 36 seconds to go to pull Golden State within 97-101. Surprisingly, Golden State did not foul and Dallas again ran the clock down and Nowitzki missed with 10 seconds left and another Golden State timeout ensued. Van Exel again got a layup, but there was just 7 seconds left and this time the Warriors did make the intentional foul and sent Nash to the line. Nash hit both free throws to basically seal the win. Golden State missed and Nowitzki was fouled on the rebound. He hit both free throws for the final margin. Dallas won 105-99. After the dismal performance vs Utah, I was hoping for a better performance than Dallas had in this game, but at least they came out with the win. How ever, they allowed Golden State to score 99 points the night after Golden State managed just 65 points. Both teams cooled off shooting-wise in the 4th quarter as Dallas shot 7-19 FG and Golden State shot 8-27 FG in the 4th [Dallas made 8-8 FT (4 in the last 6 seconds) and Golden State shot 3-4 FT in the 4th]. Fortunately for Dallas, Golden State's 3-point shooting cooled off in the 2nd half as they only shot 3-13 3-pointers after shooting an amazing 7-10 3-pointers in the 1st half. With the close game, the stat numbers were fairly even, but Dallas did just enough to get the win. It was the 19th straight win vs Golden State. Dallas is 16-2 at home. Dallas had 3 players with 20+ points and 2 others in double-digits. Surprisingly one of those was not Steve Nash. Nash was obviously limited by his sore back in shooting just 1-9 FG (had 5 points), but did dish out 12 assists. Dirk Nowitzki led the way with 23 points and 11 rebounds. 8 of his points came in the last 4 minutes of the game. Michael Finley was solid throughout with 21 points and 5 rebounds in playing all 48 minutes. Antoine Walker had 20 points including 9-16 FG, 8 rebounds, and 6 assists, but did have 5 turnovers. Antawn Jamison had 14 points and 7 rebounds. Tony Delk played 19 minutes in Josh Howard's absence and had a very productive 16 points including 6-9 FG and 2 steals. Danny Fortson was the only other Mav to play as Don Nelson went with a tight rotation. He was the only one active early on as he had 6 rebounds in the 1st 3 minutes of the game (but the Mavs didn't score off of any of them). He finished with 4 points and 11 rebounds in 16 minutes - he only got on the court when Erick Dampier was in the game (but wasn't always inserted when Dampier was). I was expecting either a spectacular or terrible game from Nick Van Exel in his return to Dallas. Surprising to me, he had neither. But he did have a solid, undercontrol outing with 15 points, 6 rebounds, and 9 assists. Jason Richardson was the high man with 27 points including 4-9 3-pointers and 7 rebounds including 5 offensive. Brian Cardinal gave a nice boost off the bench with 18 points including 3-4 3-pointers. Erick Dampier had 15 points including 6-9 FG and 8 rebounds and Mike Dunleavy had 13 points and 7 rebounds. Troy Murphy was a late scratch (was actually announced over the PA as a starter) with inflammation in his right knee. Quotes Don Nelson: "What a gutsy game by Steve Nash. We didn't know if he would be able to do anything [with his injured back]. Maybe he should have taken the game off, but you could see that he really couldn't shoot the ball. He found a way to will the free throws in. We certainly couldn't have won the game without him." Nelson: "Tony Delk stepped up and gave us a really good game. I don't know that we would of won the game without him. I have been waiting for him to step forward and he did." Nelson on Fortson: "Danny did a good job of rebounding early when we couldn't find a basket. He wanted to perform well tonight and he did. He got tons of rebounds in a short period of time. It was a hard game for him to play in." Nelson on Van Exel: "He's a great competitor. He tried to beat us tonight. He's unstoppable when he gets on a role. I know his knee is hurting a little bit and his shot isn't where he wants it. Against us he shot the ball well and I thought he was a great player tonight. He could have one of those games where he made every shot." Michael Finley: "Defense is what got us our success last year. The effort was more consistent than it has been the last couple of games." Finley on Nash's back: "If I hadn't known, I wouldn't have been able to tell anything was wrong with him. He's a warrior." Steve Nash: "We didn't play that particularly well, but we were a lot more resilient than we were the other night in Utah. We were able to gut it out and get the win, but it wasn't pretty and hopefully we can continue to fight this kind of slump we've been in the last few days." Nash: "We made some good plays down the stretch. And most important, we got some stops in the last 3 minutes." Nash on Van Exel: "He's a great player and he loves big games. In some ways it was a big game because everyone knows what a big role he had with our team, but we did a decent job on him. He still had a good game, but we were able to win." Nash on his back: "It wasn't that much fun. I felt better before the game. But it was tightening up as we went along. Tomorrow is an important day. I don't want it to continue to get worse." Nash on Indiana: "It will be a tough game and we'll have to play better than we did tonight to win." Antoine Walker on the team's offense and little defense: "That's the nature of our team. Every team is different. We have to all look at ourselves in the mirror and become better defensive players. We've got to be able to contain and help each other out. Everybody is going score and it's tough to stop people, but we've got to help each other out and we have to work harder until we get to that level." Walker on playing high minutes: "We've got to get some wins. We've got to get on a winning streak. We would love to have the luxury of playing a lot of guys, but we're searching for that consistency. It hurts to have Eddie out because he can give us some valuable minutes and now that Josh is out, injuries have stopped us from getting a set rotation." Walker on Indiana: "They're tough. Probably the best team in the east. Obviously, they're going to be a defensive minded team. They're really going to test our offensive abilities. We've got our work cut out for us." Antawn Jamison: "We struggled at certain parts of the game, but we were able to pull it out at the end." Jason Richardson on it being a close game: "We look at it as encouraging. We just have to win games. We can't be satisfied with losing. Guys in this locker room don't want to lose. We just have to find a way to bear down and win games." Richardson: "It was a very winnable game. We find that encouraging. We've played 2 games down to the wire against these guys. We've just got to find a way to bear down and win these games." Richardson on Van Exel: "I don't think he really played it as a special game. He just went out there and played. I don't think he wanted to get revenge for getting traded. He just wanted to win the game, and we wanted to help win that game for him." Nick Van Exel on the applause: "It felt pretty good. It was a warm feeling on the inside. I really appreciated that. It was [just another game]. We needed a win so bad that I wasn't even thinking about coming back to Dallas. I was more like 'We need a win and we have to go play these guys.' That is what I was thinking about." Van Exel on it being a close game: "We did do that, but once again we found a way to lose the game at the end. If we can just find a way to pull these types of games out, it would sure help." Van Exel on the 7 game losing streak: "It feels like we've lost 7 straight. To be quite honest, it feels like more than that. Having games where you're right there, then getting blown out by 20, it's like a roller coaster." Van Exel: "I think we're a better team than 14-20. Hopefully we can get home and get some energy from our crowd, because we really need it right now." Van Exel going off on the coach: "Sometimes you would like to have your coach tell you, 'Nick we need you to carry us tonight,' instead of me being out there not really knowing if the coach has my back, not really knowing if he's going to get [ticked] off if I take this shot. It would feel good for him to say, 'Nick, we need you to carry us,' or 'J-Rich, we need you to carry us.' Nobody knows who is going to carry this team on a night in, night out basis. We're 34 games in and I don't think we have a role player on this team. I don't think anybody knows who is going to set screens. I don't think anyone knows who is going to do what. It's night in night out, we're just going out there and playing. I don't know my role. Pass and cut." Van Exel: "I can probably go down each team and tell you who the goto guy is on each team. Can you do that for this team?" Clifford Robinson: "We just need to win a game, any game. We need something to get us going in the right direction." Dallas Mavericks 105, Golden State Warriors 99 at Dallas (January 7) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 23 34 26 22 - 105 .507 .316 .466 .850 Golden State 24 30 24 21 - 99 .439 .478 .449 .667 Halftime: Dallas 57-54 3rd Q: Dallas 83-78 Technicals: Dallas defensive 3 seconds 9:07 4th Refs: Blane Reichelt, Ken Mauer, Ron Olesiak Attendance: 20,185 (sellout) Did not play due to injury: Josh Howard (strained left hamstring), Troy Murphy (GS, right ankle inflammation) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Antoine Walker 47 9-16 1-5 1-1 20 1-8 6 5 4 0 0 Dirk Nowitzki 40 8-19 2-6 5-5 23 3-11 1 2 4 1 1 Danny Fortson 16 1-3 0-0 2-2 4 6-11 1 1 1 0 0 Michael Finley 48 10-22 1-5 0-0 21 0-5 3 1 1 3 2 Steve Nash 37 1-9 0-1 5-6 7 0-3 12 1 0 1 0 Antawn Jamison 33 6-10 0-0 2-4 14 2-7 2 1 3 1 1 Tony Delk 19 6-9 2-2 2-2 16 0-1 1 2 0 2 0 Totals 48 41-88 6-19 17-20 105 12-46 26 14 13 8 4 Golden State Warriors REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Clifford Robinson 41 1-9 0-1 3-4 5 3-8 6 4 4 2 2 Mike Dunleavy 30 6-12 1-4 0-0 13 0-7 4 2 4 0 0 Erick Dampier 25 6-9 0-0 3-4 15 3-8 1 1 4 0 2 Jason Richardson 43 11-26 4-9 1-3 27 5-7 2 1 1 2 0 Nick Van_Exel 43 6-15 3-5 0-0 15 0-6 9 2 2 1 0 Brian Cardinal 32 7-12 3-4 1-1 18 3-6 2 3 2 1 1 Calbert Cheaney 20 3-5 0-0 0-0 6 0-2 1 1 1 2 0 Speedy Claxton 6 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 2 1 2 0 0 Totals 48 40-89 11-23 8-12 99 14-45 27 15 20 8 5 patricia