Don't forget that Thursday's game vs the Lakers has a late 8:30 pm start time. The game is being broadcast on TNT. Dirk Nowitzki continues to sit out with a sprained right ankle. He's improving, but he's not expected to play Thursday night vs the Lakers. Nowitzki: "I'm taking it day-by-day. It's getting a little better. It still has some swelling. It was a really bad sprain. It hasn't even been a week." Nowitzki: "I wanted to play Thursday. It's one of the biggest games of the season. Maybe Saturday. We'll see." Washington at Dallas (December 2) Dallas hopped out to an early 8-2 lead with 9:30 left and neither team was shooting well. The Mavs scored 8 consecutive points to go up 18-9 with 5:15 left and held a high single-digit lead the rest of the quarter. Dallas led 24-17 after 1. Dallas shot 36% FG and Washington shot 32% FG. The shooting remained poor throughout the game for both teams. Dallas took their first double-digit lead on a jumper by Josh Howard to go up 36-26 with 7:20 remaining, but Washington scored the next 7 points to pull within 3 points with 5:20 to go. 2 free throws by Howard and 2 buckets by Antawn Jamison gave Dallas a 44-35 lead with 3 minutes left. Dallas led 48-37 at the half. Dallas shot 40% FG and Washington shot 37% FG for the half. Washington was playing an halfcourt game and had just 4 fast break points while Dallas had 22. Washington had turned the ball over 12 times, which Dallas had converted into 19 points. Dallas slowly built on their lead and Washington got no closer than 8 points (early in the quarter) in the 3rd quarter. Eduardo Najera banked in a 3-pointer as the shot clock was running out [5th 3 of his career, including playoffs] to give Dallas a 63-48 lead with 5:45 remaining. 2 free throws by Jamison gave Dallas' their first 20 point lead at 75-55 with 50 seconds to go. Dallas led 75-58 after 3. Washington had no rally in them in the 4th as they got no closer than 17 points in the 4th. The final margin was Dallas' largest lead. Dallas won 97-72. When the starting lineup for Washington was introduced, it's wasn't much of a team (star players Jerry Stackhouse and Gilbert Arenas are on IR) and this should have been an easy win for Dallas - and it was, even though it wasn't a pretty one. Dallas never trailed in this game and out-scored Washington in each quarter. Neither team shot well, but Dallas dominated the rebounds. Dallas out-rebounded Washington 63-44 including 22-15 offensive [the team non-OT record for rebounds is 66]. The Mavs had 4 players in double-digit rebounding. Dallas shot 41.7% (40-96) FG including 2-13 3-pointers and Washington shot 32.1% (26-81) FG including 4-25 3-pointers. Washington was sloppy with the ball with 17 turnovers, which Dallas converted into an impressive 26 points. Dallas had 13 turnovers and Washington converted those into just 11 points. Washington only had 12 assists while Dallas had 24. Michael Finley had a solid all around game with 16 points, 12 rebounds, and 6 assists. Antawn Jamison was the high man with 21 points and 7 rebounds. Antoine Walker wasn't looking to shoot [I surprised that his attempts was as high as 12], preferring to pass the ball with a game high 7 assists. He had 10 rebounds including 5 offensive and 8 points (just 3-12 FG) and did have 5 turnovers [he needs to be a little more patient with his passes and not force the issue - if he sees a player get good position, he can't resist trying to make the pass no matter how many opponents are between him and his teammate]. Steve Nash was quiet, but hit a couple of his runners, with 14 points and just 3 rebounds and 3 assists. Shawn Bradley started, but wasn't much of a factor with 2 points on 1-5 FG and 2 rebounds in 14 minutes. He did have 2 blocks and some shots were altered by his presence. Tony Delk was the 5th starter and started well in being the high scorer in the 1st quarter with 9 points, but missed the 4 shots he took the rest of the game. Eddie Energy was back as Eduardo Najera played very well with his hustle and energy and had a double-double with 11 points on 5-7 FG and 11 rebounds. Josh Howard was not sharp in this game and made a number of rookie mistakes. He couldn't shoot straight (6 points including 2-11 FG), but was running around crazy for rebounds (10) and loose balls, including 2 dives to the floor. Travis Best had 4 points and 4 assists in 20 minutes and Marquis Daniels had 6 points including 3-4 FG in 10 minutes. No one stepped up for Washington as they only had 2 player in double-digits scoring. Larry Hughes was the high man with just 12 points (and 10 of those came in the 1st half) including 5-14 FG. He also had 7 rebounds. Kwame Brown had 10 points and 7 rebounds in 22 minutes. Brendan Haywood had a career high 16 rebounds including 8 offensive, but only had 5 points on 1-8 FG and 3-6 FT. And he wasn't the worst shooter of the night as Juan Dixon shot a miserable 1-12 FG as part of his 6 points in 22 minutes. Rookie Jarvis Hayes didn't have a good game with 8 points on 4-15 FG and 3 rebounds in 31 minutes. The game has passed Christian Laettner by as he did even consider going for the bucket a couple of times when he got the ball in the post with Najera defending him. No Wizard player had more than 3 assists. Quotes Don Nelson: "Sometimes you play as poor as the team you are playing and I thought that was the case tonight. Some things may have led up to that, we know the Lakers are coming in and sometimes strange things happen in these pregames. You certainly have to take a 25 point win and not complain too much. We have to play better than that if we are going to beat the Lakers." Nelson on the slower pace: "We didn't want to play that way and we were fortunate to get into the open court a little bit. Games like this aren't always easy. You certainly have to take a 25 point win and not complain too much." Nelson: "[Washington] missed more close shots to the basket. We were vulnerable tonight. I didn't like the game at all. For whatever reason, it was one of those games where it seemed like a lid [was on] the basket on their end. I don't know how much we had to do with that. I thought our defense was poor." Nelson: "We put a couple of new plays in for Antawn Jamison and they worked like clockwork. That usually doesn't happen. Usually it takes a few games to do it, but we scored every time on them. Let's not take too much credit for that. I think this team is pretty beat up. I think when Hughes got his thigh bruise which slowed him down, that was the end of the game." Nelson on Finley: "I thought Mike was a trooper all night. He didn't shoot particularly well, but I thought his start was good. He got his hands on the ball with rebounds and steals. When his shot went cold, he kept playing." Nelson: "You had to like Najera tonight. If you look at his lines tonight, it probably looks like he doesn't have much, except maybe double figures in rebounds, but he played his heart out and was a factor in this game." Steve Nash: "It was a win and none of us will claim brilliance on this one, but we got the win and did enough things right to keep our home record." Nash: "Obviously, they didn't want to run with us and they probably shouldn't have. It was very important for us to try to push the ball and get in the open floor. We did a good enough job of getting ourselves some transition baskets and taking some of the pressure off of us. Not our best outing, but a win." Nash: "We've improved our rebounding this year. We've got a lot of work to do in a lot of areas, but especially missing our 2 highest rebounders tonight, we did a good job. Typically when those guys [Nowitzki and Fortson] are in the lineup, we're a good rebounding team this year." Antawn Jamison: "Ever since the Denver game, high energy as far as rebounding wasn't there and once we got back from that Denver game, guys have been more conscience and the effort as far as rebounding has been the number one priority. We stressed it a little bit and we know if we do get the rebound, we get the opportunity to rip and run a little bit, and offensively we're a team if we get second chances we can really hurt you. Rebounding has definitely been a number one priority and hopefully we continue to rebound effectively." Jamison: "It's scary. That's two games with 60 rebounds. That's a good sign. In the past, that wasn't one of the strongest points of the team. Now we have something that can definitely take us to another level." Jamison: "We can't play like this and beat the Lakers, we know that. You win by 20-something and something must be going right. But we'll have to be better Thursday." Eddie Jordan: "I really admire the way the Mavericks play. They play a fun style. They know how to pick up mismatches. We are a little bit out of bullets tonight. We just didn't knock the shots down. We turned the ball over. I thought we hustled; we really did. I give our guys credit because we played as hard as we can play. We made mistakes, but coming out of a game like this, when your shots don't go down, you can give yourself a chance just by working hard. And that's what we did." Jordan getting within 3 points and then Dallas pulling a way in the 2nd quarter: "I just thought we didn't make some shots there. We had some open shots. We didn't make them, then they come down and execute. They get paint scores. They are really good off the ball, cutting. They are good with the ball, isolations. I think Don Nelson has them playing really well without Nowitzki." Brendan Haywood: "We turned the ball over too much and gave them too many easy points. We can't do that against Dallas." Haywood on missing players: "It's definitely an affect. You hate to harp on it or use it as an excuse, but injuries definitely have an affect on our season right now. With Jerry Stackhouse not being here and Gilbert Arenas not being here and Etan Thomas - we are really low on bodies. We are not as deep as we need to be, but at the same time we have to fight through it." Mitchell Butler: "I thought we competed early on in the game. I thought we made some plays and they obviously made some plays; fed off their home court crowd. Najera came in and gave them a ton of energy. We just had some slippage where we couldn't knock down shots. We had some pretty good looks at the basket and couldn't get the shots to fall. When that happens against a team as good as the Mavericks, you run into a buzz saw. They get their thing going on the offensive end and they know they are capable of scoring 100 points every night. For them, its going to work and putting your hard hat on and getting the job done. We just didn't match the intensity. We had a lot of slippage and they too advantage of it." Butler: "We haven't been able to get shots to fall when we needed shots to fall and once that starts happening that leads to other things. Not executing our offense as well, having defensive lapses here and there, all those things start to compound." Steve Blake on the 2nd quarter run: "The whole team started playing with energy, diving for loose balls, playing hard defense, we made some plays on offense. Then it was contagious. I'm not making open shots right now; some other guys aren't, too. ... It's something we've got to work on and change." Dallas Mavericks 97, Washington Wizards 72 at Dallas (December 2) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 24 24 27 22 - 97 .458 .154 .417 .882 Washington 17 20 21 14 - 72 .393 .160 .321 .640 Halftime: Dallas 48-37 3rd Q: Dallas 75-58 Technicals: Shawn Bradley 9:32 3rd Refs: Rodney Mott, Scott Foster, Steve Javie Attendance: 19,529 (sellout) Did not play due to injury: Dirk Nowitzki (sprained right ankle), Danny Fortson (suspended), Etan Thomas (flu) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Michael Finley 39 7-16 1-2 1-2 16 1-12 6 1 0 2 0 Antoine Walker 31 3-12 0-3 2-2 8 5-10 7 5 2 0 1 Shawn Bradley 14 1-5 0-0 0-0 2 1-2 0 0 3 2 2 Tony Delk 22 3-11 0-2 3-3 9 1-4 0 0 2 2 0 Steve Nash 27 6-13 0-3 2-2 14 1-3 3 2 1 1 0 Travis Best 20 2-3 0-0 0-0 4 0-2 4 1 2 0 0 Eduardo Najera 24 5-7 1-1 0-0 11 2-11 0 1 4 0 1 Josh Howard 21 2-11 0-1 2-2 6 5-10 1 1 2 1 0 Antawn Jamison 32 8-14 0-1 5-6 21 4-7 1 1 4 2 0 Marquis Daniels 10 3-4 0-0 0-0 6 2-2 2 1 2 1 0 Totals 48 40-96 2-13 15-17 97 22-63 24 13 22 11 4 Washington Wizards REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Kwame Brown 22 4-7 0-0 2-3 10 3-7 2 1 0 1 2 Jarvis Hayes 31 4-15 0-3 0-0 8 1-3 1 1 1 0 0 Brendan Haywood 30 1-8 0-0 3-6 5 8-16 0 1 2 1 4 Chris Whitney 17 2-6 1-4 1-1 6 0-1 2 2 1 0 1 Larry Hughes 30 5-14 1-4 1-2 12 1-7 0 4 1 0 0 Christian Laettner 22 2-4 0-0 1-2 5 0-1 3 2 2 1 3 Steve Blake 25 2-8 1-5 3-4 8 0-1 2 3 0 3 1 Jared Jeffries 22 1-3 0-1 2-3 4 1-4 1 0 3 2 0 Mitchell Butler 14 4-4 0-0 0-0 8 0-0 0 1 3 0 1 Juan Dixon 22 1-12 1-8 3-4 6 1-3 1 1 1 1 0 Brevin Knight 5 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 26-81 4-25 16-25 72 15-44 12 17 14 9 12 patricia