Milwaukee at Dallas (December 30) The game started off really ugly with neither team shooting well. Dallas held small leads and led 15-10 with 4:35 left and Milwaukee scored the next 7 points to go up 17-15 with 3:40 to go. Dallas answered by scoring the next 8 points to go up 23-17 with a minute remaining. Dallas led 25-19 after 1. Dallas shot 38% FG and Milwaukee shot 30% FG in the quarter. 6 consecutive points by Dallas gave the Mavs their first double-digit lead at 33-23 with 9 minutes remaining. Dallas led 47-37 with 3:45 left and scored the last 10 points of the quarter (neither team scored over the last 1 1/2 minutes of the quarter) to go up 57-37 at the half. Dallas shot 61% FG and Milwaukee shot 41% FG in the 2nd quarter. For the half, Dallas was out-rebounding Milwaukee 31-19 including 9-3 offensive. Then came the 3rd quarter where Milwaukee came out aggressive and Dallas played like a team with a huge lead. Milwaukee opened the 3rd quarter with an 11-2 run to pull within 48-59 with 8:30 left. Dallas built their lead back up to 69-54 with 5:50 remaining, but Milwaukee went on a 20-2 monster run, capped by consecutive 3-pointers by Michael Redd, to pull within 71-74 with 1:20 to go. Michael Finley got a jumper as the quarter ended and Dallas led 76-71 after 3. Redd had 13 points on 5-6 FG and 4-4 3-pointers in the 3rd quarter. Milwaukee got back into the game by out-scoring Dallas 34-19, out-shooting Dallas 57%-39%, and out-rebounding Dallas 13-5 including 4-1 offensive during the 3rd quarter. After a layup by Tim Thomas opened the 4th quarter, Dallas scored the next 7 points to go up 83-73 with 10 minutes to go. Dallas' lead fluctuated between 10 and 6 points over the next 6 minutes. Dallas led 93-83 with 4 minutes remaining and Milwaukee scored the next 7 points to pull within 90-93 with 2 minutes to go. But Dirk Nowitzki nailed consecutive 3-pointers from the same spot on the court (only Dallas' 2nd and 3rd 3-pointers in the game) to give Dallas a more comfortable 99-90 lead with 1:20 left. Dallas won 101-92. One of these days, Dallas is going to actually win one the easy way. It sure wasn't this game though. The game is 48 minutes long and just because you go up big in the 1st or 2nd quarter doesn't mean that you can coast to the finish. Milwaukee's aggressiveness and Dallas' lack of effort (really, there were many times when Milwaukee simply beat them down the court) made this a game during the 3rd quarter when Dallas should have stepped on their throat and given them no hope. It is the killer instinct that this team has not shown this season and needs to recover if they are going to be a strong playoff team. Yes, Dallas got the win, but it should have been an easier win instead of coming down to the last 2 minutes. Dallas was the much better team for 3 quarters, but their lack of focus coming out of halftime was disappointing. None of the stat numbers were that interesting, except turnovers where both teams did an excellent job with Dallas having just 6 turnovers and Milwaukee having 9 - but Milwaukee amazingly got 15 points off of Dallas' 6 turnovers, which means they scored on every Dallas turnover and got 3-pointers on half of them. These 2 teams face each other again on Friday in Milwaukee. Antoine Walker was the high man for Dallas with 22 points and 14 rebounds. Dirk Nowitzki had his 3rd straight double-double with 20 points and 11 rebounds. Despite those numbers, it wasn't a spectacular game for him, but he hit the 2 3-pointers that gave Dallas the win. Steve Nash was the 3rd Mav with a double-double with 14 points and 12 assists. He had fun with rookie T.J. Ford as Ford could not guard Nash and Nash got the rarity of posting up a player a couple of times. Michael Finley struggled mightily and even got visibly yelled at by the coach after one of Michael Redd's (Finley's assignment) 3-pointers. Finley had 11 points including 4-11 FG and 9 rebounds (only 1 came after midway through the 2nd quarter). Antawn Jamison had 17 points. Josh Howard's stats do not accurately reflect his performance. It wasn't his best, but he was activate and made a good difference. He had 7 points and 6 rebounds. Don Nelson went a little bit further than the 6-man rotation he had used the past 2 games. Travis Best had a positive impact with 6 points on 3-4 FG in his 14 minutes. Marquis Daniels had 4 points on 2-2 FG and a nice steal in 8 minutes. Danny Fortson only played 2 minutes. Shawn Bradley dressed (he had missed 7 games), but did not play (no need to as Milwaukee doesn't play a tall lineup). Michael Redd went nuts in the 3rd quarter and was a key factor in getting Milwaukee back in the game. 14 of his 25 points came in the 3rd. he shot 6-9 3-pointers for the game. Desmond Mason had 18 points and 5 rebounds. Tim Thomas had 11 points including 5-14 FG and Brian Skinner had 12 points and 5 rebounds as the only other Bucks in double-digits. Joe Smith had 8 points and 10 rebounds. Rookie T.J. Ford had 4 points including 0-5 FG, but did have 11 assists. Toni Kukoc had 8 points and 7 rebounds and was also a factor in the 3rd quarter comeback. Quotes Don Nelson: "I'd like to have the 3rd quarter over, but other than that I thought we played pretty well. For whatever reason, they made a lot of shots even when we were playing pretty well. There were some openings too and we didn't come out in the 3rd quarter properly. We played well enough to win and we seem to be in a better offensive flow now. Dirk didn't really heat up until the 4th quarter, but 2 games prior to this we really thought he was getting into a good groove." Nelson: "Milwaukee's a lot like we are. They play without a center a lot of the time and play a small lineup. They are a tough team." Nelson on Finley's defensive mistakes with Redd: "He's our leader and he sets a good example for us most of the time. But it's not an easy job to keep mentally in tune all the time against a guy like that. Every time Mike made a mistake on Redd, he made the shot, and I was upset because I thought there were some mental breakdowns." Nelson on the bench: "I played them a little bit. It helps to do well when you get off the bench. It's hard to make a contribution when the coach won't put you in. I gave Travis a look tonight because I thought he could guard Ford and I thought he did a good job. He made shots and he's been working hard in practice. He made the most of his opportunity. Daniels we like him a lot and it's hard to get any minutes right now." Dirk Nowitzki: "It ended up almost being a frustrating night when it should have been a fun night." Nowitzki on his late 3-pointers: "I just stayed confident and knocked them down. But it should have been a lot easier night for us. We were ready but we made it hard for ourselves." Steve Nash on Nowitzki's 3-pointers: "I think it does take a little extra [spunk] to take those shots when you haven't been making them. But if you get a good look, you have to take it. And he had good looks." Antoine Walker: "We did a great job of building a 20 point lead in the 1st half. In the 2nd half, T.J. Ford came out aggressive, getting in the lane, finding guys for open shots and Michael Redd got hot. They're a good team. They space you out. They kind of do what we do a little bit with the shooters and they're a team that's never out of the game, but overall we played a pretty good basketball game. We held them to 37 points in the 1st half and we haven't done that in awhile where we had a good defensive 1st half. So that was a good sign. So we just have to constantly build and take one game at a time right now." Walker: "We kind of would love to put them away. We looked for those opportunities, but that's a credit to them." Antawn Jamison on defense: "I don't know if you want to call it communicating or just doing a better job. The problem with us is when we have to play defense on the play. We did a tremendous job there in the 1st half. Our defense really gave up the 20 point lead and for some reason we couldn't do it for 48 minutes. I don't know if it's communicating, but we have to do a better job as far as during the overall game and not just a half or not just a quarter. That's the problem that we have now." Jamison: "It was a good 1st half, especially the way we've come out the last couple ball games." Jamison on the 3rd quarter: "The score should be 0-0 at halftime. We have to look at it that way." Jamison: "We just didn't come out aggressive at all and played very passively in the 3rd quarter." Jamison on again facing Milwaukee on Friday: "It's going to be a different ballgame. These guys are going to be ready to play in the 1st half. They're playing at home. They're a tremendous and different team at home. We just got to get the job done. They're not going to spot us 20 points in the 1st half. We can learn a lot from this game as far as how relentless they are and know matter what the score is, those guys are going to fight." Travis Best: "You have to be aggressive while you're out there because your time may not last very long." Terry Porter: "You can't get down by 20 points on the road against any team in this league and we did it again. We did a great job of getting back in it like we have been all year long, but we have to address the initial part. We are talking about it. It's not like we aren't addressing and trying to make them realize we have to have good starts. Whenever we have poor starts, we really struggle; we get behind the 8-ball. We allow teams to shoot high percentages." Porter: "You've got to play well in the West. From top to bottom, they're very good teams out here and we have to be playing at a very high level. You can't come out here and spot them 20 points and expect to have a chance to win the game." Porter on what needs to change: "I wish I knew. Maybe it's the possibility of being embarrassed when they go down by 20. I don't know, but obviously this has been something of a consistency for us when we've struggle on the road against good teams. We allow them to get up. It's the way they are getting up; it felt like Dallas had about 20 points in the 1st half on fast breaks. You can't give any team that. You have to work on the corrections and go back at it." Porter on Ford: "He's doing a good job. For the most part, when you look at the point guard position, he has done a good job of running our team, getting the ball to the right guys. That's what we've asked. The offensive part will come and he's working on it as far as his shot. He has done everything we've asked a point guard to do." Michael Redd: "We stunk it up on the defensive end tonight. It just wasn't there tonight. We can't go back and forth, offense against offense with this team because 9 times out of 10, they are going to out-shoot you. We just didn't get it done on the defensive end." Redd on Milwaukee's comeback ability: "I don't know. Maybe just the challenge of being down. We got to get the defense going; we will work on the film tomorrow; we will work in practice. They got too many open looks tonight. It was inexcusable." Desmond Mason: "We always seem to get down and then get a sense or urgency to start playing a little harder in the 2nd half. Coach made a statement after the game that, 'Let's pretend we're down 20 to start the game off and approach the game that way.' We can't dig ourselves holes on the road against good teams. We have a talented team but not the kind of talent where you can get down 20 in a visiting arena and try to fight your way back." T.J. Ford: "It's great to play in Dallas. They are a fun team to watch and hard to play against. They have so many shooters that they spread you out. We came up short. It's hard to give them a big lead and then try to come back. Nash is tough. They spread you out. He catches you off guard because he has the shooters that you have to worry about on the wing. It was tough to guard him." Ford: "Stats don't really matter. We have 2 days, so I am just going to come out and try to do better than I did today." Dallas Mavericks 101, Milwaukee Bucks 92 at Dallas (December 30) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 25 32 19 25 - 101 .535 .188 .471 .762 Milwaukee 19 18 34 21 - 92 .429 .444 .432 .933 Halftime: Dallas 57-37 3rd Q: Dallas 76-71 Technicals: Dallas defensive 3 seconds 3:46 1st Refs: Courtney Kirkland, Monty McCutchen, Tim Donaghy Attendance: 20,095 (sellout) Did not play due to injury: Eduardo Najera (sore left knee) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Josh Howard 31 3-8 0-1 1-2 7 3-6 1 1 1 0 3 Antoine Walker 44 8-18 1-5 5-8 22 4-14 4 1 1 0 1 Dirk Nowitzki 35 8-19 2-5 2-3 20 1-11 1 1 2 0 0 Michael Finley 43 4-11 0-1 3-3 11 1-9 4 1 1 0 0 Steve Nash 33 6-13 0-4 2-2 14 2-4 12 0 3 1 0 Antawn Jamison 30 7-12 0-0 3-3 17 2-4 0 2 2 1 0 Travis Best 14 3-4 0-0 0-0 6 0-0 0 0 2 1 0 Marquis Daniels 8 2-2 0-0 0-0 4 0-1 0 0 1 1 0 Danny Fortson 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 41-87 3-16 16-21 101 13-49 22 6 13 4 4 Milwaukee Bucks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Tim Thomas 32 5-14 0-2 1-1 11 0-4 0 1 2 1 0 Joe Smith 26 4-7 0-0 0-0 8 2-10 1 1 3 0 1 Brian Skinner 23 5-8 0-0 2-2 12 1-5 0 0 5 0 0 T.J. Ford 21 0-5 0-0 4-4 4 1-4 11 1 3 0 1 Michael Redd 46 9-18 6-9 1-1 25 0-3 1 1 2 0 0 Damon Jones 27 2-10 2-6 0-0 6 0-1 5 1 0 2 0 Toni Kukoc 27 4-7 0-1 0-1 8 2-7 4 2 1 1 1 Desmond Mason 31 6-10 0-0 6-6 18 2-5 2 2 2 0 1 Dan Gadzuric 7 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 1-3 0 0 0 0 1 Totals 48 35-81 8-18 14-15 92 9-42 24 9 18 4 5 Have a great New Year! patricia