An MRI revealed that Don Nelson's right rotator cuff is 90% torn. He is scheduled to undergo surgery today to repair the cuff and will then miss 2 to 3 weeks. Assistant Avery Johnson will fill in as head coach while Nelson is out. Nelson on the surgery: "It's the best time for me to have it. We still have part of the schedule that's not terrible. It gets hard in February, and I want to make sure I'm there for that." Washington at Dallas (January 18) It was retro night in more ways than one. Dallas wore throwback green unis from 87-88 and Washington wore throwback orange unis from 70-71. And as much as I love Mavs green, it was an ugly sight when combined with Bullets orange. Dirk Nowitzki went old school and wore a headband, which looked funky with his long hair (think old Bill Walton pictures). It was the 2nd night of a back-to-back for Washington (having lost big to San Antonio the night before) and their 2nd night of playing without Larry Hughes, who is out for a while with a fractured thumb. Dallas took advantage early and was clicking on offensive and playing good defense. Dallas led 14-11 with 8 minutes remaining and then went on a 12-2 run to go up 26-13 with 5:45 left. Dirk Nowitzki scored his first bucket of the game with 7:15 to go - the 2 points gave him 10,000 career points, joining Mark Aguirre, Rolando Blackman, Derek Harper, and Michael Finley as the only Mavs to have 10,000 points. Dallas led 28-18 with 3:50 left and closed the quarter with another 12-2 run to go up 40-20 after 1. Finley had 11 points including 3 3-pointers and Jerry Stackhouse had 10 points. Dallas shot 61% FG including 4-6 3-pointers and Washington shot 38% FG in the quarter. Dallas continued to lead big in the 2nd quarter and scored 7 straight points to take their largest lead at 54-27 with 7:50 remaining. Washington did pull within 37-56 with 5:40 left, but Dallas again closed the quarter strong with a 17-3 run as Washington went ice cold in missing their last 11 shots. Dallas led 73-40 at the half. Dallas shooting "dropped" to 55% FG in the 2nd quarter, but Washington's shoot stunk at 22% FG (5-23) in the quarter). Dallas scored the first 4 points of the 3rd quarter to take their largest lead at 77-40 with 10:40 remaining. Dallas led 79-43 with 10 minutes to go and Washington went on a 15-2 run, but that only pulled them within 58-81 with 7:25 left. Dallas led in the 20s the rest of the quarter. Dallas led 101-78 after 3. Gilbert Arenas had 11 points in the 3rd quarter. There were lots of free throws in the quarter as Dallas shot 10-12 FT and Washington shot 12-16 FT. Dallas' lead hovered between 19 and 20 points over the first 6 minutes of the 4th quarter. The teams traded 3-pointers and Dallas led 123-102 with 5 minutes to go. Washington then added a little excitement in scoring the next 10 points to pull within 112-123 with 2:25 as Dallas missed 5 straight shots. But Dallas answered with a 12-3 run, capped by a 3-pointer by Stackhouse, to put the game away at 135-115. Dallas won 137-120. Despite a sloppy 2nd half, it ended up being an easy win for Dallas. The team lost focus once they got their 37 point lead and Gilbert Arenas got hot in the 2nd half so that there never truly was garbage time. Washington scored an opponent record 80 points in the 2nd half - and despite that, they still lost by 17 points. 137 points was the most scored by any team in the NBA this season, besting the 134 scored on December 13, but that was in a double-overtime game. It was strong shooting that won the game for Dallas. The Mavs shot 57.7% (45-78) FG including 11-17 3-pointers. Washington shot 42.4% (39-92) FG including 9-23 3-pointers - the Wizards upped their game percentage by shooting 14-21 FG in the 4th quarter (they were at 35% FG through 3 quarters). There were lots of free throws shot as Dallas shot 36-41 FT and Washington shot 33-46 FT. It was a balanced attack by Dallas as the Mavs had 4 players with 25+ points - only the 3rd time since 1977 that a team had 4 players with 25+ points in a game. Jerry Stackhouse was the high man with 29 points on 9-14 FG and 9-11 FT. He did turn the ball over 5 times, though. Dirk Nowitzki had a double-double with 28 points including 12-12 FT and 11 rebounds. He also had 3 steals, 3 blocks, and 4 assists including 2 really pretty ones. Jason Terry was white hot with 26 points including 10-12 FG and 4-5 3-pointers to go with 7 assists and 3 steals. He had a thunder dunk during the 4th quarter that electrified the crowd and his teammates. Michael Finley had 25 points including 5-7 3-pointers (and 3 in the 1st quarter) and 5 assists. Josh Howard returned from a 3 game absence and had 10 points and 3 rebounds in 22 minutes. Erick Dampier continued to limp up and down the court, but his time on the court was limited by foul trouble and he only played 12 minutes and had 6 points and 2 rebounds. Alan Henderson did a very nice job of filling in while Damp road the bike [Damp did not sit on the bench] and had 5 points and 12 rebounds including 4 offensive. 27 of Gilbert Arenas' career high 43 points came in the 2nd half and 16 came in the 4th quarter. He shot 11-23 FG, 6-10 3-pointers, and 15-18 FT before fouling out with a minute and a half left in the game. Antawn Jamison had 27 points including 11-11 FT and 10 rebounds in his return to Dallas. Juan Dixon had 19 points including 8-20 FG, 6 rebounds, 6 assists, and 4 steals. No other Wizard was in double-digits. Jared Jeffries had 8 points and 6 rebounds. Quotes Don Nelson: "I don't know what to say. It was the good, bad, and the ugly. It is hard to play with a 30 point lead in the NBA. I guess you should assume people are going to make a run at you. They had nothing to lose and started launching 3s and started making them. We were beautiful in the 1st half and then got caught up in a rag tag kind of game and didn't handle it very well." Nelson: "Jason Terry had an incredible game. He made every open shot and 3. He was an anchor. I think if I had to do it over again I would have put 2 point guards in the game. I thought Darrell Armstrong was a factor in the game and I probably should have put him in earlier. He is a true point guard and has seen presses and handles them better than we did. I thought we struggled way too much to get the ball." Nelson: "A win is a win and I guess you shouldn't complain too much on a 17 point win." Nelson on if he was concerned about losing the lead: "I wouldn't say I was concerned. You don't lose too many 30 point leads. I was a little disappointed when they closed it to a 9 or 10 point game, but we seemed to respond with a basket at the right time. I didn't think the game was ever in jeopardy." Dirk Nowitzki: "What happened in the 2nd half is a little embarrassing. We've got to learn to put these teams away. We've got to do a better job, especially coming out of the half and in the 3rd quarter and really put it on them. That's what we're not really doing." Nowitzki on the 10,000 point milestone: "It's definitely quite an accomplishment. It was good that I was so close so I could get it out of the way early." Nowitzki on the 10,000 point milestone: "That's a nice accomplishment for sure. Since I knew about it before the game, I tried to get it out of the way as soon as I could." Michael Finley: "The 1st half offensively, we were flowing. But the 2nd half, all that went away. It's sometimes hard to play with a big lead like that. To be a top-notch team, we have to learn to play with a big lead and continue to keep our focus, as hard as it may be." Finley on Nelson being out: "He's been the coach since I've been here. It'll be strange not to have him on the sidelines yelling at me." Jerry Stackhouse on the 1st half: "We did a lot of good things. We moved the ball around and were making shots. We did a good job of forcing them to play 1-on-1 basketball. In the 2nd half, obviously when you get such a big lead, the other team has nothing to lose. They come up and take wild 3-pointers and we should have defended a little better than we did, but it's tough when you're trying to play team defense and they're pulling up for 3s. Gilbert got on a nice roll there and helped cut the lead. We never really felt like there was any doubt about the game. Everybody got a little passive when we had the big lead." Stackhouse: "We had a big 1st quarter tonight. I looked up at the scoreboard with 4:30 left in the half and I told Dirk that we only needed 18 points for 80. We feel like we can score at any time. We need to continue to get sharper on that half of the court and get better defensively." Jason Terry: "They were coming off a tough game last night against San Antonio. They really didn't have their legs in the 1st half, but you can see that they're a dangerous team. They can really get going from the outside. They hit a lot of tough shots, especially Arenas. He was just letting it fly from all over. Luckily we did have that lead early and we held on for the victory." Terry: "We've said all year long that we've got guys that can kill you on any given night. Luckily tonight everybody was effective early on. We're just trying to improve and get better. We've got to close these games out a little better than we did in the 2nd half." Terry: "I'm very selective with my shots. I'm just trying to feed off other guys and look to pass first. When you're doing that, you won't get as many attempts, which isn't bad for me at all. I'm playing the point guard position in a great system and that system is to get the ball out early in transition, break the defense down and find guys. When I do that, it really opens up my game." Eddie Jordan: "Dallas played a heck of a game. We are trying to go through an adjustment period. Larry Hughes meant so much, but we shouldn't play like that in the 1st half. We came back in the 2nd half and played as hard as we had all trip. So out of 8 quarters, we played 2 good quarters, and that is what we are going to take with us from this trip." Jordan on the 1st half: "They were good and we weren't." Jordan: "I was encouraged by a lot of guys tonight. We changed the way we played a little bit in the 2nd half. I don't know if we can play like that, but I am certainly going to look at that further and see if we can play like that." Antawn Jamison on missing Hughes: "Larry means a lot, but not to the point that we give up 40 points in one quarter." Gilbert Arenas: "I am proud of the team in the 2nd half. We got beat in the 1st period and we kept fighting in the 2nd half. We kept coming and they didn't give up on me. I have to appreciate what we have here and we have to move forward." Arenas: "We were fighting for dignity in the 2nd half." Arenas on the 1st half: "We came out sluggish. It's hard when you're right hand man is out. When he's at the 1, I am at the 2 and when I am at the 1, he is at the 2. It's hard because you are missing 20 points, you are missing a defensive leader, you are missing the leader of the team. It's hard and you have to make it up in other ways. We have to get over it. We have to suck it up like men and we have to come out and play strong - play physical." Arenas: "We have to do some soul-searching. Everybody knows what happened tonight. We've got to move forward." Juan Dixon on missing Hughes: "I am used to coming off the bench and bringing a lot of energy. After this game, you realize how much you miss Larry Hughes. How he is a huge part of this team's success this year. We need him back bad. I am trying to fill his role. We need guys to come off the bench and play with a lot of energy. That's the role I am used to playing. Hopefully, we get Larry back pretty soon and get back on the right track. But he's not here right now, so guys have to step up and do their part. This is an opportunity for a lot of guys to take advantage. Guys need to step up." Dixon on missing Hughes: "It's funny. The seconds Larry gets hurt, you feel like defensively everybody is not on the same page. We can't play like that. We won 7 in a row. If we keep playing like that, we might lose 7 in a row." Dallas Mavericks 137, Washington Wizards 120 at Dallas (January 18) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 40 33 28 36 - 137 .557 .647 .577 .878 Washington 20 20 38 42 - 120 .435 .391 .424 .717 Halftime: Dallas 73-40 3rd Q: Dallas 101-78 Technicals: Dallas defensive 3 seconds 10:21 3rd, Del Harris 0:56 3rd Refs: Joe DeRosa, Scott Wall, Robbie Robinson Attendance: 19,653 (sellout) Did not play due to injury: Larry Hughes (fractured right thumb) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Michael Finley 42 8-17 5-7 4-4 25 0-3 5 2 2 0 1 Jason Terry 40 10-12 4-5 2-3 26 1-4 7 2 4 3 0 Dirk Nowitzki 44 8-16 0-1 12-12 28 1-11 4 3 4 3 3 Josh Howard 22 3-5 0-0 4-5 10 0-3 0 1 0 1 0 Erick Dampier 12 1-2 0-0 4-4 6 0-2 1 0 4 0 0 Jerry Stackhouse 34 9-14 2-4 9-11 29 0-1 3 5 2 0 0 Alan Henderson 24 2-6 0-0 1-2 5 4-12 1 0 4 1 0 Devin Harris 10 2-3 0-0 0-0 4 1-2 2 1 5 0 0 Shawn Bradley 9 2-3 0-0 0-0 4 0-2 0 0 2 0 0 Darrell Armstrong 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 1 0 DJ Mbenga 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 45-78 11-17 36-41 137 7-40 23 14 27 9 4 Washington Wizards REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Juan Dixon 43 8-20 1-5 2-3 19 3-6 6 4 1 4 1 Gilbert Arenas 42 11-23 6-10 15-18 43 1-3 3 2 6 2 0 Antawn Jamison 40 8-17 0-0 11-11 27 4-10 1 1 1 0 0 Jared Jeffries 30 3-8 0-1 2-2 8 2-6 4 4 3 2 0 Brendan Haywood 7 1-2 0-0 0-2 2 1-2 0 0 1 0 0 Jarvis Hayes 24 3-9 2-4 1-2 9 1-2 2 0 4 1 0 Laron Profit 22 1-6 0-3 1-2 3 0-4 1 1 2 1 0 Etan Thomas 15 2-4 0-0 1-6 5 3-4 0 0 4 0 0 Michael Ruffin 14 2-3 0-0 0-0 4 5-5 2 1 4 2 0 Samaki Walker 3 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 1 1 0 0 Totals 48 39-92 9-23 33-46 120 20-42 19 14 27 12 1 patricia