Dallas activated Dan Dickau and placed Michael Finley on IR with a sprained right ankle. Finley will have to miss at least 5 games. Dallas at Miami (November 11) Dallas came out white hot and the wounder tiger theory seemed to be in place - a team is most dangerous the game after losing a key player [so maybe the Heat will take it out on San Antonio tonight :) ]. Marquis Daniels started in Michael Finley's place and came out aggressive and scored at will. Combine him with a hot Dirk Nowitzki and Miami had problems. The game was tied 4-4 with 10:30 left and Dallas went on a 21-4 run, including 8 points by Nowitzki, to go up 25-8 with 4:20. During the run, a blocked shot by Rasual Butler sent the ball out of bounds and Dallas had 2 seconds to get a shot off. The Mavs inbounded to Nowitzki and he swished a sweet looking long 3-pointer over his defender. Dallas led in the teens the rest of the quarter. Dallas led 34-19 after 1 as the Mavs shot 62% FG. Daniels had 14 points and Nowitzki had 10 points. Erick Dampier picked up his 2nd found early in the 2nd quarter and Don Nelson brought in DJ Mbenga. And for a minute it seemed that Bubba Well's record for quickest foul out in league history was in danger (though Well's fouls were intentional) as Mbenga picked up 3 fouls in just 53 seconds, but Nelson subbed him back out after the 3rd foul. But it did lead to Dallas getting in the penalty with over 10 minutes left in the quarter - fortunately after a few minutes Miami went away from their inside game and did not take full advantage of Dallas' foul trouble. Miami opened the quarter with a 9-2 run (all but 2 of the points from free throws) to pull within 28-36 with 9:50 to go. Dallas then used a barrage of 3-pointers - 3 in the next 1:40 - to push their lead back into double-digits at 46-33 with 8:30 left. Miami was able to cut Dallas' lead down into single-digits twice, but the Mavs had an answer on the next possession both times and Miami never got closer than 8 points (on a 3-pointer by Damon Jones). Up 60-48 with 2:30 remaining, Dallas instituted Hack-a-Shaq in intentionally fouling O'Neal 3 times away from the ball to send him to the line. It wasn't all that successful even though O'Neal officially went 3-6 from the line as Dallas committed 2 lane violations and he hit the extra on the first and missed on the 2nd, but Miami got the offensive rebound - and they also got the offensive rebound on his last miss. But Miami missed on both of their 2nd chances and it was still a 12 point game when Hack-a-Shaq ended. Dallas led 71-57 at the half. Dallas' shooting remained strong and they shot 61% FG including 6-8 3-pointers in the half while Miami shot 42% FG including 3-9 3-pointers. Jerry Stackhouse had 10 points and O'Neal had 10 points in the 2nd quarter. Nowitzki was having a monster game with 15 points in the 2nd quarter to up his total to 25 points including 11-11 FT. Both teams opened the 3rd quarter sluggish and there were just 6 points scored over the first 3 minutes of the quarter. Dwyane Wade drove baseline for a dunk to pull Miami within 61-78 with 8:35 to go. Dallas then went on a 12-2 run to take their largest lead at 89-63 with 5:40 left. O'Neal then woke up and had 4 offensive putbacks and Damon Jones chipped in 2 3-pointers as Miami went on a 19-6 run to close the quarter. Dallas led 95-82 after 3. Again the teams opened the quarter sluggish and just 4 points were scored over the first 3 minutes. Dallas then took off and put the game away by scoring the next 11 points to go up 108-84 with 6:30 remaining. Things got worse for Miami when Wade went down and out with a sprained ankle with 7 minutes left (and the Heat down 22 points at that point). A hook shot by Malik Allen with 5 minutes left was Miami's first field goal of the quarter. Dallas won 113-93. 2 nights after Dallas could not buy a bucket in shooting a miserable 29% FG, Dallas refound their shooting touch and could not miss. Dallas did cool off a little bit late in the 3rd quarter, but their offensive fire power was just too much for Miami this night. Dallas shot 51.9% (41-79) FG including an impressive 10-17 3-pointers. While Miami struggled in shooting 37.2% (32-86) FG including 6-19 3-pointers. It always amazes me when a team with an offensive monster like Shaquille O'Neal stops playing an inside game. The Mavs did double and triple-team O'Neal when ever he caught the ball, but there were long stretches in the game when the team did not run the ball through him. At least Dallas did not forget who their superstar is. Dirk, Dirk, Dirk!!! Dirk Nowitzki was on fire this night. So many of his shots were pure swishes - just the bottom of the net - and it didn't matter how tight or loose the defense was. For the 8th time in his career (including 3 times in the playoffs), Nowitzki had 40 points or more in a game. Nowitzki had a game high 41 points on 12-24 FG, 4-7 3-pointers, and 13-13 FT, 10 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 blocks. Marquis Daniels had a solid game and looks to be getting fully healthy. There were a couple of times when I wanted to yell at him for playing one-on-one, but then he would go ahead and make the tough shot. He had 22 points including 9-13 FG and 5 rebounds in 31 minutes. Devin Harris had a decent game except when he was defending Dwyane Wade, where Wade twice juked him and drove baseline for a dunk and he got a number of fouls trying to defend Wade. Harris had 9 points on 4-6 FG and 1-1 3-pointers, 3 rebounds, and 3 assists in 23 minutes. Jason Terry also played well and had 10 points on a perfect 4-4 FG and 2-2 3-pointers and 3 assists in 26 minutes. Erick Dampier didn't look that impressive, but the hidden numbers tell a different story. During the almost 15 minutes when Dampier and O'Neal were on the court at the same time, O'Neal shot only 2-7 FG (and missed 4 free throws) where as he made all 6 attempts (and 6-10 FT) when other Mavs players tried to defend him. Foul trouble did limit Dampier some and subbing him out when O'Neal came out, and he had 6 points including 2-3 FG (both makes were 15-footers) and 5 rebounds in 17 minutes. Josh Howard was one of the few to struggle with his shooting and had 9 points on 4-12 FG and 8 rebounds. Jerry Stackhouse had a solid outing with 12 points and 3 assists. Shawn Bradley, Alan Henderson, DJ Mbenga, and Calvin Booth all had short stints in trying to guard O'Neal and the 4 combined for 4 points, 8 rebounds (7 by Henderson), 4 blocks, and 10 fouls in 36 minutes. Dan Dickau made his Mavs debut and missed all 3 shots he attempted in 4 minutes. It is always nice, since it is so rare, when Shaquille O'Neal has just an average night against Dallas (O'Neal has averaged 29.2 points and 12 rebounds against Dallas). O'Neal had 22 points including 6-14 FT, 10 rebounds, and 3 blocks. He reached a milestone in becoming the 20th player to have 22,000 career points. Even more than their first loss of the season, Miami is concerned about the health of Dwyane Wade. Wade was in an air cast after the game and is listed as questionable for tonight's game due to his sprained ankle. He looked stellar at times during the game, but struggled with his shot. He had 20 points including 6-18 FG, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 steals. Eddie Jones had a miserable night in shooting just 1-11 FG including 0-4 3-pointers. He had 3 points and 5 rebounds. Rasual Butler had 11 points including 4-14 FG. That is 3 starters that combined to shoot 11-43 (25.6%) FG. Keyon Dooling had 14 points, 4 assists, and 3 steals. Quotes Don Nelson: "We did a great job on offense. I taught Dirk how to shoot that jumper in practice today. He put on quite a show. Dirk was making every shot. ... We rode him." Nelson: "We had our best offensive effort of the season." Nelson on Nowitzki: "He put on quite a show. It makes it kind of easy coaching when he's going like that. He's incredible when he's on like that." Nelson: "Dirk was making every shot. It makes it kind of easy coaching a team that is making all their shots. It doesn't happen every night, but it did tonight. We rode [Nowitzki]. He was in every play call. Our guys did a great job of finding him." Nelson: "You always plan to have a good start, but it doesn't always work out that way. Tonight it did. When you start off the way we did, it carries through to the rest of the game." Dirk Nowitzki: "We had a great night. Everybody was shooting well and it didn't matter from where they shot it. We did a lot of things right. We shot the ball well, we drove to the basket, and got to the foul line." Nowitzki: "We knew we couldn't be as bad as we were in Orlando. So we came out and did everything right offensively." Nowitzki: "The Van Gundy concept is usually outstanding. We just had a great night. Everybody was shooting the ball well." Nowitzki: "I felt good this morning in the shootaround and that usually carries over." Nowitzki: "I wanted to find my rhythm early tonight after not doing much against Orlando. We want to be a good road team because last year we struggled a lot." Nowitzki: "The 1st half [against Orlando] went by me and I never really got in the game, so I wanted to make sure we could bounce back after a tough loss. We want to be a good road team." Nowitzki on his 3-pointer as the shot clock was running out: "On a regular night that shot won't go in. I was lucky." Jerry Stackhouse: "It's fun when you have success going in with a game plan. When you execute the game plan, you achieve great results." Stackhouse: "When we got in here we spent a lot of practice focusing on some of those things we did wrong at Orlando. We got off to a good start and that was the key." Marquis Daniels on his ankle: "I'm still tentative, but I'm playing through it. It's hard to stop a team when you keep getting open the way we did." Jeff Van Gundy: "[There's not] a whole lot to say. They dominated from the get go. They got absolutely everything they wanted. ... Obviously, Nowitzki was fabulous, but we've got to have a better plan. I'll fault myself for that." Van Gundy on Dallas' offense: "I have to take a big responsibility for that. Obviously, our game plan and our preparation or whatever, we were not ready defensively for this team tonight. We know as a team that we're designed to protect the paint and we have to do a better job of getting out on 3s." Van Gundy on halftime: "Our players were talking about everything except defense. That was the problem in my mind. That's where the lack of composure was, focusing in and saying 'this is the problem right here, 71 points.' That never really got through to us." Van Gundy: "They got absolutely everything they wanted. These are the kind of teams we've got to get better against. I was not happy with how we handled our first adversity of the season." Van Gundy on Hack-a-Shaq: "What it does is it takes you out of the flow of the game. But you have 57 points at the half, you'd like to think you'd be at a pretty good lead, not down 14. Offense wasn't the problem in the 1st half. Our defense was not even decent in the 1st half." Shaquille O'Neal: "We had a lot of defensive lapses and they shot the ball well. Most of the shots in the 1st half were wide open jumpers. ... We got into a hole, and I felt we had a couple opportunities to get out of the hole but they shot the ball well. Dirk had a hell of a game. He's a great player." Udonis Haslem on Nowitzki: "You can't be mad about it. I played defense. He just made shots. I knew it was going to be a long night when he made that shot from like half court with 2 seconds on the shot clock." Keyon Dooling on Nowitzki: "Dirk had it going. He's one of the few guys in this league at the 4 position who can just stretch the whole floor. He came off of a couple of screen-and-rolls like he was a point guard and nailed 3s." Rasual Butler: "It's the first time we've experienced some adversity. As long as we learn from this, we'll be fine." Dallas Mavericks 113, Miami Heat 93 at Miami (November 11) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 34 37 24 18 - 113 .500 .589 .519 .808 Miami 19 38 25 11 - 93 .388 .316 .372 .697 Halftime: Dallas 71-57 3rd Q: Dallas 95-82 Technicals: Stan Van Gundy 0:24 1st, Malik Allen 9:13 2nd, Shawn Bradley 6:52 2nd, Dwyane Wade 1:50 2nd, Shaquille O'Neal 1:10 2nd Refs: Jim Clark, Bill Spooner, Michael Henderson Attendance: 19,985 (sellout) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Marquis Daniels 31 9-13 1-1 3-5 22 2-5 3 1 2 0 0 Devin Harris 23 4-6 1-1 0-0 9 1-3 3 2 5 2 0 Dirk Nowitzki 42 12-24 4-7 13-13 41 1-10 4 2 2 0 2 Josh Howard 35 4-12 1-3 0-0 9 3-8 0 0 2 1 0 Erick Dampier 17 2-3 0-0 2-2 6 0-5 0 1 4 0 0 Jason Terry 26 4-4 2-2 0-0 10 0-2 3 2 0 1 0 Jerry Stackhouse 26 4-7 1-2 3-4 12 0-1 3 2 2 0 0 Alan Henderson 17 1-3 0-0 0-2 2 3-7 1 2 3 0 1 Shawn Bradley 8 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 0-1 0 1 3 1 1 DJ Mbenga 7 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 3 0 1 Calvin Booth 4 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 1 0 2 Dan Dickau 4 0-3 0-1 0-0 0 0-0 0 1 1 0 0 Totals 48 41-79 10-17 21-26 113 10-42 17 16 28 5 7 Miami Heat REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Dwyane Wade 31 6-18 0-0 8-9 20 2-8 5 3 3 3 0 Eddie Jones 27 1-11 0-4 1-2 3 2-5 1 1 0 1 0 Rasual Butler 36 4-14 2-6 1-1 11 1-2 1 2 3 0 1 Udonis Haslem 33 3-5 0-0 2-2 8 4-7 0 1 3 0 1 Shaquille O'Neal 30 8-13 0-0 6-14 22 6-10 1 2 5 0 3 Keyon Dooling 23 4-7 1-3 5-5 14 0-2 4 0 3 3 1 Damon Jones 21 3-8 3-6 0-0 9 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Malik Allen 15 2-4 0-0 0-0 4 1-4 0 1 1 1 0 Michael Doleac 14 0-3 0-0 0-0 0 2-2 2 0 4 0 0 Wesley Person 7 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 0-1 0 0 0 0 0 Wang Zhizhi 3 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 1 Totals 48 32-86 6-19 23-33 93 18-41 14 11 22 8 7 patricia