Dallas at New Orleans (November 3). Michael Finley scored the first 5 points of the game and then New Orleans went on a 14-3 run to go up 14-8 with 6:25 left as Dallas shot 1-8 FG during the run. Jason Terry and Jerry Stackhouse came in the game and gave Dallas a big boost. The Mavs finally started hitting shots and went on a 15-3 run, during which they shot 5-6 FG, to go up 23-17 with 2:35 remaining. Dallas led 27-19 after 1. Terry opened the 3rd quarter with a 3-pointer to give Dallas their first double-digit lead, but New Orleans then scored the next 9 points to pull within 28-30 with 8:30 to go. But the Hornets could not break even or pull ahead and Dallas hung on to a single-digit lead. Dallas closed the half strong with a 9-3 run, capped by a layup by Marquis Daniels with a second left, but Terry made a bonehead mistake and fouled Baron Davis at halfcourt and Davis hit 2 free throws to end the half. Dallas led 54-45 at the half. Dallas shot 51.3% FG including 6-12 3-pointers and New Orleans shot 38.6% FG. Hornets star Baron Davis only shot 1-9 FG. David Wesley opened the 3rd quarter with a jumper and Dallas then scored the next 8 points to go up 62-47 with 8:30 left. Davis finally came alive and went nuts as he scored 11 of New Orlean's next 15 points and assisted on the other 2 Hornets' buckets to keep it from being a blowout and help the Hornets pull within 62-70 with 3 minutes remaining. They were unable to get any closer than 7 points though and Dallas again ended the quarter strong with a 3-pointer by Terry and Stackhouse grabbing a defensive rebound and making the long pass to a breaking Nowitzki for a dunk with 2 seconds left. Dallas led 83-69 after 3. Davis had 13 points in the quarter. A short fade away by Erick Dampier gave Dallas their largest lead at 93-72 with 7 minutes to go. New Orleans got no closer than 14 points over the next 4 1/2 minutes and Bryon Scott pulled his stars with 2:30 left. Dallas won 106-91. It wasn't the prettiest of wins, but Dallas was the better team throughout and New Orleans never got going except for one stretch during the 3rd quarter. Like the Sacramento game, I would have been happier if Dallas had put the Hornets away early, as it looked like they were going to a couple of times, but they kept letting them get back in - the Mavs need to develop the killer instinct better and not to give the opponent any hope that they can comeback. New Orleans did keep Dirk Nowitzki down early, but they couldn't stop the other players and then Nowitzki got going in the 2nd half. A number of Mavs players played very well while New Orleans was comprised of Baron Davis and his sidekicks. For the game, Dallas shot 53.8% (42-78) FG including 9-19 3-pointers and New Orleans shot 41% (34-83) FG and a mere 4-21 3-pointers. Dallas never shot less than 47% FG in any of the 4 quarters and out-scored New Orleans in each quarter. Dallas did a good job of sharing the ball and had 25 assists and only turned it over 11 times. How balanced was it for Dallas? 3 players had 19 points, 1 had 18 points, 1 had 11 points, and 1 had 10 points. Michael Finley was solid early and 12 of his 19 points came in the 1st half. Devin Harris struggled early, so Don Nelson went to Jason Terry and Terry stepped up with a very good game. Terry had 18 points, 12 of which came in the 1st half, including 4-7 3-pointers, 5 assists, and 4 steals. Harris only played 9 minutes and had just 2 points and 1 assist. Jerry Stackhouse also came off the bench and had a great game. He had 19 points and 5 rebounds in his 30 minutes. Dirk Nowitzki was quiet in the 1st half, but scored 12 points in the 2nd half and finished with 19 points. He also had 7 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 blocks. One of his blocks was a come-from-no-where swat to prevent an easy layup. The unsung heros were Josh Howard and Marquis Daniels who both played good defense and seemed to come up with buckets and assists when New Orleans would make a run. Howard got most of his points driving to the bucket and had 11 points and 4 rebounds in 23 minutes. Daniels had 6 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists in 14 minutes. Erick Dampier did not have a pretty game - though neither did his counterpoint Jamaal Magloire. He wasn't terrible and his numbers look decent with 10 points, 8 rebounds including 4 offensive, and 3 assists. Shawn Bradley played backup center and was his usual - up and down. He did some good things with blocks and defense and he did some bad things with defense and fouls (not all of his fouls were bad fouls, though) and fouled out in 16 minutes. Alan Henderson was the 10th Mav to play and wasn't as effective as he was in the last game with just 2 points, 1 rebound, and 4 fouls in 14 minutes. As Baron Davis goes, so goes the team. And Davis looked very poor and selfish most of the game. I'm surprised that he had 9 assists, but not that he put up 21 shots. The play that sticks out in my mind is where the Hornets had a break with Davis in the middle and 2 players running on the wing with 2 Mavs defenders under the basket and Davis took it to the hole (where Nowitzki got a block) instead of passing to one of his open teammates. He did have a team high 25 points but shot just 8-21 FG and 1-8 3-pointers. Davis' domination of New Orlean's game meant a quiet outing for Jamaal Magloire. Magloire did grab 12 rebounds, but had just 11 points and only attempted 8 shots in 33 minutes. David Wesley was the only other Hornet in double-digits with 11 points. One of Terry's steals came when he picked the pocket of Darrell Armstrong, but Armstrong came running from behind and elevated and got the block on Terry's layup attempt. Quotes Don Nelson: "I don't know what it was about tonight, I just think that we had a game under our belt helped us out tonight. That is why I felt more confident about tonight's game than last night's. In my years of coaching, I've never seen my team come in to another place on a home opener and win this easy." Nelson: "I thought Stack was great. I love him as a 6th man; I've always loved him coming off the bench. I didn't have to burn up Finley's minutes with the way Stack played." Nelson: "The depth of the team showed tonight and I didn't have to burn Finley out. He was having a great game. I normally would have played him 40 minutes tonight, but Stackhouse came in and was a dominant player. I thought he was going to be a great 6th man and he has been." Nelson: "The depth of our team really showed. That's the way good teams do it." Dirk Nowitzki: "It's been a fun ride so far. We have 2 guys who know how to pass and can shoot the ball or push the ball up the floor. They can make plays off the dribble. We can build off that. I think we have all the right pieces in place." Nowitzki: "We had a well-balanced attack on the offensive end. We moved the ball well and made some shots." Nowitzki: "You get a Stackhouse and a Terry coming off the bench - that's amazing. Not a lot of teams have that. We have a great luxury ... the deep bench is going to win us a lot of games this year." Michael Finley: "You get in a game like this where the offense comes easy and you forget about playing defense. It puts pressure on your offense to score. Coach called some timeouts to settle us down. Jason Terry and Jerry Stackhouse came in off the bench and gave us energy. They give us power off the bench. The Hornets put Baron on me in the 2nd half to try to rough me up, to be aggressive against me. I took the challenge head on. I ran him off screens." Finley: "Winning on the road is more of a mind-set." Jerry Stackhouse: "I love my team and I'm enjoying this role. I'm able to come in and play my game." Stackhouse: "If that's the formula for how we're going to attack back-to-backs, I thought it was good. We extended our starters a little bit [Tuesday] and they didn't have to come back [tired] tonight. We were still fresh." Stackhouse: "[New Orleans] was a team that had a lot of things going for them tonight. It was their home opener, they had a lot of energy in the building and we came out and took the air out of it." Jason Terry: "All I can say is, 'Get used to it.' We're going to spread it around. We have guys that look to make the extra pass. They are so unselfish. We have guys committed to winning. They want to do whatever it takes to win. They are ready to sacrifice. In this situation against the Hornets I feel very comfortable. I know their personnel. They have beaten me so much in the past. I knew what was going to happen. We had the lead at half and I knew they were going to be aggressive in the 2nd half. Could we match their aggressiveness coming out? We did." Terry: "We're just guys who are committed to winning. You've got guys like myself and Stackhouse who've come from losing situations. We want to do whatever it takes to win. Any little sacrifice - we're here to make it. It definitely showed out there tonight." Byron Scott on defense: "Not very good, to be honest with you. All the things that we have been working on the last 4 or 5 days ... I don't know if it's just the excitement of opening night, it just seemed to go out the window. Our guys' lack of concentration, I thought, was very evident and obvious to us from a staff standpoint. Obviously, we can rectify it. But I'm still disappointed in the way that we came out and really didn't defend them. All the things that we talked about on tape and worked on, it just seemed that a bunch of our guys had never seen it before and that was disappointing." Scott: "There were mental mistakes. There was no communication." Scott: "Communication is the easiest part of the game. There's no excuse for a lack of communication." Baron Davis: "[It's] just a bunch of little things that we need to clean up to make ourselves a better team. That's about it. We've got 81 more games. We're going to be a good team. We're definitely going to be a good team." Jamaal Magloire on the team: "Right now if I did [have concerns], it's really irrelevant. This is our team, Baron's and mine. But we're going to have to play and win, no matter what. I've been impressed with what I've seen in training camp. We have to play no matter what odds are against us." P.J. Brown: "Our communication and transition defense was not very good. I have to blame the loss on our defense tonight. It seems like every time we play Dallas they score a 100 points." David Wesley: "The most glaring thing tonight was their 17 fast break points ... most were layups. When you give up 8 or 9 layups, that's tough to beat. They got what they wanted to get in a lot of situations. It was not a good technical game for us tonight. We did not do the little things. It's Game 1, let's move on." Dallas Mavericks 106, New Orleans Hornets 91 at New Orleans (November 3) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 27 27 29 23 - 106 .559 .474 .538 .765 New Orleans 19 26 24 22 - 91 .484 .190 .410 .826 Halftime: Dallas 54-45 3rd Q: Dallas 83-69 Technicals: Don Nelson 9:28 2nd Refs: Ron Olesiak, Derrick Stafford, Tom Washington Attendance: 17,682 (sellout) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Michael Finley 25 8-13 2-3 1-2 19 0-3 3 3 2 0 0 Devin Harris 9 1-3 0-1 0-0 2 0-0 1 0 0 0 0 Dirk Nowitzki 39 7-14 2-5 3-4 19 2-7 5 3 3 2 3 Josh Howard 23 4-9 0-1 3-3 11 1-4 1 0 1 0 0 Erick Dampier 31 5-8 0-0 0-0 10 4-8 3 2 4 0 0 Jason Terry 39 6-12 4-7 2-2 18 0-1 5 1 3 4 0 Jerry Stackhouse 30 7-13 1-2 4-4 19 0-5 2 0 1 1 0 Shawn Bradley 16 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-3 2 0 6 1 1 Alan Henderson 14 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 0-1 0 0 4 0 0 Marquis Daniels 14 3-4 0-0 0-2 6 1-4 3 2 2 0 0 Totals 48 42-78 9-19 13-17 106 8-36 25 11 26 8 4 New Orleans Hornets REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Baron Davis 34 8-21 1-8 8-9 25 1-2 9 1 2 2 0 David Wesley 26 5-12 1-3 0-0 11 1-1 0 0 2 1 0 P.J. Brown 29 2-5 0-0 0-0 4 2-4 2 1 4 0 0 George Lynch 19 3-4 2-3 0-0 8 2-3 3 0 1 0 0 Jamaal Magloire 33 3-8 0-0 5-7 11 2-12 1 4 3 0 1 Rodney Rogers 23 3-7 0-2 1-1 7 0-3 1 2 3 0 0 Darrell Armstrong 22 1-4 0-3 1-1 3 1-3 1 3 0 0 1 David West 20 3-7 0-0 2-2 8 3-7 2 1 0 1 0 J.R. Smith 15 3-7 0-2 0-0 6 1-3 1 1 1 0 0 Chris Andersen 15 1-5 0-0 2-3 4 2-3 2 1 1 0 0 Lee Nailon 2 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Alex Garcia 2 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 1-1 0 1 0 0 0 Totals 48 34-83 4-21 19-23 91 16-42 22 17 17 4 2 patricia