Dirk Nowitzki was named as an All-Star reserve. The reserves were selected by the Western Conference coaches. The All-Star game is Feb. 20 in Denver. Chicago at Dallas (February 8) Dallas welcomed back Don Nelson to the bench after a 10 game absence due to rotator cuff surgery. The Mavs were shorthanded as Jerry Stackhouse (strained groin) joined Marquis Daniels (appendectomy) in sitting out. The game stayed close in the 1st quarter with the largest lead just 4 points as neither team was shooting well. There were 6 ties and 4 lead changes during the quarter. Dallas led 23-21 after 1. Dallas shot 39% FG and Chicago shot 35% FG. The game continued to stay close in the 2nd quarter with the largest lead being just 5 points. There were 4 ties and 7 lead changes during the quarter. Dallas still lead by 2 points at the half at 50-48. Dirk Nowitzki had 12 points in the 2nd quarter. Dallas had the first semblance of a run when Jason Terry drained a 3-pointer and Michael Finley nailed a 3 to give Dallas a 58-52 lead with 8:15 to go. But after the teams traded buckets, Chicago had their own mini-run in out-scoring Dallas 7-2 to pull within 59-60 with 6:10 left and the game continued to stay close. Terry hit another 3 to give Dallas a 3 point lead with 1:10 remaining and neither team scored again until Ben Gordon nailed a 3-pointer with less than a second left in the quarter. The game was tied 73-73 after 3. Gordon opened the 4th quarter with another 3-pointer. Chicago led 82-80 with 7:15 remaining and went on a 10-2 run to go up 92-82 with 4:20 to go. Finley and Terry again combined for consecutive 3-pointers to pull Dallas within 94-98 with 1:05 left. But unlike the last time these 2 teams met, Chicago did not fold this game as Kirk Hinrich hit a jumper with 48 seconds left to give Chicago a 6 point lead. Dallas missed on 2 attempts and Chris Duhon was intentionally fouled with 32 seconds left and he hit both free throws. Terry hit another 3-pointer with 22 seconds to go, but Chicago quickly inbounded and passed ahead and Eddy Curry got an alley-oop dunk on the break to seal the win. Chicago won 107-100. The Dr. Jekyll-Mr. Hyde team returned as Dallas again came out with a lackluster effort against a team they should beat. Chicago played a good game and Dallas played a lousy game. The Mavs completely went away from the team game in the 2nd half as there was hardly any passing and a ton of isolation play. 2 days after shooting 60% FG against Toronto, Dallas couldn't make even the easy shots (they blew _3_ break-away buckets) much less the hard ones and managed to shoot just 37.2% (32-86) FG. Add poor shooting to being killed on the boards and you have a recipe for a loss. Chicago out-rebounded Dallas 56-40 including 16-9 offensive. Chicago shot 46.9% FG including 8-15 3-pointers. It was Chicago's first win vs Dallas since December 1997, ending a streak of 13 Dallas wins. Add this to the list of disappointing losses - at Indiana (without 3 starters), vs Philalephia (without Iverson), at LA Clippers (without Maggette), at Atlanta, vs Golden State, and vs Denver (lost by 28 points). And the really sad thing that Dallas is playing so poorly at home. The Mavs need to get their act together and find some consistency. The Baby Bulls had a lot of good performances, led by rookie Luol Deng with career highs in points and rebounds. Deng had 30 points and 11 rebounds. Eddy Curry got a number of easy buckets and had 23 points including 10-14 FG and 5 rebounds. 11 of his points came in the 4th quarter. Kirk Hinrich struggled with his shooting most of the game, but did hit his last 2 shots late in the game. He had 12 points including 4-12 FG, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists. Ben Gordon should have stayed behind the arc as he shot 4-7 3-pointers and 0-7 2-pointers. He had 16 points. Tyson Chandler had fun in going after rebounds with 15 rebounds including 8 offensive. He also had 8 points including 2-6 FT. Othella Harrington had 10 points and 5 rebounds. Dirk Nowitzki was the high man for Dallas with 27 points, but he only shot 8-24 FG, including 2-13 FG in the 2nd half. He also had 12 rebounds. Erick Dampier had his 6th straight double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds. Josh Howard had 14 points, 8 rebounds, and 5 steals. The 7 other players who played combined for just 8 rebounds. Michael Finley struggled with his shot, but had some sweet dishes (and also got yelled at for his lack of rebounds). He had 16 points including 5-16 FG, 6 assists, and 1 rebound. Jason Terry had 25 points including 5-11 3-pointers and 6 assists. With Jerry Stackhouse out, the bench gave almost nothing as the 5 bench players combined for 7 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 assists in 36 minutes. Quotes Scott Skiles: "That's the best defense we've played in a couple weeks. We still gave up 100 points - that's how good they are. I thought we did a very good job on Dirk and overall a very sound defensive game. When we do that, normally we get out and get some easy baskets and good things happen for us." Skiles: "It was a good 4th quarter for us. When it was 73-73 at the end of the 3rd, it was about perfect for us to at least have a chance to win. To have them in the 70s after the 3rd quarter, that's a good number for us." Skiles: "We played very hard. We've had 10 days or so where we haven't played as well we did before that. Tonight, I thought we played with a lot of energy and I was very happy with the win." Kirk Hinrich: "This keeps our confidence high heading into the All-Star break." Hinrich: "I felt like I was struggling to make shots early. I just tried to do play a good floor game and do some little things. I was able to get a few to drop late, which really helped." Hinrich: "Last year we weren't a focused team. This year we are doing a lot of little things. We're going out executing game plans that the coaches draw up for us and just play with a lot more intensity." Luol Deng on if it was their best 4th quarter: "It could be. I think what happened today is that we got our energy back. I think our schedule has been so tight that we got tired a little bit. The last few days, we have been resting. I just thought our energy was great, especially in the 4th quarter." Deng on defense: "That goes back to our energy level. I think we are a better defensive team when our energy is so high like it was tonight. I think we were all on the same page tonight." Deng: "We really needed this win because I feel we were starting to maybe feel down. But this win really picked up our spirit, and we're anxious now to play our next few games and work hard to go into the All-Star break on a positive note." Deng: "This is a big win. This picks us up again. Hopefully, we can get rolling again." Eddy Curry on if it was payback for the last Dal-Chi game: "Not me, not personally. We pretty much live for every game. We try to treat every game like it is fresh and brand new. We came out there with the attitude that we wanted to win under any circumstance, and that is what we did." Curry: "I just didn't come out the way I wanted to in the 1st half. I was definitely ready to play, but early on things didn't go my way and balls got taken away. There were a couple bad shots by me. I gave up a couple easy baskets to Dampier. I just came out a lot more focused in the 2nd half. My team, once again, did a really good job of feeding me the ball in the right position and we got a win." Curry on alley-oops: "The guys realize that if I am in the right spot, sometimes the best pass is somewhere over the rim." Don Nelson: "I'm a little surprised by our performance. I thought this would be an opportunity for us to play a good game. We are going to go out on the road for another week and through the All-Star game and stay out there. This was really the only game that you wanted to win. I'm pretty disappointed with the performance. We seemed to run out of energy in the 2nd half. I think not having Stack really hurt our performance off the bench. He's really been a spark for us for the last couple of weeks off the bench and carrying our teams often times. Without him there, there wasn't a whole lot of support from our bench. I think the starters all had to play close to 40 minutes and they just seemed to run out of energy. We missed so many easy shots. We let this one slip away. Now things get real tough. We go out on the West road trip and play a lot of good teams." Nelson: "We missed so many easy shots. And it was still a winnable game. But we let it slip away." Nelson: "I probably played my starters too much, but what would you have done? When we took Dirk out, we couldn't score." Nelson: "We did a fantastic job on Curry in the 1st half with our double-teams. Then they went away from him and then for whatever reason we were late in the 2nd half with our double teams. We were between a rock and a hard place for a while. He got most of his points in the 2nd half against man-to-man. He made 10 out of 14 shots. That's incredible." Nelson: "I didn't know we could beat them on the boards, but I thought we would hold our own. That was a pretty good butt-kicking getting out-rebounded by 16. Finley and Terry have to find a way to get 4 or 5 rebounds each." Nelson on the rebounding: "Our front line did a pretty good job, but they have to get more support from our guards." Nelson on his health, after the loss: "My heart hurts, not my arm." Dirk Nowitzki: "We shouldn't be losing to these Eastern Conference teams. It's something I didn't think could happen. We've got to protect our home court better than that." Nowitzki: "We can't be dropping games like this. That's something that should never happen. We seem to struggle against the more athletic teams. It was a tough night for me. The last couple weeks, we have not shot well. Maybe we're in a little midseason slump." Nowitzki: "The 2nd half was frustrating. Nothing was dropping." Nowitzki: "Obviously, that's not how we wanted to welcome back Nellie. But it happened and we have to move on." Jason Terry: "They hit tough shots. Even though we hit some shots, they were hitting them right back at us. They didn't allow us to make that run that we were capable of making." Terry: "This is a whole Bulls team. This is not the same Bulls team that everybody is used to. But at the same time, we didn't match their energy. They out-played us in the energy department, got all the loose balls, all the rebounds, the long ones and the short ones, and you can't afford to do that at home." Erick Dampier: "They did a great job of executing what they like to do on offense. We had a tough time stopping them down the stretch. We made a run late, but they were too much for us at the end of the game." Dampier on missing Stackhouse: "It was a big factor. We had some things going well for us in the 1st half, but in the 2nd half we kind of looked dead out there and really didn't know what we were executing on offense. Hopefully we go use this as a learning experience and this will be a wake up call before we go on the road trip." Dampier: "This is a game we should have won and not to play well is kind of disheartening. We couldn't make shots and they were shooting the ball extremely well down at the other end. It was just one of those games that you just kind of learn from." Josh Howard on Chicago out-playing Dallas: "In that 4th quarter, I would say so. They hung with us the whole game and pulled away in the end. They came out and hit some big shots in that 4th quarter. Kirk hit 2 big shots off screens." Howard: "It's real frustrating. We wanted to go on the road with a win and now we're going to just have to go out there and play hard. We're playing some great teams coming up and we've got to be ready to play." Howard on if fatigue was a factor: "It's hard to say. Everybody rested up and we didn't have a hard practice yesterday and had a nice walk through today. The Bulls came out and ran us down in the 4th quarter." Howard on missing Stackhouse: "An extra body out there would have been nice. Stack is a key part of our team. We need him out there and it was hard not having him play, but we've got other guys that can step up and play as well." Chicago Bulls 107, Dallas Mavericks 100 at Dallas (February 8) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Chicago 21 27 25 34 - 107 .455 .533 .469 .719 Dallas 23 27 23 27 - 100 .357 .400 .372 .800 Halftime: Dallas 50-48 3rd Q: 73-73 Technicals: Eddy Curry 9:11 4th Refs: Phil Robinson, Bennett Salvatore, Michael Smith Attendance: 20,224 (sellout) Did not play due to injury: Marquis Daniels (appendectomy), Jerry Stackhouse (strained right groin) Chicago Bulls REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Kirk Hinrich 37 4-12 2-2 2-2 12 0-6 6 3 1 2 1 Chris Duhon 26 1-4 1-3 2-2 5 0-7 5 0 1 1 0 Luol Deng 47 12-21 1-2 5-6 30 3-11 1 4 2 1 0 Othella Harrington 19 3-4 0-0 4-6 10 2-5 2 2 3 0 0 Eddy Curry 36 10-14 0-0 3-4 23 1-5 0 4 4 0 2 Ben Gordon 28 4-14 4-7 4-4 16 2-3 1 1 3 0 0 Tyson Chandler 27 3-8 0-0 2-6 8 8-15 0 0 5 1 1 Adrian Griffin 7 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 0 0 2 0 0 Andres Nocioni 5 0-1 0-0 1-2 1 0-2 3 0 2 0 0 Eric Piatkowski 5 1-2 0-1 0-0 2 0-1 1 0 0 0 0 Jared Reiner 3 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 1 2 0 0 Totals 48 38-81 8-15 23-32 107 16-56 19 18 25 5 4 Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Michael Finley 43 5-16 3-5 3-3 16 0-1 6 0 5 1 0 Jason Terry 41 8-20 5-11 4-4 25 1-2 6 3 3 2 0 Dirk Nowitzki 42 8-24 3-6 8-8 27 1-12 2 0 4 1 0 Josh Howard 39 6-14 0-3 2-4 14 3-8 2 4 3 5 0 Erick Dampier 39 3-4 0-0 5-9 11 2-12 1 2 4 0 1 Devin Harris 12 1-6 1-5 0-0 3 0-0 1 0 1 1 0 Alan Henderson 8 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1-2 0 0 2 0 0 Shawn Bradley 7 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 0-0 0 1 3 0 0 Darrell Armstrong 6 0-0 0-0 2-2 2 0-0 1 0 0 0 0 Calvin Booth 3 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1-3 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 32-86 12-30 24-30 100 9-40 19 10 25 10 1 patricia