Dallas at Minnesota (March 13) Don Nelson missed his 3rd game to be with his wife while she recovers from surgery. Sam Cassell remained out for Minnesota. The game stayed real close throughout the 1st quarter as neither team held more than a 2 point lead until Kevin Garnett's layup gave Minnesota a 27-23 lead with 50 seconds left, which would also be the score after 1. Garnett had 10 points and 7 rebounds and Dirk Nowitzki had 11 points. Minnesota scored the first 3 points of the 2nd quarter to go up 30-23 with 10:25 remaining. Minnesota led 37-29 with 6:35 left and Dallas scored the next 7 points, capped by a 3-pointer by Michael Finley, to pull within 36-37 with 4:25 to go. The game stayed close the rest of the quarter. Josh Howard accidentally poked Garnett in the eye with 3:55 remaining and Garnett left the game for the rest of the half - he did return in the 2nd half, but his eye still bothered him. Trenton Hassell got a short jumper with a handful of seconds left to give Minnesota a 46-44 lead at the half. Minnesota shot 46% (16-35) FG and 14-19 FT and Dallas shot 39% (20-51) FG and 3-8 FT (and missed all 5 attempts in the 2nd quarter). Minnesota had 10 turnovers while Dallas only had 2 turnovers. Minnesota scored the first 4 points of the 3rd quarter to go up 50-44 with 10:35 remaining. Dallas then went on an 18-4 run to go up 62-54 with 5:55 to go. A 10-3 Minnesota run pulled the Wolves within 66-67 with 1:45 left. Dallas led 71-69 after 3. Minnesota opened the 4th quarter with a 6-2 mini-run to go up 75-73 with 9:55 remaining, but Dallas then went on an 11-2 run to go up 84-77 with 6:20 to go. A layup by Marquis Daniels gave Dallas their largest lead at 90-81 with 3:45 left. A jumper by Garnett and 2 free throws by Hassell pulled the Wolves within 89-93 with 1:25 remaining. But Jason Terry answered with a layup. After Anthony Carter missed a 3-point attempt, Dallas pushed the ball and Terry got the layup and was fouled on the break. He hit the free throw to give Dallas a commanding 97-89 lead with 47 seconds to go. Dallas won 102-93. Dallas picked up their shooting and got aggressive in the 2nd half. Dallas shot 53% FG in the 2nd half after only shooting 39% FG in the 1st half. And Dallas' aggressiveness paid off in the 4th quarter as Minnesota kept sending them to the line, while Minnesota didn't get many 4th quarter free throw attempts as they settled for jump shots most of the quarter. Dallas shot 12-13 FT and Minnesota shot 4-5 FT in the 4th quarter. For the game, Dallas shot 44.8% (39-87) FG including 4-12 3-pointers and Minnesota shot 45.8% (33-72) FG including 3-13 3-pointers. Dallas shot 20-29 FT and Minnesota shot 24-31 FT. Dallas out-scored Minnesota 56-36 in the paint. Minnesota did have a slight rebounding edge in out-rebounding Dallas 46-45, but Minnesota only had 5 offensive rebounds (Dallas had 11 offensive rebounds. Dallas was really clean with the ball with a season low 6 turnovers. Minnesota had 16 turnovers. Though the game stayed close with neither team obtaining a double-digit lead, Dallas out-scored Minnesota in all but the 1st quarter. Dirk Nowitzki had good numbers, but it was a fairly quiet outing for him. Instead, the heros of this game were Jason Terry and Marquis Daniels with their solid 4th quarter play. 12 of Terry's team high 22 points came in the 4th quarter. He also had 12 assists - the 6th time this season he has had double-digit assists - and 4 rebounds in 37 minutes. 11 of Daniels' 15 points came in the 4th quarter. He also had 5 rebounds in 25 minutes off the bench. Nowitzki had 21 points and 10 rebounds. Josh Howard was able to play despite the sprained ankle that kept him out of all but the start of the previous game. Howard had 15 points and 4 rebounds in 31 minutes. Michael Finley had 10 points on 4-8 FG and 2-2 3-pointers and 9 rebounds. Alan Henderson had 7 points and 8 rebounds and Keith Van Horn had 8 points and 4 rebounds. Dallas basically went with a 7-man rotation as Shawn Bradley played 6 minutes, Devin Harris played 5 minutes, and Darrell Armstrong played 4 minutes. Kevin Garnett did manage a double-double, but Dallas' defense focused on him all game and tried to prevent him getting the ball and then double-teamed him when he did get the ball. His eye seemed to continue bothering him during the 2nd half as occasionally you would see him rubbing his eye, blinking it, or squinting during dead balls or on the bench. He had game highs 24 points and 13 rebounds. He shot 8-12 FG and 8-12 FT. Garnett had 6 assists but also turned the ball over 7 times. Trenton Hassell had a nice outing with 19 points and 8 rebounds. But Troy Hudson had a miserable outing in missing all 7 of his shots and had just 1 rebound and 1 assist in 18 minutes. Latrell Sprewell also had a poor game with 10 points including 2-11 FG. He did have 5 rebounds and 4 assists, though. John Thomas started the game, but was unable to play in the 2nd half due to not feeling well. As he has been most of the season, Wally Szczerbiak came off the bench and chipped in 18 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists. Anthony Carter had 9 points and 5 assists. Quotes Avery Johnson: "Obviously a good win for our ballclub. I'm very excited about the way we competed tonight. We played against a team that is playing tough right now. They had a big win against Orlando in their last game, so we knew it was going to be tough. It was like a boxing match, and the problem is we're only through 6 rounds in this boxing match and we have 6 more rounds to go on Tuesday. We know it's going to be a lot of physical play and they're going to try to win that game. I'm really proud of our guys, the way they competed, but it's not over." Johnson: "Our team came out and played with desperation, and we have got to have that." Johnson: "Any time you can have a low amount of turnovers, or for us any time we can shoot close to 45% from the field, we like our chances. We just kind of stubbed our toe by shooting 39% and 36% a couple of times. We only shot about 39% in the 1st half, and that really puts a lot of pressure on our team. So if we continue to make some shots, it makes things a lot easier." Johnson on if they were trying to keep the ball out of Garnett's hands: "Yeah, we were trying. That's all you can really do is try to make somebody else score in certain situations, but hey, it worked tonight. KG missed shots that he would normally make and I don't think it was because of our defense. Once he gets the ball up in the air, Shawn Bradley - 2 Shawn Bradleys - can't stop him because he gets it up there so high. So it wasn't because of our defense. He just missed some shots. KG plays pretty intense any time; I don't think he needs any motivation. As long as I've been in the league, he always plays intense. We expect him to be fired up the next game." Johnson on Terry: "Jason was big. I was a little disappointed with him in the 1st half. It wasn't always with his points - it's just his body language and his decision making. But he seems to always come back and make coach happy. JT was big and when he's aggressive like that we're a much better basketball team." Johnson on Daniels: "Marquis has been playing well. I have been trying to figure out how to use him. We think we have found some things that work well." Dirk Nowitzki: "Offensively, we just made plays. We kept our composure and played smart down the stretch." Nowitzki on defending Garnett: "As soon as he caught the ball, we sent 2 people at him. We played a lot better defensively than we have been." Nowitzki on Terry: "Every time he shoots the ball, it looks like the ball is going in. But sometimes we need him to get in the paint and create some things for the rest of the team. That's what Steve [Nash] was so good at. Early in the season, [Terry] wasn't really doing that. But he's getting in the paint now and if he's open, he's shooting it. He's really playing well." Jason Terry: "The most important thing is we got the win. We faced some adverse times in the 1st half, but we tried to step up our defense. It's hard to do, though, especially when you play the pace we want to play at. And then you get up 94 feet of pressure. ... It takes a lot of energy out of you. We came tonight and had high energy on both ends of the floor. As you saw in the 2nd half, we picked our defensive intensity up." Terry: "We had to continue to push it, continue a fast tempo and get stops. I needed to make sure we were the more aggressive team in the 4th quarter." Terry on Garnett: "I think KG was a little affected by his eye. ... We don't want to get too excited. We have to play them again Tuesday. I like it [back-to-back]. It's similar to a playoff format. You've played them, so you know what works. But again, you don't know what adjustments teams are going to make to counter you. But it's fun. It's always a good challenge." Terry on a missed quick 3-pointer midway through the 2nd quarter, for which Nowitzki and Finley yelled at him: "At the time, I wanted to put my head in my jersey and go hide. But it happens in the heat of the game. We had missed 5 or 6 free throws and I'd missed a layup. Then to come down and take that shot, it really took us out of rhythm. Guys were letting me know to stay focused." Terry: "The 3rd quarter started out real rough for me, but I credit the General (Johnson) for sticking with me. He showed confidence in me. My teammates were getting on me. ... Dirk showed leadership tonight vocally, something we hadn't seen in a while. It was good." Josh Howard: "We just tried to hound [Garnett] and keep guys around him, try to get the ball out of his hands - whatever we could do - make the other guys make shots." Howard: "We can't let down [on Tuesday]. We just have to be ready. We know they're going to come in with a vengeance. We have to stop them." Howard on Terry: "That's point guard leadership. What you're looking for is what we needed. He showed us he could do it." Howard: "It was a great turnaround [on the trip]. We've got to continue to play well, just have to stay focused. ... We'll be getting [Dampier and Stackhouse] back around the end of the week. Pretty soon we'll have everybody back." Marquis Daniels: "Sacramento is right on our tails. We wanted to come in and be energized, and stay together as a team. ... We were able to get some good looks [in the 2nd half]. We just had to buckle down, make some free throws. We had to concentrate more in the 2nd half." Daniels: "Coming off the bench, you have to have energy and be ready at all times. The guys were finding me in spots were I could get some easy baskets." Daniels: "I'm feeling a little more comfortable out there. No more problems and no more injuries, thank God. Basically, everything is going pretty good. Coming off the bench, you have to be ready and have energy all the time. That's number one. I just want to come in and have some energy." Kevin McHale: "We ran out of steam there in the 2nd half. John Thomas couldn't go; he's got the same respiratory thing that a few of us have got. Troy [Hudson] couldn't go; he tightened up. So we were down a few guys. ... Michael [Olowokandi] said he could possibly go a little bit, but I thought it probably wasn't fair to play him. He hasn't practiced a lot and we'd be putting him out there in a compromising position. We don't want him to get hurt." McHale: "It was one of those games where we had costly turnovers. Our energy in the 3rd quarter was pretty poor. That hurt us. I didn't think [Hudson] was moving very good right from the get go. ... The pick-and-roll just kicked our butt. We didn't do a good enough job out there. We tried changing a few things up, [but] we couldn't keep Terry under control. He had 22 points and 12 assists. He went wherever he wanted to with the ball." McHale: "They were going wherever they wanted to with the ball. We weren't up into our guys. They were turning the corner and getting drops, getting roll-outs. Our weak side was not coming over. It's very disheartening since we've worked a long time on that, but we've worked normally with bigs. The lineups we had out there, Wally was the 4 man. That's not the great basket protection we're used to. We're used to Eddie [Griffin] and Mike [Olowokandi] and those guys being there, but that's what we've got. ... We turn around and have them again on Tuesday, so we're going to have to play better." McHale: "I thought Trenton Hassell played really hard. He was getting after it. [Carter] always plays hard. KG was out there battling; he had one eye going. ... John tried hard, but he was just out there hacking and coughing. He sounded terrible. ... You're going to get dings and bruises in this league. Kevin played hard. Kevin was out there battling, and that's what you've got to do. He just needs a few more guys to go out there and battle with him." Kevin Garnett on his eye: "It feels okay. As the game went on, it got a little better. I was able to see the basket a little bit better. I just continued to play. It wasn't good, though. It wasn't good at all. I knew that right when it happened. I try not to think about it and just go with it. I knew when I got to the free throw line and took the 2nd timeout that it wasn't good. But I knew that my heart and my legs and my arms worked, so I'd be all right." Garnett: "There were some miscommunications and times when we broke down, and they took advantage of those times. They had some advantages and mismatches that they tried to go at. They got a lot of 2nd chance points. Against a good team like that, you can't give those guys 2nd chances." Garnett: "It's not the first time we've been shorthanded. At times like that you just try to pick up the load. You try not to think about anything else, try to control what you can control and leave it all out there on the floor." Garnett: "Jason Terry was unbelievably aggressive. He was coming off really hard and putting pressure on [Hudson] and [Carter]. When it's Dirk Nowitzki that's actually in the pick-and-roll, it's kind of hard for a guy like me to show but then get back to him. We were trying to mix different schemes up. Some of it worked, but some of it didn't. Terry was aggressive with the ball, and whenever the point guard is aggressive we always find ourselves in a difficult position. One of the things we learned tonight is that we have to keep Jason under control and make some of those other guys beat us. We know Finley and Nowitzki are going to take their shots, but we have to keep them under control." Wally Szczerbiak: "We had a couple possessions where we got a little confused on the pick-and-roll in the 4th quarter and that hurt us." Troy Hudson: "I was becoming a liability on the defensive end. I couldn't keep [Terry] in front of me. I had them take me out." Mark Madsen: "It was a good game, to be honest with you. They had control in the 4th quarter. We were nipping at their heels, but we couldn't get over the hump. ... We had some breakdowns on defense. We had a few times when we let them go in for easy uncontested layups, and that's not one person on this team, that's every member of this team. We all should be connected as if we were on a string, one with another, and we didn't do that tonight. We do believe we can go down to Dallas and win. We need to win, and we're going to prepare to win the game." Madsen: "Dirk Nowitzki played a good game. He didn't connect on any of his 3-pointers, but he got 10 rebounds and 21 points. ... Dirk is a special talent. He's 7-feet tall and can shoot the 3. But we have talented players in this locker room. Trenton Hassell can play great D on Dirk, Wally, KG. ... We have guys that can step out and make it really difficult for Dirk. As great as he is - he's a great one - we have great ones, too." Fred Hoiberg: "This is the tough part of our schedule. I think Denver has a 7 game home stand starting today, so we've got to try and steal a couple of these on the road. ... We're probably going to get Sam Cassell back this trip. Michael will possibly be back. Eddie's going to see a specialist tomorrow, so hopefully he'll be back and then we'll maybe have our full roster back, and that will help. We need to be full strength for this road trip and just go out there and play hard. In order to win these games, we have to play hard the full 48 minutes." Anthony Carter: "That makes it tougher, when you're giving it all you've got, and then you can't make the big play and you get burned. But we've just got to keep playing hard. That's the only way I know how to play. I try to make plays and create turnovers and try to get us into our offense." Carter: "We're not really thinking about putting pressure on ourselves. We're just trying to win. We don't want to wait and see what other teams are doing. We're just concentrating on winning. We can't be thinking about the pressure right now. We've still got 18 games left, and anything can happen. We've just got to keep playing hard and good things will happen." Carter on the rematch on Tuesday: "Yeah, we've got to look forward to them. It's good to get them on a back-to-back. We've got a good feel for what they want to do. There won't be too many changes, but we've got to figure out what we're going to do on the pick-and-roll and go down there and try to pull one out." Dallas Mavericks 102, Minnesota Timberwolves 93 at Minnesota (March 13) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 23 21 27 31 - 102 .467 .333 .448 .690 Minnesota 27 19 23 24 - 93 .508 .231 .458 .774 Halftime: Minnesota 46-44 3rd Q: Dallas 71-69 Technicals: Avery Johnson 8:11 2nd Refs: Monty McCutchen, Jack Nies, Ron Olesiak Attendance: 19,420 (sellout) Did not play due to injury: Sam Cassell (strained right hamstring) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Jason Terry 37 8-17 1-3 5-5 22 1-4 12 2 4 2 0 Michael Finley 37 4-8 2-2 0-0 10 1-9 3 0 1 0 0 Dirk Nowitzki 41 9-22 0-3 3-3 21 2-10 1 0 3 1 0 Josh Howard 31 7-14 1-2 0-2 15 2-4 1 2 5 2 1 Alan Henderson 30 3-6 0-0 1-4 7 2-8 1 0 5 0 0 Marquis Daniels 25 4-9 0-1 8-10 16 1-5 2 1 4 1 0 Keith Van_Horn 24 3-7 0-1 2-3 8 1-4 1 0 2 0 1 Shawn Bradley 6 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 0-0 0 0 1 0 0 Devin Harris 5 0-3 0-0 0-0 0 1-1 0 0 1 0 0 Darrell Armstrong 4 0-0 0-0 1-2 1 0-0 1 0 1 0 0 Totals 48 39-87 4-12 20-29 102 11-45 22 6 27 6 2 Minnesota Timberwolves REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Trenton Hassell 40 6-10 0-0 7-8 19 0-8 2 1 3 1 0 Troy Hudson 18 0-7 0-3 0-0 0 0-1 1 0 1 0 1 Kevin Garnett 40 8-12 0-0 8-12 24 2-13 6 7 4 1 1 Latrell Sprewell 31 2-11 0-2 6-6 10 1-5 4 2 3 0 1 John Thomas 10 2-2 0-0 2-4 6 0-0 0 0 1 0 0 Wally Szczerbiak 35 8-17 2-3 0-0 18 0-6 4 0 3 0 1 Anthony Carter 30 4-8 1-3 0-0 9 0-3 5 4 4 0 0 Mark Madsen 19 2-2 0-0 0-0 4 2-5 0 0 5 0 1 Fred Hoiberg 17 1-3 0-2 1-1 3 0-5 2 0 1 0 0 Totals 48 33-72 3-13 24-31 93 5-46 24 16 25 2 5 patricia