The NBA named Dirk Nowitzki (Dal) and Vince Carter (NJ) as Players of the Month for February. Nowitzki averaged 27.2 points and 10.2 rebounds as Dallas went 10-3. Carter averaged 30.2 points and 6.3 rebounds as New Jersey went 6-6. It is the 2nd time this season Nowitzki had been named Player of the Month, joining LeBron James as the only players to be named twice this season. It is Nowitzki's 3rd time to get the award (shared the 1st one with teammates Michael Finley and Steve Nash) and only the 4th time a Mav received the award (with the other going to Mark Aguirre (and back then, there was only 1 Player of the Month, not 2)). Congrats Dirk! As expected, Dallas re-signed Alan Henderson right after he cleared waivers. He signed to a 1 year, minimum (pro-rated for 27 games at $329,268; counts $245,320 against the cap) contract. Pavel Podkolzin went back on IR to make room on the active list for Hendu (listed as torn cartilage in his right knee, but that is the same "injury" he was on IR with prior to the trade). Adding a little bit more to the wink, wink deal of trading Henderson with the thought he would be waived is that the reported $250,000 cash that was included in the trade is about what a pro-rated minimum contract for a 4+ year vet would cost Milwaukee [maybe a 'we'll pay for a minimum player for you to have instead of keeping Henderson' - no inside knowledge to the situation, just pointing out an additional thing to make you go hmmm]. New Orleans at Dallas (February 28) One of the worst teams in the league came to town and Dallas decided to play down to their level. Dallas was again without Jerry Stackhouse. The teams traded leads a couple of times early on and Dallas led 13-11 with 7 minutes to go. New Orleans then scored the next 11 points, capped by a 3-pointer by Casey Jacobsen, to go up 22-13 with 4 minutes remaining. New Orleans continued to hold a single-digit lead the rest of the quarter. Dallas connected on 4 straight free throws to pull within 2 points near the end of the quarter and a free throw by Speedy Claxton capped the quarter scoring. New Orleans led 28-25 after 1. Dallas was able to stay in the game thanks to a free throw advantage as Dallas shot 8-11 FT and New Orleans shot 2-4 FT. Dallas went on a 10-2 run to go up 39-33 with 6:45 left. A 3-pointer by Jason Terry with a handful of seconds left in the quarter gave Dallas their largest lead and they led 52-43 at the half. Both teams were shooting around 50% FG. Dallas was unable to put together a run to pull away and New Orleans hung around in the 3rd quarter as Dallas could not get their lead larger than 8 points. New Orleans connected on the last 2 buckets of the 3rd quarter. Dallas led 68-64 after 3. The game stayed even closer in the 4th quarter as Dallas' lead got no larger than 6 points and New Orleans twice tied the game. A layup by P.J. Brown pulled New Orleans within 80-82 with 3:30 left. The teams traded misses and Dirk Nowitzki hit 2 free throws with 2:10 to go. J.R. Smith hit a jumper and Marquis Daniels turned the ball over. But Lee Nailon missed a short jumper with a little over a minute remaining. Nowitzki hit a jumper with 45 seconds left to give Dallas an 86-82 lead. Dan Dickau was fouled, but he hit just 1-2 FT with 40 seconds to go. Michael Finley drained a jumper with 21 seconds left. Dickau missed a 3-point attempt with 13 seconds, but Brown got the rebound and Smith was fouled by Daniels. He hit both free throws to make it a 3 point game and Finley was intentionally fouled with 8 seconds remaining. Amazingly, Finley's poor night continued and he missed both free throws. Dallas intentionally fouled Smith instead of giving up a 3-point attempt to send him to the line. He hit the first free throw, but missed the 2nd and Nowitzki got the rebound and was intentionally fouled. Nowitzki hit both free throws to seal the win and cap the scoring. Dallas won 90-86. In the long run, it goes down simply as a W and Dallas should forget about this ugly game as quickly as possible. The game wasn't close because New Orleans looked good or were playing above their heads, but that Dallas was playing so poorly. They just never look good and looked a step slow all game long. But they have a stud, which New Orleans doesn't, and thanks to Dirk Nowitzki, they were able to pull out the ugly win. New Orleans out-rebounded Dallas 45-31 including 11-6 offensive. New Orleans shot 47.1% (33-70) FG including 6-17 3-pointers and Dallas shot 44.8% (30-67) FG including 4-15 3-pointers. But Dallas had the free throw advantage and New Orleans kept giving Dallas chances with many careless turnovers. Dallas shot 26-34 FT and New Orleans shot 14-23 FT. New Orleans had 23 turnovers which Dallas converted into 22 points and Dallas committed 16 points which New Orleans converted into just 7 points. Dirk Nowitzki, sporting a new buzz cut after teammates harassed him for some hair that was sticking out, carried Dallas in this game. He had 28 points including 13 in the 4th quarter and 11 rebounds. At least he had an excuse for not playing very aggressive in that his knee was bothering him. No one else had a good game. Marquis Daniels had 13 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, and 4 turnovers. Jason Terry had 11 points and 3 assists. Michael Finley had 11 points, 3 assists, and 0 rebounds. Josh Howard had 7 points and 3 rebounds. Keith Van Horn had 9 points and 5 rebounds. Darrell Armstrong was on the court most of the 2nd half and had 6 points on 6-6 FT, 5 assists, and 4 steals. Shawn Bradley manned the zone for half of the game and had 5 points and 5 rebounds in 21 minutes. Devin Harris lasted all of 24 seconds in the game as on his first defensive play he let Speedy Claxton beat him and then fouled him and Don Nelson had warn him that if he made the exact mistake that the rookie made, then he would sit the rest of the game. Fortunately for Dallas, no Hornet had a great game. Lee Nailon was the high man with 14 points. P.J. Brown had a double-double with 12 points and 14 rebounds. Dan Dickau didn't have his shooting touch and had 10 points including 4-13 FG and 1-5 3-pointers, but did have 5 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 steals. J.R. Smith was the only other Hornet in double-digits with 10 points. Chris Andersen had 8 points on 4-5 FG and 9 rebounds. Quotes Don Nelson: "We weren't at our best tonight, but we got the win. They made me work extra hard to get it. It sure would be nice to have an easy game at home against a team that hasn't won much. It just wasn't meant to be tonight." Nelson: "It's too bad that on a sore knee Dirk has to get 28 points and 11 rebounds for us to win. That's sad as far as I'm concerned. I don't think I had a lot of guys play very well tonight. Some of them played terrible. Dirk wasn't driving to the basket very much because of his knee. All he had was his jumpshot. We tried to get him free, but it's hard when they have a good defender on him in P.J. Brown. It wasn't easy for us, but we were able to execute down the stretch and get some stops." Nelson: "This team lacks playing spurt ball. Over the last 5 years we've been great at having spurts in games where we blow teams out. This team hardly ever does that and sometimes it's like pulling teeth. The push of the ball isn't strong enough and that is where DA [Armstrong] has come in and saved our butts so many times. I don't think we win this game without DA tonight. He gets us in a different tempo - a faster, penetrating tempo. He's really been playing well." Nelson on Harris: "I took the rookie out. I told him at shoot around, 'If you get beat pushing away from the screen-and-roll, I'll take you out of the game and not play you.' The first minute he was in the guys takes him away from the screen-and-roll and fouls him on a 3-point play. That was the end of him. Maybe that will be a learning process for him. It gave me the opportunity to play DA and I think he won the game for us." Nelson on Dickau: "When he was here, Dan was my best point guard. He's a true point guard; the other guys I had were quicker and could shoot better and could do other things. But he really knew the point guard position. But he got his chance in New Orleans and I told him here that if he could ever become a great shooter, I thought he could have a really good career." Dirk Nowitzki: "It was a terrible game. They were the ones running early and we never got it going. It was disappointing." Nowitzki: "I was a little disappointed to see that we didn't set the tone, especially after we just lost to Phoenix. The way we came out was disappointing. It was an ugly game all night long, but the good thing is it's one in the win column." Jason Terry: "We gutted it out down the stretch. But we got stops, then we executed on the other end." Terry: "A win is a win is a win." Josh Howard: "They came out ready to play. We won, but we didn't come out ready to play like I think we should. I think we could have come out with more energy. They can come out any given night and beat anybody. It was a difficult game to get ready for and they almost beat us, but we pulled it out at the end." Howard on Armstrong: "He's been real big coming off the bench and giving us a lot of energy. That's what we need. When guys are down in games like this, he came in there and did his thing. He pushes the ball hard and tries to find the open man on the fast break. He runs the offense well. He does it all." Marquis Daniels on Armstrong: "He is out there running so fast, you have to run with him. He forces the tempo. We came out slow; he got in and forced the tempo and speeded things up for us a lot. And that helped out a lot." Daniels on being out-rebounded and missing Dampier and Henderson: "They were key rebounders for us. [The Hornets] were attacking the glass hard, but it left us with some run outs. It's a learning thing. Hopefully we can learn from it and move on." Darrell Armstrong: "We were fortunate to win. With the crowd kind of quiet and laid back - it's not the Sacramento and it's not the Phoenix teams - these are games that you've got to really focus in on in the morning and all through the day to get yourself up for, because it's tough. We've just got to learn that we can't take anything for granted. We gave a bad one away on Saturday night and this one would have been a killer for us." Byron Scott on the turnovers: "It's growing pains. We've got so many young guys and new players on our team and I think in our last 2 games, we're averaging 23 turnovers. We're not taking care of the ball and we've been giving the other team a lot of opportunities. We lost by 4 points to a playoff-bound team in Dallas and the difference was just little mistakes here and there. You have to be very involved on both ends of the court." Scott: "That's the way it's been the last 3 games. We're not taking care of the ball. We're making a lot of mistakes that we can't afford, especially against a team like Dallas." Scott on his players: "I think they love what we're trying to do as an organization. They like playing for us, as coaches, and we like having them. I'm going to stay on them to try to get wins, whether it's the 1st game or the 82nd game of the season. I think a lot of them want to make a living in this league and they want to stay around for a while." Scott: "I've been encouraged by our effort. Guys have given it everything they have. We're still making a lot of mistakes that we can't afford to make, and a lot of that is due to the youth on our team. They're getting better and every day, we're just working on our game to improve. Since January, we've shot the ball well from a field goal standpoint. It's just taking care of the ball and defending on the other side of the court." Dan Dickau: "This was a winnable game for us down the stretch. I feel like I played all right. I had a pretty good floor game, but I had 3 or 4 looks that felt really good, but didn't go in. Whether it's the 2nd night of a back-to-back or not, when the ball doesn't go in, it doesn't go in." Dickau on the free throw difference: "That's the double-edge sword, because better teams usually get more of the calls. Usually, the more aggressive gets more calls and they were a little more aggressive than we were tonight. They got into the paint, attacked the rim, and got fouled. Their zone threw us off a little bit, we knew they were going to play a zone, but we didn't attack it and get good looks until late in the shot clock. We didn't get the looks we wanted." Dickau: "One of our emphasis was to get back on defense. We felt we lost last night's game to Denver because they got quite a few transition baskets. That was a point of emphasis and I think we did a pretty good job in that regard." Lee Nailon on falling short of the comeback: "That's been the story of our year. We're in games up until the last minute, but we can't win them. We didn't win, but we did some great things out there. We have a lot of new guys and we put in a good effort tonight. Hopefully we can get the next one." Nailon on the free throw difference: "It's been 2 games in a row where our opponents have way more free throws than us. We've got to make a concerted effort to play defense, move our feet, and help each other. That way, we can prevent easy baskets or plays that lead to free throws." Speedy Claxton, recently acquired: "Realistically right now, I know only like 3 or 4 plays. It might take the entire season to get a better grasp of the offense. It's my first time running any offense like this, but it's a good learning experience." Dallas Mavericks 90, New Orleans Hornets 86 at Dallas (February 28) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 25 27 16 22 - 90 .500 .267 .448 .765 New Orleans 28 15 21 22 - 86 .509 .353 .471 .609 Halftime: Dallas 52-43 3rd Q: Dallas 68-64 Technicals: New Orleans defensive 3 seconds 9:47 3rd Refs: Tim Donaghy, Monty McCutchen, Robbie Robinson Attendance: 19,947 (sellout) Did not play due to injury: Jerry Stackhouse (strained right groin) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Marquis Daniels 39 3-8 0-1 7-9 13 1-5 4 4 2 1 1 Jason Terry 28 5-10 1-3 0-0 11 0-1 3 2 2 2 0 Michael Finley 34 5-12 1-3 0-3 11 0-0 3 0 0 0 0 Josh Howard 32 3-8 0-2 1-2 7 1-3 1 1 4 0 1 Dirk Nowitzki 37 9-19 2-6 8-8 28 1-11 1 5 3 1 3 Keith Van_Horn 24 3-8 0-0 3-4 9 1-5 1 0 2 0 0 Darrell Armstrong 24 0-0 0-0 6-6 6 0-1 5 2 3 4 0 Shawn Bradley 21 2-2 0-0 1-2 5 2-5 0 2 3 0 2 Devin Harris 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 1 0 0 Totals 48 30-67 4-15 26-34 90 6-31 18 16 20 8 7 New Orleans Hornets REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Dan Dickau 31 4-13 1-5 1-2 10 0-5 5 3 3 3 0 J.R. Smith 21 3-8 1-4 3-4 10 0-1 1 1 5 1 0 Jackson Vroman 25 3-6 0-0 1-2 7 3-5 1 4 5 1 1 George Lynch 18 2-4 1-1 0-0 5 0-5 2 0 2 1 1 P.J. Brown 40 4-7 0-0 4-4 12 4-14 1 4 5 0 1 Casey Jacobsen 27 3-8 2-5 1-2 9 0-1 1 1 2 0 1 Lee Nailon 26 7-13 0-0 0-0 14 0-2 0 2 4 0 1 Chris Andersen 24 4-5 0-0 0-0 8 4-9 0 4 3 0 1 Speedy Claxton 17 1-4 0-1 4-8 6 0-1 4 2 1 1 0 Bostjan Nachbar 11 2-2 1-1 0-1 5 0-2 0 1 1 1 0 Totals 48 33-70 6-17 14-23 86 11-45 15 23 31 8 6 patricia