Dallas at LA Clippers (March 2) The game stayed tight during most of the 1st quarter as there were 3 ties and 9 lead changes in the first 8 minutes of the game. The Clippers went on a 6-1 mini-run to go up 23-18 with 3 minutes to go. Corey Maggette scored the last 4 points of the quarter to give the Clippers a 31-23 lead after 1. Maggette had 14 points in the quarter. The Clippers shot almost 60% FG while Dallas shot 42% FG. The Clippers continued their run by scoring the first 9 points of the 2nd quarter, capped by a putback dunk by Mikki Moore, to take a 40-23 lead with 9:50 remaining. Dallas finally ended their 4 1/2 minute scoring drought (and 5 1/2 minute field goal drought) when Keith Van Horn got a layup with 8:35 left to pull Dallas within 25-40. The Clippers led in the teens the rest of the quarter. The Clippers led 60-46 at the half. Maggette had 21 points in the half. The Clippers shot 49% FG and Dallas wasn't bad in shooting 45% FG, but the Clippers held a 25-13 rebounding edge and made 8 more free throws [besides the complete lack of 3 seconds called, the whistles were fine as the Clippers were the much more aggressive team]. The Clippers continued to lead in the teens over the first half of the 3rd quarter. Dallas finally woke up, thanks to Dirk Nowitzki, and went on a 12-2 run to pull within 68-73 with 4 minutes to go. Nowitzki scored 10 points during the run. But the Clippers scored the next 6 points to regain a double-digit lead with 1:40 to go and a Nowitzki free throw was all that was scored the rest of the quarter. The Clippers led 79-69 after 3. Nowitzki had 15 points in the 3rd quarter. Jerry Stackhouse scored the first 4 points of the 4th quarter to pull Dallas within 73-79 with 10:35 remaining, but Dallas could simply get no closer than 6 points. The Clippers led 77-85 with 9:05 left and they went on an 11-3 run to go up 96-80 with 5:10 remaining. Dallas did scored the next 10 points to again pull within 6 points at 90-96 with 2:37 left, but the Clippers would hang on by connecting on 5-6 FT the rest of the way as Dallas could only hit 1 of their last 6 shots. The Clippers won 101-92. Dallas again did not play well, though not as poorly in the last game; but they were also facing a much better team than the Hornets in the Clippers. The Clippers were the much more aggressive team and Dallas was _very_ lax on defense and rebounding. Dallas had nothing in the 1st half, but did have some nice spurts in the 2nd half, but the Clippers found a way to stop Dallas' momentum each time Dallas pulled within 8 or 6 points. Dallas rebounded so poorly that the high rebounder only had 6 boards. The Clippers out-rebounded Dallas 52-32 including 14-7 offensive. The Clippers shot 44.2% (34-77) FG including 1-13 3-pointers and 32-37 FT. Dallas shot 43.2% (35-81) FG including 4-19 3-pointers and 18-24 FT. The loss ended Dallas' 6 game road winning streak, 2 shy of the team record road streak. Corey Maggette enjoyed his outing against Dallas with 34 points on 10-17 FG and 14-16 FT and 8 assists. The only things he couldn't hit were 3-pointers as he missed all 5 he attempted. Elton Brand had his usual double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Bobby Simmons continued his push for the Most Improved Award with 18 points and 6 rebounds. Mikki Moore chipped in 12 points and 9 rebounds in 23 minutes. Rick Brunson only had 2 points on 1-3 FG and 0-2 FT, but did dish out 9 assists in his 22 minutes. This time Dirk Nowitzki's heroics were not enough as he just didn't get enough help. Nowitzki had 25 points on 8-15 FG and 8-11 FT. Like everyone else, his rebounding was off and he had just 5 rebounds. He also had 4 assists and 4 turnovers. Josh Howard had 16 points and 4 rebounds. Jason Terry did do a nice job in passing the ball and had a double-double with 12 points including 4-10 FG and 10 assists in 26 minutes. Jerry Stackhouse returned to action after missing 7 straight games with a strained groin. He was the only other Mav in double-digits with 11 points, but had 0 rebounds in his 20 minutes. Freshly re-added Alan Henderson started and had 4 points on 2-2 FG and 6 rebounds in 21 minutes. Michael Finley had a very poor outing with just 4 points on 2-9 FG, 1 rebound, and 1 assist in 30 minutes. Keith Van Horn fouled out in 22 minutes and had 9 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 steals. Marquis Daniels had 7 points and 4 rebounds in 21 minutes and Darrell Armstrong had 4 points and 3 assists in 17 minutes. Quotes Mike Dunleavy: "I was really pleased with our effort tonight. We did tremendous work on the boards, switching on defense, creating plays, and contesting shots. There were a couple of times down the stretch where we missed some easy ones and turned the ball over a couple of times. Other than that, I was very pleased." Dunleavy: "We did a better job of contesting shots, creating space, and then going to get the boards." Dunleavy on Nowitzki: "He was obviously the difficult match up on defense. I thought Kaman did a nice job on him. I mean obviously you're not going to hold him, because he got 25, but I thought we did a very good job of making him work for his points. Mikki Moore also came in and did a really nice job on him." Dunleavy on the Clippers' road troubles: "Honestly, I don't know. We have really young guys and maybe that affects them. I think the crowd here energizes them and the surroundings are comfortable. We are getting a great effort here at home, no doubt about it." Dunleavy on the playoffs: "We have all the teams right in front of us coming in to play us. It's in our hands. We are where we asked to be. We want to play these type of games late in the season. Hopefully, we make a push through and we get ourselves back in the playoff scene." Elton Brand: "We crushed them on the boards tonight. They wanted to go with a smaller lineup tonight and we took advantage of that." Brand: "This says a lot about our team to beat them at home like we have. Our guys can make a lot of matchup problems for Dallas. They are a good team, one of the upper echelon teams in this league." Brand on the playoffs: "We have those teams who are right in front of us coming up. We have the opportunity to gain some ground." Corey Maggette: "My job is to try and attack the basket and do whatever I can to get to the line and make the shots." Maggette: "Everyone is expecting us to lose against this team. We have to be confident to go out there and win these ballgames. We have to be able to close out these games and not let them slip away. Tonight, we closed out the game like we should." Maggette, the Clippers last won a season series vs Dallas in 93-94: "I didn't know that we hadn't beat Dallas in a series for so long. Right now our team is trying to get into this playoff race. Dallas is a team in our way. We just want to continue to play the right way and do things to get us a win." Maggette: "On the road you miss the fan support behind you. With the fans behind us, it's easier to make plays. When we are at home we just go out there and play. We aren't worried about anything. We just need to take the attitude that we have at home and take it on the road. Hopefully, we can get that in our head and play the same way on the road." Maggette on the playoffs: "I think now it is up to us. We can't worry about the Lakers or Timberwolves. We just have to go out there and win some games. When we win games everything will take care of itself." Don Nelson: "Well it was the kind of game that every time I thought we were getting ready to make a run, we would miss a shot that we needed to make. It was like that all night. We never got a run, we never got into a flow. They deserved to win." Nelson: "We didn't deserve to win but I thought we still had a chance in the final minutes." Nelson: "It was a frustrating night." Nelson: "Physically, they really come and go after you. We have always had a hard time with them. We have beaten them a few times, but it has always been close game when we win it. They win the season series this year. They really handled us this year." Dirk Nowitzki: "It felt tonight that we weren't ready to play. They got whatever they wanted, especially in the 1st half when we were down by almost 20. It's a hole that you don't want to get yourself into because it puts a lot of pressure on you, especially on the road. We made a little push at them in the 2nd half, but it just wasn't enough." Michael Finley: "This is a big loss. Where we're trying to go and what we're trying to do as a team, we can't lose to teams like the Clippers. Against other teams, they play like they should. But against us, they play some of their better games." Jerry Stackhouse: "Tonight we just weren't able to make shots that we're capable of. They just got off to a good start. They got points in the paint, out-rebounded us, and beat us in certain key areas of the game." Stackhouse: "They got points in the paint, they out-rebounded us, they just beat us in pretty much every area of the game. We still had a chance late in the game and were just a couple more shots from maybe making it a little more interesting than we did." Jason Terry: "There is no way we lose to that team. We're a much better team than them but we didn't play like it tonight. They played more aggressive than we did on their home court. There is no way they should be more aggressive than us." Terry: "We are not playing as well as we have been defensively. We just have to get back to playing healthy and consistent defense every night." Los Angeles Clippers 101, Dallas Mavericks 92 at Los Angeles (March 2) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% LA Clippers 31 29 19 22 - 101 .516 .077 .442 .865 Dallas 23 23 23 23 - 92 .500 .211 .432 .750 Halftime: LA Clippers 60-46 3rd Q: LA Clippers 79-69 Technicals: none Refs: Joe DeRosa, Bill Spooner, Tony Brown Attendance: 16,531 (cap 19,060) Did not play due to injury: Marko Jaric (stress fracture right foot) Los Angeles Clippers REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Corey Maggette 35 10-17 0-5 14-16 34 1-8 3 2 5 1 0 Rick Brunson 22 1-3 0-1 0-2 2 0-2 9 2 4 1 1 Bobby Simmons 43 7-18 1-4 3-3 18 0-6 1 0 2 1 0 Elton Brand 36 7-12 0-0 5-6 19 4-10 2 1 3 2 0 Chris Kaman 11 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 2-4 1 2 4 0 0 Quinton Ross 27 1-5 0-0 2-2 4 1-4 3 3 1 0 2 Mikki Moore 23 4-8 0-0 4-4 12 4-9 1 1 4 0 0 Lionel Chalmers 21 1-5 0-3 2-2 4 1-2 3 1 1 1 0 Zeljko Rebraca 14 2-6 0-0 2-2 6 0-2 0 1 2 0 1 Kenny Anderson 5 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 1 1 0 0 0 Chris Wilcox 3 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1-4 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 34-77 1-13 32-37 101 14-52 24 17 26 6 4 Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Michael Finley 30 2-9 0-3 0-0 4 0-1 1 0 2 0 0 Jason Terry 26 4-10 1-3 3-3 12 2-4 10 1 4 1 0 Josh Howard 32 6-12 1-3 3-5 16 2-4 1 2 0 1 0 Alan Henderson 21 2-2 0-0 0-0 4 1-6 0 0 2 0 1 Dirk Nowitzki 37 8-15 1-3 8-11 25 0-5 4 4 3 2 1 Keith Van_Horn 22 4-8 1-3 0-0 9 0-5 0 0 6 3 0 Marquis Daniels 21 3-7 0-0 1-1 7 1-4 1 0 3 0 0 Jerry Stackhouse 20 5-12 0-2 1-2 11 0-0 1 0 0 1 0 Darrell Armstrong 17 1-3 0-0 2-2 4 1-2 3 2 2 0 0 Devin Harris 7 0-3 0-2 0-0 0 0-0 0 1 2 1 0 Shawn Bradley 7 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 0 0 2 0 0 Totals 48 35-81 4-19 18-24 92 7-32 21 10 26 9 2 patricia