Keith Van Horn suffered what is being described as a seriously sprained left ankle during the 2nd quarter of game 2. X-rays were negative, but it is not known how long he will be out. He is listed as doubtful for Saturday's game 4. Game 3: Dallas at Houston (April 28) Dallas came down to Houston desperately needing a win having lost the first 2 games in Dallas. A 3-pointer by Michael Finley gave Dallas an 11-4 lead with 9:20 remaining, but Houston went on a 10-3 run to tie the game at 14-14 with 6:15 left. Dallas would hold a small lead or the game was tied over the next 3 1/2 minutes. A 3-pointer by David Wesley gave Houston their first lead at 27-24 with 2:35 to go, but they would not score again in the quarter in committing 3 turnovers and missing 3 shots and Dallas scored the last 8 points of the quarter to go up 32-27 after 1. Keith Van Horn left the game a minute into the 2nd quarter with a seriously sprained left ankle and did not return. A layup by Marquis Daniels and hook shot by Dirk Nowitzki surrounded a free throw by Jon Barry to open the scoring for the 2nd quarter and gave Dallas a 36-28 lead with 9:30 to go. 2 free throws by Jerry Stackhouse gave Dallas their largest lead at 43-33 with 7:20 left, but Dallas could not build on that lead and held a single-digit lead the rest of the quarter. 4 straight points by Tracy McGrady pulled Houston within 45-49 with 1:15 remaining, but Jason Terry answered with a 3-pointer. McGrady got a layup with a couple of seconds left in the quarter. Dallas led 54-49 at the half. McGrady had 10 points in the 2nd quarter. For the half, Dallas shot 49% FG and Houston shot 45% FG - both teams made 5 3-pointers. Houston scored the first 4 points to open the 3rd quarter to pull within 53-54 with 10:30 remaining. Ryan Bowen picked up 2 quick fouls early in the quarter and had to sit with 5 fouls. Dallas led 58-55 with 9:10 left and Houston went on a 17-3 run to go up 72-61 with 5 minutes to go. Dallas did score the next 6 points and Houston's lead ranged from 8 to 4 points for the rest of the quarter. Houston led 83-78 after 3. Dallas stayed in the game thanks to the free throw line as they shot 11-12 FT in the 3rd quarter while Houston shot 1-2 FT. Barry opened the 4th quarter with a 3-pointer. Nowitzki got a jumper and Mike James hit a layup with 9:30 left to give Houston an 88-80 lead before the bottom dropped out for the Rockets. Dallas then scored the next 20 points, with Finley, Terry, and Josh Howard chipping in 5 points each, to go up 100-88 with 3 minutes to go as Houston missed 8 straight shots and 2 free throws. Bob Sura nailed a 3-pointer to end Houston's 7 1/2 minute drought. After a Dallas miss, McGrady hit 2 free throws with 2:30 remaining to pull Houston within 93-100. The teams traded misses and Nowitzki hit a short fade-away jumper over McGrady with 1:25 left. James hit 2 free throws with a little over a minute left. Dallas played stall ball and then found themselves in trouble and didn't get a shot off before the shot clock expired. James was again fouled and hit both free throws to make it a 5-point game at 97-102 with 32 seconds to go. After a Dallas timeout, the Mavs were able to run some time off the clock by playing keep away before Finley was intentionally fouled with 23 seconds remaining. He hit both free throws. McGrady came down and hit a tough 3-pointer over Nowitzki with 15 seconds left and Stackhouse was intentionally fouled and he hit both free throws. The Mavs were called for a foul when Sura was trying to screen Howard off of McGrady as McGrady brought the ball up the court and Howard and Sura went down. But Sura missed both free throws - Houston did get off 3 more shots, but the only one that went in was Yao Ming's meaningless (and only points of the quarter) layup at the final buzzer. Dallas won 106-102. Dallas finally managed to win a playoff game. It wasn't that great of a game for either team with both Houston (17-3 3rd quarter) and Dallas having (20-0 4th quarter) strong runs, but Dallas' came last and gave them enough of a cushion to hold on to the win. Houston only shot 5-18 FG and 6-10 FT in the 4th quarter while Dallas shot 9-17 FG and 8-9 FT in the 4th. It was again a tight game as the largest lead was just 12 points. For the game, Dallas shot 48.5% (33-68) FG including 8-17 3-pointers and Houston shot 45% (36-80) FG including [a still hot] 13-25 3-pointers. Dallas again had the edge at the free throw line, and this time hit their free throws while Houston struggled some. Dallas shot 32-37 FT and Houston shot 17-25 FT. Maybe it is a bad thing to have the rebounding edge in this series as the team that had more rebounds lost all 3 games. Houston out-rebounded Dallas 44-35 including 15-8 offensive. It's just one win and Dallas still has a large hole to climb out of as Houston leads the series 2-1 and game 4 is in Houston on Saturday. Dirk Nowitzki finally had a good game - but not a great game. He had 28 points in being aggressive offensively, but is still lacking in the rebounds. He shot 9-16 FG and 10-10 FT and had 6 rebounds. The Mavs remain perfect (18-0) this season when he and Michael Finley score 20+ points. Finley had a solid outing with 20 points including 4-6 3-pointers, 3 rebounds, and 3 assists. Dallas' best player from the first 2 games had a poor outing on his birthday as Josh Howard played poorly and got in foul trouble and was often gripping at the refs in game 3. He did step up in scoring the last 5 points of Dallas' 20-0 run, including again taking on Yao Ming on a drive for 2. Howard had 7 points and 3 rebounds in 17 minutes before fouling out with 11 seconds left. Jason Terry had a solid outing, though limited early with 2 fouls in the 1st quarter. He had 13 points including 4-5 FG and 3-4 3-pointers, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists in 30 minutes. Jerry Stackhouse's shots weren't falling, but he was aggressive in taking the ball to the basket and getting to the foul line. He had 18 points on 4-12 FG and 9-10 FT and 5 rebounds in 37 minutes. Erick Dampier had 4 points and 6 rebounds in 19 minutes. Devin Harris played 27 minutes in part due to Terry's foul trouble and he had 6 points and 5 rebounds. Marquis Daniels was in the rotation for this game and he had 6 points and 4 assists in 17 minutes. Tracy McGrady had another great outing up until the 4th quarter. He had 23 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 assists through 3 quarters, but just 5 points on 1-5 FG and 2-4 FT, 2 rebounds, and 1 assist in the 4th quarter. Yao Ming also struggled in the 4th in going scoreless until his bucket at the final buzzer. For the game, he had 15 points including 7-11 FG and 10 rebounds including 5 offensive. Houston again got strong performances from their role players. Bob Sura went nuts this night with 21 points, 11 rebounds including 5 offensive, and 6 assists. David Wesley had 17 points including 5-8 3-pointers, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists. Ryan Bowen had a foul plagued night and didn't score (0-2 FG) and had 1 rebound in 17 minutes before fouling out. Jon Barry had 7 points including 2-2 3-pointers and 2 rebounds in 23 minutes. Mike James and Scott Padgett had 6 points each. Quotes [Johnson's, Nowitzki's, Van Gundy's, and McGrady's quotes and most of Finley's, Terry's, and Stackhouse's quotes transcribed by me] Avery Johnson: "Well, overall obviously we're excited about this win. We were playing some really good basketball before the regular season ended and we had 2 of our worst games, especially defensively, to start this series off. Thought our defense was a little bit improved tonight. 3rd quarter defense wasn't too good, but to give them 19 points in the 4th is pretty good for us. We had a lot of individual performances. I thought our captains stepped up big tonight - Dirk and Finley. And we were fighting foul trouble. Dampier came in and got some huge rebounds for us and stops. Stackhouse was big for us. And we had some other contributions from guys like Marquis Daniels and Devin Harris. So it was just a good team win. Obviously we know the Rockets are still in control of the series. We feel we are still in a huge hole and we got to really play well on Saturday to come out." Johnson on free throws: "We just want to be aggressive. A lot of times the aggressor is rewarded and we just felt we were rewarded. We were trying to get to the basket and just make strong plays. We don't make excuses and we don't want to cry for anything, We just want to make strong plays and let the results take care of themselves." Johnson on the defense on McGrady: "Ya, and again, you got to pick your poison. We can't have 3 of those guys getting big numbers on us. Fortunately tonight, it was basically McGrady, and Bobby Sura had a huge game. Hopefully we can came back and play the type of defense that we play. We'll go and watch the film like we always do. Try to make some adjustments. We're getting killed from the 3-point line - it's still unexceptable. We still have a lot of room to grow. Just haven't really seen the best Mavericks team yet. So hopefully that team will show up one day." Johnson: "Our backs are against the wall. You hear a lot of different whispers and people start to get questioned. That wasn't really happening when we were 16-2 coming into the playoffs. I just told the guys I love what they're about. We practiced hard this year. We finished 4th in the West - in a tough conference, so you're a better basketball team than what you showed. Now, obviously the Rockets have forced us into a lot of stuff. I just wanted them to stay encouraged. Don't get discouraged. It's a long game and sometimes when the game gets tight, sometimes the shots don't fall like they've fallen for them in the first 2 games. So they didn't fall for them tonight in the 4th and all we can do is hopefully they won't fall again." Johnson on Dampier: "We needed him in there, especially with Keith Van Horn out. Damp came in, and we had to go small a lot, he understood that, but he came in and played big for us. Man, he was big down the stretch. Just bodying Yao and just trying to keep him under control. And we think that really helped clinch the game for us." Johnson on Finley: "He's trying - 6-10 from the field, 4-6 from the line, no hesitation. I thought he looked fresh. You know, we didn't practice yesterday. We had a pretty good practice on Tuesday. So we just kind of got back to playing some of the type of Mavericks basketball that we like to play. Fortunately, Dirk played well. That always helps a coach when his superstar plays well. You know, there's no rocket science in that. I wasn't a better coach tonight. My team just played well and they willed themselves to win." Johnson on if the win gives them confidence: "It has to do something. I tell you what, you won't see an overconfident team. Because we're still in the pit, we are in the hole and we got to keep climbing out of this thing. And I think we seem to play better when we're that way." Johnson on forcing McGrady to play defense: "Stackhouse accomplished that for us. Whenever you get a superstar like that, you got to try to make him play some defense and not just roam around. So we thought Stackhouse did a good job. Even if he didn't make the shot, we thought he made some strong moves against him. And that's what we got to continue to do." Dirk Nowitzki: "I think down the stretch we made some good adjustments on the pick-and-roll. Defensively we got some big stops. And offensively I think we made some big shots. Our offense I thought was good enough in the 2nd game to win, but our defense wasn't. So down the stretch, we got some nice stops, we got the rebounds, and that was the key for us." Nowitzki: "That small lineup was unbelievable. The first 2 games, they were shooting the ball from all angles, from everywhere. And Tracy and Barry did a nice job finding the open shooters. So I thought we did a little better job finding those shooters, contesting shots. And that's what the playoffs is all about." Nowitzki on his shooting: "I don't know. I just tried to stay aggressive. I felt good in the morning, in shootaround, felt good in the warmups. I got to stay aggressive for this team to be successful. I made a couple of shots early, which usually helps my confidence. So hopefully it will work out the same for game 4." Nowitzki: "Defensively, I thought we finally down the stretch got the stops we needed. I thought offensively the 2nd game - I don't even count the 1st game, I thought we were all frozen up and weren't really moving the way we're supposed to be moving. But the 2nd game, I thought offensively we were fine. We scored 111 points, but we didn't really get the stops we needed down the stretch. They were shooting the ball from all angles. And today in the 4th quarter we finally were moving well out there, we contested the shots. They've been on fire all series long so far and finally down the stretch they missed some shots and we got some big rebounds. So down the stretch finally we got the stops we needed. That was obviously a big win for us. If we go out and go down 3-nothing here, this series probably would have been over. So that was a big game for us." Nowitzki: "Obviously we're still in the hole. We lost 2 at home. And we only won one on the road now. So obviously we're still behind and we're still trying to catch up. But obviously for us, this was a big step in the right direction. We've had a couple of guys who've never been in the playoffs and finally we got that first win under our belt. So hopefully we can come out and do more of the same stuff on Saturday." Nowitzki: "I had a tough first 2 games. I wasn't really shooting the ball extremely well. For us to be successful, I've got to stay aggressive. I felt good this morning at shootaround. I felt fine before the game. Usually my game, it helps me a lot when I feel good early in the game and make a couple of shots and make a couple of plays and get a couple of rebounds and get involved in the game. And I felt in the first 2 games I never really found my rhythm to the game. And when you don't have your rhythm out there, it's hard. All of the sudden you're supposed to make big shots, but I was never really in the flow of the game. And I thought today it was a lot better early on right away. When my confidence is up, I'm a different player." Nowitzki on the 20-0 run: "I wasn't aware of it at all. Somebody just told me in the locker room before I came over. Obviously that's an amazing run to go on against a great team like that. Obviously I knew we made a good comeback. We were right there and kept the pressure and got ourselves a lead. But I didn't know we went on a run like that. Obviously that's great for us to shut them down like that, especially down the stretch when it comes to crunch time. We did a lot better job, like I said, defensively than the first 2 games." Nowitzki: "I was actually a little worried. They were starting to shoot the ball well again. And Yao had a couple of baskets under the hoop. That's what happened in game 2, they had the inside and outside game going. And so we all knew that if we don't do it now, it's probably over. So finally we did the stuff we had to do and got a couple of stops. That stretch right there was big for us and we all responded the right way. We played well right before the playoffs, the last couple of weeks, and we haven't really showed that in the playoffs. So for us to come out and respond that way being down 10 is big." Nowitzki on Finley: "I said it before this series, if we want to have a chance and want to beat the Rockets, we've got to have everyone playing at a high level. And I don't think me or Fin or anyone really has been playing up to their expectations and what we expect of ourselves. And the way Fin came out, he's trying really hard on TMac, which is really good. And offensively he got a couple of good looks and knocked them down. Like I said, we got to have all the guys out there, the guys who are in the rotation, we got to all play well and that's what we did tonight." Nowitzki on the media placing blame on him: "Obviously I try to stay out of the media as much as I can, but you hear some stuff here and there. And obviously I blame myself the most. I expect a lot out there from myself. And if I have a bad game, I'm disappointed the most. I just try to do more of the same, more of what I've been doing all season long and that's trying to stay aggressive and look for my shots if they're there and if they're not, move the ball and make some big plays." Nowitzki: "We made adjustments on the pick-and-roll, and down the stretch we made some nice stops." Michael Finley: "Coming into the game, we knew everyone had to be aggressive, take advantage of the offensive opportunities when you had them. And for me it happened early. They were leaving me weakside a lot and teammates were finding me in good positions to score. And basically I was just taking advantage of it." Finley on being loose: "One, we're a confident team on the road. Although we finished the season strong at home in the regular season, but on the road throughout the whole regular season we've been strong. We've been a great road team. We seem to come together in adverse situations and tonight was no different. We knew going into the ball game that we had a great opportunity to win the ball game if we limited our mistakes both offensively and defensively from game 1 and game 2. And for the most part we did that." Finley on Houston missing shots: "We were hoping it would come sooner than that. You have to give Houston a lot of credit. In Dallas, everyone on their team shot the ball extremely well. We prepared for that tonight and we thought it would be the same thing, but situations happen when the games are close sometimes that basket seems smaller. And when you have a big lead, sometimes the basket seems even bigger. So we just wanted to make the game close and if they made the same tough shots they did in game 1 and game 2, we'd have to live with it. But tonight it didn't go their way." Finley: "I brought the team together right before the 4th quarter and I said let's put everything behind us. Let's put the previous, you know, 8 quarters or 11 quarters behind us and just play this quarter to win. And we had to put all the excuses - didn't want any one to say I was too tired to do this or do that, you didn't want to look back on the tape tomorrow and have regrets about the 4th quarter. And that's pretty much what I told the guys. And we just came out and let it all hang out. Offensively we shared the ball in the 4th quarter, got great looks at it. Defensively, got key stops and rebounds. And ultimately came out with the win." Finley: "The biggest key was defensively and we wanted to contest every shot they put up. It's a formidable position we have put ourselves in. Our defensive effort was needed for us to continue the series." Finley: "We wanted to contest more of their shots and on offense we wanted to share the ball. When we do that, we're pretty dangerous." Finley: "It's been real evident on film when we take possessions off, they make us pay. Tonight, we didn't want to take any plays off." Finley: "We were very confident for us to come into the game and your confidence gets higher with a win. We are still down 2-1. Every game you win the next game is always tougher." Finley: "We were confident coming into the game. Confidence always moves up after a victory. But we're still in a hole, and they still have the upper hand." Finley: "Like in any series, any game that you win makes the next game even tougher. We're going to enjoy this for about an hour and get focused on trying to get the next one." Finley on Van Horn: "It was a big loss for us. We have guys on this team that are ready to play and now we will see how strong our bench is." Jerry Stackhouse: "I think our rotations, once we get back and look at it, I just think our rotations were really good. When the ball went into the post, we made sure we got down on Yao so he didn't get any easy ones. And the guy who was rotating up top was early. And then Dirk did a good job of getting back out of the double-team and getting to that corner shooter - and you got a 7-footer running at you makes it a little tough." Stackhouse: "We had our backs against the wall. I don't think there was no way we could really realistic win the series if we got down 3-0, just the odds were against us. But we came out, we played with a sense of urgency. Obviously, they made runs. They were at home. We were able to substain their runs and at the same time, once we substained it, we pushed ahead a little bit. And that was key for us. Once we had that cushion, we felt we just had to be sound, be sound defensively and we would get something pretty good on the offense end." Stackhouse on the small lineups: "I think we went to it first. Today we didn't allow them to start it and we adjust to them. I think we started with the small lineup first and then made them adjust to us. It's a chest match and we just had the first move today. But it's far from over. We just got to continue to do what we do. Take it one possession at a time. We're not looking at it as we're back in it. We just feel we've never been out of it. We just had to get a win and tonight we got a win. So obviously we feel good about ourselves. We'll come in and look at some tape. We made some mistakes just like we did in those other games. Try to clean up some of those mistakes that we made this game and hopefully be better defensively than we were tonight." Stackhouse on Nowitzki: "I think he was loose. It wasn't so much about him having a big night. He made the plays that he's supposed to make. When they double-team, he tried to move the ball and that created things for other guys too. He doesn't have to take the onus on himself because we're down, to try to do it all. He hasn't done it all for us all year. I mean, he's been a big part and he's been great, but at the same time, we've got a lot of other people on this team. That's been our strong suit - our depth. And I think our depth came alive a little bit tonight." Stackhouse on the 20-0 run: "It just happens. Sometimes, you just get going like that." Stackhouse: "Houston still got a lot of good looks. Jeff Van Gundy is a great coach and Houston has deadly outside shooters." Stackhouse: "The playoffs are great! We feel our backs were against the wall and we had to fight, fight, fight and that's what we did. Tonight it was our turn to make the plays." Erick Dampier: "We played good defense and we made the stops in the 4th quarter. Free throws were definitely big. We are a good free throw shooting team and we had to make them. We didn't panic. We knew Houston would make a run and then we made our run in the 4th quarter." Dampier: "We wanted to come out and set the tone. We want to run the floor and get layups, and that's what we did. But this series is far from over." Jason Terry: "Let's go down swinging and we kept swinging at the end. We were playing basketball and making every possession count. Defensively, I thought we won the game in the 4th quarter. We are very focused and we still have our vision in sight. We have one game to take care of and then we are going home." Terry: "We weathered the storm. We've talked all season about handling adversity, and this was a time to back that up. When they went on their run and went up by [11], nobody was hanging their head. We kept swinging out there. We didn't even know what kind of streak we were on." Terry on the 20-0 run: "We didn't even know what the run was. We were just playing basketball, man, and making every possession count." Terry on the win: "It's huge for our confidence. It's one win, like you said. It's a series now and we got one more game to win on Saturday." Terry on closing out on the shooters: "Yeah, you have to. It's the NBA. Those guys are good shooters. Obviously they practice that. They spread the floor very well with all 4 shooters out there in that lineup. Those guys don't miss. Bobby Sura was kicking my butt all over the court tonight." Terry: "We knew it wasn't going to hold up with Dirk. Dirk's a great shooter, a great scorer. And he's very confident in his game. We're confident in him. He's our leader. So coupled with him, Finley stepped up, played big on the offensive end. Just defensively I thought we won the game in the 4th quarter." Terry on coming in 0-2: "Where do you go? I mean, you have no where to go but up. And to win game 3 is big, but we're not done yet. And it's going to be a long series." Terry on what Houston is thinking: "We don't even know. We don't even care what they're thinking about or how they feel. It's all about us right now and getting another win." Josh Howard on his fouls: "I was being very aggressive and I guess the refs didn't want me to be." Howard: "Our backs are still against the wall and we have to come out on Saturday and be ready. I am really looking forward to the game." Jeff Van Gundy on differences in the game: "Well, there were a lot of them. But Dallas played really well. We didn't play quite as well. Their defense in that 18-0 run was great. Our defense in that 18-0 run was poor." Van Gundy on free throws: "Yeah, they drove us hard. They've had a decided advantage at the free throw line throughout the series. We had made a much higher percentage until tonight and they shot it well from the free throw line tonight. And we missed a lot of them in the 4th." Van Gundy on defense differences: "They did somethings. But 102 points has got to hold up at home. It's got to hold up. Again, the formula for winning has never changed. It starts with defense, rebounding, and solid ball handling. And we didn't have the 1st or 3rd one. Our ball handling got us off to a bad start. We had, I think, 7 turnovers in the 1st quarter. Those things don't win for you." Van Gundy on the 20-0 run: "It was just bad play - no, good play on their part, not so good on our part. And there were many plays to be made during that stretch. With such a critical game, I thought we would dig deeper to try to make those plays." Van Gundy on intensity and urgency: "No, again, I don't want to bring it down to that. We had a lead in the 4th quarter at home and we got hammered in the 4th quarter at home. And that says a lot about Dallas. And I'm sure as we analyze and watch, we'll be disappointed in ourselves." Van Gundy: "I think the game offensively got away from us in the 1st quarter as much as any where where we had so many turnovers. And then I thought we missed some I'm sure that if we look at we'll like the shots, some others maybe not so much. Obviously, when you get beat that badly in the 4th quarter, you didn't play well enough at either end." Tracy McGrady on the 4th quarter: "Obviously it was just very disappointing on our part. We pretty much had the game under control at that point and time. And for some reason we just stop executing. And we stopped doing that, those guys came back on the other end and we didn't play defense, they were making shots, and we were just out of sync on the offensive end. I think that was the difference. Pretty much, like I said, had the game under control. We were stuck on 88 for a while and those guys went on a 16-0 run. I just think that comes from being out of sync on offense, not doing the things we normally do in situations like that. We didn't control the game." McGrady on pressure: "There's no pressure. None at all. Those guys played a good game tonight. Although we didn't play as well, we still should have won the ball game. Things didn't go our way. We didn't play well but we still were in control of the game. But there's no pressure. there's no pressure. We got a game Saturday and it's on our home court. So the most important thing is we got to come out, we got to take care of home court." McGrady on why they were out of sync: "I think it was a little of both, missing shots and I think they went to trapping and taking us out of our offense, mixing up their defense a little bit. And I think we were kind of rushing our offense and that resulted in turnovers and bad shots. And in those situations, you have to do a great job of getting the best shot for the team, staying poised regardless of what type of defense they throw at you or how much pressure they put on you. And that's something we didn't do." McGrady on if the team relaxed in the 4th quarter: "No, I don't think we did relax. Kind of thought we panicked a little bit. Like I said, when those guys went on a run like that, we didn't do anything to prevent them from making that run. We didn't stop them on the defensive end and also when we came back on offensive end we didn't do the things we should have done to give ourselves a chance and get a quality shot. So I think we will definitely look back and learn from this because it was a huge, huge mistake on our part on both ends of the basketball court. We didn't execute at all." McGrady on stopping the panic: "Just watch some film. Just try to put ourselves in a better position when those guys are throwing double-teams at us and trying to take us out of our offense, when they're trapping us. Just keeping our poise and attacking. Opposing to I think we sometimes get caught up into when those guys are trapping, they're trying to get the ball out of my hands, I think we still try to run a set play opposing to just attacking right away. That's something we didn't do. So just staying in attack mode. Don't panic, regardless of what type of defense they throw at us. If they want to trap, that's fine. That's an advantage on our part because you're putting 2 people on the ball so somebody's got to be open." McGrady on letting Dallas back in the series: "The way I look at it, the way I thought we played tonight was not a good game and we were up 8 points in the 4th quarter. Mentally, if that's how they felt, if they feel they got this series in control, I won't feel too confident about that because we definitely didn't play our best ball out of these 3 games and we had this game under control and we just didn't do somethings well during the 4th quarter to pull it out. So I definitely don't think they should get besides themselves." McGrady on Dallas trying to make him expend some energy defensively: "Not at all. Regardless of what they try to do, who they try to make me defend, this is the playoffs, man. It doesn't matter if it's Dirk or Stackhouse or Finley. Part of my job is to defend. So I'm not going to bail them out by not playing defense. I'm not going to give them an easy way out if that's what they're trying to do then it's not going to work. I worked too hard, I worked too hard in the off season to let a team try to take me out as far as running guys at me and trying to go at me on the defensive end. I worked too hard for that. So I'm not going to allow that. And if that does happen, I got great teammates that play great team defense. So it's not going to work, not at all. I'm not going to get tired." Yao Ming: "It seemed like we were relaxed in the 4th quarter, like the game was already in our hands and that we were playing in our rhythm." Yao on not setting as many picks: "I didn't get any offensive fouls because the referees warned me." Yao on not getting continuation on a foul with 8:15 left in the 4th: "That was only 3 points. We still had the ball. They didn't give me the and-1 play. But we still had the lead. That game was still in our hands. We should have taken care of that." Bob Sura: "We just didn't play well enough to win. Give them credit, they came with it, they made the plays when they had to. When they were down 10, they kept fighting. They got themselves back in it. There's no question about it." Sura: "We were off-kilter. We weren't comfortable with what we were doing with the small lineup out there. That hurt us a little bit. Of course, you'd like to get it inside as much as possible, but we just didn't do that." Sura: "They got themselves back in, there's no question about it. If we were up 3-0, it would be totally different. But we have to come out Saturday ready to play. It's going to be another tough game ... nobody said this was going to be easy." Sura on the free throw difference: "Yeah, that's hurting us. They got to the line a lot tonight and that presents a lot of problems. We have to clean that up." Jon Barry: "They deserved to win. We didn't play well defensively at all. We were in great position ... I think we were up 10 at one point ... and I thought we got a little careless, but we didn't lock down defensively from the start of the game. Defensively we were just bad. They played better than we did." Barry: "I think home court advantage is overrated in the playoffs. It's who plays better. Sometimes it can be an advantage to be on the road. Sometimes you're a little bit more focused. We knew that we were going to get their best game and, unfortunately, we didn't play our best game. I give them credit ... we had them down 10 and they fought back. We'll be ready to go Saturday." Barry on the 4th quarter: "We were in a great position. I thought we got a little careless. We didn't lock down defensively from the start of the game. Defensively, we were just bad." Barry on Yao not getting continuation on a 2nd half play: "That was a big play in the game. A 6-point game goes to 9 if he makes the free throw, but instead we get side-out. We didn't score and then they came down and scored. Those things happen, but we were in great position and we didn't defend." Barry: "We feel we are in an adverse situation going into Saturday night. We go back [to Dallas] now, if we go back 2-2, they are going to have all the momentum. And if it's 3-1, we can get the momentum back. Saturday night is obviously, very, very crucial to the series." Barry on the free throw difference: "They go to the foul line 37 times. They are the best free throw shooting team in the league, I think. They made 32 foul shots, which is 15 more than we made. But that's because of our poor defense. We put them on the line. We just allowed way too much dribble penetration." Mike James: "They were the aggressor and we were back on our heels for a stretch and that was the difference in the game." James on Yao not getting continuation on a 2nd half play: "That was definitely a big play. But you know it shouldn't come down to one play, but sometimes it does and for the most part, it went against us." James on the loss: "It does nothing ... we still have a goal and we still understand that we have a job to face. We knew going into this series that this was going to be a real tough series, but we can't discredit what the Dallas Mavericks have done this season. We understand this is going to be a tough fight, but we have to come out Saturday focused for 48 minutes." Game 3: Dallas Mavericks 106, Houston Rockets 102 at Houston (April 28) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 32 22 24 28 - 106 .490 .471 .485 .865 Houston 27 22 34 19 - 102 .418 .520 .450 .680 Halftime: Dallas 54-49 3rd Q: Houston 83-78 Technicals: Dallas defensive 3 seconds 10:25 Refs: Scott Foster, Bernie Fryer, Jess Kersey Attendance: 18,199 (sellout) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Michael Finley 40 6-10 4-6 4-4 20 0-3 3 0 1 0 0 Jason Terry 30 4-5 3-4 2-2 13 0-6 4 0 3 2 1 Dirk Nowitzki 44 9-16 0-0 10-10 28 0-6 3 3 5 2 1 Josh Howard 17 3-8 0-1 1-1 7 1-3 1 2 6 0 0 Erick Dampier 19 2-4 0-0 0-2 4 4-6 1 1 5 0 0 Jerry Stackhouse 37 4-12 1-3 9-10 18 2-5 3 1 2 1 0 Devin Harris 27 2-5 0-2 2-4 6 0-5 2 4 2 2 0 Marquis Daniels 17 3-6 0-0 0-0 6 0-0 4 0 4 0 0 Keith Van_Horn 7 0-2 0-1 4-4 4 1-1 0 0 0 0 0 Shawn Bradley 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Darrell Armstrong 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 33-68 8-17 32-37 106 8-35 21 12 28 7 2 Houston Rockets REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK David Wesley 41 5-11 5-8 2-3 17 1-5 5 2 1 0 0 Bob Sura 37 8-19 2-3 3-6 21 5-11 6 1 2 0 0 Tracy McGrady 42 10-23 2-7 6-8 28 1-9 6 5 3 1 0 Ryan Bowen 20 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 3 1 6 0 0 Yao Ming 34 7-11 0-0 1-2 15 5-10 2 4 5 0 1 Jon Barry 23 2-4 2-2 1-2 7 0-2 0 0 3 1 0 Mike James 18 1-5 0-2 4-4 6 0-0 0 1 1 0 0 Scott Padgett 17 2-4 2-3 0-0 6 1-2 0 0 3 0 1 Dikembe Mutombo 8 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 2-4 0 1 3 0 1 Totals 48 36-80 13-25 17-25 102 15-44 22 15 27 2 3 patricia Go Mavs!