Older news: Dallas did indeed sign Doug Christie. He was signed on August 19. The Mavs also signed free agent DeSagana Diop on the 19th to a 3 year contract. Mark Followill was named as TV play-by-play announcer, replacing Matt Pinto who left to join the Clippers. Chuck Cooperstein was named as radio play-by-play announcer, replacing Followill. Rolando Blackman was named as an assistant coach (he's been a development coach) and Joe Prunty was named as an assistant coach (he had been an assistant coach for the Spurs). Charlie Parker is no longer a bench coach. Germany finished a surprising 2nd in the European Championship tournament. Dirk Nowitzki was named as MVP of the tournament and averaged 26.1 points and 10.6 rebounds in the 7 games. Erick Strickland, Samo Udrih, and Kaniel Dickens were invited to training camp, receiving non-guaranteed contracts. Dallas at Sacramento (October 11) The preseason games got underway for Dallas on Tuesday with a trip to Sacramento. Both teams struggled the first few minutes of the game and then Dallas got rolling. Sacramento was playing so bad that I don't know if Dallas was really as good as they looked in the 1st quarter or how much of a factor Sacramento's porous defense and poor offense had in making Dallas look so good. Dallas went on a 21-6 run over 6 minutes to go up 26-11 with 2 minutes left. Dallas shot 8-11 FG during the run while Sacramento missed 7 straight shots. Dallas led 30-17 after 1. Sacramento improved their play in the 2nd quarter with the addition of Shareef Abdur-Rahim. But all he did was keep the Kings in the game as Dallas would lead between 8 and 15 points the entire quarter. Jerry Stackhouse hit a runner with a fraction of a second left in the quarter to give Dallas a 58-44 lead at the half. [Mike Bibby took the inbounds after Stackhouse's make with .4 seconds left, hesitated (which allowed time to expired), and heaved the ball from 3/4s court and it went in.] Abdur-Rahim had 9 points in the 2nd quarter. Sacramento probably had a good lecture during halftime and came out with much more energy in the 2nd half. The Kings went to Peja Stojakovic fresh out of the break and he hit a quick jumper (which ended up being his only bucket of the night). And Dallas came out flat and missed their first 3 shots and committed 4 turnovers to allow Sacramento to pull within 55-60 4 minutes into the quarter. A 3-point play by Brad Miller pulled Sacramento within 64-68 with 4 minutes to go, but they would not connect on another basket until 4 seconds remained in the quarter - and Marquis Daniels answered that basket with a runner at the quarter buzzer to give Dallas a 77-68 lead after 3. Dallas opened the 4th quarter with a really ugly lineup on the court, which surprisingly didn't hurt them too much. Dallas rattled off 7 straight points in a minute to go up 84-72 with 7:40 left and the Mavs would lead in double-digits the rest of the game. And both teams put out ugly lineups for the last 4 minutes of the game. Dallas won 96-83. It was a good performance by Dallas, especially for the first preseason game. And it was a very poor performance by Sacramento. With some lapses, Dallas had the energy and hustle and cohesiveness that Sacramento was lacking. As I said, it was hard to figure out how much of Dallas' good play was due to Sacramento's poor play and how much of Sacramento's poor play was due to Dallas' good play, especially in the 1st quarter where Dallas looked really good and Sacramento looked really bad. Except for a lapse in the 3rd quarter, Dallas shot well for most of the game. The Mavs shot 55.6% FG while Sacramento shot 43.7% FG. And Avery Johnson had to be happy with the lack of 3-pointers attempted as he has said how much bad 3-point attempts drive him nuts. The Mavs only attempted 1 3-pointer in this game - a make by Dirk Nowitzki. On the other hand, the Kings could not be happy with their 3s. They only shot 3-15 3-pointers, with 1 make coming with less than 3 minutes left in the game and another with less than a minute. Add to Sacramento's woes being out-rebounded 26-36 and the offensive rebounds being almost even (10-9) despite Dallas' much better shooting and it's easy to see why this was an easy win for Dallas. Not surprisingly for a preseason game, both teams were sloppy with the ball and had a number of careless errors and the turnovers were high. Dallas had 26 turnovers and Sacramento had 21 turnovers. Surprisingly for a preseason game, the free throw shooting was good (especially considering how poorly Dallas shot free throws in the Blue-White scrimmage). Dallas shot 25-27 FT and Sacramento shot 18-22 FT (with strong free throw shooters Peja Stojakovic and Brad Miller missing 1 and Mike Bibby missing 2). The Mavs had a number of good performances. Marquis Daniels handled the ball well and played good defense. A couple of times he got switched on to Bibby and Daniels was able to keep in front of him instead of the quick Bibby driving past him (as happened too often to Devin Harris). Daniels had a game high 18 points on 9-13 FG, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 steals. Josh Howard was also active and drove often and had a little floater going for most of the game (though he missed 2 later in the game). He had 13 points and 7 rebounds. Dirk Nowitzki looked like his old self, in limited minutes. He had a really pretty high arcing long shot that went in as Kenny Thomas was up in his grill and a great block of Stojakovic inside. Nowitzki had 13 points and 6 rebounds in 21 minutes. Jerry Stackhouse also looked like his usual self, in limited minutes. He attacked often and got to the free throw line twice (and often it was easy to tell that he wasn't going to pass the ball). Stack had 7 points in 23 minutes. Devin Harris was up and down. His downs of missing bunnies and Bibby getting by him stand out, but in reality weren't the only aspects of his performance. He had a highlight one-handed slam on a break. Harris had 14 points, 5 assists, 3 steals, and 3 turnovers in a game high 32 minutes (the only player for either team to play more than 30 minutes). Erick Dampier was also up and down and had some of his butterfinger moments. One of the fumbles even prompted the Sacramento announcer to comment how he was in midseason form. Damp had 5 points including 2-3 FG, 4 rebounds, and 3 rebounds in 19 minutes. The good news was that he only had 2 fouls (though Miller tends to play further from the basket than most centers). Keith Van Horn continued to show signs of being aggressive in going to the basket (as seen in the Blue-White scrimmage), but injured his thumb during the 3rd quarter and did not return. He had 12 points including 5-6 FG in 14 minutes. Darrell Armstrong was the vet on the floor for part of the game (and the anchor to some of the ugly lineups). He drew one of his patented charges and has influenced the team as others also took charges. [Wow, I didn't realize he had 5 turnovers.] DeSagana Diop was very active in going after the ball. He was also active in picking up fouls. He hit his first shot and then missed his next 3. He had 2 points, 8 rebounds, 2 blocks, and 5 fouls in 20 minutes. Josh Powell, Rawle Marshall, DJ Mbenga, and Kaniel Dickens didn't do much memorable. Jason Terry and Doug Christie did not play as Avery Johnson elected to rest them for this preseason game (and will likely rotate resting players during the preseason). Nowitzki will sit out the Clippers game. Van Horn will also miss the Clippers game due to his injured finger. Man, is Peja Stojakovic worthless when his shot is not going. He missed 3 shots in the 1st quarter and was part of the defenseless group that helped make Dallas look so good. He shot 1-7 FG for the game. Bonzi Wells also struggle in his Kings debut in shooting 2-7 FG. Shareef Abdur-Rahim had 11 points (9 in the 2nd quarter) including 5-7 FG and 4 assists. Brad Miller had a team high 12 points. Kenny Thomas was the 3rd King in double-digits with 10 points and had a team high 5 rebounds. Dallas Mavericks 96, Sacramento Kings 83 at Sacramento (October 10) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 30 28 19 19 - 96 .548 1.000 .556 .926 Sacramento 17 27 24 15 - 83 .500 .200 .437 .818 Halftime: Dallas 58-44 3rd Q: Dallas 77-68 Technicals: none Refs: Bernie Fryer, Violet Palmer, Mark Ayotte Attendance: 17,317 (sellout) [officially; lots of empty seats] Did not play due to injury: Jason Terry, Doug Christie Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Devin Harris 32 4-7 0-0 6-6 14 0-0 5 3 3 3 0 Jerry Stackhouse 23 2-6 0-0 3-4 7 0-1 1 1 1 1 0 Josh Howard 28 5-10 0-0 3-3 13 1-7 2 3 3 0 0 Dirk Nowitzki 21 4-7 1-1 4-4 13 1-6 1 1 1 1 1 Erick Dampier 19 2-3 0-0 1-2 5 0-4 1 3 2 0 0 Marquis Daniels 28 9-13 0-0 0-0 18 2-4 3 1 1 3 0 DeSagana Diop 20 1-4 0-0 0-0 2 2-8 1 0 5 0 2 Darrell Armstrong 19 2-3 0-0 1-1 5 0-1 3 5 0 0 0 Keith Van_Horn 14 5-6 0-0 2-2 12 1-1 0 2 1 1 0 Josh Powell 13 0-1 0-0 4-4 4 1-1 0 4 2 0 0 Rawle Marshall 12 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 2 0 0 DJ Mbenga 9 1-2 0-0 1-1 3 1-3 0 2 1 0 1 Kaniel Dickens 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 1 0 0 Totals 48 35-63 1-1 25-27 96 9-36 17 26 23 9 4 Sacramento Kings REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Bonzi Wells 26 2-7 0-0 2-2 6 2-3 1 3 3 1 0 Mike Bibby 24 3-8 0-3 2-4 8 0-3 2 2 2 1 0 Kenny Thomas 25 5-8 0-0 0-0 10 2-5 2 0 1 1 1 Peja Stojakovic 24 1-7 0-3 3-4 5 0-2 2 1 0 0 0 Brad Miller 22 3-6 0-0 6-7 12 1-3 2 3 4 2 0 Kevin Martin 24 2-6 0-1 1-1 5 1-1 1 4 2 4 0 Shareef Abdur-Rahim 23 5-7 0-1 1-1 11 0-2 4 3 4 0 0 Francisco Garcia 22 3-8 2-6 1-1 9 1-1 1 1 4 1 1 Jason Hart 21 2-5 0-0 2-2 6 0-2 3 2 3 0 0 Corliss Williamson 12 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 0-1 0 0 3 0 0 Brian Skinner 11 3-5 0-0 0-0 6 2-2 1 0 1 1 0 Ronnie Price 3 1-2 1-1 0-0 3 1-1 0 1 0 0 0 Jamal Sampson 3 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 1 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 31-71 3-15 18-22 83 10-26 20 21 27 11 2 patricia