LA Lakers at Dallas (January 18) The Mavs started the game with a surprise as Jerry Stackhouse sang the national anthem (it was the 2nd time he has done so). The next surprise was starting Devean George at shooting guard as Devin Harris was out with the flu and the Mavs felt that George would matchup well against former teammate Kobe Bryant. It was the 2nd night of a back-to-back for the Lakers. The game stayed tight in the 1st quarter with neither team able to score consecutive baskets until Smush Parker hit a 3-pointer to give the Lakers a 17-12 lead with 5:30 left. A 3-pointer by Josh Howard tied the game at 20-20 with 2:55 to go. Jordan Farmer scored 4 straight points to give the Lakers a 26-22 lead with 1:40 remaining. Greg Buckner got an offensive rebound and hit the short jumper at the quarter buzzer. The Lakers led 28-26 after 1. Howard had 10 points. The game stayed close with neither team holding more than a 4 point lead over the first half of the 2nd quarter. Dallas led 38-37 with 7 minutes to go and the Mavs went on a 10-2 run to go up 48-39 with 4:10 left. 4 straight points by Anthony Johnson gave Dallas a 58-46 lead with 35 seconds remaining. Dallas led 60-48 at the half. Both teams shot around 50% FG, but Dallas out-rebounded the Lakers 29-13 including 14-4 offensive. Dallas opened the 3rd quarter with a 6-2 run to go up 66-50 with 10:15 to go. A jumper by Bryant pulled the Lakers within 56-70 with 8:25 remaining, but a 3-pointer by Dirk Nowitzki kicked off a 16-2 run to give the Mavs a 86-58 lead with 3:35 left. Dallas led in the 20s the rest of the quarter. Dallas led 95-72 after 3. Howard had 11 points and Bryant had 15 points in the 3rd quarter. Dallas out-scored the Lakers 69-46 in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. A putback dunk by DeSagana Diop gave Dallas a 99-72 lead with 9:55 left, but the Lakers connected on consecutive 3-pointers and Maurice Evans got a layup to pull the Lakers within 80-99 with 8:15 to go, but Nowitzki then converted a 3-point play to put Dallas' lead back in the 20s. A 3-pointer by Sasha Vujacic pulled the Lakers within 87-104, but Dallas then scored the next 8 points to put the game away at 112-87 with 3 minutes to go. The Lakers did close the game with an 8-2 run, but it was too little, too late. Dallas won 114-95. It was a surprisingly easy win for the Mavs (though I never really felt comfortable with the Mavs' lead no matter how large it got - it's the Lakers; strange things happen when Dallas faces the Lakers). But the Lakers did not have the sharp shooting that they had in their earlier victory against Dallas and the Mavs dominated the rebounds, which led to the easy win. Dallas out-rebounded the Lakers 53-28 including 19-10 offensive. Dallas shot 54.5% (48-88) FG including 5-18 3-pointers (4-9 in the 2nd half) and the Lakers shot 44.9% (35-78) FG including 5-19 3-pointers. Dallas shot 13-15 FT and the Lakers shot 20-24 FT. Dallas did a good job of sharing the ball and had 27 assists while the Lakers had 19 assists. But Dallas also had a high number of turnovers with 19 and the Lakers had 16 turnovers. It was Dallas' 6th straight win and their 19th of the last 20 games (with the loss in LA to the Lakers being the one loss). Josh Howard had a very solid outing with 29 points, 11 rebounds, and 5 assists. Dirk Nowitzki was also strong with 27 points including 11-18 FG (and only attempt 3 free throws), 10 rebounds, and 3 assists. Jason Terry struggled in the 1st half, but had 10 points and 9 assists in the 2nd half. He did have a highlight play earlier in the game where he missed a shot, but batted the rebound out to Nowitzki, who nailed the 3-pointer. Terry finished with 12 points and 13 assists, but also had 6 turnovers. Devean George played well against his former team and had 14 points on 7-10 FG (his 3 misses were all 3-pointers) and 6 rebounds. Erick Dampier missed his only shot, but had 10 rebounds and 4 blocks in 23 minutes. After giving a great performance of the national anthem, Jerry Stackhouse had 11 points in 15 1st half minutes (don't why, if any real reason, he didn't play in the 2nd half). Anthony Johnson had one of his best performances as a Mav - and this after DNP-CD the past 2 games. 9 of his 11 points came in the 2nd quarter. He also had 3 rebounds and 3 assists in 23 minutes. DeSagana Diop had 4 points, 8 rebounds including 6 offensive, and 2 blocks in 13 minutes. Greg Buckner had 4 points. No surprise that Kobe Bryant lead the way for the Lakers. He had a quiet 1st half with just 9 points, but picked it up in the 3rd quarter with 15 points - but the Mavs were still able to pull away to a 20+ point lead in that quarter as Bryant got little help. Bryant finished with 26 points including 10-11 FT and 5 assists (4 of which came in the 1st quarter). None of the other 4 starters were in double-digits scoring and they combined for just 31 points. Jordan Farmar had a very nice outing off the bench with 17 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 5 steals, and no turnovers in 26 1/2 minutes. Sasha Vujacic had 10 points on 4-5 FG and 2-3 3-pointers. Quotes Avery Johnson: "Tonight we got off to a slow start in the 1st quarter, especially defensively. They were moving the ball really well. Kobe had 4 or 5 assists or so early in the 1st quarter, getting everybody involved. They were penetrating on us. We seemed to have gotten our defense a little bit moving forward 2nd quarter, picking it up a little earlier, communicating more. Everybody was pretty much on the same page on how we wanted to attack defensively. We were fortunate enough to go into halftime with a lead. We kind of got away from them a little bit in that 3rd quarter. It was a pretty good lead. They cut into it a little bit. We had some miscues in some different situations. Again, to play a team that has been playing really well like they have been, to play the way we played from that 2nd quarter on is a good sign. We were fortunate to really win the boards. We had 19 turnovers, so that is not good, but we had 27 assists. We definitely have been moving the ball much better this year. So that was a positive sign, especially to do this without Devin Harris, especially with the way he has been playing this year." Johnson on not losing twice to a team: "I would hope that they do not like to lose period, and they really don't. So we had a couple of areas in this game that we still need to work on. That's what the regular season is all about - they know it. So, there was nobody really chest-bumping or anything in the locker room. We just came out and tried to take care of business and we'll get back to practice tomorrow and we'll get ready for another game on Sunday and hopefully get our guys over some of these viruses and stuff that's been going around and get them well." Johnson on Bryant in the 2nd half: "We know he's a guy that can take over a game, so we were just trying to give him a lot attention. We didn't do a good job in that 4th quarter up there, giving him attention and trying to cut down on some of their role players. Vujacic hit 1 or 2 3s on us tonight, but we were pretty much in control of the game. Farmar still is giving us some problems. He's a rookie. We will watch a little more film on him, so we will hopefully do a little better job on him next time." Josh Howard on the last loss to the Lakers: "That was pretty much all the motivation we needed. We lost focus in the 4th quarter out there [in LA]. Tonight we took it upon ourselves as a team, without Coach even having to tell us, and played our game." Howard: "Guys came out aggressive. We knew what happened out in LA and we didn't want to repeat that." Jason Terry: "I thought everybody did a solid job tonight, the bench played very well. Anthony Johnson came in and gave us some good energy, good minutes. Good win. Now we've got to go on the road and take care of some business." Terry: "Guys were knocking down shots. I thought we were aggressive all night long. We did a good job containing Kobe a little bit. But like I said, we'll build on this one and get on to the next one." Terry: "We came out and got off to a good start in the 3rd. We defended well. Damp got a couple of key blocks and we got out in transition and ran, and we played with our energy. We fed off the fans tonight, which were a tremendous help." Devean George: "That's what we've been doing. We've been getting the feel of teams. Teams have been playing us pretty well early on, but I think once we make our adjustment and once we buckle down and start trusting our system, we start running away with games." George on making Bryant work for his points: "That's what you've got to do. He's always going to get his numbers. But you've just have to make it difficult for him and just try and make him work for everything and make him work on both ends of the court." Phil Jackson: "Any time you get beat up that bad on the inside like we did tonight you're not going to have that much of a chance performing in the ball game. We came in at halftime and they had more offensive rebounds than we did as a team in total rebounds. We just fell short today. Nowitzki and Howard played a great game and we couldn't contain some of the other guys. We wanted to contain Terry, and we did a pretty good job with him tonight, but we didn't have much of a presence out there tonight." Jackson: "I thought we played pretty well for the 1st 14, 15 minutes of the game. Our energy was pretty good, but the 2nd unit came on in the 2nd quarter and got beat 12 to 5 to finish the quarter off and got us down by 12 points at the end of the half, so that was disappointing. We were in that 1st half and we just let it up in the last 2 minutes and couldn't recover." Kobe Bryant: "It's disappointing because we didn't give ourselves a chance. You want to hang in and give yourself a chance down the stretch. We were a little sluggish, but I don't think fatigue was a factor." Luke Walton: "It's very disappointing. To get blown out like that is kind of like getting embarrassed. We feel that we're a better team than we were tonight." Jordan Farmar: "It's disappointing, but we have to get over it quickly. We have a game on Saturday and the rest of the season to look forward to and improve. Dallas is one of the best teams in the league and they're tough on their home floor and they played well tonight. What's disheartening is that they out-hustled us a little bit and wanted it more. You never want to lose games like that. It's fine to battle and just get beat - it happens - but to lose like that is what hurts." Farmar on Dallas' rebounding: "They were just tough all night. They crashed really hard. They shared the ball and got good shots. They just wanted it more, plain and simple." Dallas Mavericks 114, Los Angeles Lakers 95 at Dallas (January 18) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 26 34 35 19 - 114 .614 .278 .545 .867 LA Lakers 28 20 24 23 - 95 .508 .263 .449 .833 Halftime: Dallas 60-48 3rd Q: Dallas 95-72 Technicals: none Refs: Dick Bavetta, James Capers, Bennie Adams Attendance: 20,446 (sellout) IL: Dallas - Devin Harris, J.J. Barea, Pops Mensah-Bonsu LA Lakers - Lamar Odom, Kwame Brown, Chris Mihm Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Jason Terry 33 5-13 0-3 2-2 12 1-3 13 6 0 1 0 Devean George 32 7-10 0-3 0-0 14 2-6 1 2 4 1 0 Dirk Nowitzki 37 11-18 2-3 3-3 27 3-10 3 2 0 1 1 Josh Howard 37 12-23 2-7 3-4 29 4-11 5 3 4 2 1 Erick Dampier 23 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 2-10 1 1 3 0 4 Greg Buckner 23 2-4 0-1 0-0 4 1-1 0 0 4 1 0 Anthony Johnson 23 4-7 0-0 3-4 11 0-3 3 2 1 1 0 Jerry Stackhouse 15 4-7 1-1 2-2 11 0-1 1 1 1 1 0 DeSagana Diop 13 2-4 0-0 0-0 4 6-8 0 2 3 0 2 DJ Mbenga 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Austin Croshere 1 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Maurice Ager 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 48-88 5-18 13-15 114 19-53 27 19 20 8 8 Los Angeles Lakers REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Smush Parker 22 2-6 1-3 0-0 5 2-5 1 0 1 0 0 Kobe Bryant 34 8-18 0-3 10-11 26 1-3 5 6 3 0 0 Brian Cook 22 4-7 0-0 1-2 9 0-1 0 0 2 1 0 Luke Walton 30 3-9 0-2 2-2 8 1-2 3 4 0 0 1 Andrew Bynum 23 3-4 0-0 3-4 9 1-5 2 1 1 0 0 Maurice Evans 28 3-10 0-2 0-0 6 2-4 0 1 1 1 0 Jordan Farmar 27 6-10 2-3 3-4 17 0-4 4 0 0 5 0 Sasha Vujacic 23 4-5 2-3 0-0 10 0-0 2 0 2 3 0 Vladimir Radmanovic 21 1-5 0-3 1-1 3 2-2 1 3 4 0 0 Ronny Turiaf 13 1-4 0-0 0-0 2 1-2 1 1 3 0 0 Totals 48 35-78 5-19 20-24 95 10-28 19 16 17 10 1 patricia