Dallas at LA Lakers (January 7) Dallas brought their 13 game winning streak to a building where bizarre things tend to happen - Dallas is 9-46 all time against the Lakers in LA, including a loss where they only scored 2 points in a quarter and a loss where Dallas was at one point up by 30 points in the game. Needless to say, I get bad vibes when ever Dallas plays the Lakers in LA (no matter how good or bad each team is). The Lakers opened the game with a 10-2 run to go up 10-4 with 8 minutes remaining. Consecutive layups gave the Lakers their largest lead at 23-12 with 3:25 to go. Dallas then went on a 9-2 run, capped by a 3-pointer by Jerry Stackhouse, to pull within 21-25 with 50 seconds left. A jumper by Jordan Farmar capped the quarter scoring. The Lakers led 27-21 after 1. Stackhouse opened the 2nd quarter with a 3-pointer to cut the Lakers' lead in half. A 3-pointer by Devean George tied the game at 31-31 with 9:45 to go. A 3-pointer by Sasha Vujacic gave the Lakers a 36-33 lead with 7:15 to go, but Dirk Nowitzki got a bucket and then converted a 3-point play to give Dallas their first lead at 38-36 with 6 minutes left. Consecutive jumpers gave Dallas their largest lead at 51-44 with 1:10 remaining. Ronny Turiaf hit 2 free throws with 3 seconds left. Dallas led 51-48 at the half. Nowitzki had 10 points in the 2nd quarter. Dallas shot 41% FG and 8-12 FT and the Lakers shot 58% FG and 2-3 FT. Dallas led 60-56 with 8:45 to go and the Mavs went on a 9-2 run to go up 69-58 with 5:15 left. The teams traded jumpers and the Lakers then scored the next 6 points on free throws to pull within 66-71 with 2:45 remaining. Dallas scored the last 2 layups of the quarter to go up 77-68 after 3. Kobe Bryant got going to open the 4th quarter and scored 8 of the Lakers' first 10 points, but the Mavs continued to score and led 86-78 with 8 minutes left. A 3-pointer and 2 free throws by Luke Walton pulled the Lakers within 88-90 with 5 minutes to go. Nowitzki hit a jumper and Vujacic hit a 3-pointer to make it a 1-point game at 91-92 with 3:15 left. Dallas led 96-92 with 1:30 left on 2 free throws by Terry. Bryant drove for 2 and was fouled and converted the free throw to again make it a 1-point game with 1:20 remaining. Nowitzki missed and Bryant was fouled and hit both free throws to put the Lakers up 97-96 with 55 seconds left. Nowitzki drove for 2 (and was fouled without a call) to give Dallas back the lead with 40 seconds to go. But Vujacic hit another 3-pointer to give the Lakers a 100-98 lead with 28 seconds left. Terry drove strong and didn't get the layup as he was hit a couple of times (with no call) and Luke Walton was intentionally fouled with 10 seconds remaining. He only hit 1-2 free throws to leave the door open. But Devean George missed a good look at a 3-pointer with 3 seconds left and the Mavs were unable to foul before time expired. The Lakers won 101-98. As I said, I hate playing the Lakers in LA - weird things just happen. Although Kobe Bryant hurt the Mavs (he scored 14 points in the 4th quarter), it was Luke Walton and Sasha Vujacic who did the most damage. Vujacic came in to the game averaging 4 points and 11 minutes, but in this game had a career high 16 points and played the entire 4th quarter. Walton had 21 points, the 2nd highest he's had in his career. Although I wasn't happy with the non-calls at the end, they weren't the reason Dallas loss. Unable to contain those 2 players and poor shooting was Dallas' down fall. Breaking a recent trend of strong 4th quarters, the Lakers out-scored Dallas 33-21 in the 4th quarter. For the game, the Lakers shot 54.9% (39-71) FG including 6-13 3-pointers and Dallas shot 42.2% (38-90) FG including 7-20 3-pointers. The Lakers shot 17-23 FT and Dallas shot 15-21 FT. The stat that I find most amazing is that the Lakers won despite having just 2 offensive rebounds. Dallas out-rebounded the Lakers 41-35 including 14-2 offensive. The win was Phil Jackson's 900th as a coach and snapped Dallas' 13 game winning streak. As mentioned above, it was a 3-headed offensive attack by the Lakers with Kobe Bryant, Luke Walton, and Sasha Vujacic. Bryant had 26 points, 8 rebounds, and 6 assists. Walton had a 21 points and 6 rebounds. Vujacic had a career high 16 points on 6-7 FG and 4-5 3-pointers. Ronny Turiaf had 13 points, 3 rebounds, and 4 assists and Smush Parker had 11 points and 3 rebounds. Andrew Bynum had 6 points and 8 rebounds. Dirk Nowitzki led the way for Dallas with 29 points and 13 rebounds. Josh Howard had 20 points and 9 rebounds including 5 offensive. Jason Terry's shot continues to be off as he had 12 points including 4-13 FG. He also had 7 assists and 4 steals. Devin Harris had 12 points, but again did not have an assist and did not have a rebound. Dallas' centers continued to struggle as Erick Dampier had 2 points and 5 rebounds in 18 minutes and DeSagana Diop didn't attempt a shot and had 5 rebounds in 27 minutes. Diop was active and did have 4 blocks. Devean George had 9 points and 3 rebounds against his former team. The Mavs continued to limit Jerry Stackhouse's minutes as he comes back from a sprained ankle. He had 14 points including 3-3 3-pointers in 15 minutes. The Mavs went with a short rotation as Greg Buckner was the only other Mav to play. Buck missed his 2 shots and had 3 rebounds in 9 minutes. Quotes Phil Jackson: "We're just pleased with what's going on with our team." Jackson on his 900th win: "It's a compliment to all the players I've had - the great players, the great teams, and the great runs that we've had. It's become a game in which us elderly guys are now coaching, which was an age that coaches didn't extend themselves into when I was a player. It says something about the longevity of coaches now." Kobe Bryant on Vujacic: "I'm really happy for Sasha, how well he played tonight." Bryant on Vujacic: "He comes in off the bench and always plays extremely well defensively, even when he's not shooting well. I'm proud of him. He's taken his lumps here, the fans have been pretty hard on him. He's a tough kid, he doesn't back down, he's not lacking in confidence." Bryant on Jackson's 900th win: "900 wins is remarkable. I can't even fathom 900 games. It was special." Sasha Vujacic on his confidence: "Always, always. My teammates found me for open shots. I just wanted to take the responsibility. It feels great. The beginning of the season, I didn't start well. I just want to be more consistent, show the coach he can trust me." Vujacic: "Honestly, I don't know what you're talking about. It was a great win for us - for everybody - especially playing against Dallas. What was most special about it - and I'm talking about myself and for my teammates - that it was the 900th win for our coach. You know, we're giving that to him." Vujacic: "Coming from the last game - you know when I was O-5 - it was hard not to be on this night. So what I was trying to do was to follow the instructions of the coaching staff, trying to play good defense, all of a sudden my teammates found me with open shots and I just wanted to take the responsibility." Vujacic: "I think we have to take it step by step. You know, it's the 4th win for us in a row. What we have to do right now is to enjoy the win against Dallas and then think about Memphis tomorrow. So it's still early to say what kind of team we are, but we definitely showed around the league that we can surprise everybody - and that we're here to do something." Vujacic on winning without Odom and Brown: "I don't know about surprised. I'm glad that everybody stepped up. Everyone from the bench just wanted to show the coaching staff and the crowd that we are here to play and we can do something. That was our moment and now we just have to keep it up." Luke Walton: "Dallas is a great team. We played hard tonight and they were making plays and we were making plays - and it just took that final run of ours to finally get the lead. Once we did get it, you got the adrenaline pumping and it was a good feeling." Walton: "I think it shows us that we can be an elite team. I agree with him. Teams like Dallas and the Spurs play like that every night. And right now, we're playing like that against them, then we kind of drop off the level of play against the teams that aren't that good. So to be an elite team you have to be playing at that level every night." Walton on Vujacic: "It's huge for him. I mean, Sasha's a great shooter. At practice, he's able to make the shots - he's just been struggling in games. So much of shooting has to do with confidence. You know you get one to go when you're a shooter and then they just start going. And he made some huge plays for us tonight." Avery Johnson: "We didn't have our normal 4th quarter. Normally we are a team that gets stronger as the game goes on, but tonight we got off to a slow start but we played some pretty good basketball in the 2nd and 3rd and normally we have a way of kicking in gear in the 4th. We tried a little bit of everything on Bryant in the 4th. When we didn't trap him, he scored. When we trapped him, it seemed like Walton and Vujacic made a lot of big shots on us. So everything that we tried on them in the 4th quarter didn't work. They shot 50 something percent on us, that's normally not good for us. Normally when we are playing really good defense, teams are, you know, in the low 40s, but they got away from us. And we didn't score around the stretch like we should have and we'll take a look at it. We've been on a pretty decent run here, obviously we like to win every game, you just don't win 82 of them. They deserve to win. We won one at home earlier, they won this one, and we know we'll play them again. They are playing some pretty good basketball." Johnson on if this was their most disappointing loss: "Well, you know, you don't want to say most disappointing. I think, you know, we're just disappointed period. We had a 9 point lead, but sometimes no leads are safe. We've come back on teams before, by the way, and have had some big come backs. And I don't think there are teams that we've come back on who are satisfied. So we aren't satisfied. We got some good stuff on film to watch. That 4th quarter is going to make us all miserable, but we are going to learn from it and we'll come back and bounce back from it." Johnson on Vujacic: "We didn't break him down like we should have, could have broke some plays, and we did, we just didn't make good decisions at the basket. So just not a good night for our decision making around the basket. Dirk had some strong drives and Howard had a couple strong drives, but we just didn't make any good decisions in other place." Dirk Nowitzki: "Kobe basically took over the game, had some great shots. But really, I think it was the Vujacic guy. Those were points you don't expect. He was hot - he made big 3s for them." Nowitzki: "I wouldn't say we are the team to beat. We didn't win the championships last year, so really Miami's the team to beat. Right now we have a pretty good record but it's still early and there's a lot of basketball left." Jason Terry: "You've got to give them credit. Vujacic had some big 3-point shots. Kobe had some big drives to the basket. They did the things they needed to do to win the game tonight. We're not going to cry about it, we have a big game against Utah coming up - it's the life of the NBA. We'll play the Lakers again, so give them credit. They did what they needed to do at home to win the game and it went their way 4th quarter." Terry on if he was fouled on his last drive: "I'd have to see the tape, analyze the situation. The lane was open and, when you're moving that fast, it might have been a foul. It might not have been. They didn't call it, so I guess it wasn't." Jerry Stackhouse: "We had a pretty comfortable lead going into the 4th quarter and they just came out and Kobe came out really aggressive to start the 4th quarter and I think they fed off of that. When you put yourself in a position for it to come down to them get a call late in the game that can go against you, but we've still got to feel good, I don't think we really played bad." Stackhouse on Vujacic: "Take your hat off to Vujacic, he played well. He hit 4 3s for them tonight, 4 out of 5, He played well." Devean George: "I feel good. It was fun playing against the guys. I'm still friends with everybody on that side so it's nothing personal. Still playing for the organization, so it was fun." Los Angeles Lakers 101, Dallas Mavericks 98 at Los Angeles (January 7) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% LA Lakers 27 21 20 33 - 101 .569 .462 .549 .739 Dallas 21 30 26 21 - 98 .443 .350 .422 .714 Halftime: Dallas 51-48 3rd Q: Dallas 77-74 Technicals: Kobe Bryant 4:08 2nd Refs: Danny Crawford, Courtney Kirkland, Olandis Poole Attendance: 18,997 (sellout) IL: LA Lakers - Lamar Odom, Chris Mihm, Kwame Brown Dallas - Pops Mensah-Bonsu, Maurice Ager, J.J. Barea Los Angeles Lakers REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Smush Parker 27 5-7 1-3 0-1 11 0-3 1 2 4 1 1 Kobe Bryant 41 9-20 0-2 8-9 26 0-8 6 3 3 1 1 Brian Cook 20 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 2 3 2 0 0 Luke Walton 39 8-14 1-3 4-7 21 1-3 6 1 1 1 0 Andrew Bynum 20 2-3 0-0 2-2 6 0-8 0 0 3 0 0 Ronny Turiaf 28 5-9 0-0 3-4 13 0-3 4 1 2 1 2 Vladimir Radmanovic 19 2-4 0-0 0-0 4 1-2 1 1 2 0 1 Sasha Vujacic 19 6-7 4-5 0-0 16 0-2 1 0 1 0 0 Maurice Evans 15 1-3 0-0 0-0 2 0-0 3 1 2 0 1 Jordan Farmar 11 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 0-5 2 1 0 0 0 Totals 48 39-71 6-13 17-23 101 2-35 26 13 20 4 6 Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Devin Harris 31 6-12 0-1 0-0 12 0-0 0 4 3 0 0 Jason Terry 39 4-13 1-2 3-4 12 0-3 7 2 0 4 0 Dirk Nowitzki 40 10-24 1-4 8-8 29 1-13 3 2 3 1 1 Josh Howard 42 8-20 1-5 3-4 20 5-9 2 1 5 2 0 Erick Dampier 18 1-2 0-0 0-2 2 3-5 1 0 5 0 0 DeSagana Diop 27 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 3-5 0 0 3 0 4 Devean George 20 4-9 1-4 0-1 9 1-3 0 0 0 1 1 Jerry Stackhouse 15 5-8 3-3 1-2 14 0-0 2 0 0 1 0 Greg Buckner 9 0-2 0-1 0-0 0 1-3 1 0 2 0 0 Totals 48 38-90 7-20 15-21 98 14-41 16 9 21 9 6 patricia