Game 4: Dallas at Golden State (April 29) Dallas elected to start DeSagana Diop at center. Dallas used an 11-2 run, with 9 points by Josh Howard, to go up 17-8 with 5:40 remaining. The Mavs were able to take a 9 point lead twice more in the quarter, but were unable to push their lead in to double-digits. The Mavs defended the 2-for-1 situation well at the end of the quarter, but Baron Davis managed to hit a tough 3-pointer anyways (and that would end up being the final points of the quarter). Dallas led 27-21 after 1. Howard had 14 points and Davis had 12 points. Howard opened the 2nd quarter with a jumper. A bucket by Jerry Stackhouse gave Dallas a 32-23 lead with 10:05 left, but Golden State then went on an 8-3 run to pull within 31-35 with 7:35 to go. Golden State pulled within 34-37 with 5:30 left, but Dallas then scored the next 5 points and led 42-34 with 4 minutes remaining. Golden State then rattled off the next 8 points, including 2 3-pointers by Mickael Pietrus, to tie the game at 42-42 with 2:15 to go and the game stayed close. Dirk Nowitzki got an offensive rebound, a layup, and was fouled near the end of the quarter, but Baron Davis negated the 3-point play as his half court heave banked in at the quarter buzzer. The game was tied 49-49 at the half. Pietrus had 10 points in the quarter (more than he had in the first 3 games combined). Dallas shot 46% FG and 5-8 FT and Golden State shot 44% FG and 11-16 FT in the half. Golden State opened the 3rd quarter with consecutive 3-pointers and Dallas called timeout a mere 90 seconds into the quarter. Dallas then went on a 10-3 run, capped by a 3-pointer by Jason Terry, to take a 59-58 lead with 7:25 to go. Davis answered with a bucket and the game stayed close. Golden State led 62-61 with 5:05 remaining and Terry hit a 3-pointer, Nowitzki converted a 3-point play, and Stackhouse hit a 3-pointer to give Dallas a 70-62 lead with 3:35 to go. Dallas led 72-63 with 3:05 left and the Warriors went on a 9-2 run to pull within 72-74 with 1:15 remaining. Stackhouse hit 3 straight free throws, but Davis hit another 3-pointer in a 2-for-1 situation (not defended well this time), Dallas missed 2 3-point attempts, and Davis stole the ball and took it to the other end for a slam dunk with 1.2 seconds left. The game was again tied at 77-77 after 3. The teams traded buckets to open the 4th quarter and Stackhouse then went on a personal 9-2 run (including a banked in 3-pointer from 3 feet behind the line at the shot clock buzzer) to give Dallas an 88-81 lead with 7:20 left. Golden State then scored the next 5 points as Dallas got 3-point shooting happy. A layup by Nowitzki off an offensive rebound gave Dallas a 90-86 lead with 4:05 to go, but Golden State scored the next 7 points to take a 93-90 lead with 2 minutes remaining as Dallas missed 3 more 3-pointers. Dallas then turned the ball over on consecutive possessions and Jason Richardson hit 1-2 FT and Davis hit a jumper to give the Warriors a 96-90 lead with a minute left. Nowitzki missed another 3-point attempt, but Dallas got the rebound and Terry nailed a 3-pointer with 45 seconds to go. Golden State ran some time off the clock and Matt Barnes hit a 3-pointer with 23 seconds remaining to again make it a 6 point game. Nowitzki missed a 3-pointer, but Howard got the rebound and passed out to Nowitzki and he hit the 3-pointer (his first made 3 of the game) to pull Dallas within 96-99 with 14 seconds left. Richardson was intentionally fouled and he hit both free throws with 10 seconds to go. Nowitzki hit another 3-pointer with 4 seconds left and Davis was intentionally fouled. He only hit 1-2 FT to leave the door open with 3.2 seconds remaining (with Dallas out of timeouts), but Devin Harris' inbounds pass was intercepted by Pietrus and he was fouled with .2 seconds left. He hit 1-2 FT for the final margin. Golden State won 103-99. It was a much better performance by Dallas and Golden State again played well, but Dallas got suckered into shooting jump shots and 3-pointers in the 4th quarter instead of attacking the basket. The only inside shots they attempted in the quarter were off of offensive rebounds - everything else was from the outside. They attempted 13 3-pointers in the 4th quarter, and only 5 of those were in the last minute of the game when they needed 3s to get back in to the game. Part of the problem was that Devin Harris (Dallas' best attacker to the basket) hardly played in the 4th quarter - he did tweak an ankle early in the 3rd quarter, had some foul trouble, and Jerry Stackhouse (his lineup sub) was playing well; probably some combination of the 3 that kept Harris off the court. But still, as I've said all along, Dallas needs to attack the basket (instead of settling for jump shots) to make Golden State pay for using such small lineups. The Mavs also hurt themselves by being sloppy with the ball - 19 turnovers which Golden State converted into 33 points. Dallas also finished each quarter poor and the Warriors finished them strong to take back any momentum Dallas had achieved. Dallas did hold a players-only meeting on Saturday, but the results were the same as when they held a players-only meeting during the Finals. Dallas actually made 1 more field goal than Golden State, but Golden State made 3 more 3-pointers and 3 more free throws. Golden State shot 45.9% (34-74) FG including 12-31 3-pointers. Dallas shot 43.8% (35-80) FG including 9-25 3-pointers. Golden State shot 23-37 FT and Dallas shot 20-26 FT. Dallas out-rebounded Golden State 49-34 including 15-10 offensive. Unlike Dallas, the Warriors were fairly clean with the ball and had just 10 turnovers. Golden State now holds a 3-1 edge in the series and it is do-or-die time for the Mavs as the next loss will knock them out of the playoffs. Game 5 is Tuesday night in Dallas. It was a breakout game for Mickael Pietrus. After being hardly noticed in the first 3 games, Pietrus was very active and exploded for 16 points and 5 rebounds. Dallas still could not contain Baron Davis and he had a game high 33 points on 12-17 FG, 3-4 3-pointers, and 6-12 FT. He also had 8 rebounds and 4 assists. Jason Richardson had 22 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 steals. Stephen Jackson had 19 points including 3-7 3-pointers. Monta Ellis and Al Harrington continue to be MIA. Ellis started and missed 5 attempts and had 1 rebound and 2 assists in 23 minutes. Harrington shot 0-2 3-pointers and 1-2 FT and had 2 rebounds and 4 fouls in 14 minutes. Matt Barnes had 8 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 assists. Andris Biedrins had 4 points (and missed all 3 free throws he attempted) and had 4 rebounds in 23 minutes as a starter. It was a short 8-man rotation for the Warriors. Dallas lost despite having 3 players with 20+ points and a 4th with 19 points. Jerry Stackhouse was the high man with 24 points including 9-10 FT. He also had 3 rebounds and 3 assists in 36 minutes. Dirk Nowitzki played all but a minute of the game and had 23 points (only attempted 4 free throws), 15 rebounds, and 4 steals. Josh Howard was solid in the 1st half, but only had 2 points in the 2nd half - including not attempting a shot in the 4th quarter. He finished with 22 points including 9-13 FG and had 12 rebounds and 4 assists. Jason Terry had 19 points, 4 rebounds, and 5 assists. Devin Harris had 8 points and 3 assists in 20 minutes. DeSagana Diop had a stellar 2nd quarter where he was really active on both ends of the floor, but he was again plagued by foul trouble. Diop shot 1-3 FG and had 13 rebounds, 4 blocks, and 5 fouls in 28 minutes. Erick Dampier was hardly heard from as he played just 1 1/2 minutes - I don't know if his shoulder was bothering him (it was heavily wrapped) or if it was purely coach's decision. Devean George and Greg Buckner weren't effective and, thus, didn't play much. George missed 3 shots and had 1 turnover and 3 fouls for his only stats in 14 minutes. Buckner missed 4 shots and hit 1-2 FT and had 1 rebound, 1 steal, and 1 foul in 5 minutes. Dallas went with a 9-man rotation. The league should be really relieved that this game was not a 1 point game or didn't go into overtime. During the 2nd quarter, the ball was inbounded and at least 5 seconds went off the clock before the refs blew their whistle as they realized that Golden State had just 4 players on the court. The rule is black-and-white that such a situation is an automatic technical foul. Instead the refs huddled and decided to give the Warriors a mulligan and reset the clock to what it was before the inbounds and simply started the play over instead of assessing the technical. Quotes Don Nelson: "I was very proud to be a part of this game tonight either way, win or lose. I know everyone thinks we are in control but we don't feel that way. We expect a long series. We feel good about our position and we have a great deal of respect for the Dallas Mavericks with what they did this year. If any team can come back from this, it's them." Nelson on Davis: "All I told Baron was to be dominant and he is now proving how great I said he is." Nelson: "The guy who won the game for us was Mickael Pietrus. I thought his effort, not just his scoring, but his defense and rebounding. He went out and hustled and was able to score some points. He got the game ball tonight. Fantastic game by Pietrus. He is the kind of guy who can miss 8 straight shots then make the next 8." Nelson: "This is the most fun I have ever had coaching a team." Baron Davis: "As long as we believe in ourselves, we will be all right. Knowing we were up 2-1, we had some gloss in our eyes. We were a little rattled in the beginning and coach just told me to be dominant. I felt like I could carry the load in the 1st half. In the 2nd half, they doubled-teamed me a lot and I just had to be patient with my teammates. We were able to force them to take shots late in the shot clock." Davis: "When the 1st half shot went in, it gave us a lot of momentum. Our crowd won this game for us. When we do the little things, we put ourselves in a position to win. The team needed me to penetrate and we are a good shooting team because of it. Every game is a learning process and we have to play to win Game 5." Davis: "Every game we play is a learning process and an adventure. This is a young team which has never been in this situation." Davis: "It's just fun. Coming into the playoffs, Coach said we had nothing to lose. We just wanted to be in the playoffs for this city, for the whole Bay Area. And come playoff time, you're in prime time, so you're going to have a little more focus, a little more energy, and your rhythm is there. My rhythm is there. I've been preparing for the playoffs since 2 weeks were left in the regular season." Davis: "They're still in control of this series because they've been here and they've bounced back." Jason Richardson: "I think both shots Baron made at the end of the quarters were the difference maker, especially the one at the end of the 1st half. Dallas played a great game. Josh Howard had a great 1st half. Dallas won't give up and we still have work to do. Guys like Mickael Pietrus were huge for us tonight. If he didn't have the game he had, we probably wouldn't have won. He came in and defended, rebounded, blocked shots, and made some big shots." Richardson on Davis: "I knew Baron was an amazing player when he came here. I am just feeding off of his energy. We know he is our go-to guy and we just let him take over when he needs to." Richardson on home games: "This is everything I have imagined. We have the greatest fans in the world to me. They were always supportive of us even when we were only winning 19, 20 games. We wanted to win for them because they deserve it." Richardson: "We're just riding it right now. People were writing us off with 20 games left. We put it together, but you can't celebrate yet and act like you already won a playoff, because you've got to win 4 games." Stephen Jackson: "We kept our composure, but they hit a whole bunch of big shots. I think a lot of people expected us to die after Stackhouse shot that 3 at the buzzer off the backboard, but we kept fighting. We kept our heads up and we were able to hit some big shots down the stretch." Jackson: "This was a slugfest. I mean, the 2 3s that Dirk hit at the end of the game, I had to give him his props, I had to tap him on the butt because he shot them from so far. They didn't want to lose this game, I just think we wanted it a little more, but they are a great team." Mickael Pietrus: "I know what I am capable of bringing to this team. It was kind of tough for me the first 3 games, but you know, I showed up for the big one. I made a big play for coach and I am so happy and I look forward to Game 5." Pietrus: "It's not over. We still have to keep our focus. Now we are going to Dallas and it's going to be tough for us and they are going to come out very aggressive at their place. We just have to chill out and just keep our focus sharp, and make things happen." Andris Biedrins: "We have a lot of good players on this team so at an important moment anyone can step up and make a big shot. Late in the game, we always have somebody who makes shots if somebody is not playing well. We have several players who can do it." Avery Johnson: "Well, I don't think we played the best possible game we can play. We had 19 turnovers and they scored 33 points off of our turnovers. And some of those lead to their fast breaks, and they had 31 fast break points on us. So we got to a better job of taking care of the ball and executing down the stretch. I thought over all our guys came to play. They were intense. We mixed up our defenses quite a bit and we had a good pace going. And we were up there in the 4th but, again, you know, we got jump shot happy and we just didn't make them pay." Johnson on end of quarters: "Boy, we're screening and trying to get matched up there at the end of the half. And then we turned it over at the end of the 3rd quarter and we just didn't have a good finish to the 4th quarter. And that has been our theme all year. It's something that I was really convinced about and convicted about last year, that we have to have better finishes to quarters, games, and practices, and everything, and our plays, offensively and defensively. And we just didn't have it tonight." Johnson: "More than anything, I saw fire in our guys' eyes tonight. We came to play tonight. We just didn't have a good finish to the game. We gave Baron different looks. But, you know, he's just making tough shots. We tried to trap him 5 times and he got through our traps - that's not a good thing, that's not a good sign. So we got to do a better job of when we trap him, trap him. You can't let a guy that you're trying to trap split a trap. So we got to do a better job of when we do trap him to get the ball out of his hands, because that's what it's designed to do. But at the same time, he's a strong-willed guy." Dirk Nowitzki: "Look in the locker room right now and everybody is very, very disappointed. We know this team won't give up. We've got a lot of pride in that team, a lot of heart. We'll still come out swinging. That's the only thing we've got." Nowitzki: "I think we came pretty close today and just couldn't pull it out." Nowitzki: "I thought we didn't close any quarter out well. You know, we had the lead right before the halftime, we left Baron Davis wide open, he shoots a bank shot from half court. 3rd quarter, we were up I think 6 or 7, last couple of minutes they close it out well and it's a tie game again going into the 4th. And with a couple of minutes left, I think we were still up 4 with like 2 1/2 or something to go, I had an offensive rebound, I had a good look, probably shoot it too quick, they come down and hit the 3 and that probably changed the whole momentum. You know, their little zone they ran bothered us at the end, their little 3-2 zone that they ran, we didn't really get any great looks I thought." Jason Terry: "All the lost opportunities we had in the 4th quarter hurt. We had the lead and the momentum just turned. Now we're either going to go home or play on. We feel we have a lot of basketball left in us." Game 4: Golden State Warriors 103, Dallas Mavericks 99 at Golden State (April 29) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Golden State 21 28 28 26 - 103 .512 .387 .459 .622 Dallas 27 22 28 22 - 99 .473 .360 .438 .769 Halftime: 49-49 3rd Q: 77-77 Technicals: none Refs: Joe DeRosa, Michael Smith, Derrick Stafford Attendance: 20,672 (sellout) IL: Golden State - Josh Powell, Zarko Cabarkapa Dallas - DJ Mbenga, J.J. Barea, Pops Mensah-Bonsu Golden State Warriors REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Baron Davis 44 12-17 3-4 6-12 33 2-8 4 2 4 2 1 Monta Ellis 23 0-5 0-1 0-0 0 0-1 2 0 0 0 0 Stephen Jackson 41 6-14 3-7 4-4 19 0-2 3 1 2 0 2 Jason Richardson 42 7-15 2-6 6-8 22 2-5 1 2 4 4 0 Andris Biedrins 23 2-4 0-0 0-3 4 2-4 1 2 4 0 0 Mickael Pietrus 27 4-9 2-6 6-8 16 1-5 1 1 3 2 1 Matt Barnes 27 3-8 2-5 0-0 8 2-7 3 1 2 0 0 Al Harrington 14 0-2 0-2 1-2 1 1-2 1 1 4 0 0 Totals 48 34-74 12-31 23-37 103 10-34 16 10 23 8 4 Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Jason Terry 42 7-19 3-8 2-4 19 1-4 5 3 3 0 0 Devin Harris 20 3-5 0-0 2-3 8 0-1 3 3 5 1 0 Dirk Nowitzki 47 9-19 2-5 3-4 23 6-15 3 3 5 4 1 Josh Howard 46 9-13 1-1 3-3 22 4-12 4 1 4 0 2 DeSagana Diop 28 1-3 0-0 0-0 2 3-13 0 1 5 0 4 Jerry Stackhouse 36 6-14 3-8 9-10 24 0-3 3 4 2 0 1 Devean George 14 0-3 0-2 0-0 0 0-0 0 1 3 0 0 Greg Buckner 5 0-4 0-1 1-2 1 1-1 0 0 1 1 0 Erick Dampier 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 35-80 9-25 20-26 99 15-49 18 19 28 6 8 patricia Go Mavs!