Game 4: Denver at Dallas (May 11) Chris Andersen was a late scratch due to food poisoning (he was out shooting around before the game). Dallas opened the game with a 6-2 mini-run, but consecutive 3-pointers kicked off 10 straight Denver points and gave the Nuggets a 12-6 lead with 7:45 to go. A 3-pointer by Chauncey Billups gave Denver a 19-10 lead with 5:20 left and the Nuggets continued to hold a single-digit lead. Consecutive buckets pulled Dallas within 18-22 with 3:15 remaining and Denver then went over a 12-3 run, capped by a 3-pointer by Linas Kleiza, to give the Nuggets a 34-21 lead with 45 seconds left. 2 free throws by Brandon Bass capped the quarter scoring. Carmelo Anthony had 9 points and Billups had 9 points. Denver shot 13-18 FG including a white hot 5-6 3-pointers while Dallas shot 10-23 FG. Dallas had 5 turnovers in the quarter and Denver scored on each of them for 11 points. J.R. Smith opened the 2nd quarter with a 3-pointer, making it a ridiculous 6-7 3-point shooting by the Nuggets, to give Denver their largest lead at 14 points. Dallas scored 5 straight points to pull the Mavs within 31-40 with 9 minutes remaining. Consecutive buckets pulled Dallas within 7 points, but a 3-pointer by Anthony Carter kicked off 7 straight Denver points to give the Nuggets a 49-35 lead with 6:45 to go. But Dallas then rallied back in going on a 9-1 run, with 7 points from Josh Howard, to pull within 44-50 with 4:30 left. 2 free throws by Howard pulled Dallas within 53-58 with a minute remaining, but Denver scored the last 5 points of the quarter, capped by a putback bucket by Anthony at the buzzer to go up 63-53 at the half. Anthony had 9 points and Howard had 9 points in the quarter. Denver only shot 8-22 FG, but shot 11-19 FT. Dallas had 4 turnovers and Denver again took full advantage with 9 points off the turnovers - that's 20 Denver points off of 9 turnovers in the 1st half. Dallas opened the 3rd quarter strong with a 12-3 run, including 6 points by Dirk Nowitzki, to pull within 65-66 with 8:30 to go, but Denver was able to hang on to a small lead. It was again a 1-point game with 6 minutes left and Denver scored 8 straight points to go up 82-73 with 4 minutes left. But Dallas rallied back with a 10-2 run to pull within 1 point with 2:15 left. A layup by J.J. Barea with 50 seconds to go finally tied the game, but Denver scored the last 5 points of the quarter. Denver led 90-85 after 3. Anthony had 14 points and Nowitzki had 10 points in the quarter. Dallas out-scored Denver 32-27 in the 3rd quarter. Denver scored the first 3 points of the 4th quarter, but Dallas then went on an 8-2 run to pull within 93-95 with 8:45 remaining and the game stayed close with 5 points being the largest lead the rest of the quarter. Denver continued to cling to a small lead over the next 5 minutes. 2 free throws by Jason Kidd and a jumper by Nowitzki tied the game at 110-110 with 2:45 to go. The teams traded misses, Nene had a dunk, Nowitzki hit 2 free throws, Anthony missed a driving short shot and Nowitzki hit a turn around 15-footer with 1:05 remaining to give Dallas a 114-112 lead - Dallas' first lead since 3 minutes into the game. Billups' inside pass bounced off a couple of players and Kidd picked it up. Nowitzki missed, but Anthony fouled Howard on the rebound, with Denver in the penalty. Howard hit both free throws and it was a 4-point game with 31 seconds to go [deja-vu from Game 3]. Denver called timeout and moved the ball to halfcourt. They inbounded the ball to Anthony, but Howard got up too close to Anthony and fouled him just after the inbounds, sending Anthony to the line. He hit bother free throws to pull Denver within 114-116 with 31 seconds left. After a Dallas timeout, the Mavs ran the clock down and Nowitzki's fade-away jumper was well short, but Kenyon Martin had clipped Nowitzki on the arm and the ref called the foul (it was also Martin's 6th foul). Nowitzki hit both free throws with 8.3 seconds remaining. Denver called their last timeout and moved the ball to halfcourt. Denver was not able to get off a quick shot, but Anthony drained a 3-pointer with 3.1 seconds left to pull Denver within 117-118 with 3.1 seconds to go. Dallas called timeout and was able to inbound to Jason Terry and it took 2 seconds for Dahntay Jones to reach him and commit the intentional foul with 1.1 seconds left. Terry hit the first free throw and intentionally missed the 2nd, Anthony grab the rebound and wasn't even able to get a fling off before time expired (Smith was actually in Anthony's way). Dallas won 119-117. Denver leads the series 3-1. It was a game Dallas had to win and they found a way to do so. It was an exciting 4th quarter with both teams playing well. Dallas shot 8-13 FG and Denver shot 10-20 FG including 2 3-pointers. Dallas did have a big edge at the line in the quarter in shooting 18-19 FT (the only miss was an intentional miss) while Denver shot 5-5 FT - but 12 of Dallas' free throws came after Denver got in the penalty midway through the quarter. Dallas out-scored Denver 34-27 in the 4th quarter. And actually, although Denver was in control most of the game (Dallas only led for less than 4 minutes of the game), the Nuggets were relying on the big 1st quarter lead as that was the only quarter they out-scored Dallas (34-23). The refs let it be known early that they would not take any lip from anyone (especially obvious when Chauncey Billups picked up a tech late in the 2nd quarter) and the Mavs hurt themselves by not controlling their emotions - 3 of Dallas' complaining technicals came in the 4th quarter, when they should have known better [but it ended up not being a game killer, so no one will take much notice of it]. Even though Dallas had a high number of free throws in the 4th quarter, the overall free throws attempted were almost even. Denver did hurt themselves by missing 12 free throws (in a 2-point game, that's killer). Dallas shot 36-43 FT and Denver shot 32-44 FT. For the game, Dallas shot 50.6% (40-79) FG including 3-14 3-pointers and Denver shot 48.1% (38-79) FG including 9-21 3-pointers (thank goodness they cooled off after opened the game shooting 6-7 3-pointers). Denver was hurt by Chris Andersen's absence in losing the rebounding edge and I can't recall one putback slam dunk in this game, something that had hurt Dallas in the first 3 games. Dallas out-rebounded Denver 50-34 including 6-9 offensive. And Dallas actually held the edge in points in the paint at 42-36. So Dallas lives to fight another day, but it's still do or die for Game 5 in Denver. It was an entertaining 2-man show between Dirk Nowitzki and Carmelo Anthony. Nowitzki put the team on his shoulders and carried them in the 4th quarter where he had 19 of his 44 points (3rd most in team playoff history). Nowitzki shot 14-25 FG and 16-17 FT. Anthony was consistent throughout the game as he had 9 points in the 1st quarter, 9 in the 2nd quarter, 14 in the 3rd quarter, and 9 in the 4th quarter for a total of 41 points. He shot 15-29 FG and 9-11 FT. And both had double-doubles with Nowitzki having 13 rebounds and Anthony with 11 rebounds. Nowitzki also had 3 assists and 2 steals and Anthony also had 3 assists and 5 steals. Just great games by both of them. For the other Mavs, it was a balanced attack even with Nowitzki's performance as 5 other players were in double-digits scoring. Josh Howard had a double-double with 21 points and 11 rebounds. Though at least 2 of his 3 turnovers were the "what are you doing???" type. Jason Kidd played well with 13 points, 10 rebounds, 6 assists, and 3 steals. Jason Terry was fairly quiet with just 12 points, 3 rebounds, and 3 assists - he was limited in the 2nd half as he picked up his 5th foul less than midway through the 3rd quarter. Brandon Bass had a solid outing with 11 points on 4-6 FG and 3-3 FT and 6 rebounds in 28 minutes. And J.J. Barea got going and provided a spark for the first time in this series. He was able to get a couple of his layups in the 3rd quarter and finished with 10 points in 17 minutes. Erick Dampier was a non-factor due to foul trouble as he fouled out early in the 4th quarter. He missed his only shot and had just 4 rebounds and 5 turnovers (mostly inside as he fumbled passes at his ankles) in 23 minutes. Antoine Wright had 8 points and 5 fouls in 21 minutes. James Singleton played less than 2 minutes and didn't have any stats. Denver went with a tight rotation with just 8 players playing. Chauncey Billups, as usual, played well with 24 points including 10-10 FT and 7 rebounds. Though he did, out of character, take a couple of quick long shots in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. Nene had 9 points, but missed 5 free throws in shooting just 5-10 FT. He also had 8 rebounds, 3 blocks, and 5 fouls in 42 minutes. Kenyon Martin played poorly with just 2 points on 1-4 FG and 2 rebounds before fouling out with 34 seconds left. He was distracted and seen yelling at the crowd during breaks in the game, where reportedly his mother was being harassed by fans [boo, hiss to those "fans"]. Dahntay Jones had 10 points and 5 rebounds. J.R. Smith has no consciousness. 2 of his shots in the 4th quarter where just "you got to be kidding me" shots and he had one where he banked in the 3-pointer as the shot clock was running out [though the Luck Gods returned the favor later where Nowitzki flung the ball up as he was fouled and it crazily went in]. Smith had 19 points including 7-10 FG in 28 minutes. Anthony Carter completed the rotation with 5 points, 2 rebounds, and no assists in 15 minutes. Quotes Rick Carlisle: "It was a great game. I thought our guys really over came a lot of stuff tonight. Incredible shot-making early in the game by them - they hit 7 3s in the first several minutes of the game. Some of it was they got by us a couple of times, but some of it was they were just jumping over us and hitting them. When you get hit by a flurry like that, you just have to hang in there and keep playing. We were down 14 pretty early in the game and just hung in really well. I can't say enough about what Dirk did out there, just a fantastic performance. They're very few guys out there that I've been around as strong-willed as him. Kidd's one of them, Larry Bird's one of them, not many others - Reggie Miller's one of them. But there's very few that you ever run across in this game. I was just really happy for him. And Josh has been fighting this ankle thing, had to come out of the game a couple of times, and hung in there and just gave us a lift. And we had a lot of other guys play well. I thought Barea in the 3rd quarter came in and gave us a spark, got to the rim a few times. And our crowd was just sensational. It's an important win and we're still alive and we're going to keep battling." Carlisle on the free throws at the end: "Well, we had to have them. The other night, we missed 1 or 2 and that ended up being a factor. We need everything we can get. This is a tough team we're playing. And as I've said, the margins of error are thin. Look, we had 15 turnovers for 26 points and that's, again, really threatened our chances to win several times because we'd get right there and have a couple of bad ones and really kind of get in our own way. I just loved the way our guys hung in and the crowd was just fantastic." Carlisle on having the rebounding edge: "It's been a problem the whole series. Andersen was out tonight, so that was a positive factor in the rebounding game, and we needed to cash in on it. And our activity was great was all night. You know, we had our guards in there scampering for balls and just about all night long we had 5 guys in there battling. It's important. Those possessions and the large deficit in rebounds helped mitigate the high turnovers and points off turnovers, no question." Carlisle on the technicals: "I loved the way we were battling. The officials made it pretty clear early in the game that they didn't want to hear anything from anybody any more, so the whistles got quicker. They had some called on them and we had some called on us. It's one thing if you're unnecessarily getting them, but I thought the reason we were getting them was we wanted to win the game so bad. We came into huddles and we talked about poise, and, hey, let's not get any more. But we were just nastily determined to some how to win. And I'm never a advocate of getting technicals, even though I've had more than my share this year, but when they're sort of manifested with a pure heart, you feel a little differently about them, especially when you win. Now if we would have lost by a couple of points and have given up 5 technical free throws, I'd be singing a different tune. I just thought that the way we fought was great. And I didn't want to take that away from any of those guys at any point in the game." Carlisle on Nowitzki: "Well, the guy had 40-some points. So a lot of it was, in the 2nd half, we were in timeouts and Kidd said, 'Hey, let's just keep it simple. Let's get it to Dirk in the post or let's put Barea in pick-and-rolls.' And it made perfect sense. So we kept it simple. And, hey, he was absolutely exhausted and the one fade-away shot he hit was a shot, a force of sheer will to get the ball in to the basket because it was an incredibly difficult shot. And I've seen Bird make those shots many times during the prime of his career. And the great ones, they some how find the will to do it and they get it done, and he's one of the great ones." Dirk Nowitzki on his 4th quarter: "Yeah, I thought there in Game 3, I took some weak shots. Today I thought, just make aggressive moves and what ever happens, happens. Let it all hang out there and make aggressive moves. Got to the foul line some, which I thought really helped, was able to knock some free throws down. And I was just really making aggressive moves. And if it didn't work out, it didn't; but we're glad it did." Nowitzki on Andersen being out: "He's big for them off the bench. He's instant energy, he's all over the place, great rebounder. He's been great for them all series. But with him being out, they still had a heck of a game. I think in the 4th quarter, we tried to get a little separation, tried to get some run, and the fans were great. But give them credit, they kept making plays. J.R. Smith made some shots, and Billups, and Anthony has been great all series. They're a heck of a team and we had to grind it out tonight." Nowitzki on the technicals: "It was an emotional game, I think. But every playoffs game usual has a different feel to it. Every playoff game there is usually something going on. You just have to play through it and fight through some stuff. We felt some of the flagrant fouls weren't flagrant fouls, but it is what it is. At least we played hard, we made some hard plays at the ball when they drove, and not caved in. I thought they really tried to knock us out early in the 1st quarter. They were shooting the ball well, at some point they made 7 out of 10 3s, or whatever, early. And we took that blow and kind of responded. So I'm really proud of the guys." Nowitzki: "It was an unbelievable game. We were down the whole game, but were able to come back and win and we've been doing that all season long. ... We've got to go back to Denver and let it all hang out again." Josh Howard: "We've been fighting and fighting this whole series. The win finally went our way. ... The end of Game 3 gave us a lot of willpower for this game." Jason Kidd on the technicals: "We left everything on the floor. And so emotion, maybe disagreeing with some of the calls. But we were going to fight tonight and we're going to have to do that the rest of the series. But the big thing is that we came to play this evening. With the flagrant fouls or the Ts, it just showed our character that we can play through that. And as much as that the 1st quarter where they got up big, we could have folded tent and that would have been it, but that just showed the character of our team to fight through all that." Kidd on what he said to Terry about his last free throw attempt: "I thought with a second left, with our luck if [Terry] would have made the 2nd one, they would have taken the ball out of bounds and we would have fouled someone - so that's just the way it goes for us [laughter]. So I thought, just miss it. And if he makes a full-court shot, then we deserve to lose. His whole concept was, 'Hey, we can't lose the game.' And I kept saying, 'No, we're going to win. Just miss it.' And I wanted to make sure that no one went in for the rebound because, again, there could have been a foul called and we could have ended up losing the game. So he missed it, he did the right thing. But he did the right thing by making the 1st one. And missing, they had no time to shoot the ball and we won the game." Kidd: "We've taken a little baby step in the sense of winning this game because it's easy to say, hey, we don't need to get on that flight to go back to Denver. But we showed character and fought, the fans were great, but we won the game. And now the pressure's on them to try to end the series. We don't have any pressure, we just got to go up there and find a way to win." George Karl on Anthony: "He's Carmelo. He had a couple of spurts where he was making his jumper. He scored in transition some, got some easy baskets, threw a couple of 3s in. Offensively he was very balanced. He's a big time score that they have trouble matching up against." Karl on Nowitzki: "He's great, he's a great player. Tonight it looked like he had a mission. Pretty serious about every possession, every touch he got. We didn't seem to get a defensive feel on him or for the team the whole game. It was an offensive game all night long. I'm sure it was very entertaining, but I don't think it helps us win games in this building without Chris Andersen. My only disappointment was that we didn't try to win it with our defense, we tried to win it with our offense." Karl: "I'm not disappointed. I think Dallas is one of the top 4 teams in the Western Conference and has been for the last 6 weeks. So we're supposed to beat them in 4 straight? We've come a long way, man. End of March, no one was talking about us and now everybody's talking about us. We're still a team in development, a team in progress. We'll learn from this game. I think we'll see a very committed and angry team on Wednesday." Karl on defense problems: "Yeah, they started to play like we play. They ran and wanted the crowd to be in the building and they got some good play off their bench. Bass gave them some minutes. The little kid [Barea] came in and played well for them. I think in general, it was a very fast game for a playoff game. They got great offensive players, but we have to, I think, play fast but also play smart. And I don't know if tonight we were committed to playing the smart possessions as well as we need to win in Dallas on the road against a good team." Carmelo Anthony on he vs Nowitzki: "That's just the way the game went. Dirk played great, made some tough shots down the stretch, got himself going by going to the free throw line. And Dallas won the game, can't take anything from them how they played tonight." Anthony on missing Anderson: "It was key. I think us missing Chris Andersen was a big loss for us. We were out-rebounded 50-36, that's rare for us. It was out of character on a rebounding standpoint, but, yeah, we miss Chris." Anthony: "Like I said, Dallas played a great game tonight. Dirk had a tremendous game. Antoine Wright came up big with some big buckets. Josh Howard hit a big shot down the stretch. They got to the free throw line. They played aggressive on the defensive end. We missed some shots. But you can't take nothing away from Dallas, they won the game. We're still in control of this. We're going home, on our homecourt, and I'm pretty sure we'll be ready for Game 5." Anthony on his 3-pointer near the end of the game: "It was like deja-vu. I came off the screen, and George drew up a play, and I hit the shot. And my main thing was not to foul, cause I get a chance to try to make another shot. And then the foul came, and whether it was a foul or not is not for me to determine." Chauncey Billups: "We knew we were going to get their best effort tonight, with the motivation of playing on their homecourt, and they were going to fight and do everything they could to extend their season. I'm happy with the effort we gave. If we had a couple bounces go a different couple ways, we're having a different conversation." Billups: "Dirk had a hot hand. He made a lot of tough shots." 2009 NBA Playoffs - Second Round Game 4: Dallas Mavericks 119, Denver Nuggets 117 at Dallas (May 11) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 23 30 32 34 - 119 .569 .214 .506 .837 Denver 34 29 27 27 - 117 .500 .429 .481 .727 Halftime: Denver 63-53 3rd Q: Denver 90-85 Technicals: Carmelo Anthony (Den) 11:15 2nd, Chauncey Billups (Den) 2:54 2nd, Jason Terry 0:04 2nd, Linas Kleiza (Den) 3:47 3rd, Erick Dampier 11:32 4th, Brandon Bass 7:59 4th, Antoine Wright 6:07 4th Flagrant fouls: Josh Howard (level 1) 2:00 2nd, Jason Terry (level 1) 0:04 2nd Refs: Steve Javie, Joe DeRosa, Marc Davis Attendance: 20,523 (sellout) IL: Dallas - Devean George, Jerry Stackhouse, Shawne Williams Denver - Steven Hunter, Sonny Weems Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Josh Howard 34 7-18 0-4 7-8 21 3-11 2 3 3 1 0 Dirk Nowitzki 44 14-25 0-0 16-17 44 1-13 3 4 1 2 1 Erick Dampier 23 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 2-4 1 5 6 0 1 Jason Kidd 41 4-8 2-5 3-4 13 0-10 6 1 4 3 0 Antoine Wright 21 3-6 0-1 2-2 8 1-1 1 1 5 2 0 Jason Terry 31 3-7 1-4 5-7 12 1-3 3 0 5 0 0 Brandon Bass 28 4-6 0-0 3-3 11 1-6 0 0 4 1 1 J.J. Barea 17 5-8 0-0 0-2 10 0-2 1 0 1 0 0 James Singleton 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 40-79 3-14 36-43 119 9-50 17 15 29 9 3 Denver Nuggets REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Kenyon Martin 33 1-4 0-0 0-0 2 0-2 1 1 6 0 1 Carmelo Anthony 43 15-29 2-5 9-11 41 3-11 3 2 5 5 0 Nene Hilario 42 2-5 0-0 5-10 9 0-8 3 2 5 1 3 Chauncey Billups 40 6-12 2-6 10-10 24 0-2 7 2 3 1 1 Dahntay Jones 17 3-8 1-1 3-4 10 2-5 1 1 2 1 0 J.R. Smith 28 7-10 2-3 3-5 19 0-1 0 1 2 1 0 Linas Kleiza 20 2-7 1-4 2-4 7 0-3 1 0 4 0 0 Anthony Carter 15 2-4 1-2 0-0 5 1-2 0 2 2 0 0 Totals 48 38-79 9-21 32-44 117 6-34 16 11 29 9 5 patricia Go Mavs!