# GT: Dallas Mavericks @ Toronto Raptors



## croco (Feb 14, 2005)

Dallas Mavericks (30-8) @ Toronto Raptors (17-20)









*vs*









| *Sunday, January 14th, 2007 | Toronto, Ontario, Canada | Air Canada Centre | 1:00 EST *|

Starters








































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The Dallas Mavericks had one of their best offensive performances of the season in their last meeting with the Toronto Raptors, and that was without a healthy Dirk Nowitzki.

Now their star forward is coming off one of the best games of his career as he tries to lead the Mavericks to a seventh straight win over the Raptors on Sunday at the Air Canada Centre.

Nowitzki played just 10 minutes against the Raptors on Nov. 29 before leaving the game with blurred vision. The Mavericks (30-8) didn't miss a beat without him as they shot 53.6 percent from the field, including 11-of-20 from 3-point range, en route to a 117-98 win over Toronto (17-20).

Josh Howard scored 26 points and Jerry Stackhouse added 23 as Dallas recorded its second-most points of the season. The Mavericks have won six straight over the Raptors since March 6, 2003, and have won 12 of the last 14 meetings, but they've become accustomed to beating most teams this season.

http://www.nba.com/games/20070114/DALTOR/preview.html


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## croco (Feb 14, 2005)

Don't want to break Ninja's GT magic, but we have a very early tip-off today


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## t1no (Jul 10, 2005)

wow where is the defense?


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## The Future7 (Feb 24, 2005)

We better win this damn game. The Raps are not supposed to give us a loss, they are a weaker team than us.


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## t1no (Jul 10, 2005)

The Future7 said:


> We better win this damn game. The Raps are not supposed to give us a loss, they are a weaker team than us.


:eek8: ...


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## Saint Baller (May 3, 2006)

Lol, Dirk just got blocked. We're playing horrid.


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## Saint Baller (May 3, 2006)

Wow, a missed layup by Devin and 2 missed FT by Dirk.


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## Jet (Jul 1, 2005)

Jason has been raining the threes today.. he has 17 points and 15 are off of 3 point shots.. crazy. Its a lot closer now than it was in the first half though


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## Saint Baller (May 3, 2006)

Come on Mavs.


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## Saint Baller (May 3, 2006)

Finally, thank God the Raps are a young team because if they were a vet team J-Ho wouldn't have been open.


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## Jet (Jul 1, 2005)

Josh with the lay up with .9 of a second left. Thats the game, Mavs 97 Raps 96, I always thought it was Dirks job to hit the game winning shot against the Raps.


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## t1no (Jul 10, 2005)

Lmfao


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## shoop da whoop (Jul 6, 2006)

Jet said:


> Josh with the lay up with .9 of a second left. Thats the game, Mavs 97 Raps 96, I always thought it was Dirks job to hit the game winning against the Raps.


That's what the Raps thought too.


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## Dragnsmke1 (Jul 29, 2002)

way to stick to it and get a hard fought W out of a horribly played game...


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## croco (Feb 14, 2005)

Lucky win, in fact very lucky. We got outplayed for more than three quarters, but the hustle plays at the end made the difference once again.


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## t1no (Jul 10, 2005)

We have to start playing defense again, i can't have anymore heart attacks.


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## Dragnsmke1 (Jul 29, 2002)

sure am glad I didnt bet on this game...the Mavs cant beat the spreads lately...might have something to do with 12 games in 20 days...


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## The Future7 (Feb 24, 2005)

Thats 2 games in a row where I feel we got lucky. The crazy thing is that we are slacking and still winning. What happens when we start playing normal again. We definitely need to pick up on our defense because these last 2 have been horrid against these EC teams.


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## croco (Feb 14, 2005)

That's the only positive I can take from this game. Good teams always find a way to get back in it and win. As long as it doesn't happen regularly, it's a mental strength, but we need to play the next game vs. Houston with a swagger right from the beginning.


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## The Future7 (Feb 24, 2005)

Hell yea, Houston even without Yao is great. If we dont come out with energy and intensity and the Rockets do, it will be a hard game. Houston will not let us comeback if they get a big lead because their defense is superb and consistent. I'm really loving Avery Johnson as our coach, what would we be without him.


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## Dre (Jun 20, 2003)

I'm encouraged. Any team can win with a 10 point jump in the beginning, but only great teams can frequently win games they played poorly.


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## Dragnsmke1 (Jul 29, 2002)

I dont know if its a good thing or bad, but Terry showed a lot of patience on that game winning possesion...he just stood there for 5 of the 9 seconds...


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## shookem (Nov 1, 2005)

Great game guys. It just shows what a good, well coached, veteran ball club Cuban's got here.

Can't wait till we lose to you guys at the buzzer next year!


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## edwardcyh (Dec 13, 2005)

OMG...

Did you realize that Dallas led the game for a total of 15 seconds?

Dallas was up only on two possessions. One lasted 14 seconds, and JHo's game winner was for 0.9 seconds....

That's a little insane!


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## edwardcyh (Dec 13, 2005)

Dragnsmke1 said:


> I dont know if its a good thing or bad, but Terry showed a lot of patience on that game winning possesion...he just stood there for 5 of the 9 seconds...


I saw that, and I was extremely impressed. He didn't force it or try to make something happen. There was still a lot of time left for a designed play.... 

I am just glad it wasn't Harris with the ball. He would have made some sort of rookie mistake.


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## edwardcyh (Dec 13, 2005)

The Future7 said:


> Hell yea, Houston even without Yao is great. If we dont come out with energy and intensity and the Rockets do, it will be a hard game. Houston will not let us comeback if they get a big lead because their defense is superb and consistent. I'm really loving Avery Johnson as our coach, what would we be without him.


Now that you brought it up.... did you notice that Diop didn't get a single minute of playing time?

Cro got 4 minutes of playing time, while the 2nd head of our two-headed center didn't even take his jacket off.

AJ is pissed about something and was sending a message to the big guy....


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## melo4life (Jun 5, 2006)

i feel confident against Houston, i dunno what he was trying to say to Diop?? anyway i think we will win the game agaisnt Houston


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## StackAttack (Mar 15, 2006)

What the hell is with us and noon tips?

Oh, and I guess Melo's talking about not giving him playing time. Avery's obviously not happy with Gana's play, I'll find the article in a bit but just yesterday he said something to the extent of "I'm disappointed. He's no where as good as he was last year."


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## Dragnsmke1 (Jul 29, 2002)

edwardcyh said:


> I saw that, and I was extremely impressed. He didn't force it or try to make something happen. There was still a lot of time left for a designed play....
> 
> I am just glad it wasn't Harris with the ball. He would have made some sort of rookie mistake.


thats why I dont know if it was a good thing or a bad thing that happened to work out...should we have attacked right away so if the shot didnt go or the foul wasnt called we would still have enough time to foul and have another possesion with the lead at 3 now...but it really doesnt matter now, I think he paused becuase he realized that the defender on Howard was running away...


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## xray (Feb 21, 2005)

Dragnsmke1 said:


> ...but it really doesnt matter now, I think he paused becuase he realized that the defender on Howard was running away...





> Toronto's Morris Peterson was told not to switch off Howard and cover Nowitzki during a timeout before the decisive play. But Peterson did, allowing Howard to make a wide-open layup to give Dallas the lead.


I'm sure he was :banghead: 

:bsmile:


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## edwardcyh (Dec 13, 2005)

Isn't Mo Peterson on the trading block?

Wouldn't that affect his value? Fortunately, market's closed for MLK day. :biggrin:


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## Ninjatune (May 1, 2006)

Anyone else getting the vibe that the target on our back has enlarged over the last few weeks. It seems like every team out there wants our heads on a platter. It's nice to see us stepping up when required to, but I wish the teams that were supposed to roll over would do just that.


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## xray (Feb 21, 2005)

Ninjatune said:


> Anyone else getting the vibe that the target on our back has enlarged over the last few weeks. It seems like every team out there wants our heads on a platter. It's nice to see us stepping up when required to, but I wish the teams that were supposed to roll over would do just that.


Maybe that's the price of coming up short in the Finals...the obvious focus now is the Prize, and nothing else matters. Then the drain of the 82, and human nature says save your strength.

If not for seedings, why would you play to win now?


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## edwardcyh (Dec 13, 2005)

It's pretty amazing that, including a 0-4 start, we are still on pace for a 65+ win season.


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## Dragnsmke1 (Jul 29, 2002)

Ninjatune said:


> Anyone else getting the vibe that the target on our back has enlarged over the last few weeks. It seems like every team out there wants our heads on a platter. It's nice to see us stepping up when required to, but I wish the teams that were supposed to roll over would do just that.


yeah, it feels like theyre playinf in the Finals every night...teams really bring thier A game against us...


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## Cameron Crazy (Apr 25, 2006)

Dallas will ROLL!


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## xray (Feb 21, 2005)

Dragnsmke1 said:


> yeah, it feels like theyre playinf in the Finals every night...teams really bring thier A game against us...


It's a given that once you've risen to top of this league, the bottom feeders get the highlight of their month trying to knock the big guy out.


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