# Rockets 111 Mavs 109 Grades : Mavs Give It Away in the Fourth



## viggenja37 (Feb 15, 2005)

Rockets 113 Mavs 111 Grades : Mavs Give It Away in the Fourth

Mavs get the opening tip and the play goes to Erick Dampier. Dirk’s pass to Erick gets knocked out by the Rockets and on the reset, Dirk’s pass gets taken away by the Rockets. Houston responds with a baseline jumper by Yao over Erick. Jason throws the ball away and Tracy earns two from the line. The Mavs finally get on the board with a jumper from Michael. The intensity ramps up as Jason goes to the floor to save an errant Josh pass. The first sub off the bench is Keith in for Erick as Erick gets his second. Keith goes in hard for a weak side layup. Jet ties the game at 9 all with a trey. The Rockets go back up courtesy of free throws, but Jason answers with 2 on a back court foul before Keith steals the inbounds pass and scores. Keith goes for the pass again and picks up his 3rd foul with 6:58 left in the game. Shawn comes in to replace him as Yao puts the Rockets back up by two, 15-13. Yao gets his 11th point on a spin layup over Shawn to put the Rockets back up by four, 17-13. Stack comes in for a scoreless Josh and nails a trey to bring the Mavs close, but Shawn picks up his 2nd foul battling with Yao. Avery hits the bench hard in the first as the only starter still on the floor at the end of the first is Finley who is teamed with Devin, Jerry, Alan, and Marquis. The Mavs finish the first missing 6 consecutive shots and the Rockets take the lead 34-30 to end the first. Yao is the game’s leading scorer with 17 points followed by Tracy with 10 points. The Mavs leading scorer is a 4 way tie with five each : Dirk, Jason, Shawn and Jerry.
The Mavs open the second with Dirk, Alan, Jerry, Marquis and Jason. Dirk gets all of the Mavs first seven points, but Jon Barry is 3-3 from behind the arc for 9of the Rockets 11 points as the Mavs leave him wide open on defense to push the Rockets lead out to 45-37 with 9:03 left in the half. Out of the timeout the Mavs answer with a 5-0 run to close to 45-42. Jason’s 4th turnover leads to a bucket by Yao to give the Rockets a 5 point lead again. Bowen picks up his third foul falling over Josh with 6:37 left in the half. Dirk finds Dampier out of the double team and Erick converts 1-2 from the line. The Mavs go small with Dirk manning the center and Yao takes advantage immediately. Josh attacks and makes a circus shot and Finley nails a trey to tie the game up at 51-all as the Mavs are on an 8-2 run. Tracy breaks the deadlock at the line as Josh fouls him off the pick and roll, but Josh answers with a spin in the paint for the layup over Yao to tie it up again. Mike James nails two free throws to go back ahead at 55-53. Josh attacks the rim again and gets the layup again over Yao to tie the game at 55 all. Wesley strips Dirk, but Jason gets called for a flagrant foul with 1:35 left in the half. Tracy picks up his 3rd foul on an offensive pick with 1:28 left. Yao drives by Dirk for his 23rd point to put the Rockets up three. The Rockets Weatherspoon enters the game with 38.9 seconds left for Yao Ming and Dirk immediately drives on Clarence. Unfortunately, Dirk goes 1-2 from the line to pull the Mavs within two, at 58-56. Padgett puts back a Rockets miss with a one hander to put the Rockets up by four as Finley lets lose a half court shot that’s true, but short. The Rockets are led by Yao Ming’s 23 points and Tracy McGrady’s 12 points. The Mavs are taking care of the boards 23-17, but are losing on turnovers, 10-8. The Mavs are led by Dirk with 16 points but he’s only 4-13 from the field. Josh backs him up with a strong second quarter and is up to 11 points. Jason still has 5 points and 3 assists but is also leading the Mavs with 4 turnovers. Avery continues to use his bench as everyone but Darrell Armstrong has played. The Mavs get only 2 points on the fast break.
Finley opens the third on Tracy with Josh taking Wesley. Jason Terry splashes home a trey for the Mavs to close within one at 60-59. Jason drives the paint and dumps to Erick who flushes with both hands to put the Mavs ahead at 61-60. Tracy responds going baseline on Dirk followed by Yao powering in for a layup. The Mavs D it up and force a 24 second shot clock violation with 8:00 left in the third and Jason answers wit ha trey to put the Mavs up 68-66, forcing a Rockets timeout. Tracy ties the game off a pick and pop but Finley answers with a long trey to keep the Mavs up 71-68. Josh puts a Jason miss back in but the Mavs celebrate and Jason does not pick up a wide open Sura who nails a trey. Josh goes 1-2 from the line but Bowen answers with a baseline jumper to pull the Rockets within one at 74-73. The Mavs work the clock and Jason nails a long deuce with 3:35 left. Van Horn fakes the trey and rumbles in the paint for a layup to extend the Mavs lead to 78-73 with 3:05 left. A Josh trey (the Mavs are 8-10 from behind the arc) puts the Mavs up 85-78 on the heels of a Van Horn jumper and an Erick jam. Tracy and Jon Barry answer to close within 85-82 but Keith drives the lane for the and-one to put the Mavs up 88-82 as Keith gets his 11th point. Wesley finishes the scoring form the line to close the game to 88-84 to finish the third. Excellent third period by Erick Dampier who plays the period without picking up a foul. The Mavs win the period 32-24. Josh is now the leading scorer for the Mavs with 17 points. Dirk has 16, Erick 11, Michael 10, Jason 13, and Keith 11 points. The Mavs have out rebounded the Rockets 34-22. The big difference is only one Mavs turnover in the third quarter.

The Mavs start the final period with Devin, Keith, Dirk, Jerry and Michael. Tracy opens up the fourth period scoring but Jerry answers with a trey. Finley kicks to a wide open Devin who promptly nails a trey to give the Mavs a 94-86 lead. A Dirk turnover forces Jerry to send Tracy to the line where he goes 1-2 , but the Rockets get the offensive board. Dirk picks up his first and sends Bowen to the line who goes 1-2. Keith attacks the iron hard over Mutombo and converts both free throws for a 96-88 Mavs lead with 9:15 left in the game. Deke converts a Van Horn foul into two points, Wesley drives for a layup, and Jon Barry nails a trey as the Rockets go on a 7-0 run to close with in one point. Dirk finally makes his first basket of the second half with 7:12 left in the game to give the Mavs a three point edge. Dirk gets the Mavs to 100 points on a weakside baseline jumper. Erick draws an offensive foul on Yao with 5:50 left in the game and Jason finds Erick for a two handed dunk. Out of the timeout, Tracy responds with an impossible shot, but the Mavs go straight to Erick who goes 1-2 from the line as the Mavs lead 103-97. Barry answers quickly followed by James to pull the Rockets within a basket, 103-101. Tracy picks up his fourth foul sending Dirk to the line with 4:05 left in the game. Dirk sinks both to give the Mavs a 4 point lead. Sura once again is left wide open and calmly drains a trey to pull the Rockets back within one point at 105-104. Jason misses an open trey but the Rockets find Yao for an easy hook shot for the lead. Dirk responds with a running hook to take a one-point lead back. Sura is left wide open again and drains the trey to take the lead back with 2:12 left, Rockets up 109-107. Jason nails a jumper from the free throw line to tie the game. Tracy banks his layup too hard and the Mavs set up. The Mavs act confused as a wide-open Keith kicks to Dirk who promptly fumbles the ball to James. Jason deflects the ball out of bounds and the Rockets take time. The Rockets run the play straight to Yao for the layup but Jason misses the answer. Tracy misses over Jason and Finley grabs the rebound and the Mavs call timeout with 26.4 seconds left, down 111-109. The Mavs go with Jason, Michael, Keith, Josh and Dirk. Dirk fakes and drops a jumper over Tracy to tie the game. Tracy comes down the court and calmly drains a jumper just inside of the arc with 2.2 seconds left in the game. Josh inbounds the ball to Finley who misses at the buzzer from just behind the free throw line.
The Rockets go 24-27 from the free throw line. The Mavs go 19-26…

The road warriors need to show up in Houston to take this series back home.

UPN Camera Crew: A+; Great job as always! +36

Avery: D; Avery had his team pumped to compete from the start in this one, but the defensive letdown against the trey and the offensive confusion late in the fourth sealed this game. Houston knew exactly what they wanted to do down the stretch and executed to take this game away from the Mavs. Still looking at Erick’s 3 fouls and Shawn’s 2 fouls and wondering why Dirk was playing center against Yao in the fourth.

Howard: C; Josh started out cold offensively with zero points in the first period but caught fire for an 11 point second period. Josh picked up 6 points in the third but did not score in the fourth period. Three turnovers. +15 

Nowitzki: D; Dirk led the team with 26 points but struggled from the field again on 8-21 shooting form the field. Dirk had 5 points in the first quarter, 11 points in the second, but did not score in the third period. Finally got loose late in the fourth. Dirk also collected two rebounds and three assists against three turnovers. +16

Dampier: C+; Erick picked up foul trouble early against Yao, but was able to play the second half without picking up another foul. Was really pumped in the third with 8 points but only got 1 point in the final stanza. +21

Finley: D; Michael had a better offensive game, but the what have you done lately syndrome will color this performance as Finley misses his only shot of the fourth quarter : a jumper for the tie from the free throw line as time expired. Four points in the first, 3 in the second and 3 in the third quarter. Michael also collected 7 rebounds and 4 assists against one turnover. +16

Terry: C-; Jason again had a good offensive game and ended up with 15 points. Nevertheless the Mavs are still struggling for someone who can deliver the ball better than 6 assists against 4 turnovers. The killer was watching a wide open Sura sink treys that just killed the Mavs. +19

Bradley: C+; Shawn doubled his minutes and was productive, but Avery didn’t really go back to him after Shawn’s second foul. Zero turnovers. +6

Stackhouse: C-; Weird game for Jerry where he goes 2-3 from behind the arc and does not get to the free throw line once. +4

Harris: B-; Devin was really a difference maker tonight with his hustle. His stat line doesn’t really describe the lift he brought to the team while he was on the floor. Nice block against Tracy. Zero turnovers. +8

Daniels: C-; Marquis picked up 9 minutes but only had 3 rebounds to show for it. +1

Van Horn: C; Keith really brought a lot of intensity to the floor on his way to 13 points (5-6 FG, 3-3 FT), but the same intensity limited his minutes due to foul trouble. Despite an overall good performance, his last play was an indecisive mess on offense that ended up leading to a turnover by Dirk as the shot clock would down. Zero turnovers. +12

Henderson: C; Did not box, but spent 4 minutes trying to move Yao Ming out of the paint. +0

Armstrong: DNP-CD

Typical Chef Ed Type


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## DHarris34Phan (Oct 28, 2004)

*wow....really nice work Viggz...awesome read.*


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## Tersk (Apr 9, 2004)

You have Terry too low IMO, he gets a B- or C+ from me. 

It's amazing that Devin Harris was our best player on the night

If only Damp hadnt gotten in early foul trouble, we could of won then


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## terry2damp (Apr 24, 2005)

damp deserves higher and so does devin finley deserves lower he fell on his missed a clutch easy shot that deserves an F


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## DHarris34Phan (Oct 28, 2004)

*JET played good, but it was painfully obvious that our offense isn't as smooth when he is at point. Too many ISOs and last second shots. I am not calling for Devin to start, but the offense has way more movement to it when he is running the show. Dampier gets the rewards when their is movement, as it creates mismatches, and Dampier can dominate open under the basket. *


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## NastyN44 (Jan 18, 2005)

Terry deserves the C-!!!, he had like 4 turnovers in the first half !!! Thats horrible, he has no experienced in the playoffs! IMO he might even get a D! Although he played better in the second half.


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## Eurcides (Feb 25, 2005)

Oh good I can skip reading this here as well.

But I will drink to you Vigg. :cheers: Just not in the mood to read War and Peace version of the grades.

:mob:


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## LuckyAC (Aug 12, 2004)

Well, you can skip the War and Peace facsimile at the beginning - the actual grades are relatively succinct.


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