# Dallas Mavericks @ Los Angeles Lakers (4th March)



## Tersk (Apr 9, 2004)

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Dallas Mavericks (38-18) vs Los Angeles Lakers (28-28)

Starting Lineups:*





































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Key Matchup:








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*Season Series*
Dallas Mavericks 118 Los Angeles Lakers 104 

1-1


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## Tersk (Apr 9, 2004)

10:54 PM CST on Thursday, March 3, 2005

By DAVID MOORE / The Dallas Morning News

Season series: Mavericks lead, 1-0
Key matchup

Josh Howard vs. Kobe Bryant: Howard is earning a reputation as one of the league's better young defenders. He won't get a bigger challenge than this. Bryant scored 32 points the last time these teams met, but he was held scoreless in the first quarter when the Mavericks set the tone. Bryant scored 29 points in the Lakers' loss to Boston, but he missed the 3-pointer that would have tied the score and was scoreless in the fourth quarter. He's still limited by a sprained right ankle that forced him to miss 14 games.
Inside the Mavericks

Piece of history: The Mavericks beat the Lakers in Los Angeles for the first time in 13 years to break a 26-game road losing streak last season. What can they do for an encore? A win today would give the Mavericks consecutive wins over the Lakers in Los Angeles for the first time since the 1983-84 season.

Briefly: Michael Finley said he's not hurting, but he sat out Thursday's practice with left calf contusion. He's gone 11-of-36 from the field (30.5 percent) in the last three games and has managed just four rebounds in the last 103 minutes. ... Forward Keith Van Horn has averaged 9.3 points and shot 44 percent from the field since joining the club. ... Phoenix is the only team that has lost fewer road games than the Mavericks.

Inside the Lakers

Mediocrity: The Lakers carry a four-game losing streak into Friday's game. The Lakers haven't been at .500 this late since the 1993-94 season. That happened to be the last time the franchise missed the playoffs. Los Angeles is in a battle for the eighth spot now, but it's hard to call them a favorite since they have lost nine of their last 13 games.

Briefly: Center Chris Mihm should be glad to return home. He's averaged 12.1 points and 8.1 rebounds at the Staples Center compared with 7.9 points and 5.3 rebounds on the road this season. ... Individual defensive breakdowns have hurt the Lakers. Four opponents have scored 26 or more points in the last three games.


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## Tristan (Jan 13, 2003)

109-101 mavs


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## DHarris34Phan (Oct 28, 2004)

gotta stop Kobe...our inside deficiancies won't be that big of a problem, but knowing us, Chris Mihm will go off for 25 and 15...

MAVS- 108
Lakers- 97

GO MAVS!


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## The Future7 (Feb 24, 2005)

This is gonna be exciting. 109-104 Mavs


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## SoCalfan21 (Jul 19, 2004)

man ur nice for saying the lakers were going to score 104 tonite


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## The Future7 (Feb 24, 2005)

Someone on the Lakers other than Kobe ill have a big night. Its always like that when the Mavs play, im used to it.


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## Tersk (Apr 9, 2004)

:biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin: 

I get to watch it, I'll post my thoughts 

:biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin: 

Dallas - 108
Lakers - 98


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## SMDre (Jan 28, 2005)

Mavs: 110
Lakers: 101


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## Zach (May 11, 2003)

About to come on.

Dallas 103
LAL 96


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## aussiewill (Jan 20, 2005)

We need to make a lot of changes to win this one from the Clippers game. This would include closing out better in the paint, giving mreo weak side help and to be more patient at the offensiv end. I'd expect to see a 2-3 zone defence employed by Nellie to stop all the penetration that occurred with Maggette last game. Even in Fin's absence I could see Marquis steppin up to the plate to have a good night. Mavs win 97-94.


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## Zach (May 11, 2003)

This is pathetic


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## Dre (Jun 20, 2003)

Dirk is your best player. Get him the ball. 

Shouldn't it be that easy?

Where's the interior D? Where's the D period?


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## bigmo24 (Jan 6, 2005)

What's up with Harris?


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## Gambino (Feb 11, 2004)

Nothing is wrong with Harris. Nelson just isn't playing him which is a joke. Blah...there's not much to say for this game because it was frustrating again. We missed Damp again is all I will say. But Harris needs to play bottom line.


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## Zach (May 11, 2003)

Stackhouse is a BallHog!! On that note, Dirk didn't get anywhere near the amount of touches he needs. What is so hard about realizing that Dirk should get a touch every non-fast break possession?


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## Tersk (Apr 9, 2004)

Argh, I saw the match and was dissapointed. We really missed Damp as we were just letting in way too many points in the paint, Kobe was just amazing in there. I'd like to imagine that Damp would of stopped some of Kobe's points

Devin Harris: 0 minutes (I beleive) because Nelson is too stupid to play him? I mean, c'mon. 
Ok, the 2 games in which we have a chance of winning, Nelson is playing KVH in the clutch?


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## Dre (Jun 20, 2003)

Zach said:


> Stackhouse is a BallHog!! On that note, Dirk didn't get anywhere near the amount of touches he needs. What is so hard about realizing that Dirk should get a touch every non-fast break possession?


Maybe they figure that there are so few shots around that they need to do what they can now. Just a thought.

In any case, Dirk needs to have the ball going through him on every possession. Duncan and Garnett never go more than 2-3 possessions without touching the ball, and he's just as important to his team as they are to their's.

We played lackluster Defense, we were too selfish, just another bad effort. After the Suns win games ago, I thought we had taken our games to another level...maybe I'm overreacting, we were without Finley and Dampier, but still the Lakers are fighting just to get in the playoffs.


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## NastyN44 (Jan 18, 2005)

The last two games the whole team just looked lasy, mostly on defense!Just like the Clippers game we werent aggressive enough and it seems like they rely on Dirk and Stack on offense, they cant do it all!!!!!!!!!!!! Finley was out but who Knows what contribution he would have made as he is very inconsistent! Im not going to worry to much though because every team goes through losing slumps, we will figure it out and get back to the normal Mavs !!! I just cant wait till Damp returns to get some mucsle in the middle because Dirk KVH and Bradley have none!!!!


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## DHarris34Phan (Oct 28, 2004)

This team is the essence of Dr. Jekyall and Mr. Hyde. You never know what team is going to come out of the tunnel night in and night out, whether it be Don Nelson feeling "small ball" one night, or the lack of intensity another, you just don't know if we are going to see a Champinship contender one night, or we are a lottery-bound team the next. I really think that this team's has the makings of a contender, but they don't show it on a consistent basis, which won't get u anywhere near the finals of the CF's in the West. Maybe I should wait to critique until we are fully healthy, but this team is scaring me right now...


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## Tersk (Apr 9, 2004)

OS ANGELES -- The Mavericks appear to have a firm lock on the No. 4 playoff seed in the Western Conference. What they don't have is a lock on playing well.

The Mavericks played hard Friday night. The result, thanks to Kobe Bryant, didn't show up in the win column.

Bryant's 40 points and energy on both ends of the court in the final seconds lifted the Los Angeles Lakers to a 108-103 victory.

"It was a pretty good game," Mavericks coach Don Nelson said. "I thought we competed hard. Played hard. We just didn't finish around the basket well enough to win."

The Mavericks rarely finished at all. The team shot 38.8 percent from the field for the game and scraped together just 22 points in the final period.

"We came out tonight in the right frame of mind," said guard Jerry Stackhouse, who started in place of the injured Michael Finley. "But we had a lot of missed calls and a lot of missed layups. It's on us. We missed point blank shots."

The Mavericks have followed their season-best six-game winning streak with three losses in the last four games. The team has slipped defensively and played Friday without Finley, who was out with a left calf contusion. Forward Keith Van Horn dislocated the ring finger on his right (shooting) hand and will have the injury checked again Saturday.

The revolving door between the injured list and the roster, along with the addition of Van Horn at last week's trade deadline, has left the Mavericks in a state of flux.

There are worse states to occupy.

Like California, where the Mavericks lost two games in a span of 72 hours.

The Lakers needed this win more than the Mavericks. LA lugged a four-game losing streak into the contest. With more games on the road than at home the rest of the way, the Lakers can't afford to lose ground at the Staples Center while it goes for the eighth and final playoff spot in the West.

Bryant had been rather ordinary during the team's losing streak. He failed to score in the fourth quarter of the team's loss to Boston and there were questions about whether a sprained ankle from earlier in the season was affected his lift.

He didn't have any problem lifting off in the fourth quarter this night with 14 points.

Dirk Nowitzki, who had 23 points and was just 7-of-17 from the field, was unable to counter.

"I never really got into the game," Nowitzki said.

Losing to the Lakers in Los Angeles is nothing new. The Mavericks broke through after a 13-year drought last season. But the team's attempt to win back-to-back games here for the first time since the 1983-84 season fell short.

The team's next game is a nationally televised contest in Houston on Sunday afternoon.


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## Tersk (Apr 9, 2004)

*Theo!s grades*

*Marquis Daniels: A- (the grade refers to how he produced in the minutes he received)* 
I doubt that I could give Daniels a higher grade, he wasn't fantastic. That said, he was the one who kept us in the game in the 2-4th quarter, he made some lovely baskets and had some nice passes

*Dirk Nowitzki: B-* 
I don't care if your guards don't get you the ball, DEMAND it. Dirk didn't score his first points in the 4th quarter until there was 1:32 left. That's not good enough, he then proceeded to score 8 points in that quarter. One would think if he did that a bit more, we may of won. Really got burned by Odom in the opening stage

*Josh Howard: C* 
Josh probably misses Damp the post, he want from clamping Kobe pretty well to giving up 40. However, Kobe did have just an amazing game, some of those shots/layups were just ridiculous. 

*Jason Terry: C+* 
When I was watching the game, I really didn't notice JT _that_ much. Looking back at the result/boxscore I kind of forget that he was pretty valuable. He kept Chucky to 7 in 38 minutes, and got a respectable 12/6 himself

*Keith Van Horn: D* 
I change my grade from the other thread when I see he shot a massive *20%*. The main reason that KVH was brought here was to score, and when he's not doing that he is very ineffective

*Jerry Stackhouse: C* 
It's beyond me how he got 19 points, it must of been that 100% FT shooting (11-11) because otherwise he played like rubbish. In 34 minutes, he had one assist. Normally I'm :| with that, because normally he doesnt shoot below 30%

*Shawn Bradley: D* 
Total non-factor, when he was out there Chris Mihm was dominating him. Mihm had like 2 dunks in the opening few minutes due to lackluster play from Bradley. In his 18 minutes, he wasn't any good and I would of liked to see DJ

*Darrell Armstrong: C* 
I can't blame DA for this, so I'll blame Nellie. Why on Earth was Darrell chucked in with 2 minutes or so remaining, what makes it worse that he was guarding Kobe from the inbounds on one of the critical last plays. He hustled alright, he wasn't anything special IMO

*Alan Henderson: C* 
Hendu played pretty well in his 16 minutes, was efficent offensively (if he decided to shoot) and rebounded okay. However, we need him to do more than Okay while Dampier is out, we need him to have big rebounding nights

Those are just off my memory (and the NBA.com boxscore) 7 hours after the game


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## Drewbs (Feb 16, 2004)

*Re: Theo!s grades*

Van Horn sucks, why the Mavs brought him in the first place I don't quite understand. I think that Howard did an ok job on Kobe, not great but not that bad. He did force him into some very tough shots. Kobe is Kobe though, when he gets going, be glad Howard didn't give up 50. Bradley is just terrible. You'd think that since he was so long and so tall, he'd at least do SOMETHING on defense. He might as well had escorted the Lakers to the basket, and getting dunked on by Mihm 2 times in the first few possesions is just.. bad.


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## Dre (Jun 20, 2003)

*Re: Theo!s grades*



Drewbs said:


> Bradley is just terrible. You'd think that since he was so long and so tall, he'd at least do SOMETHING on defense. He might as well had escorted the Lakers to the basket, and getting dunked on by Mihm 2 times in the first few possesions is just.. bad.



Yeah, he's long, tall, but incredibly weak. I just didn't think Mihm would manhandle him like that. We should know not to rely on him to man the middle for any good stretches of time.


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## The Future7 (Feb 24, 2005)

*Re: Theo!s grades*

I hate it when Stackhouse takes shots that he doesnt need to take. He just took too many shots.Dirk is not demanding the ball. He is the leader,best player,and best shooter. He should have the ball in his hands so much more. I love Daniels and Howard though. They always play well. They always find out a way to help the team. Harris should be playing more. No Question. I also think Terry should be taking a little bit more shots. He's non-existent in some games. He did score 12 but you would not notice them.
All I have to say is Dirk should have the ball more often. There is like a 90% chance he will score or he will make someone on his team score.


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## NastyN44 (Jan 18, 2005)

*Re: Theo!s grades*



Theo! said:


> *Marquis Daniels: A- (the grade refers to how he produced in the minutes he received)*
> I doubt that I could give Daniels a higher grade, he wasn't fantastic. That said, he was the one who kept us in the game in the 2-4th quarter, he made some lovely baskets and had some nice passes
> 
> *Dirk Nowitzki: B-*
> ...




Marquis-C
Dirk-C
Stack-C
Terry-C-
Henderson-D
Howard-D
KVH-E

in my opinion nobody gets over a C!!!! Because AVERAGE is the best anybody played tonight!!! We need alot more than average to win a damn game!


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## SMDre (Jan 28, 2005)

Since everyone has already graded and ripped the players, I guess I will talk about the refs. I really hate getting on refs because their jobs are not easy, but in this game they were horrible. Not just for the Mavs, but on the Lakers’ side also. But the one thing that made me mad was their treatment of Kobe. He fouled Stack a couple of times on Stack's drives to the basket and they were never called. Also, Odom fouled Dirk I don't know how many times on both his drives and his jump shots and they were rarely called. I know that Kobe gets "Super Star" treatment, and deserves it, but that was ridiculous. But what about Dirk? Doesn’t he deserve the same treatment? I tend to wonder if the refs have it out for the Mavs because of Mark.


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## aussiewill (Jan 20, 2005)

Mavs just truely did have poor nights at the Staples center. We need Damp back or we will continue to lose against mediocre teams period.


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