# Mavs 97 Rockets 93 Grades : The Road Warriors get Home Court Back!



## viggenja37 (Feb 15, 2005)

Mavs 97 Rockets 93 Grades : The Road Warriors get Home Court Back!

Michael gets the Mavs first possession to start the game’s scoring with a 19-foot jumper. Yao goes straight at Erick and ends up at the line 2-2 to tie the score. Josh comes back and goes against Padgett and earns two from the charity stripe. Jason comes out aggressive and pushes the ball right past Bob Sura for the layup. Erick hits the bench in favor of Alan Henderson with his second foul but both teams are really struggling offensively with the Mavs up 6-2 with 7:27 left in the first quarter. Dirk finally nails an elbow jumper to put the Mavs up 8-2 forcing a Rockets timeout with 7:07 left. Michael comes out of the timeout and makes another jumper but the Rockets score the next 4 points on a layup by Padgett and Wesley. Alan answers with a tip in by Wesley charges back down the floor for a layup. Alan gets another tip in followed up by a Josh tip in, but Alan leaves the game with two fouls when he slams Tracy to the floor. The Mavs give an 8-0 run in only 1:40 to the Rockets as the Mavs take a timeout with 2:03 left after Tracy nails an elbow jumper over Dirk to tie the game 18-all. Josh misses a wide open trey as Sura gives the Rockets their first lead on a layup. Finley answers with a trey to take the lead back at 21-20. Mutombo takes a Sura miss and flips it in as the shot clock expires but Stackhouse attacks Tracy to again take the lead at 23-22. Tracy misses a layup over Josh and Dirk takes the momentum with his first made trey in eight games with 0.2 seconds left. The Mavs take the first quarter lead 26-22. Dirk (2-4 FG, 1-1 trey, 2-2 FT) and Michael (3-5 FG, 1-3 treys) are the Mavs leading scorers with 7 points each, backed up by Josh (1-7 FG, 0-1 trey, 2-2 FT) and Alan (2-2 FG) with 4 points each. Tracy McGrady (2-5 FG, 0-1 trey, 2-2 FT) leads the Rockets with 6 points. The Mavs are being outshot by the Rockets 47.4% to 45.5% but have had more shot opportunities (22 to 19). The Rockets have the rebounding edge 10-9 but are loosing the turnover edge 4-3.

The Mavs open up the second period with a blocked shot as the Mavs go with Devin, Jerry, Michael, Dirk and Alan. Devin turns over the ball and then fails to get back on defense, but Avery stays with him anyway. James gets the tip to tie the game at 26-all. Stackhouse gets to the line and goes 2-2 to put the Mav back up as Marquis comes in for Dirk. Mike James again burns Devin with a jumper to tie the game. Devin does make up for it a bit by drawing an offensive foul on James on the next possession. Marquis gets doubled on the next possession and loses the ball. Alan gets his third foul trying to help Devin against James with the game still tied at 28-all. Michael steals the ball and kicks to Marquis who gets fouled on the layup and converts 1-2 to give the Mavs the lead again, 29-28. Tracy gives the Rockets the lead back with a jumper over Jerry as the Rockets are on an 8-3 run to start the second stanza. Avery takes a timeout with the Rockets up 30-29 with 8:29 left in the half. Erick comes back in for the Mavs with 2 fouls and the Mavs open up with Marquis whipping the ball down to Josh for the bunny. Tracy misses a trey and Marquis again finds Josh for the two handed dunk on the weak side block for a 33-30 lead. Mutombo loses the ball but the Mav help out the Rockets as Jerry throws the ball away as well. Van Gundy is besides himself and calls timeout to reset his troops with 6:55 left in the half, Mavs 33, Rockets 30. Out of the timeout, Tracy rolls past Josh for a layup but Jason answers with a trey to put the lead back up to 4. Tracy delivers a long deuce but Jason answers quickly with an and-one on Mutombo to give the Mavs a 39-34 lead with 5:26 left in the half. Jason has yet to miss at the line in this series. Yao knocks down a jumper as the shot clock expires and then dunks the ball on a Josh miss. The Mavs go to Dirk who is fouled hard by Bowen and goes 2-2 from the line to give the Mavs the 41-38 lead with 4:30 left. The Mavs double Tracy in the back court to get the ball out of his hands but Wesley drives by Jason for the and-one to tie the game at 41-all. Jason beats Wesley but Yao rejects the shot. Dirk is undercut by James sending Dirk to the line for 2-2 to again give Dallas the lead at 43-41 with 3:55 left. Marquis blocks a Tracy shot but is not called for traveling . Tracy finds a wide open Yao on the ensuing confusion to tie the game at 43-all. Yao goes to the line for 1-2 to give the Rockets the lead again at 44-43. Josh’s shot is blocked by Yao and Dirk misses an elbow jumper but Stackhouse comes up with the ball and finds a wide open Michael for three for Finley’s 10th point. Yao throws the ball away and Tracy gets a clear path foul on Josh with 1:56 left in the half. Josh misses the clear path foul shot and Michael misses a trey from the top of the key. The Rockets miss the bunny and Jerry scores on a short jumper. Tracy drives on Josh (2nd foul) and goes 2-2 from the line to bring the Rockets within 2 at 48-46 with 56.1 seconds left . Dirk’s lob pass to Jerry is flubbed and Tracy nails a quick trey over Josh to give the Rockets the lead at 49-48. Marquis passes the ball to the Rockets and Van Gundy calls a timeout with 8.3 seconds left to set up their final play. The Rockets go to Tracy who misses the trey over Dirk but Marquis fouls Barry on the rebound with 0.4 seconds left. Barry hits both free throws to give the Rockets a 51-48 lead. Michael flings up a hook shot from behind the half court line as time expires. The Mavs end the half on a 7-0 run, largely due to mental mistakes on the Mavs part. Dirk (2-7 FG, 1-1 trey, 6-6 FT) leads the Mavs with 11 points and is backed up by Michael (4-7 FG, 2-5 treys) with 10 points. The Rockets lead this one at the half due to 14 fast break points. Tracy (6-11 FG, 1-3 treys, 4-4 FT) leads the Rockets with 17 points and is backed up by Yao Ming (3-3 FG, 3-4 FT) with 9 points. The Rockets lead on the boards 18-14 and both teams have 10 turnovers each. The Rockets shooting improves to 54.1% to the Mavs 43.2% from the field.

The Rockets start the second half with a trey but Michael can’t answer with a missed deuce. Tracy misses over Josh, but Padgett gets the ball back to Tracy who nails a wide open trey. Jason finally answers with a weak side jumper but Yao scores over Erick for a 59-50 lead. Dirk finds Jason for a long trey and Josh finds Jason for a trey for a 6-0 run by the Mavs. Erick puts a hard foul on Yao rolling to the basket and Ming converts 1-2 from the stripe. For a 60-56 lead with 9:18 left in the third. Finley drops in a deuce to bring the Mavs within two. The Rockets go straight at Erick as Dampier gets his 4th foul as Yao drops both free throws for a 62-58 lead. Jason throws the ball away and Tracy slides though the paint for a dunk to force a Mavs timeout with the Rockets up 64-58 with 7:54 left in the period. Dirk has yet to score in the third. Finley makes a fade away from the free throw line out of the timeout. Houston gets into the bonus with 7:13 left in the period on successive touch fouls by Josh and Dirk. Michael gets stripped by Wesley and Dirk puts Sura on the line 1-2 going to the floor for a loose ball. The Mavs finally go to Dirk with 6:30 left as he drops in a hook shot but Tracy nails a jumper in response. Dirk spins into the pain but his shot is blocked by Yao. Alan sends a charging Tracy into the upright and Tracy drops 1-2 from the line for his 25th point while extending the Rockets lead to 68-62. Jerry misses a long deuce and can’t stop Tracy on the other end for an 8 point differential. Jason drives straight down the paint and draws the and-one on Yao Ming to draw the Mavs with in 5 points. Tracy misses a trey wide and Jason again attacks the paint to go 2-2 from the stripe with 4:35 in the quarter to pull the Mavs within 3 at 70-67. Yao gets an offensive foul on an elbow and a head butt on Dirk. Dirk takes the ball into the paint against Tracy and gets the and-one to tie the game at 70-all with 4:10 left in the period. Finley forces the ball out of Tracy’s hands and Bowen misses the trey. Jerry finds Jason wide open for a trey for his 24th point. Mike James gets his own missed shot but dribbles the ball off his foot attacking the baseline. Jerry attacks Mutombo and goes to the line for 1-2 to the extend the Mavs lead to 74-70 with 2:54 left. Tracy rolls down the lane for a layup to close to 74-72. Finley steals the ball from Tracy and dishes to Marquis for an and-one for the 77-72 lead with 1:26 left in the period. The Mavs are now 10-15 from the field for the quarter. Jerry fouls Tracy who converts both free throws with 1:12 left. The Mavs go to Marquis who attacks the lane, but travels as he backs in to Mutombo. Tracy ties the game with a trey from the weakside base line. Jerry attacks the paint but tries to pass out to the Rockets bench as the Mavs go with two consecutive turnovers. Tracy misses over Finley for the final play of the period. The Mavs ride Jason Terry’s hot hand as he scores 15 points in the period. The Mavs win the period 29-26 to come back and tie the game. Jason Terry leads the Mavs with 24 points followed by Dirk with 16 and Michael with 14 points. Tracy McGrady leads all scorers with 34 points backed up by Yao Ming’s 14 points. Erick and Alan are carrying 4 fouls with Yao Ming having four fouls for the Rockets. The Rockets own the boards 27-20 and continue to outshoot the Mavs 50.9% to the Mavs 49.1%.

Jason’s shot is blocked and the Mavs fail to recognize the shot clock is still running. The Mavs are still struggling with defending the Rockets pick and roll but Tracy misses. Jason misses a trey but Dirk gets the backtap to Jerry who sets up Daniels. Marquis goes to the line with 11:08 left but converts only 1-2. Yao puts back a missed James layup to give the Rockets the lead at 79-78. Wesley strips Daniels in the paint and kicks to Barry for a layup. Jerry misses a trey and the Rockets push up the floor. A Wesley lob to Yao gives the Rockets a 5 point lead with 9:33 left in the game. Erick comes back into the game for Marquis during the timeout as the Mavs roll with Jason, Michael, Dirk, Jerry and Erick while Tracy is sitting. Dirk gets blocked by Yao then Yao picks up an offensive foul (his 5th) on the ensuing possession with 9:02 left, the Mavs down 78-83. Dirk misses a jumper over Tracy, as Dirk is now 4-12. Tracy lobs to Mutombo as Erick picks up his 5th foul. Mutombo converts 1-2, but the Rockets get the rebound. Jerry gets the first field goal for the Mavs with a turn around jumper. Tracy finds Barry for a wide open long tow to keep the Rockets lead at 6. Jerry airballs a jumper, but the Mavs are rescued with an offensive foul on Mutombo for a moving pick. Jason Terry misses his layup but gets the rebound for the Mavs 5th point of the period. Tracy comes straight down and nails a trey. Jason comes straight back but loses the ball in the paint. The Rockets call timeout with 5:21 left in the game, up 88-82. The Mavs are 2-10 from the field to the Mavs 5-9. Tracy misses out of the timeout as the Mavs go to an isolation against Tracy that spills out. Mike James misses a trey as the shot clock expires. Jerry Stackhouse attacks Mutombo and has his shot blocked but then fouls Mutobmo out of frustration going for the rebound. Stackhouse knocks a Wesley pass out of bounds with 3 seconds left on the shot clock and the Rockets call timeout up 88-82 with 3:38 left in the game. The Mavs offense has slogged to a crawl as their focus is on on isolation plays, but the refs are not calling the fouls. James misses out of the timeout from the corner. Jason goes to Finley who is doubled who kicks to Dirk who is doubled who kicks to Jason who nails a trey. Barry misses a fade away from the wing. Jason goes to Dirk who powers into the lane but misses. Erick misses the putback but scores on the second effort to bring the Mavs within one at 87-88. Tracy kicks to Yao who fumbles out of bounds. Dirk kicks to Finley who nails a strong side jumper to put the Mavs ahead 89-88 with 1:36 left in the game as the Mavs go on a 7-0 push. Out of the Rockets timeout, Tracy misses over Finley. The ensuing scrum ends up in Dirk’s hands who finds Finley. Finley fakes to Erick and gets the jumper for the 91-88 lead. Erick fouls out trying to defend Yao with 48.6 seconds left as Josh comes in for Dampier. Yao goes 2-2 from the line to close the Rockets to within one at 91-90, the first Rockets points since 5:48 left in the game. Jason fumbles the ball away, but Dirk grabs it high out of the air and kicks back to Jason who nails the three. The Rockets call timeout with 26.9 seconds left, the Mavs up 94-90. The Rockets got to Tracy who drives and finds a wide open Wesley who sinks a trey with 19.3 seconds left. The Mavs come out of the timeout with Finley inbounding the ball to Dirk who kicks back to Finley. Padgett knocks the ball out of bounds with 13.8 seconds left. Josh inbounds the ball to Jerry in the backcourt with 12.5 seconds left. Jerry goes only 1-2 from the line, but Josh deflects the ball off of Tracy out of bounds. Josh kicks to Finley who finds Jason. The Rockets finally foul Dirk with 6.1 seconds left with the Mavs up 96-93. Dirk sinks both free throws as the Rockets call timeout. James misses a trey over Finley for the game. 97 – 93 Mavs win!


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

Avery: A; Avery played a tight rotation to win the game and got rewarded for it. Good timeout calls in the fourth when the Mavs were struggling in the fourth for offense. The good news was that the Mavs fourth quarter defense delivered. The only concern is that the Mavs really focused on isolation plays intended to get the and-one call, but the refs let both teams play and nothing easy came.

Howard: A; Josh did not have a good game either defensively or offensively (8 points on 3-11 from the field), but he made the play of the game. Jerry missed the second free throw and Tracy got the board. Josh snuck up behind and popped the ball loose. Tracy fumbled for the ball but lost it out of bounds. +6

Nowitzki: A; Dirk struggled with his offensive game, going 4-14 from the field, but like Josh, a key play was scrambling for the loose ball off of the Jason miss only to find Jason for the trey. The great part was Dirk was not shy about diving for the ball all night. Led the team with 6 assists. +22

Dampier: B-; Erick got outplayed by Yao and struggled with fouls all night. Got 2 points and 5 rebounds in 17 minutes. Zero turnover

Finley: A; Michael led the team: cool, calm, and collected when the rest of his team was threatening to fall apart. Hit clutch shots (8-13 FG, 2-6 treys), played great defense and helped lead his team to this win. Zero turnovers. +18

Terry: A; Jason was the Mavs point guard in name, but in reality played shooting guard. Led the Mavs with 32 points on 11-18 from the field. Defense was shaky, but made the clutch shots down the stretch. Five turnovers. +25

Henderson: A; Alan came into rescue Erick early in the first period and had an immediate impact with two tip-ins. Also got into foul trouble, but was delivering good hard fouls, knocking Tracy to the floor at least twice. Zero turnovers. +7

Stackhouse: B-; Jerry struggled with his shot tonight (3-10 FG, 0-2 treys, 4-6 FT) and was nearly a goat missing his last free throw. Stack needs to buy Josh’s dinner tonight. +8

Harris: C; Devin , coming off a good game, struggled today. No shots and only one turnover to show in the box. -1

Daniels: C; Marquis pulled 18 minutes but struggled with 4 turnovers. Did get to 5 points (1-1 FG, 3-5 FT) along with 2 rebounds and 2 assists. +3

Van Horn: DNP-CD, Left ankle sprain.

Bradley: DNP-CD.

Armstrong: DNP-CD

Typical Chef Ed Type


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## flamethrower42 (Mar 23, 2005)

viggenja37 said:


> Mavs 97 Rockets 93 Grades : The Road Warriors get Home Court Back!
> 
> Michael gets the Mavs first possession to start the game’s scoring with a 19-foot jumper. Yao goes straight at Erick and ends up at the line 2-2 to tie the score. Josh comes back and goes against Padgett and earns two from the charity stripe. Jason comes out aggressive and pushes the ball right past Bob Sura for the layup. Erick hits the bench in favor of Alan Henderson with his second foul but both teams are really struggling offensively with the Mavs up 6-2 with 7:27 left in the first quarter. Dirk finally nails an elbow jumper to put the Mavs up 8-2 forcing a Rockets timeout with 7:07 left. Michael comes out of the timeout and makes another jumper but the Rockets score the next 4 points on a layup by Padgett and Wesley. Alan answers with a tip in by Wesley charges back down the floor for a layup. Alan gets another tip in followed up by a Josh tip in, but Alan leaves the game with two fouls when he slams Tracy to the floor. The Mavs give an 8-0 run in only 1:40 to the Rockets as the Mavs take a timeout with 2:03 left after Tracy nails an elbow jumper over Dirk to tie the game 18-all. Josh misses a wide open trey as Sura gives the Rockets their first lead on a layup. Finley answers with a trey to take the lead back at 21-20. Mutombo takes a Sura miss and flips it in as the shot clock expires but Stackhouse attacks Tracy to again take the lead at 23-22. Tracy misses a layup over Josh and Dirk takes the momentum with his first made trey in eight games with 0.2 seconds left. The Mavs take the first quarter lead 26-22. Dirk (2-4 FG, 1-1 trey, 2-2 FT) and Michael (3-5 FG, 1-3 treys) are the Mavs leading scorers with 7 points each, backed up by Josh (1-7 FG, 0-1 trey, 2-2 FT) and Alan (2-2 FG) with 4 points each. Tracy McGrady (2-5 FG, 0-1 trey, 2-2 FT) leads the Rockets with 6 points. The Mavs are being outshot by the Rockets 47.4% to 45.5% but have had more shot opportunities (22 to 19). The Rockets have the rebounding edge 10-9 but are loosing the turnover edge 4-3.
> 
> ...


Vigg, this is great stuff. How do you remember all the play by plays? :biggrin:


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## mavsmania41 (Mar 27, 2005)

lol nice sarcasism copy and paste right ?


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## Kirk20 (Dec 13, 2004)

flamethrower42 said:


> Vigg, this is great stuff. How do you remember all the play by plays? :biggrin:


 :boohoo: :eek8:


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## kfranco (Apr 22, 2005)

Hey buddy im not sure if you realize this but home court doesnt mean anything.
If i were Dallas i would petition to play the game somewhere else. Same for HOuston in game 6.


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## Pejavlade (Jul 10, 2004)

First team to win a home game will win the series.


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## FreeMason Jr. (Jul 12, 2004)

Pejavlade said:


> First team to win a home game will win the series.


lol yeah. The series doesn't start until someone wins a home game rite? :wink:

Props to the Mavs. I had almost given up all hope after game 2, but now they're rite back in it! :banana:


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## Drewbs (Feb 16, 2004)

We can't drop 3 straight at home, that would just be embarrassing.


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## Gambino (Feb 11, 2004)

Yeah we have the momentum going in this game. Got home court advantage back and is on high right now. I hope we come out with the same energy that we came out in games 3 and 4 and sustain it for the entire game. I think we will.


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## sherwin (Mar 21, 2005)

Gambino said:


> Yeah we have the momentum going in this game. Got home court advantage back and is on high right now. I hope we come out with the same energy that we came out in games 3 and 4 and sustain it for the entire game. I think we will.


and houston had the momentum going into game 3. but, that didnt mean much did it.


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## Drewbs (Feb 16, 2004)

sherwin said:


> and houston had the momentum going into game 3. but, that didnt mean much did it.


Actually it does. Having momentum going your way doesn't ensure you a win, but it certainly doesn't hurt.


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## terry2damp (Apr 24, 2005)

we can always depend on t-choke to save us lol.


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## viggenja37 (Feb 15, 2005)

flamethrower42 said:


> Vigg, this is great stuff. How do you remember all the play by plays? :biggrin:


I type them to a MS Word file while watching the game. I'm lucky I can type fairly quick.


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