<font size="+2">Mavs lead division after 102-80 win </font> <font size="-1">10:09 PM CST on Monday, December 26, 2005 </font> <font size="-1">Associated Press</font> DALLAS ? Devin Harris scored 20 points, including a 20-footer that he intended to be a pass, and Jerry Stackhouse proved his injured knee is doing fine with an active third quarter that featured a tremendous dunk, leading the Dallas Mavericks to a highlight-filled 102-80 victory over the Indiana Pacers on Monday night. Dirk Nowitzki added 23 points to help the Mavs tie San Antonio for the best record in the Western Conference at 21-7. The Pacers lost their second straight and fell to 5-3 since making Ron Artest inactive. They can forget about this one quickly as they finish a three-game road trip in San Antonio on Tuesday night. They'll probably want to forget it, too. After rallying from 22 down to tie Cleveland in their previous game, the Pacers went up 2-0 and were outworked the rest of the game en route to their second-biggest loss of the season. Dallas grabbed 14 of the game's first 18 rebounds and took 11 of the first 12 free throws. The Mavs snatched seven of the first eight steals, while the Pacers had 11 first-half turnovers, four of them traveling. The Mavericks finished with a 49-30 rebounding edge, despite a season-low two from Nowitzki. Erick Dampier tied his season high with 14 boards and Josh Howard had 10, along with 12 points. Jermaine O'Neal led Indiana with 15 points. Stephen Jackson and Jamaal Tinsley scored 12 and Austin Croshere 11. The game was so lopsided that no starter played more than O'Neal's 35 minutes, with the 11th and 12th men each playing nearly seven minutes. Harris broke open the game in the first quarter. It was tied at 16 when he went in, then he scored 12 points in a 15-7 run. He made 6-of-7 shots, the last one coming by accident when he tried throwing an alley-oop pass to Stackhouse. He sheepishly held up three fingers in hopes of it being ruled a 3-pointer and did his best to hide a grin, slightly shaking his head as if saying he couldn't believe what had happened. Stackhouse was playing only his second game of the season and first at home. He got a nice ovation when he entered in the first quarter, then got rolling late in the third. He scored eight of Dallas' 10 points, starting with a jumper then driving through the defense and leaping over two Pacers for a dunk that got most in the building on their feet. He was headed to the rim again the next time down the court and was taken down hard by Fred Jones. He made a steal on the other end soon after, and Harris closed the period with a buzzer-beat that stretched the Mavs' lead to 19. Indiana's Sarunas Jasikevicius was 3-for-5, an improvement over the 0-for-7 he went last game and the 14-of-57 he was shooting his previous five. He didn't take a shot in the first half, then made his first of the third quarter. He later shot an airball on a 3-pointer and looked at his fingers and shook them as if something was wrong. Notes: Nowitzki didn't have a rebound until the 33rd of his 34 minutes. ... Mavs F Keith Van Horn missed the game with a stomach ailment and G Marquis Daniels (neck) missed his third straight and fifth of the last six. ... The Pacers' worst loss this season was by 32 to Charlotte on Nov. 16. ... Stackhouse has a 360-piece tub of bubble gum that he put in his locker when the season began. He'd almost finished it before finally getting into the lineup ... Indiana lists Artest as being inactive because of a "sore right wrist." DMN
Mavs vs Pacers It was the first Mavs game I have attended this season...I was on the lower level. How about Stack dunking in JO's face...it was beautiful.
yay, we won! when i got home and saw the box score, i was relieved and satisfied to see that the pacers hadn't taken control of this game. for some reason, dallas has been losing to teams that they Should have won against (ex. LA...one loss to them is acceptable, but two is not). anyway, it was good that all the mavs players seemed to play well with devin contributing 20 off the bench and stack getting back to his old self. when i watched the highlights of the game, it didn't even look like stack was playing only his second game of the season, and my fave part was when he threw it down on JO, who got Just Owned! lol jus joking
Stackhouse definitely played good for someone coming off of a knee injury. From the looks of it he reamined to his normal playing style, when some players suffer knee injuries they become less mobile, and begin to start settling for jump shots. From his first game back, Stack did the exact opposite, and his play is really going to help the Mavericks. That dunk was also sick!
Mavs 102 Pacers 80 Grades: Mavs Rebound, Literally! First off: It wasn?t that close. Especially when the Mavs carry a huge rebounding lead throughout the game. Especially when the referees decide to start calling traveling like they do at the college or high school level. Especially when the Pacers have no clue as to how to play without traveling. Especially when the Pacers had no answer for the speed and quickness presented by Jason or Devin. The Mavs move up to share first place with the defending champion Spurs, both at 21-7. What was interesting tonight was their was no 'Charge' led by the organ. The rims were miked and the floor must have been miked as I could hear the game like I was sitting in a front row seat even though I was mid way up in the corner. Every game is going to count this season. Laura Green : A+; Couldn?t really hear what she was saying, but she did several sideline reports. Based on past experience, it had to have been incredibly insightful. +24 Mavs Dancers: A+; Terrific, tight choreography. The ladies might be giving the Lakers / Heat dancers a run for their money. +36 Johnson: A, Giving the Mavs a few days off paid off with huge dividends. Avery has been preaching rebounding, and the Mavs took it to heart tonight with a 49-30 edge that could have been much worse if the game had been in doubt pass the third period. Howard: A- : Josh got his double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds but was not moving smoothly at all. Josh only shot 4-15 from the field but did have a game high 4 steals. Hopefully he?s not hurt. +13 Nowitzki: A-, Dirk led the Mavs with 23 points but it was off of 6-16 shooting. Dirk was playing decent defense, but didn?t have a rebound till late in the game since his team mates were scarfing up everything and Dirk was primarily playing at the perimeter. Dirk had several excellent passes out of double and triple teams. Zero turnovers. +20 Dampier: A-, Erick didn?t shoot too well either (3-9 from the field for 6 points), but Erick did end up with 14 rebounds and at one point had outrebounded the Pacers single handedly. +14 Griffin: B; Adrian provided the Mavs his normal heads-up play providing 4 points and 5 rebounds. Zero turnovers. +8 Terry: A, Jason seemed to make key shots all night, ending up with 13 points on 6-10 shooting. +13 Harris: A+; Devin took advantage of a few days of rest to get rid of his flu-bug. The Pacers had absolutely no answer for Devin?s speed, quickness, or shooting touch. Devin just blew by the Pacers on one play for a tomahawk dunk. Another play saw Devin passing into Stackhouse for an alley-oop play, but Devin blew that opportunity by having his pass swish the basket. The Mavs bench nearly fell over in unison. Devin backed up Dirk with 20 points (8-12 FG, 4-7 FT) to go with 6 rebounds, 5 assists and one steal. Zero turnovers. +25 Diop: A, DeSagana didn?t even take a shot, but he dominated the paint with 7 rebounds, 2 blocks, 1 steal and innumerable intimidations. Zero turnovers. +11 Stackhouse: A+, Jerry played his firs home game this season for the Mavs and started off with a nifty assist. The fan next to me asked how long I thought it would take for Jerry to get back to his normal aggressiveness to the basket. I didn?t have time to answer before Jerry split two defenders in the lane and slammed the ball home over Jermaine O?Neal. The Mavs bench again roared their approval. Zero trey attempts and best of all : Zero turnovers. +17 Powell: B, Josh got 6 minutes of garbage time in the fourth, pulling down 2 boards and scoring on his only shot attempt. Powell nearly had a very nice dunk from an alley-oop attempt from Armstrong, but got fouled on the play and ended up going 1-2 from the line. +4 Armstrong : B, Darrell?s spark from the bench may be getting hazardous. He nearly knocked Erick unconscious congratulating Dampier on a play. Darrell got 6 minutes of garbage time, going 1 for 2 on alley-oop plays. +1 M?Benga: B+, Didiers got 6 minutes of garbage time but the Pacers got no relief in the paint as DJ continued the effort put forth by Erick and DeSagana. DJ dropped in 4 points including a nice elbow shot. +2 Marshall : DNP-CD. Van Horn: DNP-CD, out with flu-like symptoms. Daniels: DNP-CD, Marquis was inactive again with a neck sprain. Podkolzin: DNC-CD, Pavel had surgery to repair his right foot and ankle and is expected to miss three months. Typical Chef Ed Type
