[外電] From The Times-Picayune
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原文出自http://nola.com
[From The Times-Picayune]
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
DALLAS -- It was an uncharacteristically sluggish first quarter for the
Dallas Mavericks on Monday night in the AmericanAirlines Center.
At one point, Dallas had missed nine straight shots.
That the Hornets found themselves even with the second-best team in the
Southwest Division after the first 12 minutes, tied at 20, equally was
surprising.
Then came the wakeup call.
The Mavericks opened the second quarter on a 20-3 run as the Hornets missed
their first six shots. Dallas opened a 25-point lead and eventually cruised
to a 103-86 victory, its 13th straight against the Hornets.
It all left Hornets coach Byron Scott seething.
"By tomorrow, I'll calm down, but I was really upset," Scott said. "There are
so many things tonight I just can't explain. I was upset at halftime, and I
was upset with them at the end of the game.
"I told them, from the bottom of my heart, the honest-to-goodness truth, if
the season were to end right now, there are only three guys in that locker
room I'd keep on the team. That's how upset I am, not only about the way we
played but how we're playing. Little things we do every day at practice, we
can't retain it and bring it to the game. If you can't do that, you've got to
make changes."
Once the Mavericks (44-22) got past the first quarter, they were relentless,
in the mold of their new coach, New Orleanian Avery Johnson, known during his
playing days as "The Little General."
At one point in the third period, when the Hornets "trimmed" the Dallas
advantage to 69-48, Johnson leapt off the bench, called time out and gave his
troops an earful.
Michael Finley then hit back-to-back jumpers out of the break, Josh Howard
had a layup, and Shawn Bradley knocked down a long-range jumper to help push
the Mavs' lead to 77-50.
Message delivered.
"We were playing New Orleans, and a crawfish bit me," Johnson joked. "We had
two defensive lapses in a row. How many times have we had a 20-point lead
against a team this year and lost it? It didn't happen tonight, and that was
a small victory for us."
這...這裡被嘲笑了嗎= ="
真可惡
Then again, New Orleans (15-51) is no ordinary opponent.
"They're a tough team to match up against," said Hornets forward P.J. Brown,
who fouled out with 9:03 to go with eight points and five rebounds. "They've
got a lot of offensive firepower.
"The light's always got to be on when you play these guys. Anybody who
touches the ball can score. They just put a lot of pressure on you from every
position."
Brown's assessment was right on.
Eight Mavericks scored, led by Dirk Nowitzki's 25 points in 30 minutes. Guard
Devin Harris came off the bench and had 17. The Mavs' bench outscored the
Hornets' 39-24.
"It's amazing to me," Scott said, "that we've been doing this for I don't
know how many months now, and we still don't understand the little simple
things on the offensive end. The one thing we said before this game started
was, 'Make this team defend you. Don't just come down and just get one, two
passes and shoot the ball. Let's get the ball to the weak side and make them
work.
"We didn't do that in the second quarter. I thought in the second quarter we
came down and turned it over, took bad shots. And when you do that against a
team this good, they're going to get on a roll. They got into a rhythm, and
we couldn't do anything about it."
New Orleans' only bright spot was rookie J.R. Smith.
Smith had a career-high 27 points on 8-of-16 shooting. He was 10-of-11 from
the free-throw line on a night when the Hornets were 29-of-41. New Orleans
was a paltry 12-of-22 from the line in the first half but hit all 13 in the
third quarter.
It was that kind of night.
. . . . . . .
Jimmy Smith can be reached at jsmith@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3814.
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