Jason Kidd got into a physical confrontation with David Anderson that earned him a technical foul and Erick Dampier received two T's on the night and was ejected as the Mavericks and the refs butted heads throughout an "official review" laden game.(AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)When you play three games in the span of a little over a month against a Southwest Division rival, things are bound to get heated. That it did in the fourth quarter and overtime of tonight's (Dec. 18) game between the Houston Rockets (15-11) and the Dallas Mavericks(19-8). In the final 17 minutes of game action, seven technical fouls were called (six on Dallas), one flagrant foul on Aaron Brooks (more on that later in the article) and both Erick Dampier and Rick Carlisle were ejected. Five times during the contest the refs halted action in order to review their own decisions via the TV monitor, including Damp's second technical and subsequent ejection.
"We went down fighting," said Shawn Marion, who had 17 points and nine rebounds along with some key defensive stops down the stretch. "There was a lot going on. It was a heated game that we could have won."
The Mavericks got off to a hot start in this one, contrary to their poor starts in the previous two games against the Rockets this season. Dallas led by as many as eight points in the first and ended the quarter up 24-19. But, clinging to a 27-26 lead with 9:27 left in the second quarter, the Mavericks would suffer their worst blow of the night as Dirk Nowitzki injured his elbow on a drive to the basket (much more on that later in the article). Houston then went on a 23-14 run to end the half up 49-41.
"When a big star like Dirk is out, we've got to step up and we didn't do a good job of that," said J.J. Barea who led the Mavericks with 23 points.
The Rockets led throughout the second-half and 94-83 with 5:26 left in the fourth quarter. The Mavericks, led by Jason Kidd who was all over the court in the second-half and overtime, went on a 17-6 run (capped off by a Tim Thomas clutch three) to tie the game at 100 and send it to overtime. Kidd was two points away from a triple double with 11 rebounds, 10 assists and eight points while also snatching four steals and blocking two shots. After starting out 0-5 from the field, Thomas made his final three shots; including the big one that sent it into overtime.
Overtime was dominated by ejections and Aaron Brooks. Damp and coach Carlisle were ejected, while Brooks single-handedly outscored Dallas in overtime (9-8). Brooks finished the game with 26 points, six assists and four rebounds.
"It was a perfect win on the road for us, with everything that went on" said Rockets coach Rick Adelman. "Out guy's struggled at the end of regulation, but they had a nice overtime, so it was a really good win."
The Nowitzki Injury
First (and most important) things first: Nowitzki was sidelined for the remainder of the game against the Rockets after his elbow collided with Carl Landry's teeth on a drive early in the third quarter. Dirk needed three stitches to patch up the wound, while Landry was sent to the hospital with five cracked teeth. The KTXA 21 telecast crew reported that it took the medical staff 30 minutes to remove pieces of Landry's teeth from Nowitzki's elbow. It appears Nowitzki will be fine (likely day-to-day) after the injury but, jeez, you have to have some compassion for Landry - he is one tough dude for trying to come back out on the court after that.
(UPDATE: ESPN reports Nowitzki is questionable for Sunday and more info tomorrow (Saturday) from the Mavericks)
The Unbelievable Dampier Ejection
For some reason Followill, Ortegal, and the rest of the crew on 21 didn't notice what I'm sure many of you at home noticed on the flagrant foul assessed to Aaron Brooks. While Bob Ortegal clamored on about Brooks not going for the ball and grabbing Dampier's shoulders, the replay on the monitor validated Ortegal's call except for one very important part. Brooks did grab Dampier's shoulders and did not go for the ball but, in grabbing his shoulders, he also propelled himself and his knee between Dampier's legs. Now as any man (or woman for that matter) knows, if someone knees you in the groin area, your going to respond with some hostility. That is what Damp did, throwing a shoulder into Brooks and yelling some expletives in the officials' direction. Then, for some reason, he was ejected from the game for reacting harshly to getting kneed in the balls. Nowitzki has to remove teeth from his elbow and Dampier gets ejected for getting kicked in the nuts, a strange night indeed.
(UPDATE: Mavs pissed about review of non-flagrant 2 foul call. Along with much more.
Shawn Marion: The Late Game Defensive Stopper
There were numerous occurrences in the fourth quarter and overtime that accentuated Marions' defensive prowess, but there is one series in particular that really caught my eye. With 1:12 left in the fourth quarter, Dallas trailing 99-95, Marion's presence was felt on both ends of the court. A Kidd miss sent the Rocket's down the court on a three-on-one break to the basket. Luckily for Dallas, that one was Shawn Marion and he held his ground with solid fundamental defensive technique, stripping Trevor Ariza as he rose for a layup (it was counted as a block). The Mavericks raced down to the other end and, who was wide-open cutting to the basket? Marion again, with a layup that brought Dallas to within 99-97 with 1:04 left.
Rocket's Point Guards Go Buck Wild
Along with the aforementioned Aaron Brooks late game heroics, back-up point guard Kyle Lowry had possibly his best game as a pro. Lowry finished with a career and game-high 26 points along with 10 assists, six rebounds, and five steals while hitting 61.5 percent of his shots and three of five from down-town.
Kidd vs The Aussie
Something really had Jason Kidd's blood boiling going into the second-half of the game against the Rockets. So much so, that he literally threw himself at David Anderson as the 6'11 245 pound Australia native tried to set a pick on him with 6:52 left in the fourth quarter. Anderson, obviously, wasn't pleased with this and got into Kidd's face and the two had to be separated by teammates. While being restrained, each continued to shout at the other "come-on!". Cooler-heads prevailed and Anderson was subsequently relegated to bench duty for the rest of the game.
Whats Next?
This was a great effort from a team missing one of the top-five players in basketball. Put Dirk in the lineup in the second-half and this is a blow-out victory, Houston simply isn't equipped to handle Dallas' explosiveness on offense. Dallas plays Houston another time before the end of 2009, on New Year's Eve, in Houston. It should be interesting.
Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers travel to Dallas this Sunday to take on the Mavericks. The Cavs won their earlier meeting with the Mavs 111-95 in Cleveland. James and the Cavs are 20-8 on the season and have won five straight games. Lebron James is second in the NBA in scoring (28.9) and the Cavs give up the fourth fewest points in the league at 94.4 per game.
Tip-off is at 6:30 p.m. and can be seen on both NBA TV and KXTA 21.
(Portions of this article were taken from The Associated Press)
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