A bit late..."Dirk tops T-Mac in scoring duel" by Jonathan Feigen

[orangedays]

Article

Dec. 3, 2004, 11:52AM

Dirk tops T-Mac in scoring duel
Nowitzki gets 53, McGrady 48 as Mavericks outlast Rockets in OT

By JONATHAN FEIGEN
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

DALLAS - They could have closed their eyes.

They could have kicked it.

They could have done Michael Jordan's and Larry Bird's H-O-R-S-E thing from the McDonald's commercial — off the rafters, two bounces, off the backboard — and the shots might have still gone in.

Someday, when the story of Thursday's game is retold, someone will insist that's exactly what happened with Dirk Nowitzki and Tracy McGrady.

Nowitzki and McGrady did just about everything else that shooters can do.

And after nearly three hours of mind-blowing basketball, Nowitzki won his duel with McGrady, scoring a franchise-record 53 points to lead Dallas to a 113-106 overtime win and hand the Rockets their fifth consecutive loss.

"That was exciting," said McGrady, who answered Nowitzki with 48 points, his most yet with the Rockets by far. "It was fun. I think that was good basketball right there (with) two guys going at it at a high level. I was just out there shaking my head because what he was doing was unbelievable. ...

"I had a long talk with coach (Jeff Van Gundy). I understand what he wants me to do now, which is to be aggressive the way I was in Orlando."

McGrady went back to his Orlando days of barely squinting at defenders before firing, matching his previous Rockets high of 32 points midway through the fourth quarter.

The 101 combined points for McGrady and Nowitzki were the most by opposing players in any Rockets or Mavericks game.

Nowitzki set an American Airlines Center scoring record and with 21 free throws established a career high while making more free throws than the entire Rockets team attempted.

"It was a great night," Nowitzki said. "I made my first couple of shots and that usually gets my confidence up, and I was just trying to be aggressive.

"It was amazing. He made some unbelievable shots from all over the court. We double-teamed him, and he just jumped over them. It was fun to watch."

McGrady matched Nowitzki for 47 1/2 minutes until a missed free throw left the score tied with 27 seconds left in regulation.

Nowitzki scored the first 10 points of overtime, muscling a fast break layup through a McGrady foul for a three-point play and draining a 3-pointer.

The Rockets gave themselves a last chance to catch up. Jim Jackson hit a 3, and McGrady knocked down hit two more, with his second pulling the Rockets to within 108-104 with 63 seconds left.

But when Nowitzki finally missed, even that turned out to be good for the Mavericks.

His shot barely caught the rim. When McGrady went up to retrieve what he thought was an airball, the shot bounced to Marquis Daniels, who scored to give Dallas a six-point lead with 35 seconds left.

The Rockets' better chance came in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter.

They had taken their first lead since the first quarter when McGrady pulled up from 27 feet and swished a trey to put the Rockets in front 90-89 with 1:54 left.

With the Rockets up by one, Nowitzki made a play that saved the game.

Nowitzki, believing he was fouled, stumbled in the lane, and after he yelled for a foul and the Rockets asked for a double-dribble call, Nowitzki attacked the hoop, crashing into Yao Ming.

Yao fouled out on a blocking call, and Nowitzki dropped in both free throws for a 93-92 lead.

"From my first day playing basketball, my coach told me when people come into drive, to stay in front and put a body in front, put my hands up and draw a charge," Yao said. "That's what I did. I think I'm there. Whatever. They called a foul."

The Rockets showed more fight on the next possession than they had in weeks. Maurice Taylor missed inside, but McGrady got the rebound, missed, got the rebound, missed, got a third rebound and drew a foul.

Had McGrady matched the two free throws Nowitzki had put down, the Rockets would have led by one with 27.1 seconds left. But McGrady missed his second attempt, and when Jerry Stackhouse missed a jumper and Bob Sura had a long 3 fall short at the buzzer, the Rockets gave Nowitzki five more minutes.

For all McGrady did, Nowitzki then made sure it was not quite enough. But between them, they offered a show that will be difficult to embellish upon in the retelling.


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Rockets summary

Yao, Dampier square off
Yao Ming's matchup with the Mavericks' Erick Dampier on Thursday night gave Yao a chance to face the best center in the Western Conference — at least according Dampier.

"I consider myself right behind Shaq (O'Neal)," Dampier said last month. "Some people are going to say top three, but personally, I consider myself the second best."

Asked if he considered that a challenge, Yao said any player would.

"Everybody wants to be king. Everybody wants to be the No. 1," Yao said. "Because it's the NBA, that's everybody's goal to be No. 1 at his position.

"There's always going to be challenges and journalists are going to come up with new issues. It's not something I've thought about. We've been focusing on team issues and getting back on track."


Howard gets start
The Rockets' search for answers brought their first starting lineup change not forced by injury. Juwan Howard, who had not played in the past two games, got his first start of the season, replacing Maurice Taylor and got four points and three rebounds in 23 minutes.

Taylor was averaging 8.6 points and 5.3 rebounds, but those figures had slipped to 5.2 points and 4.2 rebounds in the past five games.

He played 29 minutes without a rebound against the Pistons on Tuesday.


Lue sidelined
After nearly two weeks in which Tyronn Lue had been playing with torn cartilage in his right knee, the Rockets placed him on the injured list to see if rehabilitation might help him deal with the injury.

"Me watching and the coach watching, the things we know he could do (before the injury), he couldn't do," Rockets trainer Keith Jones said. "He was tentative on a lot of things, especially defensively. You could see his head react and the body react, but he wasn't getting there because he couldn't push. We decided to get him out of there to get him time to get stronger, (and) changed his medication."

Reece Gaines was activated, with Bob Sura getting his first start at point guard.


Press row view
Now it's official. The Rockets' world is upside down. Unable to win in this world, the Rockets moved into an alternate universe in which the Runnin' Rockets tried to pile up enough points and fire up enough treys to beat those gritty, defense-minded Mavericks. It nearly worked, and it certainly looked better.

If the Rockets get back to defending as they once did — or at least never face a scorer from another planet again — they might have taken the first step toward a recovery.


Inside the numbers
With Dirk Nowitzki's 53 points establishing a standard, power forwards have led Rockets opponents in scoring in 11 of 17 games. ... The Rockets' 100 shots were their most in any of the past three seasons. ... Tracy McGrady had as many points in the first half, 25, as in 14 of the Rockets' previous 16 games.


Did you know?
The 101 combined points for Dirk Nowitzki and Tracy McGrady were the most for two players in a Rockets game since Calvin Murphy scored 57 and John Williamson 34 on March 18, 1978.


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Beautiful that we're a "gritty, defense-minded team". Can't say enough about how we've improved. And I think it's damn near time for Damp to back up his talk.