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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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 GAME FLOW
DALLAS (AP) -- The Dallas Mavericks will miss the playoffs for
the 10th straight season. But if they can carry their late surge
into next season, perhaps the NBA's longest current playoff drought
will finally come to an end.
Michael Finley scored 24 points and Dirk Nowitzki added 21 and
14 rebounds as the Mavericks stretched their winning streak to a
season-high five games, 92-81 over the playoff-bound Portland Trail
Blazers on Tuesday night.
|  | | Dallas' Shawn Bradley gets a hand in Scottie Pippen's face. Pippen was held to 5 points in the Blazers' loss. |
"The sky's the limit," said Finley, who scored 13 in the final
quarter. "We don't have any playoffs in our future this year, but
we hope we can take this into next season. We're beating playoff
teams who are jockeying for position. These are some good tests for
us."
Finley converted all three of his fourth-quarter 3-point
attempts and went 9-for-16 from the field to help the Mavericks
even their home record at 19-19.
"I had some good looks," Finley said. "My teammates were
finding me and I was knocking down my shots."
Erick Strickland had 18 points and Shawn Bradley scored 12 as
the Mavericks won for the eighth time in nine games and 12th in 16.
Rasheed Wallace's 13 points paced the Trail Blazers, who shot
34.6 percent from the field (28-for-81) and hit only 19 of 33 free
throws. Stacey Augmon had 12 points and Damon Stoudamire and Bonzi
Wells both scored 11 for Portland, which had won five of its
previous seven games.
The Mavericks continue to show defensive improvement, partly the
result of the addition of three assistant coaches to teach defense.
"The difference was we played great defense," Strickland said.
"They didn't get great open looks and we contested every shot."
Dallas won despite being outrebounded 59-37, 27-9 on the
offensive boards. The Mavericks helped themselves by committing
only 10 turnovers to 18 for the Trail Blazers.
"It's weird," said Nowitzki of winning despite the rebounding
deficit. "We did a good job of double-teaming them inside, but
they had a lot of open looks from the outside and weren't making
them. It's late in the season, but we're maturing as a team. We're
trying to win as many as we can."
The Trail Blazers were battling fatigue, having traveled to
Dallas after a 90-86 victory at Utah on Monday night.
"We really didn't have it physically tonight," Portland coach
Mike Dunleavy said. "You can tell by the way we shot our free
throws. We're normally a good free throw-shooting team. We also
made some mental mistakes that allowed them to jump out at us."
Dallas built a 71-56 lead with 9:57 left on Bradley's
three-point play.
But Portland climbed back into the game with nine unanswered
points, capped by Wallace's three-point play with 7:52 remaining to
reduce Dallas' advantage to 71-65.
The Trail Blazers were as close as 80-74 with 3:26 left, but
Wells missed two free throws on Portland's next possession. Finley
sank a 20-foot jumper just before the shot clock expired, and
Strickland converted two free throws.
Portland made one last charge, narrowing the deficit to 86-79 on
Stoudamire's 3-pointer. But Finley's 3-pointer with 52 seconds left
boosted Dallas' lead and ended the Trail Blazers' comeback hopes.
The Mavericks expanded a 43-39 halftime lead to 64-54 entering
the final quarter.
Game notes
Mark Cuban's $280 million bid to purchase the Mavericks
received final approval from the league's board of governors
Tuesday in New York. ... Wallace collected his league-leading 36th
technical with 3:51 left in the third quarter when he continued to
gripe about an offensive foul. ... Bradley suffered a sprained left
knee late in the first half, but returned wearing a brace midway
through the third quarter. ... The Trail Blazers missed nine of
their first 19 free throws. ... Portland's Detlef Schrempf did not
play due to a cervical strain. ... The Trail Blazers rested center
Arvydas Sabonis.
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ALSO SEE
NBA Scoreboard
Portland Clubhouse
Dallas Clubhouse
RECAPS
San Antonio 98
Sacramento 92
Chicago 100
New Jersey 93
Dallas 92
Portland 81
Houston 103
Denver 93
Golden State 109
Vancouver 97
Phoenix 95
LA Clippers 88
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