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Tickets at Ticket Master
Yao Ming has never defeated the Dallas Mavericks, and Saturday night was no different.
This time, the Mavericks had to recover from a 16-point first-quarter deficit to get the job done.
Dirk Nowitzki had 25 points and 12 rebounds and Michael Finley added 19 points as the Mavericks defeated the Rockets, 97-88.
Yao, who has won against every other NBA team, is 0-6 against Dallas.
Asked if the Mavericks are ``in his head,'' Yao said through an interpreter, ``Yeah.''
Yao picked up his
fourth foul with 7:22 left in the third quarter and finished with 14 points
and five rebounds.
``It didn't look good to start,'' said Mavericks guard Steve Nash, who had 10
points and nine assists. ``We were thinking it might not be our night. But we
kept plugging away and gave ourselves a chance.''
Jim Jackson's 18 points and Cuttino Mobley's 16 paced the Rockets.
Antoine Walker added 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Mavericks, who began a stretch of five consecutive home games against Western Conference teams.
Houston opened the game with a 19-3 run and was in front by 14 at the end of the first quarter against a lethargic Dallas defense. But the Mavericks went to a zone defense to lessen Yao's impact and began to run on offense, finishing with a 24-4 advantage in fast-break points for their sixth victory in eight games.
`We knew they weren't going to stay hot the whole game,'' Nowitzki said. ``We wanted to stay close until we got our running game going. The zone was good for us. We packed it in and made it hard on Yao.''
The Mavericks led by as many as 17 in the fourth quarter, and a late rally could only pull Houston as close as 94-88 on Steve Francis' dunk with 32.4 seconds left.
Francis had only six points, more than 10 points below his average. Meanwhile, Mobley shot only 6-for-21 from the field.
AP - Feb 21, 11:00 pm EST
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Dallas quickly wiped out Houston's four-point halftime edge, opening the third
quarter with a 14-3 spurt capped by Walker's layup for a 61-54 lead.
The Mavericks closed the third quarter with a 12-3 spurt triggered by consecutive 3-pointers from Nowitzki and Finley to build a 78-66 edge.
``We've done this all year,'' Jackson said of another blown lead. ``We get leads and we can't put a team away. We knew they'd make a run but we can't fold and hand them the game.''
Yao had six of Houston's first 11 points as he exploited his eight-inch height advantage over Mavericks starter Scott Williams. Dallas had three points and as many turnovers over the first five minutes.
``We couldn't do anything right,'' Dallas coach Don Nelson said. ``They couldn't do anything wrong. We had to go in there and try to stay positive. I guess it's better to happen in the first quarter than the fourth quarter.''
The Rockets converted eight of their first nine field goal attempts while the Mavericks were missing 12 of their first 13.
Houston was in front after the first quarter, 30-16.
``Our rate of success was high because we were able to get the ball inside and then go out,'' said Yao.
Dallas rallied with an 18-3 second-quarter run capped by Nash's 3-pointer to take a 40-39 lead.
The Rockets held a 51-47 halftime advantage, scoring 15 of their 21second-quarter points on 3-pointers.
Notes
Francis was hit in the face by one of Nash's passes midway through the third
quarter and had to be helped to the bench. Francis was back in the game late
in the third quarter. ``I couldn't see for about 2 minutes.'' ... Dallas missed
nine straight field goal attempts during one first-quarter stretch. ...The Rockets
had won seven of their previous nine games overall.