March 19th, 2008 
Stephen Rhodes 
Posted in ?????????????????????????????? 
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The Dallas Mavericks, in Tuesday night’s game against the Los Angeles Lakers, by all rights should have been beaten by a ton.? But instead, after the Lakers had built up a 25-point lead, Dallas managed to get close – real close; however, the Lakers managed to hold off the pesky Mavericks, escaping?American Airlines Center with a 102-100 win.
Neither team shot very well – Los Angeles shooting 41.6% while Dallas shot only marginally better at 44.4%; so bad in fact that Dallas only made 12 shots in the first half, scoring only 38 points.? But the Mavericks closed the third quarter with a 14-1 run, then opened the fourth quarter with 9-2 spurt; they pushed again at the end with back-to-back 3-pointers by Dirk Nowitzki, making?it 98-97?with 41 seconds left to go.? A long trey by Jason Terry got the Mavericks to within 101-100 with 4.9 seconds remaining; the Lakers’ Derek Fisher made 1 of 2 free throws to make it 102-100, Nowiztki attempted a trey but the attempt was unsuccessful.
Los Angeles’ high scorer?was Kobe Bryant with 29 points, 2 rebounds, 7 assists and 3 steals, while Vladimir Radmanovic scored? 21 – including 4 treys – with 10 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals; Lamar Odom added 17 with 17 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals and a blocked shot, while Ronnie Turiaf blocked 4 shots.? Dallas was led by Nowitzki with 35 points – including a trio of 3-pointers -?along with 11 rebounds, an assist and 5blocked shots, while Josh Howard and Terry scored 19 each – with Howard grabbing 5 rebounds, dishing out an assist with a blocked shot, while Terry grabbed 4 rebounds, dished out 2 assists along with a steal.? Los Angeles (46-21) now fly to Salt Lake City to take on the Utah Jazz Thursday, while Dallas (44-24) flies to Boston to face the Celtics – also on Thursday.?
