Basketball Daily

The Utah Jazz who have been having trouble picking up wins on the road, got blown out once again against the Dallas Mavericks.  The Jazz played very sloppy on offense and on defense they were slow to react.  The Mavericks really took it to them especially in the third quarter when Dirk went off scoring 19 points by himself.  Utah and Dallas are now tied for 7th place in the West, with both of them having 4 games left on the roster.  The final score of this game was 130-101.

The leading scorers for Dallas were Dirk Nowitzki with 31 points, Jason Terry with 21 points and Jose (JJ) Barea with 18 points.  The team as a whole shot an incredible 54% from the field and an outstanding 45% from downtown.  With this win, the Mavericks clinch a Playoff spot and send the Phoenix Suns home for the summer.

The Sunday early afternoon game between the visiting Dallas Mavericks verse the Cleveland Cavaliers turned out to be an utter blowout in a game where the Mavs were up by 15 points at one time, but the Cavs turned up the defense and put on an offensive clinic, winning the game with ease.  The Cavaliers are the first team this year in the NBA to hit the 60 win mark.  The final score was 102-74.

The leading scorers for Cleveland were Lebron James with 24 points, Mo Williams with 22 points and Zydrunas Ilgauskas with 14 points.  The high man off the bench was Joe Smith with 12 points on 4 for 8 field goal shooting.  The Cavaliers sported their throwback jerseys this game and still maintain the best record in the league.

The Dallas Mavericks headed into the Staples Center to take on the Los Angeles Lakers, who have the best record in the NBA this season so far.  What looked to be a blowout for the Lakers in the first half, the Mavericks kept plugging away at a 15 point deficit, and in the fourth quarter they finally took the lead, but it was very short lived as Kobe Bryant with the help of Trevor Ariza, who had a career high 26 points, pulled ahead and won the game with the final score ending at 107-100.

Kobe Bryant was the high scorer for the Lakers with 28 points on 11 for 20 shooting with a little over 40 minutes of playing time.  All of LA’s starters were in double figures except Derek Fisher who had an off night scoring only 6 points.  The Lakers team as a whole shot an impressive 52% from the field.  LA improved their record on the year to 53 wins and 13 losses.