Way to Go Dallas!

The Dallas Mavericks of the US NBA is, in short, a loud team.

The Owner, Mark Cuban was fined by 500,000 dollars, which was the biggest fine for an individual in the history of NBA, by excessively appealing against officiating last January.

Right before the beginning of this season, the father and son, Head Coach Don Nelson and Coach Donny Nelson were suspended two games from the season opener because they got caught while contacting the foreign players before the authorized time. The other meaning of maverick, which is a ＇calf without an owner＇is an ＇isolated person＇The name of the team and its going is matched exactly.

It does not matter anyway. Since their record is up to the highest, the fans are even enjoying the moves of the management.

Dallas won the away game against the Cleveland Cavaliers by 103-99 on the 14th. It is recording 8 consecutive wins since the season opener and it is the only team with clean record out of the 29 NBA teams.

I

t was a close game. The Dallas` lead was just one point 43 seconds to go in the game. They were sure about winning the game after Michael Finley (26 points) made a lay-up 15 seconds to go and Steve Nash (14 points, 7 assists) made all two free throws and ran away by 5 points with the score of 99-94. The reason how the Mavericks, who were behind in rebounds (35:44), assists (18:27), and 3-pointers (2:4), win the game was their free throw ability. While Dallas made 27 out of 29 free throws (93.1%), Cleveland made only 21 out of 30 (70%), so they gave away the win.

The Boston Celtics defeated the archrival Philadelphia Seventy-Sixers at home by the score of 91-81 and enjoyed 6-consecutive wins. Only 8 Boston players entered the court and 6 scored double-digit points, and 3 out of those 6 were sixth-man.

The defending Eastern Conference Champion New Jersey Nets won against the powerhouse of the Western Conference San Antonio Spurs by the score of 91-81 with the help of the 2nd-year forward Richard Jefferson, who scored career high 27 points.

Chang Jeon jeon@donga.com