Mavs Shock Bulls 104-97

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

March 13, 1998 / 4:13 AM EST / CBS Sportsline

The team that Charles Barkley said couldn't win the NCAAs beat the world champions Thursday night.

The Dallas Mavericks erased a 19-point fourth-quarter deficit against the Chicago Bulls and treated the largest sports crowd in the history of their building to a 104-97 overtime victory.

"The Bulls usually lose a game once a year to a bad team, and tonight we got the present," Mavericks coach Don Nelson said.

The victory came two nights after a 97-91 loss to Houston that prompted Barkley to say, "I don't think they could win the NCAAs."

While the tag is often fitting (the Mavericks have only 14 wins and are one of Denver's six victims), Dallas can be very good at times. It now has four victories against the NBA's top three teams, Chicago, Indiana and Seattle.

"They beat us and we're not an NCAA team," Michael Jordan said.

Both teams played at a collegiate pace for much of the first three quarters, with Chicago leading the entire way. An early fourth-quarter spurt stretched the Bulls' lead to 79-60 with 8:52 left and they were still up 85-68 with 5:43 to play.

Then, then went cold. In the final 3:44 of regulation, Chicago didn't hit a field goal, Steve Kerr -- a 94-percent free-throw shooter -- missed two foul shots and Jordan went 2-of-4 from the line.

Dallas took advantage of the skid slowly, trimming its deficit to single digits with 52.3 seconds left, then getting within 90-86 with 16.1 seconds remaining on a dunk by Cedric Ceballos.

When Hubert Davis'' jumper bounced in with 10.5 seconds left, the Mavs trailed 91-88. Then Scottie Pippen was called for a five-second violation on the ensuing inbounds pass and the Mavericks had the chance to go for the tie.

It didn't seem likely when Ceballos got jammed between Pippen and Toni Kukoc, but Ceballos threw up a 3-pointer anyway -- and it went in, knotting the score at 91 with 3.9 seconds left.

"The shot just dropped," said Ceballos, who was supposed to be the second option on the play. "You never know."

The Bulls had one last chance to win in regulation, but Kukoc missed a layup at the buzzer.

Ceballos opened overtime with a dunk that gave the Mavericks their first lead of the game -- and one they would not relinquish.

Dallas went uo 96-91 on a -pointer by Michael Finley, but Kukoc answered with a 3. Jordan then had a wide-open 3 that would've put the Bulls ahead, but he missed badly.

With a Reunion Arena-record crowd of 18,255 going bonkers, Dallas rookie Chris Anstey called for the ball in the corner and hit the shot to stretch the Mavericks' lead to 98-94.

Jordan, who shot just 5-of-11 on free throws, made one of two to pull Chicago within three with 1:08 left.

Jordan then tried to steal the ball from Finley, missed and fell to the ground, allowing Finley to take off and feed Anstey for a dunk and a 102-97 lead with 52.7 seconds left.

The Bulls couldn't recover. Pippen missed two 3-pointers and Kukoc missed before fouling A.C. Green with 6.9 seconds left. He hit both and Chicago didn't even attempt another shot.

Finley scored 32 points and Ceballos had a season-high 25, including 11 in the final 2:16 of regulation and four in overtime. Green had a season-high 17 rebounds and Ceballos had 13.

Jordan led Chicago with 26 points. He added seven rebounds, tying Tom Boerwinkle for No. 1 in team history with 5,745. Kukoc had 22 points and Pippen 18. Dennis Rodman had 22 rebounds.

Notes: Chicago had defeated Dallas six times in a row and nine straight in Dallas. ... This was the third time in eight meetings that the Mavericks and Bulls have gone to overtime. ... Shawn Bradley had two points and three rebounds in 11 minutes in his first game after missing three with a right groin contusion. ... Jordan is second to Shaquille O'Neal in scoring average by a Dallas opponent at 29.1 points per game. ... Dallas, which had a franchise-low two offensive rebounds Tuesday against Houston, had 15.