The NBA today denied a game protest filed by the
Dallas Mavericks over their 111-107 loss to the Indiana Pacers on November 23.

The Mavericks filed the protest because a basket by Indiana's Troy Murphy with 9:59 remaining in the second quarter was mistakenly recorded as a 3-point field goal instead of a 2-point field goal (making the score 41-25
in Indiana's favor), and the Mavericks contended that this extra point had a clear impact on the outcome of the game.

The NBA's review confirmed that Murphy's shot was mistakenly recorded; the Official Scorer erroneously  believed that one or more referees had given the signal for  a 3-point  field  goal. In fact, no referee made such a signal, nor was any referee aware until after the game that the Official Scorer had awarded 3 points to Indiana as a result of Murphy's shot.

Although he concluded that an inadvertent error was made by the Official Scorer, NBA Commissioner David Stern determined that it did not have such a clear impact on the outcome of the game that a replay of the contest should be ordered.  Murphy's  shot occurred with almost 34 minutes of regulation time remaining in the game, providing Dallas with a substantial opportunity to overcome the 1-point error.  Dallas lost the game by four points.

Although NBA rules would have allowed the game officials to correct the scoring error at any time prior to the end of the game, it was not brought to their attention until after the game.

Steve Nash surprisingly returned to Phoenix in the summer of 2004, so could he eventually return to Dallas?

"First of all, I'm happy in Phoenix," said Nash.  "But I'd have no problem going back and playing for a team in Texas, even the Mavericks! It's not as though there was some irreconcilable divorce with Dallas; it was just best for me to move on at that time. I was wanted more in Phoenix; that's the way it is in sports. But if Phoenix doesn't want me one day, I have nothing against considering one of the Texas teams."

Mavericks' Coach Avery Johnson was fined $25,000 by the NBA on Monday for actions leading to his ejection in Friday night?s loss at Indiana.

Specifically, Johnson confronted official Bennett Salvatore after Devin Harris wasn?t awarded a shooting and/or clear path foul in the fourth quarter. Harris appeared to be in a shooting motion in midair at the basket when Pacers' forward Mike Dunleavy grabbed his right arm and pulled Harris down.

A foul was called, but it didn?t result in free throws for Harris. A similar play involving Jason Terry occurred a few minutes earlier with the same result.

The Dallas Mavericks filed an official protest with NBA officials Saturday about the team's 111-107 loss to the Pacers on Friday night.

At issue was a 3-pointer by Troy Murphy that came early in the second quarter. Owner Mark Cuban said the referees were alerted to the fact that Murphy was inside the arc.

"[The] official scorer said he notified the crew, and no action was taken," Cuban said. "We are protesting that a correctible error was not corrected."

The lead referee Friday was Bennett Salvatore, who has a history of controversy with the Mavericks. He also made one of the most curious calls of the night on a fast break by Devin Harris, on which a non-shooting foul was called. That play was not included in the Mavericks' protest, nor were many others.

"We didn't protest any other calls, but we certainly questioned quite a few that went for us and against us," Cuban said.

The Dallas Mavericks announced on Tuesday that they assigned forward Nick Fazekas to the Tulsa 66ers, their NBA Development League Affiliate.  Fazekas, the Mavericks? second-round selection in the 2007 NBA Draft (34th overall,) becomes the seventh player assigned to the D-League this season.

Fazekas saw action in two regular-season games with the Mavericks this season, scoring his first point as a professional on November 10 at Portland when he finished the game with two points and two rebounds.  

?The D-League provides young players with an opportunity to use what they have learned. It is the most athletic league in the world outside of the NBA. To have a chance to go up against that level of competition will be an important part of Nick?s development,? said Donnie Nelson, Mavericks' President of Basketball Operations and General Manager.

The Mavericks are starting to monitor the high number of minutes being logged by star forward Dirk Nowitzki, and according to the Dallas Morning News, they are trying to do something about it.

Nowitzki has consistently logged more than 38 minutes per game each season until last year when his load was trimmed to 36.2 minutes per game.

"His minutes are still a little bit higher than what I want right now," Coach Avery Johnson said. "We'll continue to work on that. I want to get him down somewhere between 32 and 34. We haven't been able to do it, but we will."

The Mavericks' win Saturday night, which came the hard way in a squeaker against Memphis, was the 150th victory of Avery Johnson's coaching career.

Johnson hit the mark in only 191 games, becoming the fastest NBA coach to reach the historic milestone.

"We owe it to our fans and to our organization and Mark [Cuban] and to ourselves to try to win every game," Johnson said. "We try to win every game, but we want more help from our bench so we won't have to overuse Dirk every single game."

As for the 150-win mark, Johnson would only say, "I'm just glad I'm still hanging around."

Center Erick Dampier played for the first time this season on Tuesday night after missing the first six games while completing his recovery from offseason shoulder surgery.

Dampier finished with seven points and seven rebounds.

The pain in Eddie Jones' right ankle was too great Tuesday night, and he took a seat after five minutes. Coach Avery Johnson announced after the game that Jones will be on the shelf for as much as two weeks.

"He's not right," Johnson said. "And we're going to shut him down for about two weeks in hopes of him getting healthy at some point in December. We're taking a different approach. [We've] done this before with guys like Josh Howard, Devean George, Devin Harris."

Erick Dampier's return to the Mavericks' lineup is imminent.

The center continues to build the strength he lost after off-season shoulder surgery. He estimates he's regained 70 percent of his power based on his 225-pound bench press.

"That's not even close to what I could max before I got hurt," Dampier said. "But next week I'll start to push it over 225."

"I'm feeling pretty good."