As the Dallas Mavericks team was not doing very well this season, the players of the Los Angeles Lakers team were more relaxed in this next game, everyone wanted to win this game and end this sequence of games as a visitor.
Dennis Rodman would be playing that game again and Coach Rambis decided to let Robert Horry rest in that game and Travis Knight would start playing, in the first quarter the Los Angeles Lakers team started pressing in the attack.
The Dallas Mavericks team also started to put pressure on the attack and to the surprise of the Los Angeles Lakers team, the Dallas Mavericks team started the game very well, so they started to focus more on the game.
At the end of the first quarter, the Dallas Mavericks team was winning the game with a small points advantage, coach Rambis intended to let Shaq and Kobe rest for many minutes in that game, but seeing the first quarter of the team he changed his mind because he didn't want another one defeat.
