American Airlines Center

Located a few miles from the Grassy Knoll, is the American Airlines Center. Its Mark Cuban's home away from home. There is nothing like the atmosphere of an NBA game. The NBA vibe is loud, but intimate. Fans are in a frenzy. To add to the hype, the Mavericks were riding a 12 game winning streak. It was truly amazing. The seats we had were on the bottom level which made the game more entertaining. Jason Terry popped the go ahead jumper with 5 seconds left. The video I took does it more justice than the pictures on this page.

News Article from NBA.com (http://www.nba.com/games/20101211/UTADAL/gameinfo.html)

Jazz-Mavericks notebook

By Darrin Scheid, for NBA.com

Posted Sunday December 12, 2010 12:03AM

THE FACTS: Dallas forward Dirk Nowitzki scored 31 points and pulled down 15 rebounds to help the Mavericks to a 103-97 victory against the Utah Jazz. Dallas extended its win streak to 12 games by holding off a Utah comeback attempt. The Jazz erased a 25-point first-quarter deficit to tie it, 89-89, with 4:31 left, but a Jason Terry 3-pointer with 7.9 left pushed the Mavericks back up by five. Terry had 12 of his 14 points in the final period. Point guard Deron Williams had 34 points for the Jazz.

QUOTABLE: "Our defense wasn't as good as it should have been. A lot of their shots were tough shots, but they came out with a lot more energy than us. It felt like they just wanted to blow us out of the game early."

- Jazz point guard Deron Williams

THE STAT: Utah entered the game with five double-figure scorers. Except for Williams, the Mavericks held all of them to fewer than their season averages. Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko and forward/center Al Jefferson, who combined to average 29 coming in, managed 14.

TURNING POINT: Leading 96-95 with 2:40 left, Nowitzki hit a driving layup and drew the foul on Jazz forward Paul Millsap for a three-point play to put the Mavericks up by four. After a Jefferson put back, Terry hit his second 3-pointer of the quarter to put the game away.

HOT: Dallas went 13-for-18 in the first quarter, 7-for-10 from the 3-point line, to set a new opening-quarter season high with 34 points. The starters combined to go 13-for-14 and hit all seven of their long-range attempts. Dallas starters were 16-for-20 in the first half.

INSIDE THE ARENA: Dallas held the franchise's seventh Seats for Soldiers night. Fans with front-row seats donated their tickets to soldiers, who descended through the lower bowl toward their seats while fans gave a standing ovation. The Mavericks are 6-1 when they hold Seats for Soldiers night.

GOOD MOVE: With less than 30 seconds left in the first half, the Jazz cleared out to let Williams work against Mavericks point guard Jason Kidd. Williams let the shot clock wind to eight seconds, drove right and used a fake to get Kidd in the air. Williams leaned in, got the foul and hit the shot. He nailed the free throw to cut a 25-point Utah deficit 12 points, the lowest it had been since Williams worked the same move against Mavericks forward Shawn Marion at the end of the first quarter.

ROOKIE WATCH: Getting his second start for injured guard Raja Bell, Jazz guard Gordon Hayward missed both of his field goal attempts and went scoreless for the second consecutive night.

NOTABLE: Nowitzki had his second consecutive double-double and eighth this season. It's the 350th of his career...Nowitzki and Terry combined for all of the Mavericks' final 21 points...Ronnie Price was 3-for-4 from long range and scored a season high 14 points off the bench in 27-plus minutes for Utah...At 19-4, Dallas is off to its best start through 23 games since 2002-03 when it started 20-3.

UP NEXT: For the Mavericks, Monday vs. Bucks, Wednesday vs. Blazers, Friday vs. Suns, For the Jazz, Monday vs. Warriors, Friday @ Hornets, Saturday @ Bucks.