Devean George appears to be the choice for Avery Johnson as the Mavericks' eighth man in an eight-man rotation for the playoffs.

But he's not counting on anything.

"That's the thing, I'm still not sure if I'm in there or not," George said Sunday. "Most of us don't have that security. It's just game by game."

But when George has been in the game, he's done the most with his time. He picked off nine rebounds and two steals in the first three games, playing just 36 minutes.

George kept up the good work with four points and three rebounds in just five minutes in the first half.

Eddie Sefko

Credit Byron Scott for keeping his sense of humor about the foul situation regarding his centers. They collected five fouls in the first quarter of Game 3, several of them when Erick Dampier was roaming the paint.

Scott said his starter, Tyson Chandler "has some legitimate gripes because Dampier's holding him about as much as probably his wife would at 11 o'clock at night."

Not sure what Mrs. Chandler might say about that. But in Game 4, the Hornets' centers again had five fouls by early in the second quarter.

Eddie Sefko

Jerry Stackhouse has struggled to find his rhythm in this series.

Game 4 was no different.

The veteran guard played just under seven minutes in the first half and failed to score. He has 20 points and is 7 of 26 from the field in the series.

Stackhouse missed seven consecutive games with a groin injury before trying to shake the rust off with a few minutes in the regular season finale.

"He's not where he needs to be in conditioning and timing," Mavericks coach Avery Johnson said before the game. "Stack will have games where he comes out and gets the best of the opponent."

David Moore

Dallas was up seven with 10:32 left in the second quarter.

The score was tied at 9:01. What happened in that 1:31?

J.J. Barea.

The backup point guard made his first appearance of the series, stayed on the court long enough for New Orleans to hit the Mavericks with a 7-0 run in the blink of an eye, then took a seat back on the bench.

David Moore

Brandon Bass was by far the Mavericks' most productive player off the bench. Bass finished with 12 points and nine rebounds in 25 minutes.

Dallas had only 17 points combined from reserves Devean George, Jerry Stackhouse, J.J. Barea and Eddie Jones. Barea scored eight points in the game's final 3 ½ minutes.

Damon L. Sayles

The Mavericks had 16 second-chance points by halftime and finished with 21 to just nine for the Hornets.

It was about the only thing they had going for them.

Of course, when you shoot 36 percent, there obviously are a lot of rebounds to go around. The Mavericks had 16 offensive boards and won the overall rebounding battle, 47-42, a small consolation on a grim night.

Eddie Sefko

After Jason Kidd's flagrant foul on Jannero Pargo, there was a fan who was involved in an incident with Chris Paul.

The scene happened just a few seats away from where owner Mark Cuban sits.

It was originally believed that Paul asked the referees to eject the fan. But Cuban said referee Steve Javie threw out the fan.

"The guy didn't curse, but Javie decided to come over and kick him out of the game," Cuban said. "Told him that 'he wasn't allowed to talk to players by name.' That was it."

Eddie Sefko

Hornets rookie Julian Wright had played just 26 minutes in the first three games, but he had a very productive 19-minute run Sunday night.

The Kansas product had 11 points on 5-of-6 shooting and two steals, playing an important role in keeping the Mavericks from making any serious rally after halftime.

"I thought Julian was athletic enough to match up [with] some of those guys," coach Byron Scott said.

Eddie Sefko