San Antonio at Dallas (November 20) Despite tweaking his ankle in practice the day before, Dirk Nowitzki did play in the Spurs game. And Shawn Bradley, who was also questionable with a sore knee, got the starting nod as the Mavs' rotating 5th starter. The game stayed close in the 1st quarter with the largest lead by both teams only 4 points. The Mavs were not playing particularly well, but neither were the Spurs. San Antonio led 25-21 after 1. The Spurs scored the first 4 points of the 2nd quarter to go up 29-21 with 10 minutes remaining. Dallas then scored the next 7 points to pull within 28-29 with 7:20 left. The game remained close with the Spurs holding a small lead. A 3-pointer by Nowitzki with 20 seconds remaining capped the scoring for the quarter. San Antonio led 47-46 at the half. San Antonio shot 49% FG and 7-12 FT and Dallas shot 39% FG and 12-15 FT. The Mavs were out-rebounding San Antonio 25-21. Tim Duncan had 17 points and 10 rebounds and Antoine Walker had 16 points. The teams traded jumpers to open the 3rd quarter and then Dallas went on a 12-2 run, capped by an alley-oop dunk from Shawn Bradley to Michael Finley, to go up 60-51 with 6:40 to go. Dallas' lead would get no larger as the Spurs scored the next 4 points and Dallas held a single-digit lead the rest of the quarter. Danny Fortson got an offensive rebound with 3 seconds left and Duncan fouled him - Duncan's 4th personal foul [and I joked that he wouldn't collect a 5th]. Fortson hit both free throws [yeah!] to give Dallas a 73-64 lead after 3. San Antonio committed 5 turnovers in the quarter while Dallas had none. Finley had 9 points in the 3rd quarter as Dallas out-scored San Antonio 27-17. Walker opened the 4th quarter with a tip-in putback, a minute later Finley drained a 3-pointer, and on the Spurs possession, Travis Best stole the ball and Walker found Best on the break for the layup to give Dallas their largest lead at 80-64 with 9:45 remaining. Dallas led 86-71 with 6:50 and things got dicey as the poor shooting night got much worse as the Mavs shot a mere 1-10 FG the rest of the game. San Antonio took advantage with an 11-2 run to pull within 82-88 with 2:50 left. Fortunately Dallas was still able to hit their free throws and held a 7 point lead with a minute remaining. Devin Brown nailed a 3-pointer with 50 seconds left to make it just a 4 point game at 88-92. The Mavs missed with 30 seconds to go and San Antonio called timeout. The Mavs played a little bit of defense on the ball to make San Antonio use a little bit of time, but the Spurs found Duncan in the paint and he took 2 steps in for the power slam as the rotation was a tad late. The Mavs inbounded quickly to Steve Nash and he was intentionally fouled by Duncan - Duncan's 5th foul. Nash went to the line and hit both free throws to give Dallas a 94-90 lead with 14 seconds remaining. San Antonio called timeout and advanced the ball to midcourt. This time the Mavs kept a player on Duncan and the others tried to cover the perimeter shooters. Tony Parker's 3-point attempt barely caught the front of the iron with 9 seconds left and the ball skittered out of bounds off San Antonio. Nash was again intentionally fouled after the inbounds and he hit 1 of 2 free throws. Manu Ginobili got a jumper at the buzzer for the final margin. Dallas won 95-92. It might not always be pretty (and this wasn't), but it is almost always an exciting game when these 2 teams face each other. Over the last 10 regulars season games, the average margin of victory has been just 5.4 points - and that drops to 3.7 points if you discount the blowout (21 points) last game of 02-03 that had absolutely no meaning to San Antonio, which is also the only game in the last 10 that was won by more than 8 points. The Mavs won despite only shooting 36.9% (31-84) FG - and it was only slightly better at 40.5% FG before the dismal last 6 minutes of the game. So how did Dallas win despite shooting so poorly? They hit their free throws, out-rebounded San Antonio, and hardly turned the ball over - plus San Antonio wasn't shooting all that great themselves. San Antonio shot 44.3% (35-79) FG. The Mavs shot 28-34 FT and the Spurs shot 20-28 FT. Dallas out-rebounded San Antonio 49-47 including 12-9 offensive. Dallas committed 10 turnovers and San Antonio had 13 turnovers. Dirk Nowitzki was Dallas' high man with 26 points - 10 of which came in the 4th quarter - including 10-10 FT and 6 rebounds. Antoine Walker had a solid game through 3 quarters and 30 seconds before missing the last 6 shots he attempted. He had 22 points including 10-25 FG and 1-7 3-pointers, 11 rebounds, and 5 assists. Michael Finley also had a good game until the 4th quarter, where his touch left him and he shot just 1-7 FG. He had 17 points including 5-17 FG and 1-7 3-pointers. Steve Nash was again a rebounding machine with 8 rebounds to go with 7 assists and 12 points including 3-9 FG. Shawn Bradley had a good impact on the game, outside of a couple of dumb fouls, and had 5 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 blocks. And there was a Travis Best positive sighting! He had 2 of his 3 steals early in the 4th quarter as Dallas built their lead up and finished with 4 points on 2-7 FG, 3 assists, and 3 steals in 13 minutes. He's still only shooting an anemic 24.6% FG. Antawn Jamison didn't play much in the 2nd half and tweaked his right hamstring early in the 4th quarter (he is expected to play Saturday). He only attempted 1 shot, but did have 8 rebounds in 16 minutes. Eduardo Najera and Danny Fortson played a tag team with Bradley in defending the Spurs big men when the Spurs put Tim Duncan and Rasho Nesterovic on the court together (Nowitzki would take one and one of those 3 would take the other). Fortson had 5 points and 5 rebounds in 13 minutes and Najera had 2 points and 2 rebounds in 9 foul prone minutes. Tony Delk again sat out with his strained left hamstring, but hopes to return to action on Saturday. As usual, the Spurs were led by Tim Duncan, who had 30 points on 11-17 FG and 8-11 FT, 17 rebounds, and 5 assists. And that was with the Mavs trying to focus on him. He's just a stud. Rasho Nesterovic took advantage of the number of open looks given to him as the Mavs kept their focus on Duncan. Nesterovic had 18 points and 7 rebounds. Those 2 did not get much help from their teammates. Manu Ginobili was the only other Spurs in double-digits with 12 points, but he shot 4-12 FG. He did have 7 rebounds. Tony Parker also struggled shooting with 9 points including 3-13 FG. He had 5 rebounds and 9 assists. And Bruce Bowen was MIA with 2 points on 1-4 FG and wasn't that effective defensively. Malik Rose had a quiet 5 points including 2-7 FG and 4 rebounds in just 14 minutes. Hedo Turkoglu missed both his attempts and had 2 rebounds in 19 minutes. Little known Devin Brown did help some with 8 points and 3 rebounds in 10 minutes. Anthony Carter had 6 points in 11 minutes and Robert Horry had 2 points in 8 minutes. Quotes Don Nelson: "It was a great game. I'm not sure we were ready for that game, but it was good to get it under our belt and get a win. I didn't like the way we didn't protect the lead, but we couldn't have gotten better shots than the ones that we missed. I liked every one of them. Although they came back, we had enough to protect our lead and get the win. Let's not forget that they are the World Champs and they had a full roster. It was an awful good win for us." Nelson: "I don't know if we are ready to play this kind of game. I don't think we are ready to beat the good teams at this point. We are just not dominate enough. We see some good things every game." Nelson: "We were trying to be very aggressive. We had some mismatches. Every time we did what the book says we came up blank. We did a good job on the double teams and reading those, but thank goodness we had a large enough cushion." Nelson: "I didn't try to play Jamison less, although I had a hard time getting him in in the 3rd quarter. I don't like to make substitutions when things are going so good. He pulled a hamstring in the 4th quarter when I put him in and wasn't able to play at all." Nelson: "We are a very small team without Bradley. We knew he was going to be slow and that he was coming off knee surgery. Just about the time that he starts to play well he has another injury. He hasn't played many minutes and hasn't produced many numbers, but tonight was a good game for him until he started to get tired." Dirk Nowitzki: "It wasn't pretty. Even down the stretch, we made it a lot harder on ourselves than we should have. We should have closed it out a lot earlier. We never seemed to find a rhythm offensively. The zone was good in the 2nd half. The break was there and that's our game. If our shots aren't falling, we have to find other ways to score and the fast break was big for us." Nowitzki: "Our shots were a little off. But it's good to know that we can win one that way. The shot wasn't going, but the break was there in the 2nd half, and that's our game." Nowitzki on the 3rd quarter: "Walker made a lot of stuff happen in that stretch. He took it to the hole hard and he really showed what type of player he is. He can pass, he can rebound, and he can score. It's a pleasure playing with him." Michael Finley on the flagrant foul by Anthony Carter: "He was just making a basketball play. I think if the shoe was on the other foot, I probably would have done the same thing, but it was up to me to let him know that you can't come on our court and just try to bully us around. I just had to make a stand. I didn't want to really make a confrontational thing about it, because Carter is a good guy. But I just had to let him know that you can't get away with that without me letting you know that that was a bad play. So to see my teammates have my back certainly got us jacked up a little bit." Finley on Bradley: "Shawn's been playing consistent the last couple of games. It's hard for me to say that because when we do, usually he comes back and plays terrible. Everybody needs a pat on the back when they do a good job and Shawn has done that the past couple of games. His presence in there - whether it's major minutes or limited minutes - if he plays the way he played the last couple of games, it definitely will be beneficial to our team." Steve Nash: "You have to make your free throws if you want to be a good team and when I get an opportunity I like to feel good about it. It's important to make them. I feel a lot of excitement when I get a chance to win the game. It's fun to be in those situations and really fun to succeed in those situations." Nash: "We really didn't play a very good game. Actually, we played a good 2nd half and then at end we just didn't make shots or we would have won by 15. But to shoot as poorly as we did, it's a sign that this team is improving and that we are capable of beating these teams. It's important for us to continue to grow and have that feeling of confidence that we can beat a really good team." Nash: "People expect us to win games 110-107. For us to win an ugly game like this when we don't shoot well shows we're improving." Antoine Walker: "It was a big test for us. Obviously, they beat us in the Western Conference Finals last year. We wanted to see how we matched up against them." Antawn Jamison on Bradley: "I know what they were going through. I used to hate playing against Shawn. He didn't even have to block any shots. He just made it hard to get near the basket." Gregg Popovich: "Great game for most of the game except for that stretch where the combination of our turnovers and Walker's good play - they really made a run. I was really impressed with the club hanging in and continuing to play; trying to do their best to crawl back into it. That was good for our future, but overall we have a lot of things we need to improve. I thought Dallas did a good job of being aggressive tonight, getting to the free throw line and hitting the boards hard." Popovich: "I don't look at it as a struggle from 3. I thought we had to throw some stuff up there at the end. I think, in general, we have to have more people playing well or have fewer mistakes on the court. We look like a group that isn't really sure what to do all the time." Popovich: "We have to have more people playing well and fewer mistakes on the court. We looked like a group that was a little unsure what to do all the time." Popovich on Brown: "I was real proud of him. He gave us a lot of energy and we needed that aggressiveness." Tim Duncan: "It was frustrating at times. Of course you want to win every game, but I thought we learned something tonight. We played hard. We got down a bunch of points and found a way to fight back into it. Hopefully we learned something today, and we are a better team tomorrow because of it." Duncan: "They got to the basket a little bit too easily on a couple of occasions. More than anything, that was the frustrating part." Duncan: "Some people had a not-so-good night. The ball just didn't go down for them. But we fought around that and we still gave ourselves a chance. Hopefully, we'll learn from this." Duncan: "This is the first time that I've played them, but they are a bit of a different team. They are still doing the things they do. They score the ball, they spread the floor." Manu Ginobili: "We know that we made a lot of mistakes. I don't know how, but we stayed in there after being down by 16 and they were really playing well, and came back. We were right there. We made many mistakes before that." Ginobili: "We were inconsistent with our shooting last year, too. But we played better defense, more team defense. That makes you feel more comfortable when you're shooting." Ginobili on Dallas' strong start to the 3rd quarter: "They didn't surprise us. They were playing strong and aggressive and we were playing less aggressive than them. They were getting many offensive boards on us. We can't say that they surprised us. They just began making shots and we made a lot of turnovers, so it was hard to keep in the game." Dallas Mavericks 95, San Antonio Spurs 92 at Dallas (November 20) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 21 25 27 22 - 95 .419 .227 .369 .824 San Antonio 25 22 17 28 - 92 .508 .143 .443 .714 Halftime: San Antonio 47-46 3rd Q: Dallas 73-64 Technicals: Shawn Bradley 6:15 3rd Flagrants: Anthony Carter 3:42 3rd Refs: Joey Crawford, Derek Richardson, James Capers Attendance: 19,989 (sellout) Did not play due to injury: Tony Delk (left hamstring injury) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Antoine Walker 45 10-25 1-7 1-2 22 2-11 5 1 4 1 0 Dirk Nowitzki 43 7-19 2-5 10-10 26 2-6 1 1 2 1 0 Shawn Bradley 22 2-4 0-0 1-1 5 2-7 1 0 5 0 3 Michael Finley 44 5-17 1-7 6-8 17 1-2 1 2 1 4 2 Steve Nash 35 3-9 1-2 5-6 12 2-8 7 3 1 1 0 Travis Best 13 2-7 0-1 0-0 4 0-0 3 1 1 3 0 Danny Fortson 13 1-1 0-0 3-4 5 3-5 0 0 3 0 0 Antawn Jamison 16 0-1 0-0 2-2 2 0-8 0 1 2 1 0 Eduardo Najera 9 1-1 0-0 0-1 2 0-2 0 0 5 0 1 Totals 48 31-84 5-22 28-34 95 12-49 18 10 24 11 6 San Antonio Spurs REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Bruce Bowen 31 1-4 0-2 0-0 2 0-1 3 2 1 2 0 Tim Duncan 41 11-17 0-1 8-11 30 3-17 5 4 5 2 0 Radoslav Nesterovic 33 8-14 0-0 2-3 18 2-7 2 0 2 1 2 Tony Parker 37 3-13 0-5 3-4 9 0-5 9 1 2 0 1 Emanual Ginobili 36 4-12 1-3 3-4 12 3-7 4 1 4 0 0 Malik Rose 14 2-7 0-0 1-2 5 1-4 2 2 2 0 0 Hidayet Turkoglu 19 0-2 0-1 0-0 0 0-2 0 1 2 0 0 Anthony Carter 11 3-5 0-1 0-0 6 0-1 0 1 1 1 0 Robert Horry 8 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 0-0 0 0 2 1 0 Devin Brown 10 2-3 1-1 3-4 8 0-3 0 1 4 0 0 Totals 48 35-79 2-14 20-28 92 9-47 25 13 25 7 3 patricia