Game 6: Phoenix at Dallas (May 20) Neither Keith Van Horn (sprained left ankle) nor Joe Johnson (fractured orbital bone) played in the game. Phoenix scored the first 4 points of the game, but Dallas rattled off the next 11 points to go up 11-4 with 8 minutes to go. Dallas continued to hold a single-digit lead over the next 5 minutes as Phoenix would get no closer than 2 points. A jumper by Leandro Barbosa tied the game at 24-24 with 2:25 left. The teams traded 2 points and Dallas closed the quarter with a 6-2 mini-run to go up 32-28 after 1. Amare Stoudemire had 10 points. Dallas out-scored Phoenix 20-10 in the paint in the quarter and both teams were shooting above 60% FG. A jumper by Jerry Stackhouse and a 3-pointer by Jason Terry gave Dallas a 39-30 lead with 10:30 to go. A putback by Erick Dampier gave Dallas their first double-digit lead at 45-34 with 8:15 remaining. Phoenix then scored the next 6 points, but Dallas answered with consecutive buckets. Phoenix pulled within 51-55 with 2:20 remaining, but Josh Howard hit 4 straight free throws and Dirk Nowitzki nailed a 3-pointer to give Dallas an 11 point lead. A layup by Steve Nash with a minute to go capped the scoring. Dallas led 62-53 at the half. Terry had 11 points and Nash had 10 points in the 2nd quarter. Dallas out-scored Phoenix 15-0 on fast break points in the quarter and Phoenix shot just 1-7 3-pointers. For the half, both teams were shooting 50% FG with Dallas shooting 23-46 FG and Phoenix shooting 20-40 FT. Phoenix pulled within 62-69 with 8:10 to go and a 3-pointer by Michael Finley kicked off an 11-2 run to put Dallas up 80-64 with 4 minutes left. But for some strange bizarre reason Dallas stopped playing their offense and just got stagnant as the shot clock would continually be running down and someone would have to force up an ugly shot. And the Mavs' defense also stunk it up as Phoenix switched into another gear and scored the next 13 points, capped by consecutive 3-pointers, to pull within 77-80 with 1:20 remaining. Terry hit a runner with a minute left and Howard's jumper rained through at the quarter buzzer to give Dallas an 84-77 lead after 3. Dallas resumed their sluggish offense and Phoenix opened the 4th quarter with a 14-2 run to go up 91-86 with 8:10 remaining, taking their first lead since 2 minutes into the game. Phoenix led 97-93 with 5:45 to go and Dallas went on a 10-2 run, capped by a 3-pointer by Nowitzki, to go up 103-99 with 4:05 left. The teams traded a number of misses (including a couple of ugly shots) and Stackhouse hit 1-2 FT to give Dallas a 104-99 lead with 2:40 remaining. Phoenix then went on a 7-1 run, capped by a 3-pointer by Nash, to go up 106-105 with a minute to go. Stoudemire fouled out with 1:40 remaining. Howard snuck baseline and Nowitzki found him off a nice feed and Howard's layup attempt was goaltended by Steven Hunter to put Dallas back up with 43 seconds left. Shawn Marion missed a shot and Nowitzki was fouled on the rebound. He hit both free throws to give Dallas a 109-106 lead with 27 seconds to go. Nash drove for the quick 2 and Stackhouse hit 2 free throws with 11 seconds left. Without calling timeout, Nash brought the ball up and drained the quick 3 with 5.6 seconds remaining to tie the game as Terry had backed off of him. Despite the coach and Terry calling for a timeout, Stackhouse brought the ball up and launched a 3-point attempt (not a good look) that bounced off the front of the rim and time expired. We had overtime at 111-111. Marion hit 2 free throws with 4:15 left. The teams traded misses and Terry nailed a 3-pointer to give Dallas a 114-113 lead with 3:30 to go. But Nash answered with a 3 a mere 10 seconds later. After Nowitzki missed inside (without a foul called on a lot of contact), Marion swished a 3-pointer with 2:55 to go. Dallas hit a shot, Phoenix hit a shot, Dallas hit a shot, and Phoenix hit a shot (with no misses in between) and Dallas hit 2 free throws and Phoenix hit 2 free throws and Phoenix led 125-120 with 1:15 left. Finley hit 2 free throws with a minute remaining. Quentin Richardson missed inside, but Terry knocked the ball out of bounds and Phoenix had a fresh shot clock with 40 seconds to go. Phoenix ran the clock down and Marion missed a long jumper with 2 seconds left on the clock. Nowitzki was tripped up bring the ball up with 14.7 seconds remaining and that sent him to the free throw line and sent Jim Jackson out of the game with his 6th foul. Nowitzki hit the first free throw, but missed the 2nd and Richardson was intentionally fouled with 13.5 seconds left. But he also went 1-2 from the line and Phoenix led 126-123. After a timeout, the ball was inbounded to Nowitzki and he took one dribble sideways and turned and fired, but his 3-point attempt bounced off the back of the rim and Nash was fouled with 8.3 seconds left. Nash, of course, hit both free throws. Terry did nail a 3-pointer with 3 seconds left, but Marion iced the game with 2 free throws with a little over a second to go. Phoenix won 130-126 in overtime. It was a game that Dallas did not deserve to win after the pathetic performance they showed during a stretch from several minutes left in the 3rd quarter to a few minutes into the 4th. As seen throughout the year, with the rare exception of game 7 vs Houston, this team does not have the killer instinct of when you put a team down, never letting them back up. Due to their sluggish offense, and Phoenix's will to win, Dallas let a 16 point lead evaporate in a mere 6:15 of game time. As much as I love the Mavs and hoped I was wrong, I never saw the elements, including killer instinct, that make up a championship caliber team. Phoenix was the much better team, though not deep, and was able to stick to their game plan for all 6 games while Dallas could not play them straight up and had to change things up to try to get Phoenix to do things they did not want to do - not criticizing the strategy, but it is a sign that one team is better than the other. Dallas' defense was once again lax and allowed Phoenix to score 19 points in the overtime, despite Amare Stoudemire having fouled out in regulation. The 19 points set a Mavs opponent record for most points in a playoff overtime, surpassing the previous record of 14 points (and the regular season record is 23 points). Dallas only shot 4-11 FG in overtime and were out-rebounded 7-4. Dallas did not have a single fast break point in the 4th quarter or overtime while Phoenix had 12 fast break points in the 4th quarter and overtime. For the game, Phoenix shot 49.5% (48-97) FG including 13-27 3-pointers - including 10-17 3-pointers after halftime. Dallas shot 43.3% (42-97) FG including 7-20 3-pointers. Phoenix shot 21-30 FT and Dallas shot 35-43 FT. Phoenix out-rebounded Dallas 55-47 including 15-11 offensive. Despite the high score, neither team shared the ball much as Phoenix had 18 assists (with all but 6 coming from Steve Nash) and Dallas had just 13 assists. Phoenix takes the series 4-2 and advances to the Western Conference Finals and Dallas goes home for the summer. Steve Nash continued his stupendous series and nearly had another triple-double. He had 39 points including 14-24 FG and 5-8 3-pointers, 9 rebounds including 5 offensive, and 12 assists in playing 50 minutes. Shawn Marion stepped up as Amare Stoudemire had a subpar game. Marion had 38 points including 4-7 3-pointers and 16 rebounds. He scored 11 of Phoenix 19 points in overtime. Stoudemire had just 18 points on 7-11 FG and 4-7 FT, 6 rebounds, and 5 turnovers before fouling out in 32 minutes. Quentin Richardson struggled with his shot but was good on the rebounds. He had a double-double with 11 points including 4-13 FG and 0-4 3-pointers and 13 rebounds in playing a game high 52 minutes. Jim Jackson had 16 points including 4-7 3-pointers and 7 rebounds before fouling at the end of overtime. Steven Hunter had 4 points on 2-2 FG and 0-2 FT, 1 rebound, and 2 blocks in 16 minutes - his minutes being up with Stoudemire's foul troubles. Walter McCarty didn't attempt a shot and missed 2 free throws and had 2 rebounds in 12 minutes. Leandro Barbosa had 4 points and 2 assists in 9 minutes. Jason Terry was an offensive stud, but got ripped royally (especially by Dirk Nowitzki during the pre-overtime break) for his lax defense on Steve Nash's game tying 3-pointer. He had 36 points including 4-7 3-pointers, 5 rebounds, and 2 steals, but just 2 assists in 48 minutes. Dirk Nowitzki had 28 points on 9-25 FG and 8-10 FT, 13 rebounds, and 6 assists in 51 minutes. As usual, Josh Howard enjoyed the home cooking and had a double-double with 21 points and 14 rebounds. Jerry Stackhouse struggled from the field and should have called timeout for the last play of regulation. He did make it to the line a lot and had 19 points on 4-13 FG and 11-12 FT, but just 2 rebounds, no assists, and 2 turnovers in 38 minutes. Michael Finley had a miserable outing and has a long summer to reflect on his poor performance. He had just 7 points including 2-10 FG and 1-5 3-pointers and 5 rebounds in 31 performance limited minutes. Erick Dampier had 13 points including 6-8 FG and 6 rebounds in 30 minutes. Alan Henderson had 2 points and 2 rebounds in 15 minutes and Darrell Armstrong didn't attempt a shot in 6 minutes. Surprisingly, Marquis Daniels did not play. It was the first consecutive wins streak in the series as the teams had alternated wins up to game 6. Both teams scored over 100 points in each of the 6 games. Steve Nash showed his MVP form in averaging 30.3 points on 55% FG and 25-26 FT, 6.5 rebounds, and 12 assists in the 6 games of the series. Amare Stoudemire averaged 28.8 points including 54.5% FG and 12.5 rebounds. Shawn Marion averaged 23.3 points including 12-23 3-pointers and 12.2 rebounds. For Dallas, Dirk Nowitzki led the way with 26.5 points and 11.5 rebounds. Jerry Stackhouse averaged 18.7 points but shot just 37.2% FG and averaged 5 rebounds. Josh Howard averaged 17.7 points including 55% FG and 8.3 rebounds. Quotes [D'Antoni's, Nash's, Marions, AJohnson's, and Nowitzki's quotes transcribed by me] Mike D'Antoni: "You know, just an unbelievable series. Just great basketball. Both teams, they showed a lot of heart coming out as hard as they could go. So many big plays, so many big things, so many little, you know, the ball goes in, the ball goes out. I don't even know where to start commenting. Obviously we had a few guys that stepped up and just played big. And they did the same thing. I can't wait to watch it again on DVD just to see if I could enjoy it, because I couldn't enjoy that one." D'Antoni on pick-and-roll being defended: "Well, you know, we're just playing. They did a great job, they came out with so much energy. And we, especially the 1st half, Steve over-penetrated a little bit; I think he made a couple of mistakes, not much. But we were over-penetrating and I thought we made some, we got caught up in their quickness and we were just trying to make too hard of passes and we just didn't let the game come to us early. And that was because they were so jacked up and all over the place. They did a great job. But I think we settled down - maybe we got tired - we kind of settled down a little bit and sometimes that works. But nothing that we really adjusted and Steve just started picking people out and you're just not going to cover it all the time. And I thought they did a lot better job, obviously, but we had some guys that just made unbelievable shots. I mean, Steve's last shot to tie the game to go into overtime was just incredible." D'Antoni: "It was fortunately that we were playing Dallas. I was asking somebody if we got anybody that has anything against San Antonio. [laughs] I'm going to try to manufacture something in there, you know. We have Jimmy Jackson that's played for 12 teams, hasn't been on San Antonio's team, so that didn't work." D'Antoni on Nash not being fouled prior to his tying 3-pointer: "Well, you know, that's one thing we've been kind of doing - we don't call a lot of timeouts and give them a chance, you know, they could have been yelling that and you can't hear it in here. So we didn't called a timeout, and they might have done that. And they also get the 3 with some time on there. So it's a dicey sort of thing. I mean, it's easy to say afterwards that, oh, he should have fouled him, but that's a heck of a shot at that time and you could have fouled when he was shooting it then you'd really look bad. So there's just so many, I know that theory is out there and some people subscribe to it, some don't, and this time it just worked for us." D'Antoni on mental toughness: "You know, that's something that's a little bit over looked by, not critics I wouldn't say, but just guys that just really didn't believe in it. They just didn't see the heart in this team that we've have at different times on the road. You know, we've shown that a lot. We've come from 14 down in 2 minutes. We've won a lot of games just like we won tonight. And they just don't quit. We're getting good shots every time. And we get lucky, you know, we miss some, the game's over, they won and it goes down. But we were hitting our shots and these guys just, whoever it is - and I'm surprised that Q [Richardson] missed his shots, because I'm telling you he would have knocked them down, I'm sure he's ticked off as heck because I would live with him shooting that shot any day of the week." D'Antoni on Nash: "Yeah, and you know, he only played 50 minutes today. So he's probably a little tired. He probably won't go tomorrow, but Sunday he'll go another 50. I just don't believe in that theory, I don't think he wore out. I think they get worn out everyone telling them how tired they are. But we have guys, they could go right now, they're ready to roll. I think mentally he's just tough. And, you know, it's a little extra, I mean, it's Dallas, there's a little extra pep in step, and I don't blame him, there's a lot of adrenalin going there. So I'm sure it's a big moment, I'll let him talk about that, but it was a big moment for him." D'Antoni on Marion: "He said he could score 40 if I'd draw a play up [for him], that's probably if I'd give him 1 more he'd have 40 and he's right, probably." D'Antoni on Marion: "Shawn's been like that all year. You can have down games, but Shawn, what was he, he was 38 and 16. And I mean, the guy is good. These guys, I mean, Nash, Stoudemire, Shawn, Jimmy's playing, all of them, these guys are good. Hope everybody realizes it now." Steve Nash on defeating Dallas: "Of course, it's hard. I mean, even the whole organization - obviously Dirk and Mike and Josh and Marquis, I played with - but the coaches, the scouts, everyone in the organization, you know, was dear to me and important people in my life for 6 years. It goes as far as to all the season ticket holders around the court. You know, you get to know them. Everyone congratulated me and has been terrific to me not only in my 6 years, but throughout this series too. So it was difficult to have to see them go home, but it was very fun for us to continue to reach to new heights." Nash on playing without Stoudemire: "It was obviously not what we wanted. But, you know, we couldn't get any breaks and he kept getting some kind of tick-tack fouls and it piled up. And he played his butt off and it was a hard night for him to play as hard as he can and to pick up some cheap fouls and to not get to close the game out. So we just came together again. You know, we lost Joe for an extended period, we lost Amare down the stretch, and we came together once again and found it within us to kind of get it done." Nash on his game tying 3-pointer at the end of regulation: "It's a tough play to defend. We run a bunch of pick-and-rolls and we push the ball down the court. It's really difficult to defend someone who's pushing the ball full speed down court. You don't know if he's going to come off a pick-and-roll, you don't know if he's going to go in for a quick 2 - I'm not sure exactly the time was - but, you know, if he's going to go in for the quick 2, or pull-up. But going at that speed, you can get some separation, so I figured I'd get a pretty good look at it." Nash on his 3-pointer: "I knew we needed a 3. So I pushed the ball and was going to try to get a 3 and it's kind of just math." Nash on Marion: "I'm always impressed with Shawn. I mean, I don't know how he wasn't on the All-Defensive team, first of all. He's always been a terrific defender for us, guards different people, blocks shots, steals, you know, makes it hard for people, deflections. You know, and offensively, what can you say about a guy that doesn't need any plays drawn for him and gets 20 and 10. He's just a huge part of our team and affords us a huge luxury with his talent." Nash: "It was a great win. We really hung in there and we stuck together and we didn't fold the few times that we could have. I think it was important to us to not have to play a game 7. I think it was important for us to stick with it and prove how tough we are to our selves. But it's just the 2nd round. So we move on." Shawn Marion on Stoudemire fouling out and he stepping up: "The majority time of the game when Amare's in the game, he does the pick-and-roll the majority of the time, because at the same time if they don't guard him, he just slips to the basket and dunks on somebody. If he ain't in the game, I guess it's my opportunity to get a chance to dunk on somebody or slip to the basket and get a chance. So it just worked out either way, either way." Marion on being 16 points down and not worried: "No, that's our mentality. It's been like that all year long. [Nash: "Liar."] That's our mentality all year long. When we get down, we always have this urgency to get back into the game. We know 16 points ain't nothing 'cause we can score 16 points in a couple of minutes. It's just a matter of us staying focused and making sure we can go out there and get some stops." Marion: "It was just my feel for the game at the time. I think, like I said, Amare was in foul trouble most of the game, so at the same time, I was getting more involved and he [Nash] was finding me. I had it going. So at the same time, we had options out there and, you know, he's always got options when he comes off the pick-and-roll, so it's just a matter of who we find and who we go to." Avery Johnson: "First of all, I want to congratulate the Phoenix Suns on a hard fought series. They played extremely hard this whole series. They proved that there was a reason why they had the best record in the NBA this year. They played their style of play. They didn't change, they stuck with their system, and it was really affective. Also want to say Steve Nash had an incredible series. Obviously I worked here with him for a year and a half. But he's playing as good of basketball as I've seen him play in his career. I'm really thankful and I thank God for the opportunity to coach this basketball team, the Dallas Mavericks. They poured their hearts out this year. They endured a lot of injuries. They endured a coaching change. And to win 58 games and to advance in a hard fought series against the Rockets in the 1st round and to extend this series, I just want to tell the players again, like I told them in the locker room - I wasn't prepared to give them a speech - but I love them and I'm proud of them, I'm glad that I'm their coach. We have a good situation here. Obviously we can use some tweaking like everybody else, but we have a good situation here, good nucleus, and I'm really excited and I'm raring to go already for next October. But again, Phoenix, they played a great series, hard fought series, classy organization, and they deserved to win. I also want to just say to our owner Mark Cuban, who's a great owner, we appreciate his support and his enthusiasm. And also all of our fans who showed up night in and night out to support this basketball team, we're so disappointed that we didn't win this game tonight for you. But we'll come back." Johnson: "We got a good situation here. We were 1 of 5 teams still alive right now playing basketball. Again sometimes when you don't win it, it always seems like a lost season. Obviously I'm paid to win a championship. I'm here to win a championship. If I don't win a championship in the next couple of years, then they need to get somebody else. That's what I'm here for, to help this team get to a championship level. Do we have the right foundation? Yes. But there is another level for us to go to. And we have some players that never endured the playoffs before, you know, Jason Terry and Dampier and Devin Harris a little bit. So again, we have some good pieces here and but again, we got to get to the next level." Johnson on Nash's game tying 3-pointer at the end of regulation: "Well, again, we didn't want to give up any 3s. We would have preferred that. And after the shot went in, we wanted to get a timeout and get the ball in to Dirk's hands, but we just couldn't get it. And unfortunately we didn't get a great shot, but Stack had the ball, he thought he had something good, and sometimes during that situation if you can't get the defense set, it's a good time to push it. Just don't think we had enough time. But again, Jerry Stackhouse, what a warrior, what a warrior. I love coaching him. He and I fight behind the scenes half the time on a lot of different things. But I love coaching that guy because he's a warrior. So even though he got the ball in and took that shot, that's okay. You know, I love Stackhouse." Johnson on fouling Nash prior to the 3-pointer: "Yeah, we talked about it, he [Terry] just backed up too much. He backed up too much. If he didn't foul him, we definitely didn't want to give up a 3. We wanted to try to first black him, what we call black him, deny him the ball, that's the first thing, I didn't want him to touch the ball. So again, it just didn't happen and unfortunately we had a couple of break downs there where Nash just made us pay." Johnson on next season: "I think again, we got a good situation here. I think a lot of times when, you know, you don't want to blow up this team. We won 58 games and, you know, we're one of the best teams in the NBA, west and east. So I think we made some progress. You know, I've only coached them for 18 full games in the regular season. Obviously we had a strong finish to this season and during this playoffs. So give us a chance to come back, see what we can do, allow us to implement our system on a full time yearly basis and then we'll see where we can go. I tell you what, another thing, obviously they were without Joe Johnson, but I think we really missed Van Horn also during this series because, you know, that acquisition really helped take us to the next level." Johnson on Phoenix's comeback: "Yeah, they can score in bunches, you know. We already had to burn a couple of timeouts so I was trying to weather the storm a little bit, and we did. We got back, got a hold of game. But again, this team, the Suns, they play like a championship caliber team. The Suns and the Spurs, that will be a great series." Johnson on Nowitzki's late 3-pointer in overtime: "Yeah, you know, we wanted to take a 3, but we wanted to take a good one. And you know, obviously we wanted to get the ball in Dirk's hands and, you know, he faked like we wanted him to and both guys went with Finley and Marion jumped at Finley a minute and got back to Dirk, and probably could have gotten a better look in that situation, but Dirk thought he had something good and we stand behind him - it looked good from when he shot it." Johnson on Nowitzki's frustration at the end of regulation: "Yeah, again, I just think he thought, you know, when he was driving, there was a lot of contact, but obviously they didn't think so." Dirk Nowitzki on Nash: "We got to see that he played an unbelievable series, I mean, he really showed that he was the MVP. He made some unbelievable plays, not only today to win the game, but in the last couple of games, or in every game they won he was phenomenal. I don't know what else to say. I mean, I've never seen him in my, whatever, 7 years, I've never seen him play better than this. And obviously, I don't know what got him going, but I think he really wanted to show the whole Dallas what we missed, and he did that." Nowitzki on the future: "You know, I can't really say that right now, it's still pretty early after the season. I mean, obviously I thought we had all the right pieces that we needed to go all the way. I just think that we weren't smart enough, you know. With Steve leaving, I think overall our basketball IQ wasn't great. We jut made too many errors offensively and defensively. Just, you know, I think we should have beaten that team and end the series, to be honest. Game 3, we should have never lost game 3 after we just stole home court. Game 5 we were right there, we were still up going into the 4th and then give them a 40 point quarter. Today, we had the game won, up by 3 with a couple of seconds to go and let Steve dribble up and shoot a wide open 3. I mean, they were, those were just stupid mistakes that should never happen in an NBA playoffs. Like I said all season long, I think our basketball understandings and our IQ wasn't high enough to be up where we want to be." Nowitzki on Nash's 3 at the end of regulation: "Well, I mean, just go to him. We just let him dribble up and shoot a wide open 3. I don't know, we could have fouled, that's an option. But, I don't know, you could have fouled, you could have stuck with him and made it at least a tough shot. And then we don't call a timeout with like 5 seconds to go. And we go up there, I mean, Stack had a good look at it, but, you know, probably 28 other teams in this situation would have called a timeout, would have got a good play. So, like I said, it was just another mistake that we made." Nowitzki on his 3-point attempt in overtime: "At that time, we're down 3 with like 10 seconds or whatever, so obviously we needed a 3. I thought I had a good look at it. I faked the hand off and took a dribble and Shawn was right there. I still shot it over him, put some arch on it and it just didn't go in." Nowitzki: "Obviously you always don't feel great after you lose in the playoffs. So obviously we're all a little frustrated and disappointed right now. But you know, we didn't reach our goal, and that's go all the way. So obviously something was missing or something wasn't right, I mean, otherwise we would have gone all the way. So we'll see what happens in the off season. You know, all we can do is take a little time off and then work as hard as ever. I know I will. You know, it wasn't the greatest playoff run myself that I had and I was pretty disappointed with a couple of games that I had. And so I know that I'm going to go back and going to be pissed off all summer and that's going to drive me even more during the summer and work harder and get in even better shape, if possible, and make another great run at it next year and be even more dedicated, if that's possible, and just try everything I have." Nowitzki on improving a team's IQ: "That's not that easy. I don't know." Nowitzki on coaching change: "I think Avery changed the whole system around a little bit. I think Nellie's style was obviously fun and run-and-gun, but we never won anything in the playoffs here. You know, we went to the Western Conference Finals once, but we never got over the hump. So that style of basketball was obviously great during the regular season, but it never took us any where. So I think Avery changed it around a little bit, get more low post prescence - we never really had low post prescence in my career here. And I think in the playoffs if you want to win, that's what you need to have. You need to have some points in the paint. So that's why we did more of the post up, but obviously that's not my strength yet, you know. So my game is still the face-up from 15, 16 feet, that's what I did all season long. But you got to give Houston and Phoenix credit. They played me with smaller guys and made me do something that I really don't feel that comfortable yet. I think some good strong moves in the low post, but it can still get a lot better over the years. I take a lot of the blame on myself, obviously, and I want to be even better at it next year and I want to be, my game, I want to be at the point once where it doesn't matter who's going to play, I'm just going to take what they give me. If they play even smaller, just go down there and punish them. If they play with a big, go out and take them out on the dribble. That's ultimately my goal where I'm going to be a complete player. And, you know, it's going to be another summer of hard work and obviously, like I said, my low post game is not at the point where I want it to be." Nowitzki: "We have a bright future, obviously. We still have guys under contract. We have all the young guys, who obviously I think have a huge upside to their game. Marquis and Josh. Josh already developed into one of the better small forwards in this league. And Devin, obviously as a rookie, you never know what to expected. And I think he really worked hard all season long. And he can be our point guard of the future in these next couple of years, but obviously he's got a lot to learn in a very good league how to control the game. He's still very young. He's just making mistakes all over the place, but like I said, he's trying and he's going to be a really nice point guard in the future." Nowitzki on if it's his team: "Yeah, I mean, I thought so before the playoffs. But then I had a subpar at best first round and we still came out of it with some amazing play by Jason, who really made some really big plays that first series. You know, Mike, Stack have good games here and there in the first series. But obviously in the second series I wanted to be more of a factor. I had a couple of good games, but I just wasn't enough. Like I said earlier, I'm very disappointed in my post-season games. And I just have to go back and look at some stuff and be even better next year and work harder." Jerry Stackhouse on Nash: "Before the series I wasn't sure he was the MVP, but I definitely believe he's the MVP of the league now." Stackhouse on Nash: "The MVP made MVP plays all night. We gave it our all. It just wasn't enough." Stackhouse on Nash's game tying 3-pointer: "You just can't give up a 3 at that point. We've got to do everything we can to make a guy drive and get 2 points. We backed off of him, he was in a groove and feeling good, he just stepped right into it and knocked down a 3." Jason Terry on Nash's game tying 3-pointer: "I definitely didn't want him to get off a 3. I let him walk right into it." Josh Howard: "They wanted it more than us at the end. They caught fire, hit some big 3s at the end and that was it." Game 6: Phoenix Suns 130, Dallas Mavericks 126 OT at Dallas (May 20) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th OT - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Phoenix 28 25 24 34 19 - 130 .500 .481 .495 .700 Dallas 32 30 22 27 15 - 126 .455 .350 .433 .814 Halftime: Dallas 62-53 3rd Q: Dallas 84-77 Technicals: none Refs: Ron Garretson, Bernie Fryer, Derrick Stafford Attendance: 20,915 (sellout) Did not play due to injury: Joe Johnson (fractured orbital bone), Keith Van Horn (sprained left ankle) Phoenix Suns REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Steve Nash 50 14-24 5-8 6-6 39 5-9 12 4 5 0 1 Jim Jackson 43 6-14 4-7 0-0 16 1-7 0 1 6 0 0 Quentin Richardson 52 4-13 0-4 3-4 11 3-13 3 3 5 1 0 Shawn Marion 51 13-28 4-7 8-9 38 4-16 1 1 4 2 1 Amare Stoudemire 32 7-11 0-0 4-7 18 1-6 0 5 6 0 1 Steven Hunter 16 2-2 0-0 0-2 4 1-1 0 0 2 0 2 Walter McCarty 12 0-0 0-0 0-2 0 0-2 0 0 2 0 1 Leandro Barbosa 9 2-5 0-1 0-0 4 0-1 2 0 1 1 0 Totals 53 48-97 13-27 21-30 130 15-55 18 15 31 4 6 Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Jason Terry 48 13-25 4-7 6-9 36 0-5 2 1 4 2 1 Michael Finley 31 2-10 1-5 2-2 7 2-5 1 0 4 2 0 Dirk Nowitzki 51 9-25 2-5 8-10 28 3-13 6 2 5 0 0 Josh Howard 46 7-14 0-1 7-8 21 3-14 3 3 4 2 1 Erick Dampier 30 6-8 0-0 1-2 13 2-6 1 0 4 1 2 Jerry Stackhouse 38 4-13 0-2 11-12 19 0-2 0 2 0 0 0 Alan Henderson 15 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 1-2 0 0 2 0 0 Darrell Armstrong 6 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 1 3 1 1 Totals 53 42-97 7-20 35-43 126 11-47 13 9 26 8 5 patricia have a great summer