Keith Van Horn is back practicing with the team and may return to action in game 5 (chance for game 4, but not likely). Darrell Armstrong suffered a left knee contusion during his brief time on the court during game 3 and is listed as doubtful for game 4. Dirk Nowitzki says he will to play unless they amputate his leg. Nowitzki sprained his ankle late in game 3, but continued to play. Game 3: San Antonio at Dallas (May 13) San Antonio opened the game with a lineup change as Brent Barry started in place of the struggling Manu Ginobili. Devin Harris started again and converted a 3-point play and then Jason Terry hit a jumper to put Dallas up 9-4 with 9:25 to go. Harris had a layup and then after almost 2 minutes of non-scoring by both teams Harris hit a jumper to give Dallas a 17-9 lead with 5:20 remaining. [Ginobili came into the game with 6:35 left.] A layup by Josh Howard and 4 straight Dallas free throws gave the Mavs a 27-15 lead with 2:10 to go. 3 points by Tony Parker was all that was scored the rest of the quarter. Dallas led 27-18 after 1. San Antonio only shot 6-24 FG in the quarter. Dallas continued to lead in the 2nd quarter as the Spurs could get no closer than 5 points at 32-37 with 7 minutes remaining, and Harris then hit 2 free throws and converted a 3-point play to give Dallas a 10 point lead. A 3-point play by Dirk Nowitzki gave Dallas their largest lead at 51-38 with 2:35 to go. The teams traded buckets and Dallas fell apart over the last 2 minutes of the quarter as San Antonio scored the last 8 points of the quarter - and all 4 buckets came in the paint. Dallas led 53-48 at the half. Josh Howard had the first 4 points of the 3rd quarter to give Dallas a 57-48 lead with 10 minutes left. A layup by Tim Duncan with 8:55 remaining gave the Spurs their first points of the quarter and Duncan followed that up with a layup to pull San Antonio within 5 points. But Dallas then went on a 7-1 mini-run, capped by a 3-point play by DeSagana Diop, to go up 64-53 with 7 minutes left. Duncan tipped in a Ginobili miss and Dallas' did not have a double-digit lead the rest of the game. Parker hit 2 free throws and Ginobili hit 2 free throws to close the quarter. Dallas led 73-69 after 3. Marquis Daniels opened the 4th with a layup, but Duncan hit a bucket and Ginobili converted a 3-point play to pull San Antonio within 74-75 with 10:20 remaining. Terry hit Dallas' first (and only) 3-pointer of the game and Nowitzki hit 1-2 FT to give Dallas a 5 point lead with 9:20 left. San Antonio then went on a 6-2 mini-run to pull within 80-81 with 7:20 to go and the game stayed very tight the rest of the way. A bucket by Michael Finley and dunk by Bruce Bowen gave San Antonio a 86-85 lead with 5:45 remaining - San Antonio's first lead since 2 minutes into the game. It then became a game of which team would finally get a stop as Harris hit 2 free throws, Ginobili hit 2 free throws, Nowitzki hit 2 free throws, Parker got a layup, Harris missed but Nowitzki got the rebound and was fouled (Duncan's 5th) and he hit both free throws. Duncan converted a 3-point play to put San Antonio up 93-91 with 4:10 left. The teams traded turnovers [hey, a stop] and Erick Dampier tapped in Terry's miss. Duncan got 2 inside and Harris hit 2 free throws and Barry nailed a quick 3-pointer to give San Antonio a 98-95 lead with 3:10 remaining. Howard hit 1-2 FT, Parker fell and Duncan threw the ball away, and Harris was fouled driving and hit 2 free throws to tie the game at 98-98 with 2:25 left. Bowen took his eye off the ball and a pass went out of bounds and Harris airballed an open 3-point attempt. Ginobili drove and Howard got a clean block from behind but was called for the foul [and Joey Crawford showed great restraint in not giving Howard a technical for his actions after the call]. Ginobili hit 1-2 FT to give San Antonio a 1 point lead with 1:25 to go. Nowitzki drove and twisted his ankle as he stepped on Duncan's foot and Duncan was called for the body-contact foul - his 6th. After a timeout while the team attended to Nowitzki, Nowitzki was able to continue to play and hit both free throws to give Dallas a 100-99 lead with 1:05 remaining. The Spurs isolated Ginobili up on top with a small lineup and he drove and got the easy layup with 52 seconds left. Nowitzki got the ball with Parker on him on the wing and he spun in and then found an open Jerry Stackhouse on the right block and Stackhouse was able to get the layup to give Dallas a 102-101 lead with 31.4 seconds remaining. After a timeout, San Antonio again isolated Ginobili up top and he again drove for the easy layup to give the Spurs the lead with 21.4 seconds left. Dallas took a timeout and Stackhouse missed an 18-foot jumper, but Nowitzki had worked inside and got the rebound and was fouled. He hit both free throws with 7.9 seconds to go to give Dallas a 104-103 lead. San Antonio called timeout and couldn't get the ball inbounded so they used their last timeout. The ball was inbounded to Robert Horry and when he went to hand off the ball to Ginobili, Harris was able to reach in from behind Ginobili and tap the ball and it bounced off Ginobili's leg and went rolling down the court and went out of bounds just as Ginobili caught up with it. Dallas inbounded to Stackhouse and he was immediately fouled with 2 seconds left. He missed the first free throw and the tried to intentionally missed the 2nd free throw (with San Antonio out of timeouts), but the attempt bounced off the backboard without hitting the rim, resulting in Spurs ball out of bounds on the side in the back court. Barry made the long inbounds pass that Howard tapped away and Horry caught up to the loose ball and made the desperation heave that hit the side of the backboard as time expired. Dallas won 104-103. Dallas leads the series 2-1. Whoa. What an intense game. There were 12 lead changes and 2 pure ties (not including between 2-2 FT) in the last 6 minutes of the game. It seemed like Dallas was never going to make a stop at the end - and the Spurs couldn't get a stop either [the opposite of game 1 where neither team could score over the last few minutes]. But Devin Harris had the key defensive play in knocking the ball loose and Dallas got the win. Dallas did not play all that well as they went away from being aggressive and played more of a halfcourt game - they were aggressive early, but stopped attacking in the 2nd half. Dallas had 8 fast break points in the 1st quarter, 3 in the 2nd quarter, 4 in the 3rd quarter, and none in the 4th quarter. Dallas also struggled defensively when San Antonio went with a small lineup. I'm sure the Spurs were not happy with their performance either and both teams will make adjustments for game 4. Devin Harris attacking the basket and Dirk Nowitzki taking advantage of the Spurs playing small guys on him resulted in Dallas attempting a ton of free throws. Dallas shot 39-50 FT (with 35 attempts coming from those 2 players) and San Antonio shot 22-32 FT. From the field, Dallas shot 48.5% (32-66) FG including just 1-5 3-pointers and San Antonio shot 47.6% (39-82) FG including 3-10 3-pointers. Dallas out-rebounded San Antonio 39-36 but the Spurs had the slight edge with 13-12 offensive boards. Again the assists were low as both teams had just 12 assists. Dallas only out-scored San Antonio in the 1st quarter, but that 9 point 1st quarter lead ended up being just enough for a 1 point win. Game 4 is Monday at 8:30 pm in Dallas. Again I have to start with mentioning Devin Harris first. He continued to play well and had the key defensive play. He had a career high (including regular season) 24 points including 10-11 FT. He didn't have an assist in his 37 minutes and had 4 turnovers, but we're willing to look past that. Dirk Nowitzki was able to overcome his sprained ankle with a little over a minute left and remained in the game where he had 4 points (off of free throws), an offensive rebound, and the pretty assist to Jerry Stackhouse. Nowitzki had a double-double with 27 points and 15 rebounds including 4 offensive. He shot 3-9 FG and 21-24 FT (both team playoff records for makes and attempts). He did drive me nuts some as he wasn't looking for his shot and even seemed reluctant to shoot at times. Jason Terry had a nice game with 19 points, 3 rebounds, and 4 assists. Josh Howard only had little spurts of offensive and he let Manu Ginobili blow by him twice late in the game. He had 12 points and 7 rebounds in 35 minutes. DeSagana Diop and Erick Dampier spent their time trying to defend Tim Duncan and didn't do much besides focus on him [though the Mavs looked terrible defensively during the bits where the Mavs went without a true center]. Diop had 3 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 blocks and Dampier had 5 points and 6 rebounds. Jerry Stackhouse chipped in 10 points off of the bench. Marquis Daniels was the only other Mav to see significant minutes as Avery Johnson went with a short rotation. Daniels had 4 points and 3 assists in 13 minutes. Darrell Armstrong came in for the last 30 seconds of the 1st half and was called for a block as he tried to take a charge for his only stats. Tim Duncan again tried to carry the Spurs. [His whining about the fouls is getting to be annoying, though - and that's coming from a Timmy fan.] Duncan had a double-double with 35 points including 15-23 FG and 12 rebounds before fouling out late in the game. Manu Ginobili finally found the bucket and easily had his strongest game of the series. He had 24 points including 10-11 FT and 4 rebounds off of the bench. Tony Parker was the only other Spur in double-digits with 15 points. He also had 4 rebounds and 4 assists. Brent Barry had 8 points and 5 rebounds in 27 minutes as a starter. Bruce Bowen did spend some time on Josh Howard in this game, where as in the 1st 2 games he was almost purely on Dirk Nowitzki. Bowen had 7 points and 2 rebounds. Robert Horry started and only played 11 minutes (some due to foul trouble) and had 2 points on 0-5 FG and 2-4 FT and 4 rebounds including 3 offensive. Michael Finley had 6 points and Nick Van Exel had 2 points. Fabricio Oberto got the backup big man minutes as Gregg Popovich has gone completely away from playing with a true center (Nazr Mohammed played a minute and Rasho Nesterovic did not play). Oberto had 4 points, 3 rebounds - all offensive, and 4 fouls in 11 minutes. Quotes [Johnson's, Nowitzki's, first 6 of Terry's, Popovich's, and Duncan's quotes transcribed by me.] Avery Johnson: "The great news tonight is that we won. That's really the great news about tonight, we won the game. Again, take your hats off to the way our teams battled - both teams battled. But we've come a long way in the area of mental toughness. And that's what I'm most proud of tonight. Dirk is a warrior, Dirk is a warrior. Stackhouse is a warrior. And I can keep going on and on down the line. Josh Howard, he was fighting foul trouble tonight, is a warrior. But this wasn't our best game. Take your hat off to the Spurs, they made some really nice adjustments. We'll have to go back and have a lot of stuff to watch on film. But again, this is going to be a tough series. They were fortunate enough in game 1 for the ball to go their way and bounce their way and they won by 2. And we were fortunate enough tonight that the ball bounced our way and we won by 1. That's the good news, that we won. But we still got a lot of work to do." Johnson on the 4th quarter: "It was just both teams, their offense was really clicking pretty good and guys were making strong moves and guys were getting to the basket. For us, we're happy to have the win, but we had a lot of different breakdowns, a lot of things hopefully that are correctable." Johnson on Nowitzki's ankle: "We'll evaluate him after the game and we'll know more tomorrow." Johnson on Nowitzki's ankle "We're concerned about any of our players when they go down like that. But he's a warrior. He came back in there and gutted it out. He knew that we needed to have this game. Again, everybody starts talking about 2 years ago or 3 years ago when he got hurt, but we don't want to hear any of that foolishness. We're really thinking positive now. This is a different year, different team. So we'll hope and pray that he'll be okay." Johnson on Harris knocking the ball away, mistakeningly crediting Howard: "That was pretty special. You know, they got away from Josh 1 or 2 times at the end, but, boy, he had a big stop. And that's what I'm saying, you know, everybody wants to talk about how Josh when he scores 20 points or more we're undefeated. All that's good, but tonight with him getting that stop and that big turnover for us, I think that was bigger than him scoring 27 points and us winning by 20 points. See, it's easy when you win big and you're scoring a lot of points, but these are the games that I'm really searching for to see how mentally tough we are. And I thought win or lose, I thought we did some strong-minded stuff tonight." Johnson on Harris: "Devin is one of our better perimeter defenders. Like I was saying before the game, we got a lot of guys with Devin and JET and Josh and Marquis and even Stack that can cover a lot of ground for us defensively. But again, they drove us quite a bit tonight and got inside of our defense. So we'll have to do a better job. They only got 3 3s tonight, which is good. So again, with the way that we won tonight I'll have everyone's attention tomorrow during practice." Johnson on Dallas only having 1 3-pointer: "They're just chasing us off of the 3-point line. They're not giving as many 3s, they're not giving Dirk any looks at 3s. But again, this is the new improved Dirk. You can still go out and have a good game with not making 3s, by playing more underneath the basket. We've been asking him for offensive rebounds all year. And he's gotten 8 in this series. So that's kind of what we want when they're putting small guys on him. A lot of 2s and 3s are guarding him because they don't want him to shoot 3s. But last year he struggled with that, but this year he's much more confident." Dirk Nowitzki on his ankle: "As soon as I planted, I rolled it off of Duncan's ankle. It was pretty stiff but I'm glad that I got to finish the game and obviously a big win." Nowitzki on his ankle: "I rolled it pretty good, but I rolled it before, so it's no big deal. We'll get plenty of ice on it tonight and get some rest tomorrow and be ready for Monday." Nowitzki: "They kept coming, that's why they're the World Champs. They kept making plays. Duncan was phenomenal again. We showed character all season long. We buckled down, down the stretch we got some big stops, and got to the line some - that helped." Nowitzki on Stackhouse intentionally missing a free throw: "He's been in the league for 10 years, so you should know that it's got to hit the rim so that the clock will start. At least we got the win and we correct our mistakes." Nowitzki on Stackhouse intentionally missing a free throw: "I was wondering what the hell he was doing. But at least we won the game." Nowitzki on his ankle: "It's stiffen up pretty good. I thought I rolled it pretty nicely. You know, I rolled it once I planted and that's where you really have all your weight on your leg. So it's going to be pretty sore, but I'm going to stay probably up all night and ice and ice them tomorrow. We only got like 48 hours to the next game. Just do lots of treatment and be ready for Monday." Nowitzki on the pain in the ankle: "It's up there, but at least I was able to finish the game. Obviously it was a big win. Like I said, for me to miss a playoff game, it's got to be pretty bad." Nowitzki on his assist to Stackhouse: "I thought I saw Parker on me and I took him one way and wanted to spin in the lane and kind of finish in the lane and I saw like 3 guys charging over to my side, and it was kind of a tough pass over to Stack, because the spacing wasn't really great, but he made a heck of a finish there. He kind of jumped into Horry and laid it up and then it went in. So down the stretch, I think both teams played great offense; you know, there wasn't really much stops going on. Everybody was going back and forth and it was a great playoff game to be a part of." Nowitzki if he considered not playing due to the ankle: "Not really. It was pretty stiff, but like I said, as long as I was able to move and still do the things I want to do. And defensively I was on Bowen, and they're not really going to him or were going to isolate me anyway. So obviously my lateral movement is not the best anyways and so if they would have attacked me, I would have been in trouble, but I was able to stay on the court and be a factor." Nowitzki on the 2nd half: "I thought they had Duncan out there with 4 shooters. Duncan is playing phenomenal right now. He's unstoppable in the lane. Once we double-teamed, they drove our rotations, they hit some 3s, they got to the basket some. And that's why they're a great team. They're a great driving team, but they also got the spot-up shooters. They got Duncan working. So we couldn't really find a way to stop them in the 2nd half, but at least we kept making plays. Devin was great, made a lot of free throws that were big for us. So we kept coming too. And it was a heck of a ball game." Nowitzki on if Duncan fouled him: "As soon as I rolled my ankle, I was pretty much out. So I don't know, was that a foul or not, you tell me, I guess." Nowitzki: "Obviously we talked about it a lot that last year we stole game 2 on the road in Phoenix and then came home and gave basically the homecourt advantage right back to Phoenix and ended up losing that series. To keep this homecourt advantage, to keep the pressure on them a little bit for game 4, that was obviously big. We know they'll keep coming. They're the champs and they're going to be ready to play on Monday." Nowitzki on only 1 3-pointer by Dallas: "You know, I don't think we're a 3-point shooting team any more. These days we're a team that wants to take it in the lane, get points in the paint first. I think that's a tribute to Avery that really turned us from a jump shooting team into a driving team, to get some post-ups, get some baskets in the lane. But you got to give San Antonio credit. I think both teams have 2 or 3 or 4 good shooters and you got to find them and take 3s away. I think that's what both teams have been doing in this series. And I'm glad we got the win." Josh Howard: "I don't think anybody had control in the last 2 minutes." Howard on Nowitzki: "That's our All-Star and our MVP. He'll do whatever it takes for us to win. He got knocked down and shaken up, and he got back up to help us." Jason Terry on Harris and him: "... We play well together because we are similar a lot and that is we can break their defense down and if it's not there and he kicks it to me, I can hit the open shot and vice versa." Terry on the win: "It's what we needed to do. We're at home now and we got to protect our homecourt advantage. So as we look forward to game 4, it's very important that we come out and be aggressive, be assertive, really take the ball to the basket strong. Defensively, execute the game plan, which I thought we did for most parts tonight But in the 3rd and 4th quarter, you know, they got a lot of easy baskets, which we're trying to eliminate." Terry on his game: "Shots were falling and they were falling early. But about me, it's just being aggressive. You know, I have to look at the basket, especially the way they're playing Dirk. The other 4 guys out on the court have to stay aggressive and look to take opportunities when they're there. And they will be there the way their playing Dirk." Terry: "It doesn't get any easier. I mean, we're going to have to come out in game 4 and really execute on both ends of the floor, play our tempo, which we did again tonight. And we like our changes." Terry: "Yeah, I've seen that maturity in us that if something doesn't quite go our way, we don't put our head down or sulk about it, we just live on for the next possession. And we've been doing a great job of it this year where as last year we probably would have either got a technical or turn the ball over because we were distracted by something that happened 2 or 3 possessions ago. So we've have progressed in that area." Terry on the 4th quarter: "It was a similar game to game 1. I mean, it's just the score was a little higher, but exact same situation. We had the ball down 1, needed to get a basket. Dirk came up with a big rebound, made his free throws, and it was on us to get a stop. We say it all the time that we win games with our defense and tonight we had 2 critical stops there in the 4th quarter when it counted." Terry: "It was a big win for us. There are definitely a lot of ways that we can get better in situations like that at the end of the game. It just was a hard fought victory by us. We knew it was going to take that kind of effort to beat this team. They're the champions. You can't just beat the champs; you have to knock them out. We've got another at home and we have to take care of business." Terry: "We say win it with our defense and at the end, what better way to make a statement than to get 2 stops on the last 2 positions of the game. It was just big on Josh Howard's part, and Devin Harris breaking the defense down once again tonight was big. We've just got to continue to grow and get better as a team, stay humble and prepare ourselves." Terry on Harris and himself: "It was big. We were getting out in transition once again and we did run enough to get early offense and to get things rolling early." Terry: "Well, Dirk and Devin really attacked the basket tonight. Devin was 10-11 from the line, that was big, and Dirk made most of his. That's something we've been working on so we've got to continue to get better and attack and be aggressive. Against San Antonio you can't play passive basketball, when you do it allows them to get back into the game." Jerry Stackhouse: "We're not going to take it from them without a fight. We know that they're going to be fighting the next game even harder so we have to stay ready." Stackhouse: "We hope they don't have much more than they gave tonight, because they gave us a lot. We thought we had some separation from them, and they kept coming and coming." Stackhouse on his intentionally missed free throw: "I tried to hit back rim and wound up not hitting anything. I just overshot it." Stackhouse on his missed free throw: "In however many years of basketball I've played, I don't think I've ever been told to miss one before. I guess next time I'll just try to throw it on the rim a little bit." Stackhouse on Nowitzki: "He was attacking. He was getting in the lane and putting the pressure on them. 20 points is 20 points, no matter how you get it. We'll take it, whether he's putting it in [from the field] or putting it in from the free throw line." Stackhouse on Terry: "We're not worried about JT. He came out aggressive and he made a conscious effort to be aggressive. He's back and he'll continue to look for his shot." Devin Harris on his poke-away with 3 seconds left: "I saw him coming off. Handing off, he was kind of high. I was able to get a hand on it and kind of knock it away. I did my best without fouling him. I got a little piece of it and it was enough." Harris on San Antonio's defense: "[The lane] wasn't as open as it was in Game 2; I can tell you that." Harris on his confidence: "Sky high. I'm just being real aggressive, and I'm able to get to the basket." Harris: "I'm just able to get to the rim and be aggressive. It was just my night to get in the lane and make things happen." Harris: "The rhythm that I'm in, I guess I really can't explain it. I'm seeing what's out there on the floor and trying to make the most of it and hitting the high percentage play. For the most part, we know who our scorers are. I'm just a playmaker who happened to score a lot of points tonight." Harris on Terry and himself: "When we are both aggressive, we are a different team. That's the 3rd scoring threat we need, after Dirk and Josh." Gregg Popovich: "Well, good game by both teams. I thought we had a tough 1st half, tough 1st quarter and a half maybe, and then started to play a little bit better. We still got to play better basketball to beat these guys. But I thought for the 2nd half tonight, we might have figured some things out, played a little bit better defense. Hung in long enough, gave ourselves a chance. And then had a couple of mistakes down the stretch and Dallas took advantage of it." Popovich on if the last play was to go through Ginobili: "That's exactly what it was. [reporter: what happened?] The floor spaced a certain way and Manu and Robert were going to do a dribble hand-off and Manu was going to take it to the hole or pass it to an open guy, but let him be in charge of it. And I think it was Devin - I'm not sure, I'll have to look at the film - but I think Devin Harris got in between them and made a great play and knocked it out of Manu's hands." Popovich on the lineup change: "Some good, some bad; just like any other game. Give and take. But we'll have to switch around a little bit, depending on what's going on the court." Popovich on if Dallas is more intense than in the past: "No, they've always played intensely, but they have a great emphasis on defense now." Popovich on Oberto: "He's an active player. He does a good job on the board, good pick setter, and we just wanted to give him a shot and get him some time out there and see what we got." Popovich on Ginobili: "Manu did a good job. In the 2nd half, he seemed to get a 2nd wind and his legs looked pretty good. He had a little bit more elevation than he's had for a while, a little bit more lift. And we went to him. I thought he did a good job." Tim Duncan on watching the end from the bench: "It was incredibly frustrating because of the type of fouls that were called down the stretch there. Didn't think they were fouls and then to sit with that in such a short clock, I thought the guys did great. We got some good shots down the stretch there and Manu was big in making those shots, of course, and then we had that turnover. But just a frustrating time." Duncan on his 6th foul: "He didn't fall into me, he didn't touch me. I didn't touch him. He tried to draw contact, I moved out of his way. If he stepped on my foot, he stepped on my foot. But there was zero contact." Duncan on Ginobili: "Manu, down the stretch I thought he was really good. He kind of got a rhythm going there and started attacking that basket and then he did a great job of really getting us back into the game for one point there. It's going to be huge for him to do, to break that defense down and get into the seams there when they double-team or even if they don't double-team, they're going a great job of staying home with guys, with our shooters, and we're going to need that kind of slashing and kind of finishing down the middle." Duncan on the halfcourt game: "We always play our best game that way. And we're going to play our own pace. I think the difference in the game is how we defend people. We're going to have to stop people and get rebounds and whatever that leads to, whether it be a fast breaking game or a slow down game, that's what we need to do. But it predicates itself on us getting stops." Duncan on Dallas' fast start: "We caught up just fine. We had a chance to win. That's all you want to do down the stretch, especially on the road. Things didn't go our way down the stretch. I thought when we did get it to a tied game, they got something like 10 free throws in a row. We had to make shots and had to attack the basket. So we gave ourselves an opportunity to win." Duncan on being down 1-2: "It's the first team to 4. So the closer you are to that number, the harder it gets. And as you say, we're usually in the position where we're up after these 3 games, but it is what it is. We're going to have to really come out here and know the importance of this next game and really get this next game. It is a must win for us. We have to find a way to get it done and take it back to San Antonio and regain our homecourt." Manu Ginobili: "I was having a pretty good game and was making shots and layups that I usually make. When Tim went out, I think the next option was either Tony or me. Pop trusted me and I just tried to get something done, either drawing fouls or getting to the basket." Ginobili on the end of the game: "We just couldn't get a stop. Without that, we are not us." Ginobili on loosing the ball late in the game: "I don't know what happened. Someone tipped the pass from Robert. It was an unfortunate play." Ginobili on loosing the ball late in the game: "I've really got to watch it again. I don't know who tipped it on the pass. When Robert was handing it to me, somebody slapped it or it hit my legs and went out of bounds. So it was an unfortunate play." Ginobili on Duncan: "They had to make a decision: let him play 1-on-1 or double-team. We attacked very well, better than we did in Game 2. With all that, we were 1 possession away from winning the game. We played pretty well and we all believe we can improve." Ginobili on Popovich telling him he wasn't starting: "He told me and I said no problem, whatever is better for the team. But I don't think that was the main key of the game. We just play a pretty good game for a good part of the game, but we just commit too many mistakes." Ginobili on not starting: "I'm trying to contribute, bring energy from the bench, anything to help the team win." Ginobili on not starting: "I'm kind of used to it. It's happened many times. I was just trying to bring some energy from the bench and do what I could to help the team win." Brent Barry on starting: "We tried to mix it up a little bit. Manu is going to come in and be on the floor for the bulk of the minutes. Ultimately, it ended up being the same amount of minutes, and it was basically the same rotation that we've been playing." Barry: "I think the 2nd half we just did a much better job of getting the ball into Tim. You hate to waste an effort like Tim had tonight and not get a win out of it. Had he been on the court at the end of the game, things might have been a little bit different." Game 3: Dallas Mavericks 104, San Antonio Spurs 103 at Dallas (May 13) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 27 26 20 31 - 104 .508 .200 .485 .780 San Antonio 18 30 21 34 - 103 .500 .300 .476 .688 Halftime: Dallas 53-48 3rd Q: Dallas 73-69 Technicals: Dallas defensive 3 seconds 11:14 1st Refs: Joey Crawford, Joe DeRosa, Bill Spooner Attendance: 20,865 (sellout) IL: Keith Van Horn (Dal), Sean Marks (SA) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Jason Terry 41 8-15 1-2 2-2 19 1-3 4 3 3 1 0 Devin Harris 37 7-14 0-1 10-11 24 1-2 0 4 2 1 0 Dirk Nowitzki 43 3-9 0-0 21-24 27 4-15 3 3 2 1 1 Josh Howard 35 4-10 0-1 4-6 12 1-7 0 3 5 0 1 DeSagana Diop 19 1-2 0-0 1-1 3 1-5 0 0 4 0 3 Jerry Stackhouse 28 5-11 0-1 0-2 10 1-1 2 0 2 0 0 Erick Dampier 24 2-2 0-0 1-2 5 3-6 0 1 5 0 0 Marquis Daniels 13 2-3 0-0 0-2 4 0-0 3 0 2 0 0 Darrell Armstrong 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 1 0 0 Totals 48 32-66 1-5 39-50 104 12-39 12 14 26 3 5 San Antonio Spurs REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Tony Parker 38 6-16 0-0 3-4 15 2-4 4 2 4 2 0 Brent Barry 27 2-4 2-4 2-3 8 1-5 2 2 4 2 0 Tim Duncan 41 15-23 0-1 5-8 35 3-12 2 1 6 1 2 Bruce Bowen 39 3-5 1-1 0-0 7 1-2 1 2 5 1 0 Robert Horry 11 0-5 0-1 2-4 2 3-4 1 0 4 0 0 Manu Ginobili 32 7-16 0-2 10-11 24 0-4 1 2 4 0 0 Michael Finley 27 3-7 0-1 0-0 6 0-2 0 0 0 1 0 Nick Van_Exel 12 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 0-0 1 0 1 1 0 Fabricio Oberto 11 2-5 0-0 0-2 4 3-3 0 0 4 0 1 Nazr Mohammed 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 1 0 0 Totals 48 39-82 3-10 22-32 103 13-36 12 12 33 8 3 patricia Go Mavs!