Game 7: Dallas at San Antonio (May 22) This great series had come down to a win-or-go-home game 7 and the place was rocking in the barn. San Antonio stayed with the same starting lineup they had used in the past 2 games. Dallas had Jason Terry back and in the starting lineup and Jerry Stackhouse returned to his 6th man role. The adjustment move came from Avery Johnson as he started Erick Dampier in place of DeSagana Diop. Dallas came out on fire and jumped out to a 9-2 lead with 10:15 remaining and San Antonio called their first timeout of the game. A dunk by Dampier gave Dallas a 17-8 lead with 8 minutes to go as Dallas hit their first 6 shots. San Antonio scored on consecutive layups (with a Dallas turnover in the middle) to pull within 12-17 with 7:10 left, but they would get no closer than 5 points in the quarter. Dallas missed their first shot of the game with 6:45 remaining. Keith Van Horn came in a played center midway through the quarter as Johnson was electing not to play Diop for now. Van Horn nailed a 3-pointer to give Dallas a 26-17 lead with 4 minutes to go. Johnson's different rotation continued as Darrell Armstrong (who had played in just 5 total minutes in 3 games of this series, DNPing in 3 games) came in for Devin Harris with 4:15 left and played the rest of the quarter. San Antonio pulled within 23-30 with 2:45 left, but Terry hit a 3-pointer and a jumper by Terry with 1:30 remaining gave Dallas a 35-23 lead. Dallas led 37-27 after 1. Josh Howard had 11 points in the quarter, but also had 2 fouls. Tony Parker had 12 points. Dallas shot an amazing 15-18 FG in the quarter. The Spurs were able to stay within reach as they shot 10-14 FT while Dallas shot 4-4 FT. Manu Ginobili opened the 2nd quarter with a dunk to pull San Antonio within 29-37 with 11:40 to go, but the Spurs would then go through a long scoring drought in missing their next 7 shots. Dallas scored the next 10 points (with 4 Mavs scoring) to go up 47-29 with 6:55 remaining. A jumper by Bruce Bowen with 6:40 left ended San Antonio's almost 5 minute scoring drought. A 3-pointer by Bowen pulled San Antonio within 36-49 with 5:25 to go, but Terry answered with consecutive 3-pointer to give Dallas a 55-36 lead with 4:25 left. A 3-point play by Dirk Nowitzki gave Dallas their largest lead at 58-30 with 3:15 remaining. San Antonio then went on an 8-2 run to pull within 46-60 with 1:15 left. Dallas led 64-50 at the half. Terry had 10 points in the 2nd quarter. For the half, Dallas shot 69.4% FG and 9-9 FT and San Antonio shot 53.1% and 13-17 FT. The Spurs got a long halftime lecture. Parker opened the 3rd quarter with a jumper, but Dallas scored the next 4 points to go up 68-52 with 10:30 remaining. Dampier picked up his 4th foul with 10:10 left and he sat for the next 7 minutes. San Antonio hit 4 straight free throws and a slam by Tim Duncan pulled the Spurs within 58-68 with 9 minutes to go and Dallas called timeout. Howard committed his 4th foul flying at Ginobili when he was behind the arc and Ginobili hit 3 free throws to pull San Antonio within 65-74 with 6:05 remaining. Dallas missed their next 3 shots and a 3-point play by Duncan capped 8 straight points by the Spurs to pull them within 70-74 with 4:25 left. The teams traded buckets and Dallas then went on an 8-2 run, including 2 3-pointers by Van Horn, to go up 84-74 with 55 seconds to go. San Antonio scored the last 4 points of the quarter. Dallas led 84-78 after 3. Duncan had 13 points in the 3rd quarter. Dallas didn't attempt a free throw in the 3rd while San Antonio shot 10-11 FT. Dampier picked up his 5th foul a mere 30 seconds into the 4th quarter. Duncan scored the first 4 points of the quarter to pull San Antonio within 82-84 with 10:50 remaining. Nowitzki then hit 2 free throws (ending Dallas' 14 1/2 minute drought without a free throw attempted) and Stackhouse converted a 3-point play to put Dallas up 89-82 with 9:55 left. Howard picked up his 5th foul with 9:30 to go. A jumper by Nowitzki gave Dallas a 93-84 lead with 8:20 left, but Ginobili drained a 3-pointer to kick off a 7-1 Ginobili run to pull the Spurs within 91-94 with 6:35 remaining. Nowitzki then hit 2 free throws as Dallas was continuing to cling to the small lead. Van Horn collected his 6th foul with 4:10 to go and Ginobili hit 2 free throws to pull San Antonio within 93-96. The teams traded buckets and Howard hit 1-2 FT to give Dallas a 99-95 lead with 3 minutes remaining. The teams traded misses and Duncan spun in for the layup. Howard cut to the basket and Nowitzki found him and Howard was fouled and hit both free throws to give Dallas a 101-97 lead with 2 minutes remaining. Finley buried the wide open 3-pointer from up top with 1:15 left. Terry drove and missed with 1:30 to go. Dampier fouled Duncan in the post and that was Dampier's 6th. Duncan hit 1-2 FT to tie the game at 101-101 with 1:10 remaining (the first tie since the game started). Nowitzki missed the elbow fade away jumper with 50 seconds to go. Duncan kicked out to an open Ginobili and he drained the 3-pointer to give the Spurs their first lead at 104-101 with 32.2 seconds remaining. After a timeout, Dallas got the ball to Nowitzki and he drove on Bowen and went in for the layup and got hit on the wrist by the helping (who wasn't supposed to help) Ginobili and the ball bounced in. Nowitzki hit the extra free throw and the game was again tied with 21.6 seconds to go. San Antonio called timeout to set up a play. Ginobili ran the clock down and drove and missed the layup, Duncan got the rebound and his putback attempt was blocked and there was overtime at 104-104. Dallas only shot 4-17 FG in the 4th quarter, but did get to the line some as some calls finally went their way as Dallas shot 7-8 FT. San Antonio shot 8-17 FG and 12-14 FT in the 4th in out-scoring Dallas 26-20 to tie the game. Diop started the overtime and played all but the last 15 seconds of OT. He blocked Duncan's short shot attempt and grabbed the rebound after Duncan missed his quick 2nd attempt. Nowitzki found an open Howard near the basket as Ginobili left to double Nowitzki and Howard got the easy layup with 4:20 remaining, but Parker hit the 10-foot jumper with 4 minutes to go. Terry drew 2 defenders as Diop set the screen-and-roll and Diop cut to the basket and Terry passed between the 2 to Diop for the easy soft dunk to give Dallas a 108-106 lead with 3:30 left. Duncan shuffled his feet in the post and was called for the travel as Diop pulled the chair. Dallas had nice passing around the arc and Stackhouse took a dribble in and drained the 18-footer to give Dallas a 4 point lead with 3 minutes left [and a good example of how Dallas' ball movement doesn't always result in a credited assist]. Howard collected his 6th foul with 2:45 to go to become the 3rd Mav to foul out. The teams traded a pair of free throws. After Duncan missed, Stackhouse hit the fade away 15-foot baseliner to give Dallas a 114-108 lead with 1:45 remaining. At the other end of the court, Duncan got the ball in the post drove across the lane for short hook with 1:35 left. Terry missed late in the shot clock (Dallas' first miss in overtime). Duncan missed the 5-footer, missed the tap in attempt, and Nowitzki grabbed the rebound with 50 seconds to go. Terry missed a 3-point attempt as the shot clock was running out and the rebound was batted and then snagged by Diop and he was fouled with 22.7 seconds left. He hit 1-2 FT to give Dallas a 115-110 lead. San Antonio called timeout. Harris had the bonehead play of the night as he was called for a foul as Finley tried to go across the lane before the ball was inbounded - and that meant San Antonio got 1 free throw and the ball. Finley hit the free throw. The Spurs called another timeout. Finley missed a 3-point attempt in the corner and Terry got the rebound and was intentionally fouled with 15.9 seconds to go. Terry hit both free throws. Duncan missed a 3-point attempt, Nowitzki hit 2 free throws, and Finley missed a 3-point attempt, and that was game. Dallas won 119-111 in overtime. Dallas takes the series 4-3 and advances to the Western Conference Finals!!! WOW! It wasn't the stellar game that game 4 was, but it was exciting with a bunch of clutch plays by both teams in the last 2 minutes of regulation. Dallas simply had more left in overtime and hit their shots while the Spurs, especially Tim Duncan (with reports that he had leg cramps late in OT), struggled in OT. Dallas shot 4-6 FG and 7-8 FT (4 intentional) in OT and San Antonio shot 2-10 FG (with Duncan shooting 1-7 FG) and 3-3 FT in OT. Dallas blew a 20 point 1st half lead as the Spurs climbed the mountain and tied the game with 1:10 left in regulation - they were able to do so as Dallas lost their strong 1st half shooting touch (Dallas shot just 33% FG in the 2nd half). But Dallas out-scored the Spurs 15-7 in overtime. For the game, Dallas shot 51.9% (42-81) FG including 7-17 3-pointers. San Antonio shot 47.4% (36-76) FG including 6-19 3-pointers. Dallas shot 28-31 FT and San Antonio shot 33-39 FT (84.6%, an incredible percentage for a team that shot 70% FT in the regular season). Dallas out-rebounded San Antonio 41-34 including 9-7 offensive. Dallas had 15 assists and San Antonio had 16 assists. Both teams were fairly clean with the ball as Dallas had 12 turnovers and San Antonio had 10 turnovers. Hard to pick which Mav to start with, but I guess it has to be Dirk Nowitzki who had another stellar game. Nowitzki was very aggressive in the 4th quarter in attacking the basket and scored 12 points in the quarter, including the key 3-point play with 22 seconds left that tied the game. He had 37 points on 11-20 FG and 15-16 FT and 15 rebounds. And he did not have a turnover in playing 50 minutes. Jason Terry was very happy to be on the court after serving his suspension in game 6. Terry had 27 points and 6 rebounds (though he had just 1 assist, but that was a nice one to DeSagana Diop in overtime). And how about Gana! Diop only played 10 minutes, but that includes all but the last 15 seconds of overtime. He was great in overtime with his defense on Tim Duncan (1-7 FG in OT) - and even was doing it with a broken nose suffered early in OT. He had 7 points on 3-3 FG and 1-2 FT, 4 rebounds including 3 offensive, and 2 blocks. Jerry Stackhouse had some key plays late in the game and had 13 points and 6 assists. Josh Howard looked good early with 11 points in the 1st quarter, but didn't do much after getting in foul trouble. He finished with 18 points and 6 rebounds before fouling out in 36 minutes. Devin Harris didn't have a great game with just 2 points on 1-3 FG, no assists, and 5 turnovers in 33 minutes. Erick Dampier had 6 points on a perfect 2-2 FG and 2-2 FT and 3 rebounds, but had foul trouble and fouled out in 26 minutes. Keith Van Horn played a lot at center and did his best to try to defend Duncan. He had a couple of timely 3-pointers in this game as all 9 of his points came from beyond the arc. He had 2 rebounds and 6 fouls in 13 minutes. Darrell Armstrong missed his only attempt and had 1 rebound, 1 assist, and 1 steal in 8 minutes. Adrian Griffin came in for the last 15 seconds of overtime. Tim Duncan was again unstoppable and had a game high 41 points including 17-23 FT. But he only shot 1-7 FG in overtime and reportly had leg cramps late in OT. He didn't have a single rebound in the 1st half, but finished with 15 boards including 6 offensive. He also had 6 assists and 3 blocks, but turned the ball over 3 times. Tony Parker had 24 points, 4 rebounds, and 5 assists. Manu Ginobili gets criticism for fouling Dirk Nowitzki with 22 seconds left when in the prior timeout Gregg Popovich told the team not to foul and not to allow a 3-point attempt (Nowitzki converted the 3-point play to tie the game), but the Spurs wouldn't have had a 3-point lead if it wasn't for Ginobili's 3-pointer with 32 seconds remaining in regulation. Ginobili had 23 points including 9-9 FT, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocks, and 3 steals, but also had 4 turnovers. For the 4th straight game, Michael Finley had a key 3-pointer late in the game (this time with 1:45 left in regulation; but no dunk in this game). Fin had 12 points and 5 rebounds. Bruce Bowen had 9 points, 3 rebounds, and 3 blocks. And that was basically it for the Spurs as they got almost nothing from their short bench. Robert Horry had 2 points on 1-2 FG and 2 rebounds in 9 minutes. Brent Barry missed 2 3-pointers and had 1 rebound in 17 minutes. Nick Van Exel missed 2 shots and had 2 rebounds in 8 minutes in what was probably his last game as a player as he has said that he will retire. Random notes from the barn: Hi to all who honked at me on the way up or down - my car was the one with "GO MAVS" on the back window. Man, was it loud at the barn. Reminded me of the Reunion playoff days (though my ears weren't ringing afterwards like they were in '88). It was very quiet during halftime, though, and I got to cheer the Mavs as they practiced. Popovich kept the Spurs in the locker room for a long time and they didn't come out until about 3 minutes left in halftime. I was in a sea of Spurs fans, but no one gave me too hard of a time and one was gracious enough to shake my hand and congratulate me when the game ended. Nothing new or clever during the breaks for entertainment (I've been to the barn a few times), even skipped celebrity spotting (including no shots of Cuban). I don't know if they've been influenced by Timmy or have always been that way, but the Spurs fans genuinely don't believe their team commits fouls. They boo when a Spurs foul is called and boo even louder when the replay is shown, even if contact is clearly visible, it clearly shows a player is out of bounds, or clearly shows a travel. I laughed a few times as a couple of kids behind me let out "Refs, you suck" during the 2nd and 3rd quarters, when most of the calls were going against Dallas. The parking at the barn is atrocious. Not only do you have to walk a mile from the lot to the arena, but you haven't experienced gridlock until you've tried leaving a Spurs game. I did a little better this time and it only took me 30 minutes to exit the lot (took an hour last time). A big thumbs down to the idiot who decided to vent her frustration with her team's loss by spitting on my car, not knowing the owner was a few steps behind her. Bruce Bowen gets away with so much hand contact that would be called a foul with any other player. Jason Terry didn't get booed as loudly as you would have thought he would have been. Maybe it was just because you really couldn't hear Dallas' starting lineup being introduced - I'm not sure if it was because they didn't have the sound up loud enough, the fans were so loud (I don't think it was this - it wasn't like they were booing over the announcements), or the announcer was going through the lineup so quickly you couldn't understand what he was saying. I felt really bad for Michael Finley. After the game ended, he just wanted to get off the court, but Mavs players and personnel kept running up to him and giving him hugs. I had a great time and am now 4-0 in game 7s I've attended. It would have been a _really_ long drive back if the Mavs would have lost (it was a quick there-and-back), but they won and the excitement of the game and win kept me going for the first 2 hours or so (the last hour was killer) and I kept bursting into big grins whenever I thought about the game. Sleep? Who needs sleep? It was an incredible series, one of the best in NBA history [can't be top 5 as it wasn't the Finals]. Except for game 2, either team could have easily won any of the 6 games - it just came down to a certain shot, a certain stop, and/or a certain call/non-call for each game. San Antonio won game 1 by 2 points, Dallas won game 2 by 22 points, Dallas won game 3 by 1 point, Dallas won game 4 by 5 points in overtime [one of the best games I've ever seen as both teams played well], San Antonio won game 5 by 1 point, San Antonio won game 6 by 5 points, and Dallas won game 7 by 8 points in overtime. It was that close. If the series went 20 games, each team probably would have won 10 games. But the series ends with 7 games and Dallas came up with the last win to advance. Game 1 vs Phoenix is Wednesday at 7:30 pm in Dallas [the Mavs have homecourt advantage thanks to having the better regular season record, even though Phoenix is technically the higher seed]. One of the shockers of the series was the Spurs going with small ball - the Spurs centers barely even saw court time in the last 4 games of the series. One other note from the series, both teams go in to the record book for the low assist numbers. San Antonio tied the old low for assists in a 7-game series with 95 assists and Dallas set the new low for assists in a 7-game series with 92 assists. Dirk Nowitzki led the way for the Mavs in the series and averaged 27.1 points (averaged 26.6 in the regular season) on 52.7% FG (48%) and 91.3% (73-80) FT (90.1%) and 13.3 rebounds (9.0) in the 7 games vs San Antonio. The only surprise of the series is that he wasn't looking for shots behind the arc at all and shot just 8 3-pointers in the 7 games (and only made 1). Jason Terry averaged 19.7 points (17.1) including 17-18 FT and 3.2 assists (3.8). Josh Howard was up and down with some good games and some bad games. He averaged 16.4 points (15.6) and 7.1 rebounds (6.3). Jerry Stackhouse also was up and down and averaged 16 points (13). Devin Harris played well in his first 2 games as a starter, but stumbled big time in game 6 as his inexperience showed. He averaged 12.7 points (9.9), 2.0 assists (3.2), and 2.6 turnovers (1.3). Tim Duncan was absolutely incredible in the series. Every thing that plagued him in the regular season seemed a distant memory. He was simply a stud. Duncan averaged 32.3 points (18.6 points in the regular season) on 55.6% FG (48.4%) and 73.3% FT (62.9%) and 11.7 rebounds (11) in this 7-game series. Manu Ginobili averaged 21.3 points (15.1) on 51.8% (46.2%) and 86.7% FT (77.8%) and 4.3 rebounds (3.6). Tony Parker was near his regular season averages by averaging 20.1 points (18.9) and 3.7 rebounds (3.3), but averaged just 3.1 assists (5.8) to 3.1 turnovers (3.1). Michael Finley stepped against his former team and averaged 10.6 points and 4.7 rebounds in 37 minutes. Bruce Bowen rarely looked to shoot as he was focused on the defensive end. The Spurs didn't get the production they needed from Robert Horry as he averaged just 2.7 points and shot just 1-7 3-pointers. Quotes [Johnson's and Popovich's quotes transcribed by me (just doing the coaches as I need sleep and want to get this out tonight - I also didn't transcribe the full press conferences)] Avery Johnson: "Well, first of all, Pop and Timmy, Nick, Finley, all of the guys that I've played with and played for, and the whole Spurs organization - I just had a chance to talk to Peter Holt [SA owner] - take my hats off to you guys. First class organization. Obviously I spent 9 years here and he treated me and my family great. But how about the Mavericks! Oh my God! I have so many emotions - we haven't won the championship now, I understand that. But have so many emotions tied up right now. And I can start with Mark Cuban. I can go from there to Dirk and the rest of the team. Look at what Stackhouse did for us tonight. Van Horn as unbelievable, even fighting foul trouble. Diop came in and gave us big minutes. Damp started tonight and gave us big minutes. The JET came back, Jason Terry, and played well. Josh Howard got us off to a great start. But how about that big drive that Nowitzki had at the end of regulation, and that's something we've been working on quite a bit. So our guys just, again, didn't quit. It looked pretty dim there for a minute, but they hung in there and we battled against a championship team, a team with a lot of guts. But this was a big step for us. I didn't know quite if we were going to make this hurdle this year. I was very optimistic about it and I was hoping and I saw a lot of stuff. But I'm glad that we had a chance to really get over this particular hurdle in terms of winning a series against them on their homecourt. So great victory for us, and we'll get back to work tomorrow." Johnson on his message to the team at the start of overtime: "Run. Run. We had our running game going early and then we slowed down in the 2nd half - and partly what they were doing with their defense and Duncan was getting it inside. You know, he got quite a few free throws, so it kind of stopped our running game quite a bit with the way he was getting to the free throw line. But we hung in there and, boy, we just had a couple of times where we could of folded, but - and Josh Howard gets a big block in the stretch there, or steal, what ever they gave him." Dirk Nowitzki on his game tying 3-point play near the end of regulation: "Obviously we had a similar situation in game 6. We didn't have a lot of time left, I forced a 3 and the game was over. This time I had a clear shot to the basket and a lot of time left. I don't know how the ball went in. Manu hit my hand. It was a lucky bounce." Nowitzki on his 3-point play: "I thought our great season was slipping away [after Ginobili's 3-pointer]. The crowd at that point was probably the loudest I'd ever heard in an arena. I just wanted the bucket, and then we'd make them shoot free throws. I wasn't expecting the foul. That changed everything." Nowitzki: "This has been an amazing series. Every game but game 2 was a battle. A couple of plays here and there and the games go either way. This was a special series. We got a little lucky down the stretch. They made a run, but we stuck together. We believed it was our time to win this. We kept making big plays. The bench and everybody came up big." Nowitzki on Duncan: "We all knew he wasn't going to play the same as he did in the regular season. He's unbelievable and unguardable. He was amazing all series. We could never find an answer for him. In overtime, we stopped him 2 times in a row. He was a handful all series. That's why he's one of the best players in the league." Nowitzki on Terry: "He came out determined and he was aggressive looking for his shots. He played an awesome game for us, and we needed every little effort from him." Josh Howard: "I think beginning at training camp this year we knew we had a chance to do something special and the Mavs have been having trouble with the Spurs since before I got here. It is special to be a part of this organization when they finally get over that hump. But there is still work to do." Howard: "We just took a big step. Now we've got to turn the page and see what's next." Howard: "It was a real roller coaster ride. Both teams really competed hard and right there at the end some breaks went our way and some great plays were made. We missed Terry in game 6 and tonight he was back in a big way. He stepped up and so did Dirk. They led this team tonight." Jason Terry after the win: "It was pretty emotional. As a franchise and as a team we have definitely taken a step in the right direction, but we are not done yet." Terry: "This is a big step. But our goal is much bigger than winning a 2nd round series." Terry on Johnson's vision: "I thought that was just between me and him. It's just a vision that Avery has had since he has taken over as coach. A vision of us getting to the Finals and winning a Championship." Terry: "That was not our best 1st half, not by any means. We knew we had to come out and get off to a quick start and be aggressive." Terry on Nowitzki: "MVP. That is all I can say. That's what he does. He thrives in those situations. He was determined to get to the basket and thankfully he finished strong. ... Manu came over and fouled him, but he was still able to finish." Terry: "Keith Van Horn, he hit big shots all in game 6. I knew that if we ran screen-and-rolls with him, he could get some good shots and he knocked them down, broken hand and all." Terry: "This is a testament to our perseverance. Basketball is a game of mistakes and I made a big one the other night. But we showed a lot of character. We didn't let our heads hang down wondering about what could have been. People ask how I was going to contain my emotions. I just played emotion-free and let the game come to me. I took what they gave me and fortunately was able to get going early on." Terry: "I take my hat off to Diop tonight. He was out there with a broken nose and he came up with big stops and big shots." Terry: "This whole series is one for ESPN Classic. It's just unbelievable to be a part of something like this. But our work is still far from done." Jerry Stackhouse: "All the games in this series have been like this one. I just thank God for giving us a little favor tonight. We got off to such a good start and forced them to work their way back into the game and I think that made a huge difference." Stackhouse: "We take our hats off to them. They are a great team and they are the team you strive to beat. They are the defending world champions and you have to go through them. They say a 7 game series determines the better team but these 2 teams are split almost right down the middle." Stackhouse: "Dirk made a huge play late with that 3-point play. He just willed his way to the basket and willed that ball in with the foul. Then to hit that foul shot on top of it. It seemed like everybody did something special tonight and it started with Dirk." Stackhouse: "Everybody did something special in this game. It was great to have [Terry] back in the lineup. He came up big." Devin Harris: "We don't like situations like tonight, they just seem to happen. The Spurs have the heart of a champion. We knew they would make a run. This is a big step for us. We withstood their run and came out on top. Now we must keep moving forward." Harris on Nowitzki: "Dirk definitely played like an MVP. He played out of his mind. He did everything he needed to do to ensure victory and then more. He's our MVP." Harris: "They've struggled against this Spurs team for a long time now. I wouldn't call the Spurs a hurdle even; they are more like a wall. But as teams mature and play together longer they find ways to beat teams like that, teams they have struggled against in the past." Keith Van Horn: "6 out of 7 of these games have come down to the wire. 1 or 2 plays go the other way and this whole thing is different, it all changes. We knew at the half that they were going to put up a run. It's similar to this whole series, they got down and put up a run, but we fought through it and got the victory. Now we get to move on." Van Horn: "Duncan just had a monster series. We tried to double him, triple him; we tried 4 or 5 different guys on him. Defending him was a team priority and he still had a monster series. He is just that kind of player." DeSagana Diop on Duncan's travel in overtime: "I had been bumping him and he thought I was going to bump him again. But I backed up." Diop: "Hey, I broke my nose and I got a W, that's good." Diop on not starting: "1st quarter seemed long to me. I guess because I wasn't out there until after the 1st quarter. I thought it was halftime." Darrell Armstrong on Diop: "He came up big for us. He knows how important he is to our team. He and Dampier do our dirty work." Gregg Popovich: "Well, first of all, congratulations to Avery Johnson and his staff and players and the Dallas organization. Did a great job and obviously deserved to move on. Disappointing loss for us. But really impressed with Dallas and what they've done, they deserve a lot of credit and wish them the best." Popovich on the 2nd half: "As simplistic as it might sound, we finally played with some aggressiveness and some physicality. The 1st half was maybe the worst half of basketball we played all season. I could not believe how unaggressive we were, for what ever reason. And that situation was exasperated by the fact that Dallas didn't miss any shots. They were on fire, but they were definitely the more aggressive, physical team. We talked at halftime if we cold play that badly for a half, we're probably capable of playing well for a half also. And I was real proud of the guys as they dug down deep and came back and gave themselves a chance to win." Tim Duncan: "We put ourselves in a position to win the game, we fought all the way back and in overtime we didn't have much left in the tank." Duncan on Dallas' shooting: "It was a combination of a lot of things - they shot the ball incredibly. It caused us to come out and they attacked the rim. Still we fought all the way back and had an opportunity to win the game." Duncan: "This is the best series I've ever played. Both teams gave it their all, it went down to the wire, it was about the ball whether the ball bounced one way or another and the result is just how it bounced." Duncan on Ginobili's miss near the end of regulation: "I get a tip on that last rebound and the series is over and they're the ones going home." Duncan on Terry: "He shot great. He hit some contested shots." Tony Parker: "There were just 2 very good teams, it was very close the whole series. It can go either way, both teams play very well. It is all about details - maybe next year we will all know about the next round. You have to give a lot of credit to Dallas because they played very well. It was so close, 2 overtimes, 3 games by 1 or 2 points, it was very good basketball. It just didn't go our way." Parker on the 1st half: "It is hard to explain it is unbelievable. We had the worst 1st half in the 5 years I've been in the league." Parker on Nowitzki's 3-point play late in regulation: "We knew they were going to Dirk and we played him straight up, no double-teams. Unfortunately, we fouled him and they made a 3-point play and it really hurt us." Parker on the end of regulation: "We weren't just going to give it to Dallas. We were up 3 with 20 seconds and we had a chance to take game. We fought and fought and came back and in the timeout, Pop said not to foul and not to allow 3s." Parker on Duncan: "Tim cramped up at the end of the game, we ended up using him a lot. He was definitely tired during overtime." Parker on San Antonio's comeback: "We were coming back from hell. We were just fighting, fighting." Manu Ginobili: "We just didn't play as sharp in the overtime as we did during when we were making our comeback. They hit a couple of great shots down the stretch." Ginobili: "This is a tough loss. We came back from 3-1 in the series and we came back from down 20 or so in tonight's game. We had a last chance to make the shot and win the game and the series. It is hard. You have to move on and go on from it." Ginobili: "I'm very upset, of course, just like everybody else. Nobody likes getting out of the competition, especially in a game that it looked like we had." Ginobili on the 1st half: "It was bad. They were getting great shots and did a good job of knocking them down. We scored 50 points in the 1st half, but we were still down big. We just weren't there mentally in the 1st half." Ginobili on fouling Nowitzki for the 3-point play late in regulation: "So I just tried to surprise him. I thought I had it. I just can't believe he made it. It was a great play [by Nowitzki] and a big mistake by me." Ginobili on Nowitzki's 3-point play: "He wanted to drive the ball, and I saw him going right. I kind of guessed that he was going to turn back to the left. I thought I had [the shot blocked]. I just can't believe he made it." Ginobili on his last shot of regulation being the same as a play in game 5 vs Detroit last year: "Yeah, yeah. It was the same play. And close to the same result too. Tim was close to getting the board and couldn't make it. So it just happened that way, and I am very upset." Ginobili on his last shot of regulation: "It is hard in that situation to kick it out because you are trying to use as much time as possible so that they couldn't get a shot. I missed my shot and Tim was able to get the rebound, but it just didn't happen for us." Ginobili: "It's hard when you have the last chance and you can't make it. So we all are very upset, so it is a hard moment for us. But I guess it just happens and we've got to get over it." Robert Horry: "The lucky team won." Game 7: Dallas Mavericks 119, San Antonio Spurs 111 OT at San Antonio (May 22) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th OT - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 37 27 20 20 15 - 119 .547 .412 .519 .903 San Antonio 27 23 28 26 7 - 111 .526 .316 .474 .846 Halftime: Dallas 64-50 3rd Q: Dallas 84-78 4th Q: 104-104 Technicals: none Refs: Dick Bavetta, Bob Delaney, Steve Javie Attendance: 18,797 (sellout) IL: Josh Powell (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 49 9-20 3-6 6-6 27 1-6 1 1 1 1 0 Devin Harris 33 1-3 0-0 0-0 2 0-1 0 5 5 0 0 Dirk Nowitzki 50 11-20 0-1 15-16 37 2-15 3 0 3 1 1 Josh Howard 36 7-12 1-3 3-4 18 1-6 3 3 6 0 0 Erick Dampier 26 2-2 0-0 2-2 6 0-3 1 0 6 0 1 Jerry Stackhouse 40 6-13 0-2 1-1 13 1-2 6 1 2 0 0 Keith Van_Horn 13 3-7 3-5 0-0 9 0-2 0 1 6 0 1 DeSagana Diop 10 3-3 0-0 1-2 7 3-4 0 0 1 0 2 Darrell Armstrong 8 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1-1 1 0 2 1 0 Adrian Griffin 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 53 42-81 7-17 28-31 119 9-41 15 12 32 3 5 San Antonio Spurs REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Tony Parker 45 9-18 0-0 6-6 24 0-4 5 1 5 1 1 Manu Ginobili 42 6-11 2-3 9-9 23 0-2 2 4 5 3 2 Bruce Bowen 48 4-9 1-5 0-0 9 0-3 1 0 5 1 3 Michael Finley 47 4-8 3-7 1-1 12 0-5 1 1 4 0 0 Tim Duncan 50 12-24 0-1 17-23 41 6-15 6 3 4 1 3 Brent Barry 17 0-2 0-2 0-0 0 0-1 0 1 1 0 1 Robert Horry 9 1-2 0-1 0-0 2 1-2 0 0 1 0 0 Nick Van_Exel 8 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 0-2 1 0 0 0 0 Totals 53 36-76 6-19 33-39 111 7-34 16 10 25 6 10 patricia Go Mavs!