Trivia: In a 5-game series, the Mavs playoff 3-point percentage by a player was sent this year. Who set it? [old was .500 (2-4) by Derek Harper vs Seattle in 1984] It's not who you'd think. Dallas at San Antonio Game 5 (May 14) Dallas led early and San Antonio took the lead and that was game. Well, no, not quite (okay, I'm still hurting). Dallas led 3-2 with 10:40 left and the Spurs went on a 9-2 run, with 3 buckets inside and a 3-pointer, and went up 11-5 with 7:45 remaining. San Antonio scored 7 consecutive points capped by a 3-pointer by Danny Ferry to take a 24-13 lead with 4 minutes left. San Antonio led 32-21 after 1. Dallas' shooting woes returned and their defense was non-existent. San Antonio shot 14-19 FG including 8 layups and dunks and Dallas shot 8-25 FG. Tim Duncan had 10 points and 7 rebounds and Dirk Nowitzki was the only Mav to show up with 11 points including 4-6 FG - yup, the rest of the team shot a mere 4-19 FG including 0-6 FG from Michael Finley. Dallas' shooting woes continued in the 2nd quarter and the Spurs had decided coming into the game that the series would end here. San Antonio opened the 2nd quarter with a 12-4 run, including 3 3-pointers, to go up 44-25 with 7:50 to go. San Antonio led in the teens the rest of the quarter and led 57-41 at the half. San Antonio shot 20-35 FG in the half while Dallas shot a mere 15-51 FG. Ouch. Duncan had 19 points and 13 rebounds in the half. San Antonio opened the 3rd with a 7-2 mini-run, including 3 baskets inside, to push their lead into the 20s at 64-43 with 10 minutes left. San Antonio led 79-57 with 1:30 remaining and Dallas scored the last 7 points of the quarter to pull "within" 64-79. Dallas actually out-scored San Antonio 23-22 in the 3rd quarter - but that's not going to cut it when you go into the 3rd down by 16 points. Nowitzki continued to try to carry the team with 13 points and Duncan had 11 points. San Antonio led 85-71 with 9:35 to go and Dallas had a chance to cut the Spurs' lead down to 11 points, but Howard Eisley's 3-pointer rimmed out and San Antonio scored the next 7 points to go up 92-71 with 7 minutes left and the rest was garbage time. San Antonio won 105-87. San Antonio takes the series 4-1 and advances to the Western Conference Finals. Ouch and double ouch. For the 4th time in the 5 games vs San Antonio and for the 6th time in 10 playoff games Dallas shot less than 40% FG. This from a team that averaged 45.9% FG during the regular season. Dallas shot a mere 36.7% FG including 0-11 3-pointers (they made at least 3 3-pointers in all the other playoff games). Yes, San Antonio was playing good defense, but the shots simply weren't falling for Dallas even with open looks or attempts inside. I haven't seen this many shots rim out since the 3 Js were in town. To make matters worse, Dallas played no defense. San Antonio killed Dallas early inside and when Dallas converged on the inside players, the Spurs found the outside shooters who drained the open shots. San Antonio shot 51.9% FG. It's that simple - if you can't score and your opponent scores at will, the result will be a blowout. Only Dirk Nowitzki showed up for the Mavs. He shot 14-24 FG and the rest of the team shot just 19-66 FG. Ouch. Dirk was a stud in this game. He scored almost half of Dallas' points. He had 42 points on 14-24 FG (and only 1 3-pointer attempted) and 14-18 FT, 18 rebounds, and 6 steals. The media has made much of "fun with stats" in that Dirk joined just Michael Jordan with a playoff game of 40+ points, 15+ rebounds, and 5+ steals (since the league started keeping track of steals). He played all but a minute in the game and had 13 points in the 4th quarter. His 42 points was the most by a Mav in the playoffs, excluding overtime games (Ro Blackman had 43 points in a 2 overtime game). Everybody else had a terrible game. Michael Finley had what he called, probably correctly, the worst game of his career. He only had 2 points on 1-17 FG and 0-4 3-pointers, 2 rebounds, and 4 assists. Normally when Fin struggles offensively, he is able to contribute elsewhere, but that was not the case in this game. Even 2 days later I can easily recall at least 3 shots that simply rimmed out - there was a lid on the basket for him. He was playing with an infected left ear which he reportedly could not hear out of and there was speculation that it might have affected his balance. The guy is such a competitor that you know this game tore him apart and you just want to tell him that it's okay and give him a hug. Seeing Finley's anguish was the worst thing about this game. Juwan Howard also had a poor game and was part of the defensive sieve against Duncan and Robinson. Howard had 14 points including 5-16 FG and 12 rebounds. Steve Nash was the only other Maverick in double-digits with 11 points, but only had 3 assists. We needed more from our point guard. The center combo of Shawn Bradley and Calvin Booth did not give a decent defensive performance. Bradley was pulled a mere 3 1/2 minutes into the game after doing nothing to stop 4 Spurs buckets inside. Booth did not perform any better and Nelson opted to play without a true center at various points in the game looking for something that would work. Bradley had 4 points and 7 rebounds in 19 minutes and Booth had 2 points on 1-6 FG and 2 rebounds in 16 minutes. The rest of the bench had nothing as well. Howard Eisley had 6 points on 3-9 FG, Greg Buckner had 6 points in 13 minutes, Eduardo Najera had a donut in 10 minutes, and Wang Zhizhi had a donut in 2 minutes. The Spurs received an awesome performance from Tim Duncan, who feasted on Dallas' big men's defensive ineptitude. You could see the determination to finish this series in this game in his eyes. Duncan had 32 points on 12-25 FG and 8-11 FT, 20 rebounds, and 5 blocks. David Robinson had a balanced game with 16 points including 6-10 FT, 14 rebounds, 5 assists, and 4 blocks. I think too much post-game credit was given to Antonio Daniels' defense as Finley's performance was much more due to simply missing shots than the defense. Daniels did perform well and had 19 points on 9-15 FG and 9 assists. Avery Johnson was the 4th Spur in double-digits with 10 points and 6 assists. Starters Danny Ferry (6 points) and Terry Porter (5 points) were hardly noticed, but not needed in this game. Sean Elliott had 8 points, Steve Kerr had 5 points on a perfect 2-2 FG and 1-1 3-pointers, and Malik Rose had 2 points. Samaki Walker had a bucket in 3 minutes of game time and Shawnelle Scott only got in for a minute. Go Spurs Go! Thus ends the Mavs' season. It was a great season (hopefully I'll write more about it later), but it was sad to end it on such a down note. It would have been an easier loss to take if the Mavs had performed better. This team got their first taste of the playoffs and the Mavs fans saw the playoffs again for the first time in 11 years - and 13 years since they saw a playoff win. This team has a lot of promise and hopefully learned a lot of lessons in the playoffs and will be better prepared for them next season. Trivia answer: Eduardo Najera .750 (3-4) vs San Antonio. Quotes Gregg Popovich: "I think the guys played a very good game defensively against a very good Dallas team. I was really pleased with the defense. I thought they started the game out really executing at that end of the court and I thought we were able to push it a little bit. Ended up playing for 48 minutes, a pretty darn good game for 48 minutes. But, having said that, I want to congratulate Nellie and the Mavs on a great year - not a good year, a great year. A heck of a team, they've done a great job with the organization. Truly congratulate them on what they've accomplished. They're tough. Tough group." Popovich: "We play the same way every game. Any adjustments we make were small adjustments offensively or very small adjustments defensively. We are who we are. We know what we have to do to play well defensively and we just stick with that." Popovich on Daniels: "I'm really happy for Tony. I'm happy for our group too because he's playing so well. But Tony deserves special praise because he's stepped into a situation pretty quickly and he's reacted really well. I think most people probably notice his offense, which has been good, but his defense has been outstanding and we're really happy for him." Popovich on Finley: "Michael did not have a good shooting night. It happens. I think we played pretty good D and probably had something to do with that. But that's not the kind of shooter he is. He had a bad night." Tim Duncan: "We really wanted it. We didn't want to give them the confidence they had in Dallas - they hung around for so long and had the lead and had some real confidence going down the stretch, their crowd was in it. So we wanted to get our crowd behind us, we wanted to jump on them early and really hurt their confidence." Duncan on taking the ball inside: "Just trying to get to the rim. Trying to find shooters. I think that in this series that was one thing that I could do a lot more - I could get by the guys and get to the rim. If they did come down and double, I could find shooters. I thought that was the most effective way to hurt their defense." David Robinson: "We wanted to establish ourselves. I thought coming out in Dallas and getting behind by 17 points was not a good thing, even though we fought back and had a chance to win it. Tonight we definitely wanted to come out and kind of establish ourselves early. I thought we did a great job of really getting the ball inside and moving it around well and taking advantage of what they were giving us. And, again, Tim was incredible. So that helped us get established early on." Robinson: "Tim was kind of fired up for this series. But I think this was just a fun series. It was fun because of the style of basketball they play and the fact that we could run up and down the court a little bit. It was just a fun series, fun basketball. They are just a little more free spirited and it kind of loosened us up a little bit and we got out there and had a little more fun. It looked like Tim was kind of tuned up a little bit for this series. He was incredible, as usual. Ya, I saw a lot of emotion that was good." Robinson: "They showed a lot of courage. They played real hard. The thing is we executed and we played very consistent and responded well to their challenges. Even when where we lost a game, I thought we did a good job of really fighting through a lot of things that were against us. I felt good about our effort this series." Robinson on Daniels: "Antonio filled in. I thought defensively he made a huge difference for us that's really Antonio's strength. He brought it out this series and that was probably the key for us to still be able to dominate. He guarded Finley tough, he guarded Nowitzki tough. He did a great job. Ya, granted those guys made some tough shots and especially the last game they made some tough shots. But just about every time, you go back and look at the film, Antonio was right in their face." Robinson on his minor injury during the game: "I hyper-extended my knee, but it is fine, you just have to play through that and hope that it feels better." Danny Ferry: "We did a good job of moving the ball around tonight. We brought good energy on both the offensive and defensive ends of the floor. We didn't really have that on Saturday." Ferry: "Tim played great tonight, not too many teams have the answer for him. He does so many things well, he can beat you in so many different ways." Antonio Daniels: "You could tell from the moment everyone walked in this morning that everyone was extremely focused." Daniels when asked if it was a dull series: "I wouldn't say this wasn't much of a series. It was a very good series. The Mavericks are a good ball club with a lot of heart and a lot of talent. To say it wasn't a good series isn't giving them enough credit." Daniels on his defense on Finley: "In Game 4, I gave him too much leeway. There was nothing I could do about his fadeaway jumper. He's 6-7, I'm 6-4. So I tried to funnel him into Tim and David. They're 7-0." Avery Johnson: "We didn't want to mess around with that team." Malik Rose on Duncan: "He was phenomenal. He didn't want it to go to a Game 6, and he came out and carried us just like he's been doing all year. No one should be surprised by him anymore." Don Nelson: "Congratulations to the Spurs. I thought they did exactly what they were supposed to do in this game - they took charge early, took no prisoners, and basically gave us no chance to win. We did the best we could. We played as hard as we could and to no avail. They basically just dominated us in this game. We knew it would be hard. I thought we would play a little better than we did, but again, you have to coach the game at hand. They were just too dominant for us. We knew going into this series that for us to do well we had to play at a really high level, over our heads, because quite obviously they have the best team. For us to be competitive, we had to get it to a different level. We were not able to do that. I feel that their defense had a lot to do with that. It was just very difficult for us. This particular game, as you noticed I'm sure, we only had one player that was able to shoot the ball and score the ball at a high level and that was Dirk. Other than that, everybody struggled and, again, give them a lot of credit for that. I'm very proud of our team. I think they've done a wonderful job. I think that the beginning of this year there were a lot of doubts that we would be a playoff team. We've had success after success. We've hung together tough and tight as a team and it has been probably the most enjoyable experiences I've had coaching a team in the NBA. I'm looking forward to coaching this team next year and I think we'll be better because of this playoff experience we've had. We look forward to getting back here." Nelson: "They are tough for anybody, but surely they're tough for us. Not only do they have a talent advantage on us, but they have experience along with it in every position." Nelson on Dallas' shooting woes: "It's the Spurs, it's not the [Alamodome]. They're good. And they're very good here." Nelson on Finley: "He couldn't hear and I'm not sure his balance was quite right. I'm not making an excuse for him, but I started not to even play him in the 4th quarter. A night like this is a first for him I'm sure." Nelson joking on Finley's upcoming free agency: "After 1-17, who's going to want this guy in free agency? Of course we're going to keep him, we'll max him out. Our whole team was built around Mike." Nelson on Nowitzki: "What a show he put on. Wow. Just look how far he's come since the first game in Utah to tonight. We've got some player here. I hope our fans understand how good he is, and how good he's going to be." Michael Finley: "It's just a disappointing loss and for me to play the way I did and not give my teammates a chance or even get us in the ball game is disappointing for me. I seem to have let them down and that's the hardest thing for me to swallow." Finley: "I think this series, I didn't hold up my end of the bargain. Even in the game we won, I didn't play as well as I could have played. Coach said [the playoffs were] going to be a learning experience and I'm definitely going to learn from this." Finley: "It was the worst game of my life, being that it was the biggest game of my life. I didn't give my team a chance in the game - an important game. I just didn't have it tonight." Finley: "I'm proud of the team. I'm proud of the coaching staff. I'm proud of the organization. Being where we came from, a team that before the season no one picked us to be the 5th seed, to beating Utah and coming in here and challenging the Spurs. It was just an overall great year for the organization. Nobody ever thought we would do it and I'm just so very proud to be a part of that. It's just unfortunate that the last thing I'm going remember is probably this game, so it's probably taking away something from the season." Finley on his upcoming free agency: "I haven't even thought about that. My whole thing right now is we lost and my season is over. Now is the time to sit back and reflect on a lot of things and just relax a little bit and get away from basketball. And then when that opportunity comes, my lawyer and I will make that decision and go from there." Dirk Nowitzki: "It's a team game and for us to beat this great team, we all have to have a great game like we had in Game 4. Otherwise I think they're just too good for us. It's a little frustrating." Nowitzki: "They had, of course, Tim Duncan. He's an MVP candidate. He might be the best player in the league and he makes everyone so much better. He opens the court up for them. If you don't double him he can score on anyone down there. If you double him, they have so many great shooters out there. So it's tough to make a decision for what then to do. Basically, he's the difference." Nowitzki: "Of course, it's a little disappointing that we ended the season on a blowout. Maybe it's even better than to end the season on a 1 point loss where we're even more disappointed and frustrated. We know we lost to a great team and we just wish them the best of luck against the Lakers." Nowitzki: "We looked a little flat at the beginning - not only the beginning, almost the whole game. If you come out flat, especially against a team like that, you always fall down and get behind quick and that's what we did. I think we didn't play that bad offensively at the beginning, but we just couldn't stop them. I mean, the first couple of minutes they had already 13, 14 points. We made big mistakes defensively and they just make you pay if you make a lot of mistakes." Nowitzki on the playoffs: "It's tough basketball. It's tougher than the regular season. You don't get as many calls. It's just tough basketball and that's basically what you learn. I think we learned a lot in the Utah series. Nobody thought we could comeback after 0-2 and we really did that and I think we can be proud of what we achieved." Nowitzki on his good game: "There is no coin for individual numbers in a loss." Nowitzki: "We had a great year. It was a pleasure playing with everyone, playing for Coach, and everything. Like I said, we can be proud of what we achieved. Before this season even started, nobody said we could make the playoffs and I really think even in the tough West we made it. We almost could have gotten the 4th seed. So I think we had a great year. Of course, we had ups and downs, but I think every team has a couple ups and downs over the whole year. Hopefully everyone keeps on working on their game this summer and hopefully we'll be a great playoff team next year." Steve Nash: "We couldn't score enough. We couldn't make enough stops. We just got beat by a better team. We have to improve in areas. We lack a dominating guy in the hole, just like most of the teams in the league. Not every team has a guy like they do." Nash: "I'm not going to let this diminish our accomplishments. We'll be better and stronger next year." Nash: "Slow start, slow finish - it doesn't matter. They're a better team. I know it's easier to write an article when you have an angle, but they were better than us. They beat us and they deserve it." Nash on Finley: "I don't think this was his last game with us. I don't think he's going anywhere. ... [And] he has nothing to apologize for. He carried this team for long patches of the season. He's the man around here." Juwan Howard: "In the beginning we really shot ourselves in the foot by not playing good defense and allowing them to get too many easy baskets, good looks, and layups. We didn't challenge enough of their shots and we didn't shot that well from the perimeter of the field period. We haven't played well in this building since I've been here and tonight was no different. But you also have to credit their defense. That had a lot to do with us shooting 36% as well." Howard: "No player wants their season to end this way. It's a weird feeling knowing that our season is over. As a team we didn't have a good series but we are a better ball club than the last 4 games we lost to the Spurs shows. We have a lot to be proud of. I'm going to walk out of this building with my head held high. God put me in a good situation playing with a lot of good talented guys here in Dallas and the experience of playing the Spurs, one of the best teams in the Western Conference, will only make us stronger. Now we know what it is like to get to the 2nd round of the playoffs now we just need to find out what it is like to get past the 2nd round. Hopefully at this time next year I'll be talking with a smile on my face on our way to playing for a championship." Shawn Bradley: "We have a lot of mixed emotions right now. There were a lot of emotions in this locker room after the game tonight. Of course we wish we had gone farther but at the same time you have to feel good about the improvements we have made and the direction that this Mavericks team is headed in. We wish we would performed better tonight but there is no question that this has been a successful season. We will only get better as we continue to grow and gain experience together. This is the furthest many of us have ever been in the playoffs and we take a lot of pride in that but there is still a lot of room for improvement." Bradly on his upcoming free agency: "I really can't tell you where I'm going to be [next season] because I really don't know. But what I will say is what I've said before, 'Why would I leave?'" Calvin Booth: "We missed a lot of open shots that we made last game and had a real tough time keeping them from going to the basket. I think their effort tonight ranks right up there with the other efforts they put forth this series. Tonight they definitely came out with a lot more intensity than the last time we saw them in Dallas. That set the tone." Mark Cuban on Finley: "I don't know how you describe 'hero,' but Michael Finley is as close to a hero as we have on this team. His leadership and unselfishness [are] what turned this team around. The hardest part about today is not the loss. It was looking at the pain in Fin's face." Cuban: "My biggest pain isn't because we lost, it's because of the look in Fin's eyes. He feels like he let the team down and that makes us all hurt, because it's his leadership that really turned this franchise around." Cuban: "More than caring about statistics or shots, these guys care about winning. And they care about each other." San Antonio Spurs 105, Dallas Mavericks 87 at San Antonio (May 14) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% San Antonio 32 25 22 26 - 105 .537 .429 .519 .652 Dallas 21 20 23 23 - 87 .418 .000 .367 .808 Halftime: San Antonio 57-41 3rd Q: San Antonio 79-64 Technicals: none Refs: Bernie Fryer, Mike Callahan, Danny Crawford Attendance: 25,853 (sellout) Did not play due to injury: Derek Anderson (separated right shoulder) San Antonio Spurs REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Tim Duncan 45 12-25 0-0 8-11 32 6-20 3 5 2 1 5 Danny Ferry 28 2-5 2-5 0-0 6 2-4 1 0 2 0 0 David Robinson 29 5-11 0-0 6-10 16 2-14 5 1 2 2 4 Antonio Daniels 38 9-15 1-4 0-0 19 0-2 9 3 2 0 0 Terry Porter 20 2-4 0-1 1-2 5 0-1 2 2 0 2 0 Avery Johnson 27 5-9 0-0 0-0 10 1-2 6 1 2 1 0 Malik Rose 19 1-4 0-0 0-0 2 2-4 0 0 4 0 0 Sean Elliott 19 3-4 2-2 0-0 8 0-2 1 2 1 2 0 Steve Kerr 11 2-2 1-1 0-0 5 0-0 1 1 1 1 0 Samaki Walker 3 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 0-0 0 0 1 0 0 Shawnelle Scott 1 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0-0 0 1 0 0 0 Totals 48 42-81 6-14 15-23 105 13-49 28 16 17 9 9 Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Juwan Howard 36 5-16 0-0 4-4 14 5-12 1 2 4 0 1 Dirk Nowitzki 47 14-24 0-1 14-18 42 6-18 2 3 2 6 1 Shawn Bradley 19 2-4 0-0 0-0 4 4-7 1 1 1 1 1 Michael Finley 39 1-17 0-4 0-0 2 1-2 4 1 2 2 0 Steve Nash 30 4-7 0-2 3-4 11 1-2 3 2 3 0 0 Calvin Booth 16 1-6 0-0 0-0 2 1-2 0 0 2 1 0 Howard Eisley 28 3-9 0-4 0-0 6 0-1 4 2 1 0 0 Greg Buckner 13 3-6 0-0 0-0 6 1-2 0 1 4 2 0 Eduardo Najera 10 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 1 0 1 0 0 Wang Zhizhi 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 33-90 0-11 21-26 87 19-47 16 12 20 12 3 patricia Go Mavs!