With Phoenix's loss Wednesday night, Dallas formally clinched a playoff berth. Dallas became the first team to clinch a berth - the first time ever Dallas has clinched first. San Antonio (47-19) at Dallas (51-16) (March 20) The big game was here and, as I hoped and expected, Michael Finley did not play due to his strained left hamstring (he strained it last year, played on it, and then pulled it and was out for a month - with that history, I felt the cautious route was the way to go). He will also likely miss tonight's game vs Phoenix. The Dallas-San Antonio game was everything you would expect it to be. Dallas opened up to an early 12-5 lead with 7:25 remaining, but San Antonio scored the next 8 points, capped by a 3-pointer by Emanuel Ginobili, to go up 13-12 with 5 minutes to go. The lead see-sawed over the rest of the quarter and 2 free throws by Steve Kerr gave San Antonio a 23-21 lead after 1. Dallas only shot 32% FG while the Spurs shot 53% FG, but Dallas did have 4 offensive rebounds. Dirk Nowitzki had 11 points. The tight game continued in the 2nd quarter and San Antonio led 30-25 with 10 minutes left. Dallas then went on a 13-2 run, capped by a 3-pointer by Nick Van Exel, to go up 38-32 with 5:30 remaining. The teams traded buckets and San Antonio scored the next 6 points to tie the game at 40-40 with 3:40 to go. The game stayed close and a 3-pointer by Van Exel gave Dallas a 53-49 lead at the half. Van Exel had 12 points in the quarter. The teams traded baskets to open the 3rd quarter and San Antonio then scored the next 10 points to go up 61-55 with 9:15 left. A 3-pointer by Raef LaFrentz ended the Spurs' run, but San Antonio's lead remained in single-digits the rest of the quarter. 3 free throws by the Spurs closed the quarter and San Antonio led 82-76 after 3. A 3-pointer by Ginobili gave San Antonio an 87-80 lead with 9:15 left and a 3-pointer by Bruce Bowen in the corner (where else for him) gave San Antonio their largest lead at 92-84 with 8 minutes remaining. San Antonio led 98-92 with 4:30 to go and a layup by Nowitzki and 3-pointer by Van Exel pulled Dallas within 97-98 with 3:40 remaining and we were going to have an exciting finish. Tim Duncan hit a jumper, the teams traded misses, Van Exel missed, but got the rebound and dished to Shawn Bradley who hit the short hook with 2:10 left. Malik Rose missed and Nowitzki missed, but Eduardo Najera got the offensive rebound and was fouled. He only hit 1 of 2 free throws and the game was tied 100-100 with 1:30 to go. Tony Parker missed, Van Exel missed, but Bradley got the rebound but missed inside, but got the rebound and dished out to Van Exel who passed the ball outside to Nash near halfcourt to reset the offense, but Nash took his eye off the ball and it went skittering pass him and the Mavs ended up with an over-and-back violation [that killed me] with 36 seconds left. San Antonio called timeout and Parker nailed the pull-up jumper with 29 seconds left to give San Antonio a 102-100 lead. Dallas called timeout. Van Exel had the ball behind the arc and took a dribble or 2 in and when his defender, Parker, slipped, Van Exel rose and nailed the 18-foot jumper with 16.3 seconds left. Timeout San Antonio. Parker missed with 2.6 seconds left and Walt Williams grabbed the rebound and passed to Van Exel, who took a couple of dribbles before throwing up the half-court shot that clanked off the front of the rim - Van Exel never even thought about calling timeout (a mistake he acknowledged) and Williams signaled for timeout after passing the ball, but the refs ignored him. And we had overtime at 102-102. Van Exel opened the overtime with a jumper, but Stephen Jackson (who had just 3 points in regulation) answered with a 3-pointer. Dallas missed and Jackson nailed another 3-pointer as Dallas' defense was focused on Duncan and San Antonio led 108-104 with 3:30 left. Van Exel answered with a 3-pointer as the shot clock was running out, Jackson missed, and a 3-pointer by Nowitzki gave Dallas a 110-108 lead with 2:30 remaining. The teams traded misses and Rose was sent to the line. But he missed both free throws with 1:30 left. Dallas missed on 2 attempts and Rose got a tough, tough short jumper over Bradley with 38 seconds to go to tie the game at 110-110. Nowitzki missed a jumper with 16 seconds left and San Antonio called timeout. San Antonio ran some time off the clock and Parker drove past Raja Bell and the help defense was a tad bit late as Parker's tear drop went over the out-stretched hands of Nowitzki and Bradley and in with 1.2 seconds left. Dallas called timeout. The ball was inbounded to Van Exel in the corner, but he over-shoot the turn-around 3-pointer at the buzzer. San Antonio won 112-110 in overtime. Another great game between the teams with the 2 best records in the league [too bad TNT opted to show the Philly-Detroit blowout instead of letting a national audience view this heavyweight fight]. The loss for Dallas made the race for the Midwest title closer [but San Antonio gave one back as they lost to Minnesota last night - the Spurs now have 3 more losses than Dallas with 14 games remaining for both teams]. With as tight of a game as it was throughout, it wasn't surprising that it came down to simply who made the last shot. San Antonio's largest lead was just 8 points and Dallas was 7 points. San Antonio consistently shot in the 50s all game and finished at 52.9% FG while Dallas wasn't shooting as well and their percentage slowly rose to 43.8% FG. Dallas shot 24-30 FT and San Antonio shot 11-20 FT. Dallas out-rebounded San Antonio 46-43. It was a tough loss, but San Antonio does have the 2nd best record in the league and Dallas was playing their first game this season without one of their best players. Tim Duncan was the high man for San Antonio, but Tony Parker hit the key buckets. Duncan had 25 points including 11-18 FG, 18 rebounds, and 4 blocks. Parker had 22 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists. Malik Rose was often the man left open by Dallas' defense and he responded with 22 points including 10-14 FG and 7 rebounds. Emanuel Ginobili was hitting shots like crazy and it was a relief when he fouled out with 1:30 left in regulation. Ginobili had 17 points on 7-11 FG and 3-6 3-pointers. Stephen Jackson only had 9 points, but his 2 3-pointers opened the overtime. Nick Van Exel came off the benched and stepped up his game in Michael Finley's absence. He had a season high 35 points including 4-7 3-pointers and 6 assists. He tied the 3rd most points off the bench in Mavs history. Dirk Nowitzki was a monster, as usual, with 34 points including 13-14 FT and 12 rebounds. He committed his 5th foul (a stupid offensive foul that he should have known better - they've been calling it that way all season) with 6:25 left in the 4th quarter, but continued playing without picking up a 6th [the Spurs should have ran the ball at him every time down to get him out]. Steve Nash had 18 points and 7 assists. No other Mav was in double-digits. Shawn Bradley had 7 points and 9 rebounds and Eduardo Najera had 7 points and 6 rebounds. Quotes Gregg Popovich: "We just happened to make the last shot. If there were 3 more seconds, they probably would have went down and scored." Popovich on not going to Duncan: "We tried not to concentrate on getting it to him too much. Tonight he really wasn't the primary guy and our perimeter guys really contributed." Popovich: "We learned a lot from the last time we played them. We just had not to concentrate on Tim so much and just let him get his stuff in the flow, regardless of what we called. He wasn't the primary guy for a good portion of the game and that gets everybody involved. Especially our perimeter guys. They showed great courage being in this environment and taking the game over. When Timmy kicked it, they had the courage to hit the shot, drive it. They played to win." Popovich on Parker: "He does a good job with that shot and it's one of his favorites. They executed it well and Tony made a great play. We have a lot of confidence in him." Popovich on Van Exel: "Nick might be the #1 big time, end-of-game guy. We played great defense on him on many occasions and it didn't matter. He's a big time shot maker." Tim Duncan: "I didn't do a thing in overtime. Those guys were doing a great job tonight for us. [Parker] was incredible all night for us. I thought he was great and under control." Duncan on Parker's game winner: "He just saw it open and went. I was yelling at him to give me the ball." Duncan on the division race: "The Mavericks control their own destiny. What we're worried about is our end of it. Whatever happens, happens." Tony Parker on his game winner: "I was the 3rd option and the 1st 2 were for Timmy, but it wasn't open. I had a lot of confidence and I knew it was going in. I just tried to do it quick because [Bradley and Nowitzki] were coming over." Parker: "On the play, I saw the lane wide open and I shot the tear-dropper. That's my bread and butter shot. I tried to get it up quick, because Bradley and Dirk were coming fast." Parker on his shot at the end of regulation: "It felt good. I missed it, but that's okay. It was a good shot." Parker on the division race: "I'm happy with where we're at. I want to just improve as a team. If we catch them, we catch them. I'm not worried about that. We just have a long way to go." Malik Rose on Parker's game winner: "Tony has been using that shot all season long. It was kind of weird; he was missing that shot all during the pre-game in his warm-ups, and he gets it in the game and knocks it out. It was a big shot for us tonight." Rose: "The first option is always something for Tim. We were going to bring Steve Kerr to the corner and Tim back to the post, but they zoned up that side. I was the last option to flash high and pull through with a dribble handoff to Tony, and it worked." Rose: "It's too bad about that Knicks' game. The Knicks got us, but this is a big game for us. We had to get this win. Going into this weekend, it takes a little bit of pressure off us. These are 3 huge games and we have to get them all." Emanuel Ginobili on Parker's game winner: "I was expecting his regular shot, and when he shot it that way, I though 'Why?' But he made it. It was a great shot." Ginobili on Parker's game winner: "I was expecting his regular shot, but he sort of finger rolled it. I had a nice view from under the basket and I saw it was going right in." Ginobili: "The good thing about it is that we can still improve. We can still play more solid with less turnovers and mistakes, so it's a great thing. I think we are getting better day by day." Ginobili: "We knew if we wanted any chance of getting the top seed, we had to get this win. We're back on track." Ginobili on the Midwest race: "It's great. We knew that to have a chance of finishing in the 1st spot, we had to get this win, so we are back on track even though we lost to New York. We would have been closer now, but that doesn't matter. We still have one more game against [Dallas], so it is in our hands." Don Nelson: "What a game. It was made out to be a big game, it was and had all the ingredients of a great game. Unfortunately we didn't win. We competed hard and gave it everything we had. They had it won 2 or 3 times, we had it won 2 or 3 times and as fate would have it, it went into overtime. I thought it was going to go into a 2nd overtime, but Tony Parker makes 2 crucial shots on penetration. It's ironic because I put my best defender in there and he was able to get right around him. That young man definitely has something special to his game, he has all the in-between shots, the vision, and he is quite a find for San Antonio. We battled as hard as we could and everything we tried to do we had some success and some failure. Bottom line is we played a damn good ballgame, but we just didn't have enough to win. It's unfortunate because we sure gave it everything we had. That happens and, like I said at the beginning of the year, we are going to have hard losses and great wins and a lot of stuff in between. This was a tough loss, but I don't fault anybody. There was a situation when we got the rebound at the end of regulation that we should have used a timeout. We knew we had one. My most veteran player [Van Exel] made a mental error and didn't call it. That is about the only disappointment that I have other than you wish your guys would make shots all the time, especially easy ones. I thought Bradley had the game winner under the basket [with Dallas up 110-108 in OT], but somehow it came out and we lost possession of that ball and that probably was the game winner there. And then the mishap on the ball being thrown out of bounds [near the end of regulation]. I guess Nash was looking up at the time when Van Exel threw the ball. That was a huge possession. You would like to have those things back, but they happen and you move on." Nelson on the Midwest race: "It is going to be a very, very tight race. This obviously makes it a lot tighter. This is a much bigger game than the game they lost; this is a full game swing, not a half. So it is a double one." Nelson on missing Finley: "We gave it everything we had. Nick came in and had a huge game. I thought everybody tried the best that they could. It wasn't for lack of effort, that's for sure." Nelson on formally clinching a playoff berth: "We've come a long way in 3 years. It was expected, I guess. But it's still nice." Nelson on not playing Finley: "The MRI reported nothing serious, but we'd be pretty foolish to rush him back until the thing is feeling better. It's just not the time of year that you want to gamble. Even though this is a huge game, it's not worth it to take any risk as far as not being healthy going into the playoffs." Dirk Nowitzki: "We came up a little short tonight. We had a lot of opportunities to win the game and we played them well down the stretch, but it just wasn't enough." Nowitzki: "We knew we needed a big game out of Nick and he came through big for us. He made great shots down the stretch and he made big plays for us, but unfortunately it wasn't enough." Nowitzki on the defense on San Antonio's last play: "We zoned at the end and that's why they really didn't go inside. Tony made a heck of a play. He laid it over me and Bradley and we were both trying to block his shot. He's going to have a great career in this league." Nowitzki on if it was the toughest loss of the season: "No, we've had a couple of tougher losses so far this year with Sacramento beating us twice here. We have to recover from tonight's loss. We've got a big road trip coming up next week and a big game on Saturday. Right now, we're still ahead of [San Antonio] and we got to make sure to try to win all of the games from here on out." Steve Nash: "It was the toughest loss of the year. We made some mistakes but I think we deserved to win as much as they did. It hurts a lot and makes you feel sick." Nash: "It was a good game. We hung in there for a long time, but we made a few too many mistakes and missed some easy baskets. It's a game that we deserved to win as much as they did, but you can't always do it." Nash: "Nick was incredible. He kept us in it for long stretches and without Michael we were kind of out of rhythm, but Nick stepped up and made some incredible shots to keep us in the game." Nash: "That was the toughest loss of the year because this was the biggest game of the year and to come so close, it hurts. There are still a lot of games to play and we still have enough time to protect our lead." Nick Van Exel: "I knew I had to be aggressive tonight because I knew Mike wasn't there. I was able to make some shots but it was a tough loss. We're still up 2 1/2 games, so we just have to stay positive." Van Exel on the division race: "We had a chance to put a cushion between us and them. But they're a good team and you have to give them a lot of credit. We're still 2 1/2 games up. We just have to stay positive." Raef LaFrentz: "We hit a lot of shots, they hit a lot of shots. Everything was closely contested. They just hit the last shot. They got us." Raja Bell on Parker's game winner: "We knew it would be either him or Tim Duncan. He made a nice drive down the middle and made a tough shot." Bell: "Obviously, we missed Fin, but Nick did a great job filling in and I don't think Mike being out was the deciding factor. We had chances to win the game." San Antonio Spurs 112, Dallas Mavericks 110 OT at Dallas (March 20) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th OT - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% San Antonio 23 26 33 20 10 - 112 .578 .391 .529 .550 Dallas 21 32 23 26 8 - 110 .456 .381 .438 .800 Halftime: Dallas 53-49 3rd Q: San Antonio 82-76 4th Q: 102-102 Technicals: San Antonio defensive 3 seconds 8:13 3rd Refs: Ron Garretson, Derek Collins, Tony Brothers Attendance: 20,110 (sellout) Did not play due to injury: Michael Finley (strained left hamstring) San Antonio Spurs REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Bruce Bowen 47 3-8 1-4 1-3 8 0-3 7 0 3 1 0 Malik Rose 43 10-14 0-0 2-4 22 3-7 3 1 3 0 0 Tim Duncan 49 11-18 0-0 3-4 25 5-18 4 2 2 1 4 Stephen Jackson 35 3-8 2-5 1-4 9 0-2 1 3 4 1 0 Tony Parker 40 10-21 2-6 0-0 22 1-6 6 3 2 0 0 Emanuel Ginobili 24 7-11 3-6 0-1 17 0-2 1 3 6 0 1 Danny Ferry 3 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 0 1 2 0 0 Steve Kerr 7 2-3 1-1 2-2 7 2-2 0 0 0 0 0 Steve Smith 3 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Kevin Willis 8 0-1 0-0 2-2 2 1-1 0 0 3 0 0 Speedy Claxton 6 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 1-1 2 0 1 0 0 Totals 53 46-87 9-23 11-20 112 13-43 24 13 26 3 5 Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Adrian Griffin 23 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 2-5 1 2 3 0 0 Dirk Nowitzki 51 10-24 1-6 13-14 34 1-12 2 5 5 0 1 Shawn Bradley 28 3-7 0-0 1-2 7 2-9 0 1 2 1 2 Raja Bell 17 1-3 0-1 0-0 2 2-3 0 0 2 1 0 Steve Nash 44 7-16 2-4 2-3 18 0-1 7 2 2 1 0 Nick Van_Exel 43 12-24 4-7 7-9 35 1-4 5 2 0 1 0 Raef LaFrentz 15 2-6 1-2 0-0 5 2-3 0 0 3 1 0 Eduardo Najera 32 3-5 0-0 1-2 7 4-6 2 0 4 0 0 Walt Williams 12 0-2 0-1 0-0 0 1-3 0 0 0 1 0 Totals 53 39-89 8-21 24-30 110 15-46 17 12 21 6 3 patricia