Game 2: Dallas at San Antonio (May 21) San Antonio scored 6 straight points to go up 10-4 with 7:50 left. As a sign of things to come, Dirk Nowitzki picked up his 1st foul with 7:50 left and his 2nd foul a mere 13 seconds left - he also got a technical on the call. He stayed in the game though and the Spurs continued to hold a small lead. Nowitzki picked up his 3rd foul with 4:50 left and was forced to sit with Dallas down by 1 point. With Nowitzki out and a parade to the free throw line, San Antonio went on an 18-2 run to go up 33-16 with 1:30 left - 11 of their points came from free throws. During the run, Don Nelson got in a stare down with ref Joey Crawford, and Crawford won that war as he tossed Nelson. Dallas did score the next 8 points. A jumper by Tim Duncan as the quarter ended gave San Antonio a 35-24 lead after 1. Duncan had 14 points including 6-6 FT and 5 rebounds, Malik Rose had 9 points including 7-7 FT, and Finley had 11 points. Both teams made 9 field goals, but San Antonio shot 16-16 FT while Dallas shot 4-5 FG. After trading buckets to open the 2nd quarter, the Spurs piled it on by scoring the next 10 points to go up 47-26 with 9 minutes to go. Nowitzki was re-inserted with 8:50 left, despite his foul problems. Raef LaFrentz hit a 3-pointer, but the Spurs then scored the next 8 points to go up 55-29 with 6:50 remaining. Assistant coach Del Harris got a 1-T ejection for complaining about a defensive 3 seconds non-call with 2:15 left and the made free throw gave San Antonio their largest lead at 64-36. San Antonio's lead stayed in the 20s the rest of the quarter. San Antonio lead 69-41 at the half. Rose had 10 points in the quarter and Nowitzki had 10 points. Dallas struggled shooting in the 2nd quarter and San Antonio continued their parade to the line. San Antonio shot 12-24 FG and 10-12 FT and Dallas shot 6-23 FG and 5-6 FT in the 2nd quarter. The 69 points for San Antonio tied the Dallas opponent record for points in the 1st half. Dallas went on a 12-4 run to pull within 58-75, capped by a 3-pointer by Steve Nash, but the Spurs scored the next 6 points to go up 81-58 with 6:50 remaining. Dallas pulled within 17 points 3 more times in the quarter, but San Antonio had an answer each time. Michael Finley swished a long 3-pointer as the quarter ended, but replays showed that the ball left his hands a fraction of a second after the buzzer and it didn't count. San Antonio led 94-75 after 3. Dallas chipped away at San Antonio's lead and a 3-pointer by Nick Van Exel pulled them within 85-99 with 9 minutes to go. The Spurs scored the next 2 buckets, but 2 Dallas 3-pointers surrounded a 3-point play to pull Dallas within 94-103 with 5:40 left. Out of a timeout, Duncan got 2 inside, but Van Exel got a layup and was fouled. He hit the extra to make it an 8 point game with 5 minutes to go. Duncan got a layup, the teams traded a couple of misses, Tony Parker got a layup, the teams traded misses and Van Exel nailed another 3-pointer and San Antonio led 109-100 with 3 minutes remaining. But Emanuel Ginobili answered with a 3-pointer (his only 3 of the game) and, alas, the comeback ended as that kicked of an 8-0 San Antonio run and the Spurs led 117-100 with 1:20 left as Dallas missed their next 3 shots. San Antonio won 119-106. It's a shame that once again the dominating topic of conversation after this game was the officiating. The 1st quarter was absolutely dominated by the officials, particularly Joey Crawford. It was a poor job by the refs and completely took Dallas out of their game in the 1st quarter. Now, Dallas should have adjusted better (more on that in a minute), but the calls did seem lopsided and the technicals were ridiculous. I re-watched the 1st quarter this morning to see if my on-site viewing was over-biased. Dirk Nowitzki's technical was too quick [some of his reactions later in the game were much more deserving of a T] and he didn't do much besides complain that Tim Duncan had swiped at his hand. Don Nelson's ejection was pure ego on Crawford's part. Staring at a ref who is 40 feet away from you is deserving of a T? And continuing to stand there is deserving of being ejected?? Give me a break. This is a major playoff game. Crawford should have swallowed his ego and his personal problems with Dallas and let the players decide the game. Granted, Nelson should have also walked away after getting the 1st T. It was too early in the game and Dallas was not out of the game yet and he shouldn't have resorted to such theatrics. And Nick Van Exel gets a T for rolling the ball to a ref instead of handing it to the closer ref after a bad offensive call [obvious flop by Emanuel Ginobili]??? If the refs really felt something had to be called for that minor thing, then it shouldn't have been anything more than a delay of game. My exact reaction after re-watching when Bruce Bowen got his T was, "He got a T for that???" [during the game it was, "What did he do??? He got a T for laying on the floor?"] I didn't re-watch it, but I had, "You got to be kidding me" reactions to both Walt Williams' and Kevin Willis' technicals in the 2nd quarter. The only T the refs got right in this game was Dallas' illegal defense in the 3rd quarter (I commented about it right before it was called). And to make matters worse, their calls were completely inconsistent. One example in the 1st quarter, Duncan got fouled inside and sent to the line, but the next play Raef LaFrentz took the ball to the hole and got hit a couple of times without a call. And in the 2nd half, who knew when they were going to blow the whistle. To give a Spur example, on one play Duncan got hit a couple of times driving with no call and on the next play for Dallas, Tony Parker gets called for slight contact on Steve Nash. Basically, the officiating in this game was terrible. With the first 2 games of this series having been dominated by the refs [at least in the 1st game, you knew what they were going to call - everything], hopefully we'll hardly hear from the refs the rest of the series and the play will be dominated by the players. The refs did ruin this game in the 1st quarter, but Dallas also shares some blame for their actions, not adjusting, and getting mentally taken out of the game by the officiating. It was a costly mistake to leave Nowitzki in the game after he picked up his 2nd foul. Dallas was down just 1 when he picked up his 3rd foul and was down by 21 when he returned in the 2nd and he was a defensive hole due to his foul trouble the rest of the half. As I said, Nelson should have left the ref alone and stayed in the game. Dallas was only down 6 (with the Spurs going to the line) when he was ejected and it gave them 2 unearned points and his ejection did not help the team re-focus. As for the game, the Spurs did play a great 2nd quarter (granted they were almost playing 5-on-4 with Nowitzki's foul trouble) in building their 20+ point lead. They again struggled maintaining their lead in the 4th and Dallas put a little bit of scare in them in cutting the Spurs' lead down to 8 points. But Dallas' sporadic shooting touch left them again late in the quarter and San Antonio was able to get enough of a cushion to hang on for the win. Dallas only shot 41.1% (37-90) FG including 12-30 3-pointers and had just 8 offensive rebounds. San Antonio shot 48.1% (39-81) FG including 4-11 3-pointers and had 58 points in the paint [only 10 of their made buckets came outside of the paint]. But the game winner for the Spurs was the free throw line. San Antonio shot 37-45 FT, including hitting their 1st 24 free throws, while Dallas attempted 23 few free throws in shooting 20-22 FT. San Antonio also out-rebounded Dallas 51-41 including 10-8 offensive. The series is now tied 1-1 and is now a best of 5 series. Game 3 is tonight in Dallas at 8:00 pm. Tim Duncan once again was superb. He had 32 points on 11-21 FG and 10-13 FT [much better from the line this night], 15 rebounds including 5 offensive, 5 assists, and 3 blocks. Malik Rose was the man off the bench and wasn't plagued by the foul trouble that limited him in game 1. He had 25 points on 5-11 FG and an incredible 15-18 FT and 6 rebounds in 27 minutes. He didn't collect his 5th foul until 6 minutes left in the game. Tony Parker had a better outing with 19 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists. Stephen Jackson showed up this night with 17 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists (had just 8 points in the last game). But Emanuel Ginobili remains MIA with just 7 points on 3-6 FG and 3 rebounds in 28 minutes. David Robinson chipped in 7 points and 7 rebounds in 20 minutes. Bruce Bowen was quiet with just 6 points on 2-7 FG [no hack-a-Bowen this night] and 3 rebounds in 34 minutes. Speedy Claxton had 6 points and 5 rebounds in 14 minutes, Danny Ferry had no points and 3 rebounds in 8 minutes, and Kevin Willis got in for just a minute and had a technical. The Mavs best player this night was Michael Finley. Finley had 29 points including 4-7 FG, 10 rebounds, and 3 steals in playing all but the final 1:20. Dirk Nowitzki had 23 points and 10 rebounds in 39 minutes, but the foul trouble did limit him some. Steve Nash had an off night as his outside shot mostly wasn't falling in addition to his inside circus shots not going. He had 12 points including 4-11 FG, but did have 8 assists. Raja Bell started and saw lots of court time due to Eduardo Najera's absence and had 6 points and 7 rebounds in 22 minutes. Shawn Bradley also started and had a terrible game. He had no points on 0-2 FG [one of them he tried to lay in instead of dunk, the other tried to take it strong in for the dunk (and it was an impressive drive) but it was strongly blocked by Malik Rose (and it was a more impressive block)], 2 rebounds, and 2 turnovers in just 6 minutes. Off the bench, Nick Van Exel had another poor outing. He was part of Dallas' comeback in the 4th, though, with his aggressive play and 3-pointers and a 3-point play - but he also followed those up with some 1-on-anyone plays that didn't work. Van Exel had 13 points including 5-16 FG, 3 rebounds, and 3 assists in 34 minutes. Raef LaFrentz had 15 points including 5-8 FG, but just 1 rebound and 5 fouls in 28 minutes. Walt Williams saw 23 minutes of playing time due to the big men's playing troubles and Najera's absence and Dallas' wanting more offense on the court. He had 8 points and 3 rebounds in 23 minutes. He collected 4 fouls in the 1st half. Adrian Griffin was the only other Mav to play and had 1 rebound and 1 assist in 3 minutes. Najera's knee and thigh was still bothering him from the collision it had with Malik Rose's head in the last game and he did not play. [You know, there really isn't a rivalry between these 2 teams. My mom and I went down for the game (a 24 hour trip) and everyone was very friendly. With "GO MAVS" on the back of my window (as it has been for the entire playoffs) and a Mavs car flag, we got some honks and cheers from fellow Mavs fans, a couple of playful jeers from Spurs fans, and even one Spurs fan who honked and gave a friendly waved as he went by. And when we got to arena, everyone was very nice and helpful despite our Mavs gear. I've always liked the Spurs and am glad to see that the playoff competition hasn't generally harvested dislike between the 2 teams.] Quotes Gregg Popovich: "Pretty good game. I was happy to get a lead and some what hold on to it. We've had a pension for figuring out ways to allow those deals to dissipate from time to time, so it was nice to have Dallas make a run and then hang tough and do the things you do to keep a lead. But I thought that we got a lot of contributions from a lot of people. Obviously I'm pleased that we stepped up and knocked down some free throws." Popovich: "With us, it's important for our young guys - Parker and Ginobili and Jackson, Speedy Claxton - to play well because Timmy's gonna get a lot of attention. That's something we're used to. Timmy does a good job of trusting his teammates and they got to make good judgements in what they do, you know, shooting and driving, making the extra pass. It's the coordination between the 2 and I thought tonight that we made better decisions on the perimeter, shot fewer contested shots, you know, made an extra pass, and that worked out for us better." Popovich on Rose: "I don't know if it's so much inside with Malik. You know, he plays in and he plays out. He's very versatile. Not having him in game 1 was a huge factor for us because when they go small, which obviously they do often, it gets real difficult for David to play in some of those situations and Malik is very, very important to us. Having him available to us for most of the night was important." Popovich on Rose: "Malik has improved everything from the 1st year we took him as a free agent. He's like Bruce Bowen. He's somebody who in his off time spends a lot of time working on what ever he thinks his weakness might be. So, he's figured out how to hit a medium range jump shot. He's gotten patience down in the blocks, letting offensive come to him, working within a system. But it's because of his hard work, It just didn't happen. And the free throw line, which you asked, is the same thing. He's spent a lot of time on that line shooting them, trying to get a rhythm, trying to get a process down, trying to be consistent with it, not worrying about the out come, just letting it fly, and he's become pretty confident." Popovich on if either team has the upper hand: "No, I don't think that ever really happens in a series. Everybody writes about that this team is 3-1 so they get it, this team is this or that. When you get down to these last 4 teams, they're all pretty mature, experience teams that understand that the next game is the most important game. I don't think they look ahead. I don't think they get full of themselves. I think every one of these games will be a very hard fought game and it will come down to a lot of performances, who takes care of the ball, who makes shots, all the typical stuff. Tonight that worked for us a little bit better, I guess." Popovich: "There is no 3-point defense for Dallas. You bust your butt to get back and you can sprint back, and at some point in the game there is still going to be somebody who shoots wide open shots and there is going to be somebody in the stands that's going to say, 'Why would you leave Nowitzki?' You know, probably somebody who's never coached before, but has lots of opinions. I'm sure I'll read about this tomorrow." Popovich: "It doesn't matter what you do. They're going to get open for a 3 now and then. When they get 4 or 5 guys - it's 5 when LaFrentz is out there - that can knock down 3s in transition, sometimes you're not going to cover them all. That's just the way it is. It's going to happen. But you got to live through it. You got to limit it and get as many stops in the half court as you can 'cause you're not always going to stop them in transition." Popovich: "Nothing that Nellie does surprises me. I was with him for 2 years, so I'm always expecting him to do something clever and something creative. He was really creative tonight, though." Popovich on the 2 timeouts when Nowitzki got dunks/layups: "I might have run out of timeouts if I kept doing that. But when I called those quick ones, I just wanted to make it clear that that against these guys, your mental focus has to be there consistently. If it's not, you know, it's an 8 point run before you blink. You know, you miss on free throws, or commit a turnovers, and they can be back on you, no matter what kind of lead you have. So I think it's important for us to understand the kind of team that we're playing and that for 48 minutes these guys are driving it right at you, up the court, as Nellie says, pedal to the metal, I think. They're going to do it all night long. You better be ready." Tim Duncan on Rose: "He's so huge for us. He gives us that other post presences because when they go small, we can match up a lot better. And at the same time, he's got the quickness and he can slide his feet well enough to guard those perimeter guys with no problems. And that's why he's such a presence. When he plays well and he plays like the big man he can play like on the post, it helps us tremendously." Duncan on if he or the coach told them to get Duncan the ball when Dallas got close in the 4rth: "Neither nor. It was a play call - I don't even know what it was - but it kind of worked around, it kind of got in my hands, and I wanted to be a lot more aggressive. I haven't been having the greatest of 4th quarters in the last couple of games, and just wanted to be aggressive and make sure I got a good shot and make sure I continued to score down the stretch." Duncan on Dallas' comeback: "It's the same old thing, the same old thing. It is tough to be in a situation like that where you're up so much and you're trying to play the clock out basically. And we talked about it a little bit, talked about continuing to be aggressive, continuing to try to win the game instead of just trying to substain the lead - something we kind fell into the last game. They just come down, they're casting up 3s, and some shots go down for them and they get back to that point. But we went into that huddle, we're still up 8, 9 points. We call that time out, we're still up a significant amount of points. They're going to have to make some shots. We just need to make a couple of plays in a row and we did. We made some great plays, defensively and offensively." Duncan on free throws: "You know what, I thought that we didn't work on it any more than usual. I thought the focus was just there. Everybody knew the importance of us making free throws and not giving those possessions away. We gave up 16 points in the last game and we lose by 3 - that's a huge difference for us. That's a game we should have had. We just don't want to get in a situation like that again. I thought guys did a great line of stepping up there with some confidence and knocking down shots, knocking down free throws." Duncan on Nowitzki not in the game: "It changes it a bunch. He's their leading scorer. He's their guy that really gets them rolling. I thought that Malik did a great job of attacking him, knowing that he had his 2 or 3 fouls, or what ever it was, and went right at the basket and made the contact and got the call. Just a very aggressive play by him. And you get him off the court, those guys, they got to look somewhere else. They have 4 other options, though, that's the only thing about it. But he's their main option." Duncan on Dallas getting within 9: "We just wanted to come down and get a set play. We realized the time and the situation and that we were still up by 9 points. They made a run, they made some shots. We wanted to calm ourselves down a little bit and get a good possession and make sure we got in transition because they'd be pushing it right back at us." Duncan on the 4th: "I thought we did a great job. We won the game. That's the key to it. They were playing from behind. They were playing a little frantic, shooting some shots, they made some shots, they got back into it a little bit, but they got back within 8. 8 is still a pretty good lead." David Robinson on the officiating: "Both teams should have known from the last game that the refs weren't going to put up with anything. Nothing. There was a lot of complaining last game. You had the crowd chanting against the referees. You had to know they were going to come in here and establish themselves and say, 'We're not going to have any of that garbage.'" Robinson on Duncan: "Tim's just so smart. He takes whatever you give him. If Dallas is going to small guys on him, he's going to kill them. You know what you're going to get from Tim. It's everybody else that has to pick up the slack." Malik Rose: "I just thank God for a good night. I was able to go out there and help my teammates, make some free throws, make a few hustle plays, and we got the win." Rose: "As far as the offensive stuff goes, that stuff's not going to happen all the time. But just being out there to defend, hustle, scrap, get on the boards and make some things happen for teammates, that's really important." Donn Nelson: "Well, we dug ourselves a hole in the 1st half. Expended a lot of energy to get out of it and in my opinion, we just ran out towards the end. We need to score points, get possessions, and that's why you saw some lineups that you did out there. Really proud of the way our guys competed tonight. The tempo was to our liking in the 2nd half. We just didn't make shots that we generally do. And our dual points have paid a lot of dividends in this playoff run, just came up a little bit dry. Had a lot to do with their defense because it was particularly good. In transition, they really got to our shooters and it gave us some problems. But we did like the looks that we were able to get in the open court. Too little, too late." [Don Nelson usually doesn't address the media in games that he is ejected.] Nelson: "It was a number of things. I think, you know, when you're in an emotional playoff series, like this one, you know, taking the ball hard to the basket has its place and we attempted to do that and we're not able to get to the free throw line as much as we would have liked. You know listen, they got the MVP and the premier player in the league and he came out with a vengeance tonight, took control of the game early, and it was pretty evident out there. We need to have all our cylinders clicking with the big 4. We need to have all those guys show up with their A game, plus support cast. And we came up short in both categories. When 2 out of your top 4 guys shoot the way that ours did tonight and our support cast brings their B performance, then we can't be expected to win a playoff game as competitive as the environment that we experienced out there tonight." Nelson on Nowitzki's 3 fouls: "Well, obviously, you're more guarded out there. You certainly don't want to have your best player pick up his 4th foul and so I think that was some of the issue that we had to deal with it. Obviously, Tim and David are going to sense that and smell it. Pop's going to go at it like he did. You know, it's like a heavy weight prizefighter, when you get cut, you go after that cut and they did." Nelson: "In the past, the technicals and ejections have had a tendency to fire our team up and I think for a period of time, it did that. At halftime, you know, as a team we addressed that very issue, that we thought there were some of the guys that didn't have that fire that we were looking for. And I thought that everyone really stepped it up in the 2nd half. I can't tell you how proud I am of these guys, the way that they competed, fought back in the 2nd half. I think everybody laid it all on the line. Unfortunately, like I said, we need to score a lot of points to get back in this thing. And when we needed it most out there in certain stretches, you know, we didn't bang down those shots like we normally do. And as a result, we weren't able to quite to get over the hill in this one." Nelson on if Don Nelson ever surprises him: "All the time. I mean, I think that's part of being Nellie being Nellie is that he keeps all of us guessing, including me. And whether it's strategies or - I think the manner in which he was ejected tonight was surprising to all of us on the bench. That's not justifying it, it's just that it was peculiar and surprising." Nelson on Harris' ejection: "I think Del was trying to protect me from getting tossed and thrown. He's, I tell you, he's a very special guy. And that's what I think he was trying to do." Nelson: "With this group, in closing, we are extremely confident and we feel as the series goes that we'll gain in confidence and experience. You know, we took tonight on the chin, but in no way, shape, or form do we feel depressed or down or lacking confidence. So we'll take this as a challenge and learn from it and try to get one at home." Dirk Nowitzki: "We were down a lot but this team can get hot at any moment. We never really feel like we are out of a game. We believe we can always come back. Even tonight we got back to within 9 or 7 and we just needed to get a few more buckets and a few more boards and this one could have been another story. But Duncan was huge in that regard. Every time we really got close he picked up a huge rebound or a huge basket that would put the momentum back in their favor." Nowitzki on his foul trouble: "I kind of put myself in a bad position tonight getting in foul trouble early. I was never real able to find my rhythm and that kind of extended to the rest of the team. We knew coming in to this one that they were going to come out aggressive. That's why they got the calls. Many times the more aggressive team gets the calls." Nowitzki: "I was never really able to find my rhythm, and that kind of extended to the rest of the team. We lost our composure a little. In the 1st half we complained about every call. We just have to calm down and let our game speak for itself." Nowitzki: "I think the 2nd half, we fought through it and put ourselves in a good chance to win the game. That should give us confidence for the 3rd game in Dallas that we can still get back in the game, and we'll see what happens. We've got to be ready for Friday's game. It's going to be huge." Nowitzki: "We set ourselves up for a great opportunity here, and we see it as a missed opportunity. Of course, a split is nice, but we had a shot to go up 2-0 in a different building, but we let it slip away." Michael Finley on Nelson's ejection: "I think his ejection didn't really have an affect on us as for getting motivated to come out and play better. His thing with the refs was between him and the referees. We as players still have to go out there and play and do our job and leave the complaining to the refs to our coaches and just us as basketball players go out and play." Finley: "We're fine. We're fine mentally. Our mindset coming into these 2 games away from home was ultimately to get 1. To get 2 would have been great. To get 1 is okay. We're still in a good position. Now it is just up to us to go home and play the way we're capable of playing. We still haven't played a good game, a great game yet. So that's still the optimistic that is still there for us." Finley on the fouls and technicals: "Well, I think some of the calls kind of flustered some of the guys, coaches as well. The referee had an easy whistle tonight. He wasn't, or they as a collective rule, wasn't hearing too much complaining. And when they were, they would end up giving out technicals. But we still have to just go out there and play and leave the refereeing alone. When we go out there and just play, we're a whole different team. Sometimes the referee can take away our mental focus in the game. I think it happened a little bit tonight." Finley on the 4th quarter comeback: "They know what type of team we are. We're and explosive team. Everybody in the league knows it. 10 points is nothing for us. It's just a matter of once we get it down, we have to play smarter basketball, get big stops and big rebounds and execute on the offensive end. But we knew that if we kept chipping away in the 2nd half that we'd put ourselves in a position to get back in the ball game. And fortunately enough for them, they made some big shots when we were chipping away and we were unable to convert on the offensive end. But our mindset is still there, and they know it." Finley joking on Harris' ejection: "Well, Nellie probably needed a little company back there. So Del just got ejected to join Nellie. But I don't really know what the conversation went on between him and the referee. But that's neither here nor there. We just have to regroup and come back ready for game 3." Finley on Nelson's ejection: "From what I saw of the confrontation between the referee and Nellie, I think he was right in his argument. But the referees tonight, they had to set the tone. And by doing that, they let the coaches know, the players know that they wasn't taking any by ejecting coach Nelson and letting people know that they were going to control the game, I think it set the tone for the entire game." Steve Nash: "We don't feel like we are in a bad position. We would have liked to get 2 here but the bottom line is tonight we didn't play well enough to win. We didn't deserve this one. We got frustrated by some things early. You can't do that. You can't fret about things that are out of your control and you have to hold it in; hold it together. You have to relax and play through it. In the 2nd half, we did a better job of trying to overcome adversity. We have to continue to do that." Nash on the calls: "It just saps a little bit of your energy, and your focus. On the road you need all that. We're never out of the game if we didn't let the refs get to us." Nash: "The bottom line is, we didn't play well, no matter what happened in the 1st half. But we're still in good position." Nick Van Exel: "We never really got a chance to play well. The players on the court should dictate the game - nobody else. Somebody else took this game from us. Let us play the game. Let the players dictate things. You've got 2 teams squaring off for an NBA championship." Van Exel: "I don't think we had a chance to play well. The players on the court should dictate the game. Somebody else took the game from us. It had nothing to do with anything the Spurs did. There's a lot I could say, but I'm tired of giving those guys money." Van Exel: "This was ridiculous. I don't think we had a chance to play well. I think the players on the court are supposed to dictate the game, nobody else is supposed to dictate the game. We were there in the beginning. Somehow it just got out of control, and somebody else just took the game from us. It had nothing to do with what the Spurs did." Van Exel: "Somebody put us in a big hole in that 1st quarter, and we just couldn't get out of it. Let us play the game. Let us dictate the game. That's what we're here for. We're here to win an NBA championship." Van Exel on the officiating: "It was tough to play through it. The only thing players wish is that players are able to decide and dictate the flow of the game. That's all we ask. I let it take me out of my game tonight." Van Exel on the 1st quarter calls and technicals: "It took us a whole half to get our focus back. By then, the game was already determined." Van Exel: "We definitely lost our composure, but we knew coming in how it would be. Our focus was to keep fighting though it and play through it as best we could, but tonight it just got the best of us." Van Exel: "We knew coming in here how it was going to be. We knew we would have to play through some initial energy from the Spurs, but anything can happen on the court when these 2 teams play. We are never going to go away. We are never going to lose confidence. Still the hole we got ourselves into tonight was just too much to overcome. We tried but they just got the best of us." Raef LaFrentz: "Rose was just huge for them all game, but especially when the game was on the line. His energy and aggressiveness was just too much. We have to do a better job on him." LaFrentz on the officiating: "I think we let it be more of an issue than we should have. Some nights it seems like no calls go your way, and tonight was one of those nights." LaFrentz: "Ultimately, when everything is said and done, we got done what we came to do. We got the split. We felt like we could have gotten more. But ultimately, we're going home 1-1 and we've got a 5-game series and we've got home court advantage." Raja Bell: "All we've proven so far is that they're a better 1st half team than we are and we're a better 2nd half team than they are. We've stolen the home court back. Now we have to protect it." Bell: "We were down in a deep hole, and things weren't going our way. It was tech after tech after tech after tech, and foul after foul after foul. Despite that, we had a shot at it late in the game. So despite being rattled, we were still in a great position to win the game but just didn't do it." Joey Crawford explain his ejection of Nelson: "Don walked to half court. I never told him to sit down, because that's not my job to tell him to sit down. I told him to go coach his team, and he said, 'No, I'm not going to.' So I hit him with one. I said, 'Go coach your team.' He said, 'I'm staying right here.' So, bang, I threw him." San Antonio Spurs 119, Dallas Mavericks 106 at San Antonio (May 21) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% San Antonio 35 34 25 25 - 119 .500 .364 .481 .822 Dallas 24 20 31 31 - 106 .417 .400 .411 .909 Halftime: San Antonio 69-44 3rd Q: San Antonio 94-75 Technicals: Nick Van Exel 1:47 1st, Don Nelson 2:46 1st, Don Nelson (ejected) 2:46 1st, Dirk Nowitzki 7:39 1st, Bruce Bowen 1:14 1st, Del Harris (1-T ejected) 2:16 2nd, Kevin Willis 1:51 2nd, Dallas defensive 3 seconds 8:30 3rd Refs: Dick Bavetta, Joey Crawford, Ted Bernhardt Attendance: 18,797 (sellout) Did not play due to injury: Eduardo Najera (sore lower thigh and knee) San Antonio Spurs REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Bruce Bowen 34 2-7 2-4 0-0 6 0-3 2 2 2 0 0 Tim Duncan 40 11-21 0-0 10-13 32 5-15 5 1 4 0 3 David Robinson 20 2-5 0-0 3-4 7 2-7 2 1 1 1 1 Tony Parker 34 6-11 0-0 7-8 19 0-4 4 3 3 1 0 Stephen Jackson 34 7-14 1-4 2-2 17 0-5 5 1 3 2 0 Malik Rose 27 5-11 0-0 15-18 25 2-6 2 2 5 1 1 Emanuel Ginobili 28 3-6 1-2 0-0 7 1-3 2 2 2 2 1 Speedy Claxton 14 3-4 0-0 0-0 6 0-5 2 0 1 0 0 Kevin Willis 1 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Danny Ferry 8 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0-3 0 2 1 0 0 Totals 48 39-81 4-11 37-45 119 10-51 24 14 22 7 6 Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Michael Finley 47 10-20 4-7 5-5 29 3-10 3 1 4 3 0 Dirk Nowitzki 39 8-19 2-6 5-5 23 0-10 2 2 4 2 0 Shawn Bradley 6 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 1-2 0 2 0 0 0 Steve Nash 38 4-11 2-3 2-3 12 0-4 8 3 4 2 0 Raja Bell 22 3-8 0-1 0-0 6 3-7 3 0 3 0 0 Nick Van_Exel 34 5-16 2-6 1-1 13 0-3 3 2 2 1 0 Raef LaFrentz 28 5-8 1-3 4-5 15 0-1 0 0 5 1 2 Walt Williams 23 2-6 1-4 3-3 8 1-3 2 1 4 0 0 Adrian Griffin 3 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 1 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 37-90 12-30 20-22 106 8-41 22 11 26 9 2 patricia Go Mavs!