Jason Terry was named as the NBA 6th Man of the Year. Terry was the runaway winner as he received 111 of possible 1st place media votes for the award. He had 576 points in the voting while 2nd place finisher J.R. Smith (Den) had 155 points. JT averaged 19.6 points and 3.4 assists in his 74 games, 63 of which he came off the bench. Game 3: San Antonio at Dallas (April 23) For a change, Dallas started J.J. Barea instead of Antoine Wright (and I was surprised that Barea took Roger Mason instead of Tony Parker defensively). The Mavs opened strong by scoring the first 8 points of the game while San Antonio missed their first 5 shots. The Spurs finally got on the scoreboard with a layup by Parker with 9:10 remaining. A layup by Parker pulled San Antonio within 5 points, but Dallas scored the next 4 points to take a 14-5 lead with 7:50 to go. A 3-pointer by Barea gave Dallas their first double-digit lead at 19-7 with 5:55 left. A layup by Drew Gooden and 3-point play by Parker pulled San Antonio within 7 points with 1:45 to go, but Barea had a layup on the next play and Dirk Nowitzki hit a jumper with 3 seconds left in the quarter to give Dallas a 27-16 lead after 1. Nowitzki had 10 points, Josh Howard had 8 points, and Barea had 9 points - those 3 were the only Mavs to score in the quarter. Parker led the way for San Antonio with 10 points, but only shot 4-10 FG. Dallas shot 10-19 FG and 6-8 FT while San Antonio shot 7-22 FG and 2-4 FT. Dallas continued to lead in the 2nd quarter as San Antonio got no closer than 8 points. Dallas led 25-34 with 8:10 to go and the Mavs rattled off the next 12 points to take their first 20-point lead at 46-25 with 3:15 remaining - San Antonio missed 6 shots and had 2 turnovers during Dallas' run. Dallas didn't score again in the quarter in missing their last 5 shots, but the Spurs only scored 5 points during the last 3 minutes including a jumper by George Hill at the quarter buzzer. Dallas led 46-30 at the half. Dallas out-scored San Antonio 19-14 in the 2nd quarter as Dallas shot 7-16 FG and San Antonio shot 6-21 FG. Parker missed the only 2 shots he attempted in the 2nd quarter. 30 points in a half set the Dallas opponent low for points in a half. Dallas opened the 3rd quarter strong as their open-look defense worked (San Antonio shot 1-5 FG to open the quarter and the 4 misses were on open looks) [Dallas did play good defense in the game, but the open misses by the Spurs had me chuckling about the defense]. Dallas scored on 5 of their first 6 possessions of the quarter while San Antonio scored on only 1 of their first 6 possessions and the Mavs went on an 11-2 run to take a 57-32 lead with 9:10 to go. A 3-pointer by Jason Kidd (his first points of the game) gave Dallas a 62-36 lead with 7:50 remaining and San Antonio called timeout and Gregg Popovich pulled his stars (they did not return). The Mavs' dominance continued as Kidd's 3-pointer kicked off 9 straight Dallas points to give Dallas 68-36 lead with 6:15 left. Dallas led 75-42 after 3. Dallas out-scored San Antonio 29-12 in the 3rd quarter as Dallas shot a solid 12-19 FG while San Antonio shot a poor 5-20 FG - and the Spurs had just 1 assist in the quarter while Dallas had 10. The blowout continued as a jumper by James Singleton gave Dallas their largest lead at 80-44 with 10:15 remaining. The end of the Spurs' bench did a better job than Dallas' end of bench players as San Antonio went on a 19-5 run over the last 8 minutes of the game (with 2 of Dallas' points coming with 15 seconds left) - but that only made the final score less ridiculous. Dallas did have a bit of bad news near the end when Gerald Green went out with a sprained ankle. Dallas won 88-67. Dallas leads the series 2-1. Wow. I haven't been this surprised by a blowout since Dallas blewout Houston by 40 points in Game 7 in 2005. Pure and simple, it was the reverse from Game 2, where San Antonio looked great and Dallas looked lackluster. San Antonio could do nothing right in this game and Dallas played great. The Mavs did a better job of immediately looking to attack on offense, which prevent San Antonio's defense from disrupting the Mavs and got Dirk Nowitzki more involved in to the game. And Dallas did a much better job rebounding - yeah, they again only had 5 offensive rebounds, but they shot 47% and grabbed most of the Spurs' misses with a team playoff record 46 defensive boards. For the game, Dallas shot 47.2% (34-72) FG including 8-22 3-pointers. San Antonio shot 32.1% (25-78) FG [and that was helped by the scrub players as they were around 29% for most of the 2nd and 3rd quarters] including 2-17 3-pointers. Dallas shot 12-16 FT and San Antonio shot 15-21 FT. Dallas out-rebounded San Antonio 51-41 and the Spurs had an 8-5 offensive edge (but they only scored 6 points off those 8 boards). As I said with Dallas' loss in Game 2, if you shoot poorly and don't rebound, you are going to lose. Dallas had 20 assists and San Antonio had just 10 assists, and again the scrubs got the Spurs out of record low territory there as they had 5 assists in the 4th quarter. San Antonio never led in the game. Dallas had solid performances by a number of players and, due to the blowout, no one other than J.J. Barea played more than 27 minutes - Barea played 33 minutes, and 3 of those were due to replacing the injured Gerald Green for the end of the game. Dirk Nowitzki was the high man with 20 points including 8-12 FG and 7 rebounds. All of Josh Howard's 17 points came in the 1st and 3rd quarters. He also had 8 rebounds. Barea had a very nice outing with 13 points, 7 assists, and just 1 turnover. Much was made about Erick Dampier commenting in the days before this game about putting Tony Parker on the floor and the refs noticed as Dampier was quick-whistled for a touch foul (not on Parker) a minute into the game. Damp didn't take Parker down, but was effective in the game with his defense and rebounding. Dampier hit his only shot (a putback dunk) and had 9 rebounds and 3 blocks - and he only picked up 2 fouls. Jason Kidd ran the show with 8 rebounds and 6 assists. His shooting remains suspect in only shooting 1-6 FG (the make being a 3-pointer). Brandon Bass had some questionable shots early in his game, but got it going and made a positive impact. He had 10 point, 5 rebounds, and 2 blocks in 21 minutes. Jason Terry still hasn't had a good outing, but he didn't force any shots. He had 10 points on 4-9 FG and 4 rebounds in 24 minutes. Antoine Wright had 6 points on 2-8 FG (both makes 3-pointers) and 3 rebounds in 18 minutes. Ryan Hollins, James Singleton, Matt Carroll, and Gerald Green all got in for the extended garbage time. No Spur player deserves mention [only fair since I did it to the Mavs for Game 2]. But I will point out that Tim Duncan's 4 points (2-9 FG) and 2 rebounds were both career playoff lows. Quotes Rick Carlisle: "I liked the way we played. The score, at this point, is insignificant. The challenge is to maintain the same kind of edge heading into Saturday. It's a long series." Carlisle: "The challenge is to maintain same kind of edge heading into Saturday. It's a good effort and an important victory for us, but it's only one step." Carlisle on defensive rebounds: "It was big, but we got them to miss some shots too, which helps. You have the opportunity for defensive rebounds when the other team misses. That was a factor." Carlisle: "What matters now is Saturday's game and us getting ourselves in the mindset that we have to come out the same way because they are going to come out in Game 4 the same way we came out in Game 3 after this kind of game. That's where it's at." Carlisle: "You know, the numbers told the story. We hadn't defended well for 2 games. Our guys, they came out very aggressive. You know, they were very committed. We spent a couple days shoring up some things coverage wise. Look, they missed some shots they probably normally make early in the game too. Getting our crowd into it is big. We've got a great building. San Antonio's got a great crowd, you know. And it's our job to keep them into it. I was at the Memorial Day massacre back in 1985, so I know these situations all too well. This is about staying really focused on what's important and that is possession to possession playing with the same kind of force that we played with tonight. Anything less than that and, you know, we're not doing what we can do to put ourselves in the position to be successful." Carlisle on starting Barea: "We started that lineup a lot this year. I just thought it was the right way to go, without getting into a bunch of stuff. That lineup knows how to play with each other cause they have done it several times, I think 15 times during the regular season. It was effective. It was less about who was out there and more about the team's disposition. And that's were we got to stay consistent and we got to keep that edge. And that's where the challenge is." Dirk Nowitzki: "Great, great effort, I thought. You know, defensively, I think, that's how we made it all happen, you know, to keep them to 30 points the 1st half. Just rotate and scrambling. I think you can run what ever pick-and-roll coverage you want, but if you don't bring the energy and the focus to it, nothing is going to work. So I think we were all over it tonight, we were hyped. Our fans were behind us, and that really got us going. It was a great defensive night, and I think we benefit from that offensively. When we get stops, we rebound the ball [and] we get the ball in Jason Kidd's hands and he's the best at making decisions on the break. So I think our offense benefited from our defense tonight." Nowitzki on the strong 1st quarter: "Yeah I think in the first 2 games, they were the aggressors early and they were the ones that got out on early leads - in both games they were up 10, 14. In Game 1 that we won, they were up 14 at some point. And we just wanted to turn that around and get our crowd into the game and get everyone excited. I think we did a good job, like I said, defensively, running the ball, and making shots. It always comes down to making some big shots and that's what we did." Nowitzki on Popovich pulling his starters 4 minutes into the 3rd quarter: "It's his decision, but it's going to be a quick turnaround for everybody [for Saturday's game]. You know, Saturday is an afternoon game, 3:00, so we only really have 24 hours, a little more than that. And we got to be ready to do it again. And I think their shooters are going to shot the ball a lot better and they're going to have more energy - and we got to match that. So it's another big game for us Saturday." Nowitzki: "I think it all starts defensively for us. To hold them to 30 points at half and 42 through 3 quarters, I think it was, was great." Nowitzki: "We all fought for each other. If somebody made a mistake, the other guy was there scrambling for him, helping out. I think the defense helped our offense. By not taking the ball out every time [after a made basket] we were able run a little bit, we rebounded the ball, got the ball into Kidd's hands on the break - and I think that's when we are at our best." Nowitzki: "Everybody was really in attack mode after we got stops. We didn't have to grind it all out all the time and call plays, and they were sitting on our plays the first 2 games. And today, once we got stops, it was more of a free-flow. They couldn't really double-team us because things happened so quick on the break, in transition, the catch-and-go, and move it if it's not there, and then another guy try to drive and move it and pass. And I just think that moving the ball really made it hard for them to sit on our stuff." Nowitzki: "We're tough at home. Now we can't have any letdowns." Josh Howard: "We thought it was going to be a tough game - which it was early - but we came out motivated, executed early, and the fans were behind us 100% tonight and that's one thing that really got our motors running." Howard: "We were just very aggressive tonight. We're buying into the game plan and Damp stepped up big. A lot of people gave him flack for what he said, but this is an NBA game. Guys go out there and play hard and he didn't mean anything by it and he took that as motivation and we went out there tonight a played great. Damp is the anchor of our defense and we follow our anchor." Howard: "We tried not to give the Spurs time to load up on defensive end. We attacked the basket when we could and that's what we have to continue to do." Howard on the home crowd affecting the game: "Why not give the credit to the fans and the city of Dallas? We're just trying to play hard and we're going to keep playing hard the rest of the series." Jason Terry: "This is the way we have to play. As far as tempo goes, we pretty much controlled the game. Defensively, we were there tonight with great energy. The fans got into it. And we can't change anything - have to do the same thing, you come out in Game 4." Gerald Green on spraining his ankle: "I came down on somebody's foot. It figures. I'm all excited about the playoffs and this happens. I'll just see how it feels and go from there." Gregg Popovich, after sitting down at the interview table and pushing all the stat sheets off the table: "Geez-oh-whiz. It's bad enough, you're going to make me look at the stats? Good lord. Have some mercy, will ya. They kicked our ass in every which way but lose, and that's obvious. We didn't play well at either end of the court. They had a lot to do with it. Their energy and aggressiveness was great. They executed, they did a hell of a job. That's that." Popovich on what he said at halftime: "Probably something like, 'If it's not too much trouble, I think it would be a good idea if maybe we made a some baskets and stopped a few.' Some intelligent thing like that, I don't know." Popovich on if the game was a cause for concern or just one of those games: "That's a great question. It's a little bit of both. You can't ignore how you got your butt kicked. We'll look at some things and see if we can pick some stuff up. But they just came out like we thought they would come out. We thought we were prepared for it, and obviously for some reason we were not. So we'll move on and try to get our edge back at 3:00 on Saturday." Popovich on pulling his stars 4 minutes into the 3rd quarter: "It's a short turn around for us [for Saturday's game] and I didn't see where we were going to get back in that one. So I thought it was wiser to make sure Tony and Tim have their energy, because what we generate starts with them." Popovich on if the blowout serves a better message to the team than a close win: "Theoretically sure, I guess it's true, but it's disappointing. When you win a game you talk about coming back the right way from a win, just like you talk about coming back from a loss the right way. We talked about that a lot. You have to handle wins as well as you handle losses. Often times handling wins is tougher than handling losses, and we certainly proved that tonight. But the game is done and it's time to get ready for Saturday." Tim Duncan: "Obviously we're disappointed with our effort. Give them credit, they played well, they used the energy of their home court, they attacked us from horn-to-horn, and they really put us on our heels. We played very poorly and we have to put this one behind us and understand that the next one is the most important. We'll regroup and do the regular stuff - watch some film, make some adjustments, and come out here the next game and give a much better performance." Duncan on if any extra motivation from confetti being dropped from the rafters after Dallas' win: "It doesn't need to. The kind of performance that we put out there is all the fuel we need. We're not going to play like that again, we're not going to give that kind of effort, and we're not going to make those kinds of mistakes again. It didn't matter what they did - it was great, they came out and they played well, and they were at home and they were excited. Good for them. We have to respond the right way and come back and play a much better game on Saturday." Duncan on what Dallas did defensively: "I don't know that they did a whole lot different defensively. You give their defense credit obviously, but we missed a lot of shots. We missed a lot of shots that we've been hitting throughout and, on top of that, offensively I thought they were much better than they have been. They were aggressive, they made shots, they made the right plays and you compound those 2 things together and all of a sudden we're down whatever, we're down early on and we're trying to fight back into it. Like I said, credit to them. We played poorly and we have to adjust and come out and play a better game on Saturday." Duncan on if the stars were pulled early in the 3rd quarter due to Game 3 being a 3:00 start: "Yeah, we have a quick turnaround on Saturday. And at the point that he pulled us - we went into that 3rd quarter and tried to make a push and they score like 6 in a row or something like that and obviously not the response we wanted to come out with at half. But he pulls us and puts us on the bench and lets us sit there and simmer. So hopefully that's a little bit of fuel in addition with a little bit of rest for us and we're ready to go." Duncan: "This was an awful game. Hopefully I'll come out here [Saturday] and be a leader." Duncan: "We're not going to play like that again. We're not going to give that kind of effort, and we're not going to make the same mistakes again." Tony Parker: "They made shots. We just didn't play good defense, and they shot the ball very well. We lost the game on defense tonight." Parker: "We have to play with a lot more energy. That's it." Parker: "Early in the 3rd quarter, Coach Pop decided to pull the plug for Game 4, because we play at 3:00. It was just a tough loss because we didn't bring enough energy, for whatever reason." Parker on the loss after winning Game 2: "That's very disappointing, because Dallas didn't respond well in Game 2 [after winning Game 1]. We could have used that example. For whatever reason, we didn't respond to our win - because we came out flat, and not enough energy." Drew Gooden on Dallas' celebration after the game: "That's typical playoff basketball. A team goes on a run and you have guys celebrating, excited, and pumped up - just like we were at our house - they had their taste tonight. So all we can do is look forward to the next game and start beating our chests. That's their thing. They had it going tonight. They played excellent basketball defensively and offensively, and we were out of sync offensively. They got whatever they wanted offensively, so it was a tough night for us." Gooden on if it was something Dallas did or San Antonio didn't do: "A little bit of both. We didn't respond well to what to what they were throwing at us. So defensively they had us out of sync." 2009 NBA Playoffs - First Round Game 3: Dallas Mavericks 88, San Antonio Spurs 67 at Dallas (April 23) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 27 19 29 13 - 88 .520 .364 .472 .750 San Antonio 16 14 12 25 - 67 .377 .118 .321 .714 Halftime: Dallas 46-30 3rd Q: Dallas 75-42 Technicals: none Refs: Joey Crawford, Derrick Collins Ed F. Rush (Rush was injured and replaced by Marc Davis after halftime) Attendance: 20,491 (sellout) IL: Dallas - Devean George, Jerry Stackhouse, Shawne Williams San Antonio - Manu Ginobili, Ian Mahinmi, Marcus Williams Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Josh Howard 27 6-12 1-4 4-4 17 0-8 0 1 2 2 2 Dirk Nowitzki 27 8-12 0-1 4-4 20 0-7 2 1 1 0 1 Erick Dampier 23 1-1 0-0 0-2 2 2-9 1 1 2 0 3 Jason Kidd 27 1-6 1-3 0-0 3 1-8 6 1 1 2 0 J.J. Barea 33 5-8 1-2 2-2 13 0-1 7 1 1 1 0 Jason Terry 24 4-9 2-4 0-0 10 0-4 2 3 1 1 0 Brandon Bass 21 4-7 0-0 2-2 10 0-5 0 1 3 1 2 Antoine Wright 18 2-8 2-4 0-0 6 1-3 1 2 2 0 0 Ryan Hollins 14 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 1 1 4 1 0 James Singleton 12 2-3 1-2 0-2 5 1-3 0 0 1 0 0 Matt Carroll 9 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 0-2 0 1 1 0 0 Gerald Green 7 0-3 0-2 0-0 0 0-1 0 0 1 0 0 Totals 48 34-72 8-22 12-16 88 5-51 20 13 20 8 8 San Antonio Spurs REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Michael Finley 17 0-2 0-1 0-0 0 0-1 0 1 1 0 0 Tim Duncan 16 2-9 0-0 0-0 4 2-2 1 1 2 0 0 Matt Bonner 20 1-5 0-4 0-0 2 1-4 0 0 0 2 1 Roger Mason 16 3-6 1-3 0-0 7 0-0 0 0 2 1 0 Tony Parker 21 5-14 0-2 2-4 12 0-4 3 3 0 0 0 Drew Gooden 26 2-12 0-1 2-2 6 0-5 0 1 5 0 1 Ime Udoka 25 2-4 0-1 0-1 4 1-5 0 1 3 1 0 Bruce Bowen 24 1-3 1-2 0-0 3 0-3 1 0 3 0 0 Grant Hill 24 2-10 0-3 4-4 8 1-3 2 2 0 0 0 Kurt Thomas 18 2-3 0-0 0-0 4 1-10 1 1 2 0 0 Fabricio Oberto 17 3-5 0-0 4-4 10 2-4 0 1 0 2 0 Jacque Vaughn 16 2-5 0-0 3-6 7 0-0 2 0 0 1 0 Totals 48 25-78 2-17 15-21 67 8-41 10 11 18 7 2 patricia Go Mavs!