Game 3: Dallas at San Antonio (April 23) 1st quarter: Dallas wore their alternate blue road jersey and the Mavs connected on the first 2 buckets of the game, but then reverted into their usual sluggish start in missing their next 5 shots and San Antonio scored 12 straight points, capped by a dunk by Tim Duncan off a nice feed by Manu Ginobili, to take a 12-4 lead with 6:20 to go. A jumper by Dirk Nowitzki finally ended Dallas' almost 5 minute drought, but San Antonio continued to hold a single-digit lead. Jason Terry hit a quick baseline jumper to pull Dallas within 14-19 with 2 minutes left, but Dallas could get no closer than 5 points. San Antonio led 23-16 after 1. As bad as Dallas played, it could have been much worse and was surprising that the Spurs' largest lead was just 8 points. Dallas had 6 turnovers in the quarter, but San Antonio only scored 6 points off of them. San Antonio shot 10-18 FG and 3-4 FT while Dallas shot 7-19 FG and 2-2 FT. 2nd quarter: Shawn Marion scored 5 straight points to pull Dallas within 23-25 with 10:30 remaining, but Tony Parker answered with a short runner and San Antonio continued to hold to a small lead. Dallas again pulled within 2 points at 26-28 with 9 minutes left, but San Antonio then scored the next 2 buckets. A layup by Duncan and dunk by Antonio McDyess off a nice find by Parker gave the Spurs their largest lead at 39-30 with 5:30 to go. But Dallas answered with consecutive buckets to keep the game close. A driving layup by Parker gave San Antonio a 48-38 lead with 1:30 remaining. Nice passing led to a 3-pointer by Terry, Ginobili drove for 2, and J.J. Barea swished a long 3-pointer as the shot clock was running out. Both teams missed their last shot of the quarter. San Antonio led 47-44 at the half. Again it could have been worse for Dallas as the Mavs got into the penalty with 6:35 left, but San Antonio shot just 4-8 FT in the quarter. The Mavs did give up 8 offensive rebounds in the quarter off of which San Antonio scored 10 points. For the quarter, Dallas shot 10-18 FG and 5-6 FT and San Antonio shot 10-24 FG and 4-8 FT as Dallas out-scored San Antonio 28-24. For the half, Dallas shot 45.9% FG including 3-7 3-pointers and 7-8 FT and San Antonio shot 47.6% (20-42) FG including 0-2 3-pointers and 7-12 FT. 3rd quarter: Barea started the 2nd half in place of Caron Butler. The teams traded misses to open the 3rd quarter before George Hill hit a runner with 10:45 left. After Ginobili hit 2 free throws, Nowitzki drove for a 3-point play to put Dallas on the board with 9:45 remaining and San Antonio led 51-47 - Ginobili got hit on the nose by an inadvertent elbow (and, to add insult to injury, was called for the foul) and went to the locker room with a bloody nose. He did return with 4:50 left and played the rest of the game with a very swollen nose (turned out to be broken). After Nowitzki hit 2 more free throws, Hill connected on consecutive buckets to give San Antonio a 57-49 lead with 8:25 to go. San Antonio led 59-51 with 7:05 left and Dallas finally got clicking in scoring on their next 7 possessions while the Spurs struggled with 4 misses and 3 turnovers and the Mavs rattled off 17 straight quick points, including 3 3-pointers, to take a 68-59 lead with 3:10 left. A reverse layup by Parker ended the Spurs' 4:15 drought and kicked of 7 straight Spurs points as San Antonio pulled within 66-68 with 1:30 left. Both teams struggled over the rest of the quarter and a layup by Nowitzki was the only points. Dallas led 70-66 after 3. Nowitzki had 16 points including 6-8 FG in the quarter. Dallas shot 10-17 FG including 3-6 3-pointers and 3-3 FT and San Antonio shot 8-18 FG (no 3-pointers attempted) and 3-3 FT as Dallas out-scored San Antonio 26-19 in the 3rd quarter. 4th quarter: San Antonio scored on 3 straight layups, capped by a 3-point play by Ginobili (and Erick Dampier's 5th foul), to open the 4th quarter and take a 73-70 lead with 10:15 remaining. But a touch pass from Nowitzki to Terry for a long 3 as the shot clock was running out tied the game with 10 minutes to go. The teams traded misses and Ginobili converted another 3-point play and Hill hit 2 free throws to give San Antonio a 78-73 lead with 7:30 left. It got ugly with misses and turnovers as neither team scored over the next 3:20 of game time. Jason Kidd hit 2 free throws with 4:10 to go to end the scoring drought. The teams exchanged 2 points and Nowitzki hit a 10-foot fadeaway jumper to give Dallas an 81-80 lead with 3:15 remaining. But Dallas went back to missing in shooting blanks on their next 4 shots while Parker connected on 3 straight jumpers to give San Antonio an 86-81 lead with 52 seconds to go. Dallas used their last timeout and Nowitzki missed. Ginobili was intentionally fouled with 38 seconds left and hit both free throws. But Terry nailed a quick 3-pointer and Hill was fouled with 30 seconds left. He hit both free throws to give San Antonio a 90-86 lead. Barea drove for 2 with 24 seconds to go, but Dallas was unable to foul and the Spurs passed ahead to Parker who got a layup and a foul to make it a 7 point game with 19 seconds left. Rodrigue Beaubois scored his first points of the playoffs on an uncontested (not wanting to foul) layup, Ginobili shot 1-2 FT, and Brendan Haywood got a tip in as the game ended. San Antonio won 94-90. San Antonio leads the series 2-1. If Dallas had only played the 1st half like they did the 2nd half, they would have won this game (yeah, Dallas out-scored San Antonio in the 2nd quarter, but the Mavs didn't play well in that quarter). Dallas played a large portion of the game with a 3-guard lineup and had much better (but still inconsistent) production with that lineup - their biggest run of the game came with Jason Kidd, Jason Terry, J.J. Barea, Dirk Nowitzki, and Erick Dampier on the floor. On the other hand, I thought it was a very entertaining basketball game in the 2nd half and very enjoyable, except for the outcome as Dallas went cold for a stretch near the end of the game. Dallas is still looking for a good all-around game and hopefully it will finally come in Game 4 and the Mavs even the series, else things will look dim as a 1-3 deficit is very hard to overcome. For the stats in this game, San Antonio shot 48.7% (37-76) FG including missing all 7 3-pointers they attempted (tied most 3-pointers attempted without a make by a Dallas opponent). Dallas shot 44.7% (34-76) FG including 8-20 3-pointers. The difference came at the line where San Antonio attempted 9 more free throws (6 were intentional) and made 6 more. San Antonio shot 20-26 FT and Dallas shot 14-15 FT. The rebounds were even at 36 apiece, but San Antonio had 4 more offensive boards in out-rebounding Dallas 12-8 offensive, which resulted in a 14-6 2nd chance points edge. Dallas committed 16 turnovers off of which San Antonio scored 21 points and San Antonio committed 11 turnovers off of which Dallas scores 18 points. Neither team held a double-digit lead in the game and each held a 9 point lead at one point in the game. The Danny Crawford curse continued as Dallas has a dismal 2-17 record in Mavs playoff games that Crawford has officiated. That's not to blame him for this game, just a bizarre stat (the biggest mis-call (Nowitzki called for charging when Bonner clearly wasn't there in time and still moving sideways, taking the bucket and-1 from Dallas in a tie game early in the 4th) was made by ref Dick Bavetta). Manu Ginobili, broken nose and all, led the comeback for San Antonio as he scored 11 of his 15 points in the 4th quarter as the Spurs out-scored Dallas 28-20 in the quarter. Ginobili shot 3-5 FG in the quarter after shooting just 1-7 FG in the first 3 quarters. He also had 5 rebounds in the game. Tim Duncan had another strong outing with 25 points including 11-18 FG, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists. But his turnover problems were back with with a game high 5 turnovers. Tony Parker also played well with 23 points including 10-16 FG, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists off the bench. The unexpected 4th scorer for San Antonio was George Hill (after not scoring in Game 1 and having 7 points in Game 2) as the team often went to him and he had 17 points and 5 rebounds in a team high 45 minutes. The 4 scored all but 14 of the Spurs' 94 points. Richard Jefferson had a mild outing with just 6 points (on 2-3 FG and 2-2 FT), 3 rebounds, and 3 assists in 31 minutes. Antonio McDyess had 6 points and 6 rebounds, but his focus was to try to contain Nowitzki. Matt Bonner missed 3 attempts and had 3 rebounds in 15 minutes. DeJuan Blair shot 1-3 FG for 2 points and had 5 rebounds including 3 offensive in 4 minutes. Roger Mason played a little over a minute midway through the 2nd quarter and had no stats. Dirk Nowitzki, playing in his 100th career playoff game, again led the way for Dallas with 35 points on 13-23 FG and 8-8 FG. He also had 7 rebounds and 3 assists. But he didn't get enough help. Jason Terry had 17 points including 4-8 3-pointers. J.J. Barea had 14 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists has he reverted to the solid outings that he had against the Spurs in the playoffs from last season. No other Mav was in double-digits. Jason Kidd's offense was again off, but he tied Nowitzki with a team high 7 rebounds and also had 5 assists (and no turnovers). Kidd had 7 points on 1-6 FG (all 3-pointers) and 4-4 FT. Shawn Marion and Caron Butler didn't contribute much, but their minutes were reduced with Dallas going with the 3-guard lineup. Marion had 7 points including 3-9 FG and 3 rebounds in 17 minutes and Butler had just 2 points on 1-3 FG, 2 rebounds, and 3 turnovers in 15 minutes. Erick Dampier was part of Dallas' most effective lineup in this game, but was hindered in the 4th quarter with 5 fouls. Dampier missed his only attempt and had 4 rebounds and 3 blocks in his 27 minutes. Brendan Haywood had 4 points on 2-2 FG and 4 rebounds in 18 minutes. Eduardo Najera had 2 points and 2 rebounds (both offensive in 3 minutes. Rodrigue Beaubois saw his first playoff time as Rick Carlisle was looking for a spark in the 2nd quarter - it didn't work as Beaubois couldn't keep the player he was supposed to defend in front of him and Roddy didn't contribute on offense. He did get his first playoff points with a layup with 11 seconds left, after the game was decided. NBA double-standard: Couldn't help but noticing (especially since TNT kept showing him) that team owner Michael Jordan was sitting at the end of the Bobcats' bench during today's game in Charlotte. He was also seen talking to player Gerald Wallace during the game (Wallace was on the bench). Yes, it looks like Charlotte has extra seats after the bench for fans, but that sure looked like a cushioned player seat instead of a fan seat that Jordan was sitting in. Now if Mark Cuban had sat in a bench seat a few years ago, you know that the NBA would have fined him for sitting there (if not suspended him). Quotes [opted to watch Saturday's playoff games instead of transcribing quotes, so most of these from the Spurs Quotes page] Gregg Popovich on Ginobili's nose: "I don't know. I didn't want to worry until I saw him or didn't see him. Of course, you hope he's coming back. I didn't know it was broken until they told me later." Popovich on Ginobili: "He's a great player. He's been a great player for a long time all over the world. If Dirk or Jason Kidd get hurt, people like that who are ultimate competitors, they play unless they just can't do it. That's what he did." Popovich: "I thought everybody was very active. The team defense was good, we rotated well and covered people. For the most part, you're not going to keep Dirk from scoring, but we made it tough on him." Popovich on Dallas' 3rd quarter run: "They went to zone [defense] and we totally stopped playing. It's as if there was a rule that said if they play zone you don't have to be aggressive anymore. That was the toughest part of the game for us." Popovich on Hill: "He did look comfortable. He did not look too worried about the ankle, so he must be feeling good. He was very important to us while Tony was down, so to have him back is a real plus." Popovich on Barea: "Competitiveness. He's a tough dude. He plays hard, plays physical. He can penetrate, score, or get the ball to someone for a 3. He was really good tonight." Tim Duncan on Ginobili: "He took the game over for a big stretch. We gave Manu the ball and he took it upon himself to take over the game. He continued to be aggressive, and that's how we will have to continue to attack it." Duncan on passing to Parker in the 4th: "I was going down the middle and didn't have my feet underneath me. I saw Tony and kicked the ball out to him. He made some big shots tonight. He made a lot of difficult shots like the one against Haywood where he just backed him down." Duncan on Ginobili's return: "I had no doubt that he was going to return he has a strong nose on him. It would take him a second, but I knew he would be right back in the game." Duncan on Ginobili: "He took the game over." Duncan on San Antonio not making a 3: "We had some good looks. I know Matt Bonner got some good looks and George did as well. It's great that if we weren't hitting those shots we didn't just throw it up anyway. We attacked the basket and got to the free throw line. We got away from 3-point shooting, got the ball inside, and made something happen. It was a great adjustment by the team in general." Duncan on McDyess: "Antonio has been in many battles before. He has been great for us. It is amazing the physicality that he is playing with. Dirk has been known to draw fouls, but he is making Dirk work for everything that he gets. Dirk has hit some great shots. All in all, Dice has done a great job at making it as tough as possible on Dirk. Even with all of this, Dirk is a great scorer and still gets 35." Duncan: "We are playing the best basketball of the year so far. We are playing our best at the right time. That's what we wanted to do all year long. It's frustrating all season to go through all of the ups and downs, but all-in-all you want to be playing your best at the right time of the year." Tony Parker on Ginobili's nose: "He came back strong. When he came back in the 4th quarter, especially at the beginning, he had some 3-point plays and got a little bit of confidence back for us. Dallas played well in the 3rd quarter and went into the zone where we struggled a little bit. They made a great run at us, but we stayed focused and kept battling. That's what's going to happen against Dallas. You have to be ready to play for 48 minutes." Parker on Duncan's pass to him in the 4th: "I thought he was going to shoot it because I thought he was open. He had confidence in me though. I had made a shot just before that and that's why he gave it back to me and had confidence that I would knock it down." Parker: "Well, Manu is playing great. I always tell everybody that's why it's so special here, because everybody is unselfish and everybody puts their egos aside. It's different for me sometimes because I used to have the ball more, but Manu is playing unbelievable. He's playing at an All-Star level and the ball should be in his hands. If he's tired, then I will be aggressive and wait my turn. That's what I did tonight, I just waited my turn. Manu got it going in the beginning of the 4th quarter, so you don't want to change when someone is hot - you want to keep feeding him the ball." Parker on San Antonio's defense: "I think it was our focus and our mentality tonight. We know we're going against a team like Dallas, who is very good offensively. Our defense has to be ready. They hurt us in Game 1. If we can keep playing that defense and play it for 48 minutes we'll have a chance." Richard Jefferson on Ginobili's nose: "This is a guy who beats up bats. He does all kinds of things out there. No matter what he does, nobody is surprised. When he came back, we were wondering what took him so long. Then he kind of stepped right in and got his game going again." Jefferson: "This was a huge win for us. A lot of people stepped up. George [Hill] played great. Tony hit some big shots there down the stretch. And Manu, when Dallas took the lead and then Manu came back in. A lot of different people contributed. We still have a big job in front of us. We have another big game coming up here in a couple days and you know Dallas is going to make adjustments." Jefferson on San Antonio's defense: "After Game 1 we felt like we had all the right things but we just weren't doing them with enough energy. That was our goal the last couple games - to come out with more energy. You can still see that both of those games could have gone either way, so we have to continue doing that whether we're up or down. They hit some tough shots tonight and you just have to keep with it." Rick Carlisle on playing Barea over Butler: "It was a coach's decision. I was going with a group that was going good. We needed penetration and that was it." Carlisle on Barea: "He made good things happen. Offensively and defensively he was active. He helped us when he was out there." Carlisle on Barea: "J.J. got penetration, and we needed it. He made good things happen on offense. Defensively, he was active. It helped when he was out there. It was positive." Carlisle on Dallas' 4th quarter shots: "I thought our shot selection was very good. There are going to be a few you wish were a little bit better. It was a very tense game and contested shots are one of the realities of playoff basketball. From time to time, there are some fouls that are not called and those end up looking like bad shots too, both ways. We would love to get great shots. I'll look at the film and study it and see what's what. It's a very physical series and there's a lot of contact going on. Some of the shots we got were difficult and some of their shots were difficult." Carlisle on Kidd: "I would love to get him more rest. He said he was okay and we needed him out there. It was my decision to have him out there. We always play better when he's on the floor." Carlisle on Ginobili: "He got some of those scores when he was knifing through the zone. That's one of the things he's very effective at. I didn't know he broke his nose, but I'm sure he'll be fine. It looked like he was okay when he got back." Dirk Nowitzki: "It was a battle tonight. We knew they were going to be tough to beat at home and they have been a tough home team over the years. Both teams were there at the end and they just made some tough plays." Nowitzki on Parker: "Parker made 3 jump shots in a row to seal the game. You just have to give them credit, they made big shots down the stretch." Nowitzki on Dallas' 3rd quarter run: "I think we showed in the 3rd quarter that we need to speed the game up and our zone defense was effective. We got some stops and then we were able to speed the game up. J.J. got the basket and Jason and I had some good looks. In the halfcourt set, they seem to take our options away. We have to do more of the same on Sunday. We battled the whole way. We had some tough calls and turnovers, but we will play again on Sunday and see what happens." Nowitzki on if fatigue was a factor: "I don't know. You can rest in the summer. I think we had enough left to battle. Parker made some tough shots and in the 3rd quarter I thought we gave up the lead too quickly. Ginobili had some good shots at the basket and we made a couple of turnovers and bad plays, which let them right back in the game. We gave it away. Down the stretch we had too many empty possessions. They started to double-team me in the 4th quarter and we didn't get much out of the weak-side, and that obviously hurts our offense." Nowitzki on Dallas' rotation: "We just roll with whatever is going for us. Obviously with Caron [Butler] and Shawn [Marion] struggling, Coach decided to go with J.J. in the 2nd half and he was able to get to the basket and it gave us another ball handler. He had a good game and made an impact. Coach just goes with whoever is going that night and went with the 3-guard lineup. It was working for a while but it didn't seem to have enough down the stretch." Nowitzki on Dallas' slow starts: "It's not great always having to battle back. At least we fought back and got back into the game. I thought when we were down 7 points early, we battled. But we still would like to start better. We came out with the gate with 3 or 4 turnovers. We really battled and it could have gone either way. They just made a couple more plays." Nowitzki on San Antonio shooting 0-7 3-pointers: "We obviously want to take their 3-pointers away. We want to take away how they spread the floor and we want to run them off the spots they like for shooting 3-pointers. They have a lot of good 3-point shooters. They also have a lot of guys who can get to the basket and Duncan is a beast in the block and had a big game tonight." Nowitzki: "We just gave up that lead too quick. We had a couple of turnovers, a couple of bad plays." Jason Terry: "We had an opportunity to win this game tonight, there is no question about that. You have to give Manu Ginobili a lot of the credit for coming back into the game and making some great plays. We missed many opportunities we know we would like to have back, but things don't work that way in the playoffs. Game 4 is a big game for us and we have to get our win. The Spurs did their job tonight and now its time for us to do ours." Terry: "I think our bench played well and I think we out-played the Spurs bench, which is a plus. The only things I can look at right now are the missed opportunities with a 9-point lead in the latter stages of the game. A good team, a championship team holds that lead and walks away with the game." Terry: "Mental toughness isn't a factor with these teams. Everyone on that court is tough. Both teams were very tough tonight. I mentioned earlier our 9-point lead and the Spurs being resilient and fighting back. We kept the game close and got within 1 for about 2 minutes and failed to make a basket. Both team are very mentally tough and 2 are championship teams. I can't wait until Sunday because it's going to be another tough game." J.J. Barea: "I think we could have done a lot better tonight, however I don't think we played that bad. Sunday we need to play better than we did tonight." Barea: "Manu Ginobili is a very tough player and the Spurs are a very tough team to beat at home. You have to give the Spurs credit tonight because they played better than we did, again." 2010 Playoffs - First Round Game 3: San Antonio Spurs 94, Dallas Mavericks 90 at San Antonio (April 23) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% San Antonio 23 24 19 28 - 94 .536 .000 .487 .769 Dallas 16 28 26 20 - 90 .464 .400 .447 .933 Halftime: San Antonio 47-44 3rd Q: Dallas 70-66 Technicals: Dallas defensive 3 seconds 2:15 1st, George Hill 2:08 2nd Refs: Dick Bavetta, Danny Crawford, Rodney Mott Attendance: 18,581 (sellout) IL: Dallas - Tim Thomas San Antonio - Alonzo Gee, Malik Hairston, Curtis Jerrells San Antonio Spurs REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Richard Jefferson 31 2-3 0-0 2-2 6 0-3 3 1 2 0 0 Tim Duncan 44 11-18 0-0 3-6 25 2-5 4 5 2 0 1 Antonio McDyess 31 3-5 0-0 0-0 6 3-6 0 1 2 0 1 Manu Ginobili 36 4-12 0-3 7-8 15 0-5 7 2 4 3 1 George Hill 45 6-16 0-3 5-5 17 2-5 1 0 1 1 1 Tony Parker 33 10-16 0-0 3-5 23 1-4 3 2 2 1 0 Matt Bonner 15 0-3 0-1 0-0 0 1-3 0 0 2 0 0 DeJuan Blair 4 1-3 0-0 0-0 2 3-5 1 0 1 0 0 Roger Mason 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 37-76 0-7 20-26 94 12-36 19 11 16 5 4 Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Shawn Marion 17 3-9 0-1 1-1 7 0-3 0 2 0 0 0 Dirk Nowitzki 42 13-23 1-1 8-8 35 0-7 3 2 5 2 1 Erick Dampier 27 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 2-4 0 1 5 0 3 Caron Butler 15 1-3 0-0 0-0 2 0-2 1 3 2 0 0 Jason Kidd 45 1-6 1-6 4-4 7 1-7 5 0 2 2 0 Jason Terry 37 6-15 4-8 1-2 17 0-2 2 1 4 0 0 Rodrigue Beaubois 5 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 0-1 2 1 1 0 0 Brendan Haywood 18 2-2 0-0 0-0 4 2-4 0 0 2 1 0 Eduardo Najera 3 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 2-2 0 0 1 0 0 J.J. Barea 32 6-13 2-4 0-0 14 1-4 4 2 3 0 0 Totals 48 34-76 8-20 14-15 90 8-36 17 16 25 5 4 patricia Go Mavs!