Dallas Mavericks 83 at San Antonio Spurs 92
The heated rivalry between the Dallas Mavericks and San Antonio Spurs went to another level last season when the Mavs ended the Spurs' season in the first round of the playoffs.
Wednesday night, San Antonio got a little bit of revenge as the two teams looked to add the latest installment of their epic battles, though the Mavericks saw a much different Spur lineup in the first of four meetings between the two teams this regular season. Playing on the second night of a back-to-back and matching up against a short-handed Spurs squad, Dallas' tired legs showed as the Mavs struggled to defend San Antonio on the perimeter, falling 92-83 on the road.
"Disappointing loss, San Antonio dictated the game with their aggressiveness as we had some stretches where we matched it but we were never able to exceed it or sustain their high level," Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said after the loss. "And that was the difference in the game."
"I'll make no excuses, they played harder than we did, simple as that."
(Photo by Ronald Martinez/NBAE via Getty Images)
Mavs dropped the first of four games against the Spurs
Playing with what figures to be their starting lineup on a nightly basis (Jason Kidd, Josh Howard, Shawn Marion, Dirk Nowitzki and Erick Dampier), the Dallas Mavericks looked to exploit a San Antonio squad without Tim Duncan and Tony Parker. Both of the superstar Spurs sat out with left ankle injuries.
"I don't want to take anything away from the Spurs," Nowitzki said. "They were without Duncan and without Parker. They battled. They made big shots when they had to and they played a heck of a game.”
Even with the two go-to players for San Antonio out, Dallas struggled to find the bottom of the net, missing on the first six Maverick shot attempts. The Mavs stayed in the game behind Howard's inside-outside play.
After Howard put Dallas up by two (8-6), San Antonio answered with 10 unanswered, which was eventually broken up by Marion's breakaway dunk. The dunk got the Mavs back on track offensively, as Dallas closed the quarter on a 13-5 run but Keith Bogans' corner 3-pointer at the buzzer brought the game to a 21-all tie at the end of the first quarter.
Both teams struggled to find the shooting stroke, as San Antonio's 36 percent bettered Dallas' 28 percent shooting. But the Mavs lived at the foul line, reaching the charity stripe nine times (6-of-9) in the quarter.
"They were extremely aggressive and we had a lot of good looks that we missed early and that‘s tough when you're on the road but you got to keep playing. I thought that when we got behind a bit our shot selection suffered as we could have gotten better shots and moved the ball better," Carlisle said.
"Especially on a back-to-back, it’s a tough position. I felt we had nothing going," Nowitzki said about the team's fatigue.
Behind sixth man Jason Terry, the Mavericks' offense picked up early in the second quarter, though the Dallas defense struggled to take the 3-point shot out of the Spurs' arsenal. Manu Ginobili's three from the top of the key put the Spurs up 41-32, Carlisle to burn a timeout with 3:58 left in the first half. Out of the timeout the Mavericks went to Nowitzki, as the 7-footer nailed a tough fadeaway in the lane.
The rim-attacking Richard Jefferson and Bogans then took over the scoring responsibilities for the Spurs, until Ginobili nailed a buzzer-beating three over Kidd's defending arm to close the half with San Antonio up 51-38.
"We’re just not aggressive," Nowitzki said. "We’re a veteran team and we’ve got to find a way to be better early and bring more energy early. Not only pick it up when we’re down, we have to be a hit-first kind of team and not hit back all the time when we’re down."
Dallas' cold-shooting night continued through the end of the first half, hitting just 12-of-43 from the floor (28 percent), while the Spurs hit on 43 percent. San Antonio torched the Dallas defense from behind the 3-point arch, knocking down 9-of-18 from long range. Bogans and Jefferson combined for 27 points in the half.
The Mavericks started the second half with a "small ball" lineup, with Barea joining Kidd, Howard, Marion and Nowitzki. The strategy quickly backfired when Marion picked up his fourth foul at the 10:35-mark of the third, sending the high-flyer to the bench.
The Mavericks then found success with a three-guard lineup when Terry joined Kidd and Barea, playing alongside Nowitzki and Dampier. The move freed things up for Nowitzki, as the superstar tried to elevate his team in the quarter.
"Well, you don‘t want to have to reduce it to where you're just going to one guy, we have to get on a roll, eight days ago against Utah, we had to overcome a huge deficit, ride him (Nowitzki) completely and now we just need to do it with more balance and more as a team," Carlisle said. "It's an area where we have to continue to work to get better and that‘s by having the right balance offensively and make sure there is plenty of help out there for him because we have plenty of good players."
The team was without Howard at that point, as the swingman played just five minutes in the second half before re-aggravating his nagging left ankle injury.
"He (Howard) was limping so we took him out. Well tonight was the first back-to-back so we'll evaluate it and treat it accordingly. He's had some soreness in practices as he's in the stages of a long process of recovery and reconditioning of his ankle. So at times this soreness will occur and we will have to get him out of the game."
"It was something I thought about," Howard said after playing his first back-to-back since returning to the lineup. "I didn’t know how it was going to respond and this is how it turned out. It's something I’ve got to deal with and work on getting better."
The Spurs once again turned to the three-ball, as Matt Bonner and Jefferson pushed the San Antonio lead to 15 with 3-point bombs. The Spurs kept launching from deep and the ball continued to find its way in the basket, as San Antonio took a 79-64 lead into the fourth quarter.
Nowitzki continued to put the team on his back in the fourth, driving for a left-handed layup with 7:25 on the game clock to cut the deficit to 10 (82-72). With Dallas down seven, the Mavs continued to inch closer as Terry connected on a corner 3-pointer off the feed of Kidd with 4:12 remaining, cutting it to a four-point game (83-79). Like they had all night, San Antonio answered from behind the 3-point arch, as Bonner once again extended the lead from deep.
"I think the big play was when we had it down to four," Nowitzki said. "I took a bad shot, they came down and we played zone. Then Bonner hits that three from the wing to push it back up to seven with a couple minutes left. I think that was really the game-winner right there."
Down seven with 1:26 to go, Antonio McDyess' foul on Nowitzki on the inbound pass allowed Dallas to draw closer without time coming off the clock, but George Hill's jumper with 1:07 remaining closed the door on Dallas for the night. The Spurs then put the finishing touches on the win at the foul line.
Dallas looked like a team that had exerted all of its energy in a comeback win against Houston just the night before, shooting just 35 percent. San Antonio hit just 42 percent in the win, but made 14-of-34 from behind the 3-point line. The two teams battled to a 47-47 rebounding stalemate on the glass.
"I think our defense wasn't that bad, actually. We held them to 42 percent at home. Offensively, we just couldn't get much going," Nowitzki said.
While Nowitzki matched Jefferson for game-high scoring honors with 29 points apiece, the 7-footer also grabbed 12 rebounds. The Mavs got little help from the other starters, as Marion was the only other Maverick starter in double-figures with 11 points. Terry added 19 points off the Dallas bench.
The Mavericks play the second of a four-game road trip when they travel to Minnesota to meet the Timberwolves on Friday night, with the game airing on FSN Southwest at 7:00 p.m. CT.
Dallas returns to the American Airlines Center on Oct. 18, when the Mavs get a chance at revenge themselves when they host the Spurs. The game will air locally on KTXA 21 and KTXA 21 HD and nationally on ESPN at 8:30 p.m. CT. Tickets are still available and can be purchased by calling (214) 747-MAVS.
The Mavericks and the NBA have introduced the official NBA All-Star game ballot, featuring Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd, Josh Howard, Shawn Marion and Jason Terry. For more on how to vote for your favorite Mavs for the All-Star game, to be held at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, visit Mavs.com.
Follow Mavs.com’s Earl K. Sneed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/EarlKSneed.
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