Dallas' desperate days
No. 2 Dallas Mavericks 89 at No. 7 San Antonio Spurs 92
A sense of desperation will make a team do some amazing things. The Dallas Mavericks definitely felt desperate for a win as they headed into Game 4 of their opening round series with the San Antonio Spurs. But now the Mavs are more desperate than they could have ever imagined.After dropping both Game 2 and 3, the Mavericks entered the fourth matchup down 2-1 in the series. But a win Sunday evening would have erased the events of the previous two games, also handing the home-court advantage back over to the Mavs. That wasn't the case.
Instead, the Mavericks appeared to only be the more desperate team for 24 minutes on Sunday. It was San Antonio, not Dallas, that overcame a double-digit first half deficit and walked away from the AT&T Center floor with a 92-89 win and a 3-1 series advantage.
"I thought we played hard," Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said after his team's third straight loss. "I thought we played unselfishly. We battled. But again, there's a number of plays that we have got to become the aggressor on. And we didn't do it tonight."
Despite a cold-shooting start to the opening quarter, the Mavericks remained in a good position throughout the first period. After starting the game by missing his first four shots, Caron Butler found his groove, swishing in three straight jumpers to catapult the Mavs to the lead. But Butler's two offensive fouls and Tony Parker's relentless, rim-attacking play brought the Spurs right back. George Hill's 3-pointer to close the quarter capped off a 10-2 San Antonio run and gave the Spurs a 20-17 lead after one.
"We didn't shoot well early, but we were very aggressive and very strong-willed. I liked all of that," Carlisle said.
The Mavericks took control in the second quarter, with Shawn Marion finishing at the rim while Dirk Nowitzki connected with patented jump shots. A fast-breaking Dallas attack sparked a 10-2 spurt, opening up a nine-point advantage. The lead reached as much as 15, the largest Mavs' advantage of the series. But the team collectively gasped when sixth man Jason Terry went down after rolling his left ankle attempting a transition layup. The star would be okay, and the Mavs would go on to escape with a 48-37 halftime advantage.
Led by Marion's 12 points and Nowitzki's 10, the Mavericks shot 46 percent in the half, holding the Spurs to just 39 percent shooting at the other end. Hill's 13 points led San Antonio at the midway point. On his 34th birthday, the Dallas defense held Tim Duncan to without a made field goal in the half, missing all seven of his shot attempts. The Mavericks also held a 29-18 rebounding edge.
Hill continued to keep the Spurs in contention in the third quarter. But the Mavericks countered with more Butler and Marion. Still, the hometown Spurs continued to come on strong, turning their disadvantage into a slight advantage with a 16-2 run. The period was all about the San Antonio defense, as Spurs coach Gregg Popovich began to send multiple defenders Nowitzki's way to disrupt the Mavericks' offensive flow. The strategy worked.
"They ran at me from the get-go -- on the block and on the dribble, they came after me. When I was isolated on the free throw line, they came at me as well," Nowitzki explained. "After the game I had two days ago, they weren't just going to watch me shoot. They were aggressive tonight and got the ball out of my hands."
The Mavs went scoreless for over six minutes of play. The emotions even got the best of both teams, as Nowitzki earned a technical foul and Richard Jefferson picked up a flagrant one during a physical period. With the Mavs missing on nine straight shot attempts, the Spurs outscored Dallas 29-11 in the third to take a 66-59 lead into the final quarter.
"Our undoing was the third quarter. We had seven or eight turnovers, we shoot 27 percent. They got on a run that we needed to stave off sooner," Carlisle said. "Their defense picked up, and we needed to respond better to it...The 50-50 plays, we've got to do a better job with them."
"I think the Spurs picked up the intensity on defense. Once they picked up the intensity, we had a hard time scoring the ball," J.J. Barea added.
The fourth period began with Mavs reserve forward Eduardo Najera drawing a flagrant two call and an ejection for his hard foul on Manu Ginobili. Meanwhile, DeJuan Blair dominated Dallas' bigs inside, collecting offensive rebounds and scoring on put-backs. But later, Blair picked up a flagrant one for a blow to Jason Kidd's face.
"It was a brawl, a street fight," Nowitzki said.
The sequence ignited Kidd, as his playmaking kept the Mavericks in the game. Still, Hill continued his destruction of the Dallas defense, finding the bottom of the net with an array of jumpers. After going scoreless through the first three quarters, Terry kept the Mavericks close in the fourth with his perimeter shooting, spearheading a 13-2 run to pull to within 86-84.
When the Spurs began to pull away, Terry once again stepped up with a timely three to cut the deficit to 89-87 with just 57.2 ticks remaining. But the Mavericks were quieted the rest of the way, while the Spurs put some distance between the two teams at the foul line. Down three, the game came down to the final .1 of a second, when Terry was unable to get off a desperation, game-tying shot attempt before the final buzzer.
In a close affair, the game came down to who protected the ball the best and which team was able to score down the stretch. Both categories went San Antonio's way. The Spurs committed 12 turnovers, compared to 15 for the Mavericks. Meanwhile, San Antonio finished the night out-shooting Dallas, 45 percent to 42 percent.
"Both teams kept plugging away, but we just didn't make enough plays. Shooting in the low 40 percents won't cut it in this series," Nowitzki said.
Despite the Mavs' 48-43 rebounding advantage and 32-30 edge in points in the paint, the Spurs still captured the victory due to a 55-41 scoring margin in the second half.
The Mavs also fell in defeat despite six double-figure scorers. Nowitzki and Butler posted 17 points apiece, as Marion added 14. Terry scored all 13 of his points in the fourth quarter, while Kidd and Barea both scored 10 from the Dallas backcourt.
Not shying away from the bright lights of the postseason stage was the second-year pro Hill, who finished with a game-high 29 points on 11-of-16 from the field and 5-of-6 from behind the arch. Ginobili (17), Jefferson (15), Parker (10) and Antonio McDyess (10) all made up for the birthday boy's four-point night, as Duncan finished hitting just one of his nine shots.
"I thought if you told me before the game that we would hold the 'Big Three' (Duncan, Ginobili and Parker) to the numbers they had in the game, I would have said we win the game...You have to give Hill credit, he was unconscious from the 3-point line. The Spurs' role players stepped up and had a good game," Nowitzki said.
Now the Mavericks are faced with the daunting task of winning three straight games to close the series out. That starts with extending the season with a win in Game 5.
"This team has won 13 straight games before, so three straight is very attainable," center Brendan Haywood said. "Is it hard to win three games in a row during the playoffs? Yes, it's hard. But if it wasn't, everyone would be playing in the NBA. The way I look at this series is one game at a time. We have a game on Tuesday, and I don't look any further than that. If we don't take care of the game on Tuesday, there won't be another game later in the week. We have to win one game and go from there."
"It starts with winning Game 5," Carlisle echoed. "That's got to be the starting point. We've got to play and win the game."
The series now shifts back up to Dallas for Game 5, which will air nationally on NBA TV and locally on KTXA and KTXA HD at 8:30 p.m. CT on Tuesday night. Tickets are still available and can be purchased by calling (214) 747-MAVS.
"We have to stop the bleeding at home, because we've lost three in a row. We have to go home and win because we definitely need one," Nowitzki concluded.
The Mavs-Spurs first round series schedule is as follows:
Game 5 – Tue April 27 San Antonio at Dallas 8:30PM TXA21/ NBA TV
Game 6 * Thu April 29 Dallas at San Antonio TBD TXA21/ TBD
Game 7 * Sat May 1 San Antonio at Dallas TBD TXA21/ TNT
Mavs.com has introduces a new, interactive webcast entitled "Technical Foul," hosted by Mavs television broadcasters Mark Followill and Bob Ortegel. The second live-streamed broadcast will be Monday, April 26 at 12:30 p.m. CT, recapping Game 1 and previewing Game 2 of the series. Earl K. Sneed will also talk with fans and answer questions via a live chat during the show. Tune in for exclusive Mavs talk with the people that know the team the best.
Follow Earl K. Sneed on Twitter at www.twitter.com/EarlKSneed.
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