I don't know where this came from. Someone posted it on a competing Mavs board that I will not mention.
SAN ANTONIO -- With 35 seconds remaining in a tightly contested first half, Josh Howard was whistled for a technical foul, as it appeared he flung Manu Ginobili to the floor. Of course, with Ginobili, you can never really believe what you're seeing.
"What do you want us to do," screams out a furious Avery Johnson. "He flops!"
Jason Terry can dunk. That's clear. But he needs to let go of the rim, too.
Technical foul. There were four in the final 1:14 of the opening half. One on each coach. One on an incredulous Howard for the aforementioned incident. And one on Ginobili for trying to tattle on Jason Terry for hanging on to the rim too long following a dunk.
Terry, who had long turned his attention away from the argument and was walking away from the refs, had the biggest smile on his face you're ever going to see. Yep, this Western Conference semifinals series is gonna be a blast..
One thing that should be vastly different the next time these two teams meet will be that the current disparity in depth should be gone. The Mavericks had one bench point in the opening half; San Antonio, 25. Because Marquis Daniels picked up three quick fouls, Johnson essentially went solely with his starters, peppering in Erick Dampier and D-League import Josh Powell.
"We're asking them to do a lot right now," Johnson said of his starters. "Obviously, we're missing three big pieces, but what can you do? We just have to keep going. We came in and got a win against the team to beat in the entire NBA."
Nowitzki took over the game in the second half, despite the fact that San Antonio was running bodies at him. Bruce Bowen, Tim Duncan, Finley, Oberto, they all took their turns and made their presence noticed on switches and double-teams. It didn't matter. Nowitzki simply rose to an MVP-type level and got the job done.
"He made all the shots down the stretch and made some great moves," said Duncan. "His play down the stretch was the difference."
Duncan's was too. He had a horrendous game. It happens. The reigning Finals MVP was off with his shot, clanking his typically reliable bank shots. He finished 5-for-15 from the field, scoring just 13. In the final minute, with the Spurs still clinging to hopes of a rally, he traveled.
Banking on Duncan to have a miserable night is typically a losing proposition, which is why it's hard to put too much stock into anything that went down without being constantly reminded that these two are going to be seeing a lot of one another over the next month or so. Yes, each have to take care of the formality of winning their first round series, but once that transpires, both had better strap in for a seven-game brawl.
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