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DALLAS -- To all those who wondered what if ...

To all who wondered what would happen if, for whatever silly reason, San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich chose to defend Dirk Nowitzki one on one, the answer came with near-perfect resonance Sunday night.

Flying solo -- and clearly enjoying the elbow room -- Nowitzki made 12 of 14 field goal attempts and scored 36 points, as the Dallas Mavericks claimed Game 1 of the best-of-seven series 100-94.

"Well, you know, they had scorers last year, too," Popovich explained later. "You pick your poison."

The end result was venomous. While Dirk was finding the basket from every angle, the Mavericks were riding the steadying hand of Jason Kidd.

"Jason was a man," Popovich graciously observed. "He was a focused, driven individual, as usual."

He was, so can we quit moaning about the New Jersey trade once and for all?
If leadership and playoff savvy are what the Mavericks were looking for when they acquired the now-37-year-old point guard two years ago, he gave it to them resoundingly Sunday night.

Nowitzki will get the headlines today, but Kidd should get the applause.

"He played great," Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said. "He was sensational in all areas."

All areas, he said. Which meant passing, running the offense, shooting and defense.

"He's a future Hall of Famer," said Spurs forward Richard Jefferson, a former Nets teammate of Kidd. "And he's going to keep playing at a high level.

"He's one of those guys that can make people around him better, and he has a lot of talent around him now."

It was only one night, one step on the long NBA playoff road, but the Mavericks did clearly look like the better, deeper team, which hasn't always been the case against four-time champion San Antonio.

That argument should stand, even on a night when the Spurs' Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili combined for 53 points.

"We played hard," Carlisle said of his team's defense. "We didn't necessarily play well all of the time."

What happened was that the Mavericks made Duncan and Ginobili work for nearly every point of their combined 53.

"Our defense really played a part tonight," Kidd said. "We deflected a bunch of passes, and we were active, and we tried to limit them to one tough shot."

The hustle paid off. Kidd finished with 11 assists and was moving the ball
around so craftily, Popovich resorted to the big What-If.

What if the Spurs tried to shadow Nowitzki with only one defender?

"Dirk got the best of whatever we tried to do with him tonight," Popovich said. "We tried a lot of different things, but he beat them all."

Taking advantage of Spurs both big and small, Dirk scored when driving to the basket and when falling away from it.

Midway in the third quarter, just after San Antonio had actually wrested away the lead 59-58, Nowitzki hit a pair of free throws, then a 13-foot jumper, and then converted a three-point play to push the Mavs back into the lead 67-61.

The home team never trailed again.

"That's just what he does," said Caron Butler, who's been Nowitzki's teammate for only three months. "When you've got so many guys around him to keep the double-teams coming and making it difficult for the defense, he's going to have his way. He did a great job of making decisions, creating for others and, at the same time, hitting his shots."

Of all the beneficiaries Sunday night, Butler was the most to benefit. He finished with 22 points.

With Kidd and Nowitzki making the right decisions, it looked at times like a whole, new Mavericks offense.

"I think the scouting report on us probably says that we rely on the jump shot," Kidd said. "But I thought tonight was a great example of us not doing that, and coming out and being aggressive, driving the ball to the basket and getting to the free throw line."

It seemed an accurate assessment on this Game 1 night.

The Mavericks came out sharp and focused. The Spurs ... well, Popovich rolled the diced and it came out 36.

Wrong poison.

http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/04...low-dirks.html