Dallas Mavericks at San Antonio Spurs Gameday thread

[MavsFanFinley]

SA wins 98-95:

Finley (45) 6-13, 0-3, 3-4, 15pts, 5rbs, 3as, 1to

Dirk (47) 12-28, 3-5, 9-9, 36pts, 14rbs, 2as, 4tos, 2stls, 1blk

Henderson (29) 1-4, 1-2, 3pts, 6rbs, 1as, 1to, 2stls, 1blk

Terry (37) 6-13, 1-3, 13pts, 2rbs, 2as, 1to, 1stl, 1blk

Stackhouse (46) 7-16, 1-3, 2-2, 17pts, 3rbs, 2as, 3tos

Harris (8) 1-3, 1-2, 3pts, 2rbs, 1stl

Booth (15) 2-5, 4pts, 2rbs, 1stl

Bradley (8) 1-2, 2pts, 2rbs

Armstrong (5) 1-2, 0-1, 2pts, 1rb, 1as, 1stl

[FilthyFinMavs]

Originally posted by: Windmill360°
This sucks.... not winning against good teams really makes you wonder about the Mavs. It makes you question wether this team has any heart. Sure, a few players do show heart but they don't show it as well as San Antonio does; then again San Antonio has had a complete team for a while now. I don't know what will happen for the rest of the year but i'm kind of getting tired of just beating average or below average teams, and guess what? New Jersey is next.. sigh. We don't show any intimidating factors nor do we play with intensity like we do against the easy teams.

Man, these past two games tell us a lot about Josh Howard, Dampier, and Daniels. Only thing we have to look forward to right now is other teams losing. Timberwolves are on a huge slump, Suns have lost two games in a row, Houston is inconsisten, Kings are getting wins with a few loses here and there, Seattle has lost a few recent games, and the Lakers just lost Kobe.

So far the Mavs have been all talk and no show. This was a close game... so what? It's still a loss. This was no better than a blow out. We still haven't learned anything from playing the Spurs. I can't wait for Howard to return. This sucks.

With 3 key players out of your 8 man rotation your being a bit hard on the Mavs. The Mavs aren't good enough yet especially defensively to where they have to make up for 3 of their best defenders.

[rakesh.s]

Originally posted by: FilthyFinMavs

With 3 key players out of your 8 man rotation your being a bit hard on the Mavs. The Mavs aren't good enough yet especially defensively to where they have to make up for 3 of their best defenders.

i don't think any team is..

[dude1394]

Only saw a little bit but terry seems to be getting back to not pushing the ball and walking it up, he just HAS to get out of that.

Tough competitive game, however I thought the spurs sort of let down with their 10 point lead, not as close as the score, imo.

[dude1394]

Only saw a little bit but terry seems to be getting back to not pushing the ball and walking it up, he just HAS to get out of that.

Tough competitive game, however I thought the spurs sort of let down with their 10 point lead, not as close as the score, imo.

[FilthyFinMavs]

Originally posted by: dude1394
Only saw a little bit but terry seems to be getting back to not pushing the ball and walking it up, he just HAS to get out of that.

Tough competitive game, however I thought the spurs sort of let down with their 10 point lead, not as close as the score, imo.

Yea Terry stopped pushing last game also. I have no clue to how he got 7 assists last game.

[DubOverdose]

I can't believe how often Dirk got hammered without getting a call, then at the other end Parker or Manu would throw themselves in to Mavs and get calls every time.

[MavsFanFinley]

SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- For almost four quarters, the San Antonio Spurs played great defense against the freewheeling Dallas Mavericks.

Yet it took a key offensive rebound from Devin Brown and a big second half from Manu Ginobili for the Spurs to earn a 98-95 win Friday night after the Mavericks rallied from a 12-point fourth-quarter deficit.

Ginobili scored 13 of his 22 points in the second half, including three crucial free throws over the final 13 seconds.

``It was tough,'' Ginobili said. ``We know against Dallas the game is never over. We knew we'd have to grind it out.''

It was Brown's offensive rebound off Ginobili's missed 3-pointer with 16 seconds left that kept the Mavericks from drawing closer when they trailed 95-93.

``They kept fighting throughout the game and kept coming back,'' said Spurs center Tim Duncan, who led San Antonio with 25 points. ``Luckily we made some free throws down the stretch.''

The Mavericks came in averaging 116 points over the past six games, but the league's best defense held them under 100 for the first time since a 90-68 win over Atlanta on Dec. 18. Dirk Nowitzki led Dallas with 36 points, including 15 points in the final period.

``I just wish someone had told me Nowitzki could shoot,'' said Spurs coach Gregg Popovich. ``He knows it's going in and everybody is scared to death waiting to see when it would go.''

Nowitzki was streaky all night, picking up two early fouls and missing his first four shots. The second quarter didn't get much better when he had a shot blocked by from behind by 6-foot-3 Beno Udrih.

``We made him take some tough shots,'' Duncan said. ``Our defense is always the same. We contest shots.''

Even with their 7-foot German struggling, Dallas kept it close as Jerry Stackhouse scored 13 of his 17 points in the first half.

Duncan had 17 points in the first two quarters and the Spurs opened the biggest lead of the half at 40-31 before Nowitzki finally found his shot, scoring 12 points over the final five minutes. His 3-pointer from near midcourt swished through at the buzzer to make it 48-45 Spurs at halftime.

The Spurs got consecutive 3-pointers from Robert Horry and Ginobili to open the third, and Tony Parker had seven points in the period as San Antonio took a 74-66 lead into the fourth.

Rasho Nesterovic banged a hard shot off the backboard and Duncan dropped in a floater over Nowitzki that made it 83-71, and the Spurs looked like they were ready to coast. Nesterovic had four blocks, and the Spurs outrebounded the Mavericks 46-36.

The Spurs also clamped down on the Mavs' Michael Finley, who scored eight in the first quarter but managed just seven more points the rest of the way.

But the Mavericks kept coming back as Nowitzki kept firing away.

``It wasn't lack of effort,'' Nowitzki said. ``They're the best home team in the league.''

Jason Terry hit a jumper and the Spurs' Bruce Bowen was credited with a tip-in that made it 93-88 over the protests of the Mavericks, who thought he should have been called for goaltending.

Nowitzki hit a 15-foot fadeaway and Terry hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to two.

Ginobili had an open look but his shot bounced off the rim and the 6-foot-5 Brown leapt high to snag the rebound to keep possession for the Spurs. The Mavericks were forced to foul Ginobili, who made his two free throws to make it 97-93.

``They got second-chance opportunities all game long,'' Nowitzki said. ``And then the killer when we were down by two, they get another.''

Notes

Mavericks forward Josh Howard is still out with an upper respiratory infection and didn't travel to San Antonio ... Horry left the floor late in the first quarter after taking a hard foul on a charge by Nowitzki. Horry returned late in the second and finished with five points ... San Antonio is 3-0 against the Mavs this season.

[bernardos70]

It wasn't a really bad game being we were missing Josh and Dampier.

[Mavs414]

we played good without josh and dampier and if we had them we would of won

[EricaLubarsky]

Just got home. Not a bad game at all. We had a shot at winning and thats all you can ask.

Terry did push for a while but got picked and got stopped a lot and kinda gave up after seeing no success at it. He definitely could have done better. He was yanked in the first half after he stopped, though

Booth is a pretty good match for Duncan. He could use some big-man work on playing smarter and he could be taught that his jumper isnt as good as Dirk's but he could help out a lot.

Woulda liked to have seen DJ but he could have come out as effective DJ or dumb, fouling-machine DJ and there really wasnt a great time to see him.

I'm very afraid of the game tomorrow. Finley, Nowitzki and Stackhouse played almost a full game, Bradley might not feel good tomorrow and Booth isn't a good choice against anyone but Howard. Yao just pushed both Bradley and Booth around in the first two games

[Waschdel]

If a loss can be encouraging - this one was. Dirk played a great game; especially the last quarter. With a little more defensive rebounding they could have ...
I just hope healthy Mavs will play the Spurs in the play-offs using the script the Kings had last year. They lost three times against the Mavs in the regular season ...

[bloodyhell]

We could have won. We still don't have enough weapons though(even with injuries). Too bad we don't have a troy murphy type player to grab boards along with dirk.

[dirno2000]

That time out that Stackhouse took to save a possession with only two seconds left on the shot clock came back to bite us in the ass. We could have used it to advance the ball late in the game. It would have been magnified even more if Dirk makes a three as opposed to a two with three seconds left in the game.

[kg_veteran]

dirno - Good point about the early TO call in the 3rd. That was a mental error. Still, if several unlucky bounces don't go SA's way and if the refs open their eyes and make a few calls, the Mavs probably win the game. I hate moral victories, but this was definitely one. The Mavs have to come away knowing they can compete with the Spurs.

dude/FFM - I agree that there were times where it didn't seem like Terry was pushing, but I think you guys aren't giving enough credit to San Antonio. They were getting back in transition, and they were making shots. It's a lot tougher to run after a made basket. If you heard Bowen interviewed at halftime on ESPN, he talked about transition defense being the key to their gameplan on that side of the ball. The Spurs were focused on taking that away from the Mavs.

[dude1394]

Originally posted by: kg_veteran
dirno - Good point about the early TO call in the 3rd. That was a mental error. Still, if several unlucky bounces don't go SA's way and if the refs open their eyes and make a few calls, the Mavs probably win the game. I hate moral victories, but this was definitely one. The Mavs have to come away knowing they can compete with the Spurs.

After that play nellie just reemed out Henderson. No one flashed to the middle to help stack out, it was tough that the had to call that to, but it would have been a turnover if he hadn't. Of course then they got an absolutely GREAT play off the inbounds and stack didn't make the catch for a layup. arg.

dude/FFM - I agree that there were times where it didn't seem like Terry was pushing, but I think you guys aren't giving enough credit to San Antonio. They were getting back in transition, and they were making shots. It's a lot tougher to run after a made basket. If you heard Bowen interviewed at halftime on ESPN, he talked about transition defense being the key to their gameplan on that side of the ball. The Spurs were focused on taking that away from the Mavs.

He doesn't have to necessarily be pushing it for a fast-break just push it and see if he can break down the d and not stand at the top of the key dribbling. He just wasn't aggressive enough. I DO however wish he would do much more of the flashing into the top of the key and taking an 8/12 footer.

[kg_veteran]

Originally posted by: dude1394
After that play nellie just reemed out Henderson. No one flashed to the middle to help stack out, it was tough that the had to call that to, but it would have been a turnover if he hadn't. Of course then they got an absolutely GREAT play off the inbounds and stack didn't make the catch for a layup. arg.

Yeah, that was on Henderson for not giving Stackhouse someone to pass to, I suppose, although Stack probably shouldn't have picked up his dribble. It was a heartbreaker to see Stackhouse flub that pass.

He doesn't have to necessarily be pushing it for a fast-break just push it and see if he can break down the d and not stand at the top of the key dribbling. He just wasn't aggressive enough.

I can agree with that.

I DO however wish he would do much more of the flashing into the top of the key and taking an 8/12 footer.

He is absolutely deadly with that play. I'd love to see that become a real staple of the offense. Who can stop him from getting to that spot? Nobody, unless they double him, in which case he can kick back to Dirk (as he did late in the game on that very play).

[JMaassacre]

"A good showing would mean nothing. We're too good to hang our hat on that. If we want to be in the top of the West, we have to beat them." -- Dirk before the Spurs game.