Dirk can't deliver as Dallas Mavericks fall to Spurs
12:00 AM CST on Thursday, December 6, 2007
By EDDIE SEFKO / The Dallas Morning News
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SAN ANTONIO – Dirk Nowitzki has done many wondrous things for the Mavericks. But their 1-2 road trip that ended Wednesday night with a thud in San Antonio will never make it on his personal highlight reel.
For the second time in three games, Nowitzki missed a wide-open 3-pointer that could have delivered the Mavericks a comeback victory. Instead, they got what they deserved – a 97-95 loss to the San Antonio Spurs, who played without Tim Duncan.
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He spent the evening harmlessly in street clothes because of a sprained right ankle. And at the end, the Mavericks got the same from their MVP as the Spurs did from theirs.
It's hard to pin the loss solely on Nowitzki. He wasn't responsible for Manu Ginobili going off for a season-best 37 points.
But when Jason Terry keyed a fourth-quarter rally to get the Mavericks in position to steal a win, it was Nowitzki who came up empty.
In New Orleans, he missed a 3-pointer that could have avoided overtime in a game the Mavericks went on to lose. After a solid night in the win over Chicago, Wednesday's effort at AT&T Center was forgettable.
The last shot typified things. Without Duncan, San Antonio played a smaller lineup and swarmed Nowitzki when he got the ball. Too often, the ball never got to the open man on the weak side of the floor.
"I just got to be more aggressive when it's there and swing it if it's not," Nowitzki said. "I'm just finding my way of finding when to shoot and be aggressive and when to swing it and make my teammates better. Hopefully, we as a team, and I will get better from month to month, so we'll be there at the end."
As poorly as the Mavericks played, the last play could have salvaged the entire night. Terry had 10 points in a row to lead the Mavericks back. They trailed by as much as 10 late in the fourth quarter. But Terry's three-point play with 33.8 seconds left made it 97-95.
After Bruce Bowen missed for the Spurs, Terry had a drive blocked by Francisco Elson with two seconds left.
On the final play, Nowitzki went on the baseline, got pushed out of bounds, then found himself getting lonely in the right corner. The shot clanged badly off the front of the iron.
"I kind of messed up the play," he said. "I took the wrong route, and they messed up the switching, and I was wide-open. It looked good. It was on line, just a little short. It's a shot that I got to make."
Avery Johnson ran down a long laundry list of other problems the Mavericks had against the Spurs. But Nowitzki's play clearly wasn't MVP-caliber on the trip.
"He's still climbing up the mountain right now," Johnson said. "He's seen a lot of double- and triple-teams, and when he's getting some of those looks that he normally makes, they're just not going down as consistently as in the past. But he's going to get it going, and once he gets it going, we know what he can do."
Among other problems was the pitiful defense on Ginobili, who had 16 points in the third quarter, when the Spurs outscored the Mavericks, 31-17.
"We gave him all kinds of looks," Johnson said. "We even put three guys on him and when we did that, other guys made shots. We tried to get the ball out of his hands and when we did, he made the correct pass. And when he didn't pass, he got to the line or made shots."
"But we got the ball with two seconds left and had a stone-cold wide-open 3-pointer, but it just didn't go down."
Other breakdowns were costly. At the end of the third quarter, Johnson put a good defensive player, Trenton Hassell, in the game with under five seconds left. Yet it was Hassell who got picked and allowed Ginobili to hit a 3-pointer uncontested from the top of the key.
"Those kind of little breakdowns are very disappointing," Johnson said. "Once the guys get sick and tired of having the same breakdowns over and over again, like I am, then we'll have some consistency."
And when it was over, the fact that Duncan didn't play didn't make a bit of difference.
"Teams, when they don't have their best player, they feel like they're the underdog, that it's me against the world," Johnson said. "Teams sometimes perform very well in that situation."
And sometimes, their opponents don't.
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