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very interesting quote, is there video to this?
Spurs eager to return home for another chance to end series
Art Garcia
NBA.com
Did the Mavericks do more Tuesday night than just send the series back to San Antonio? Or are the Spurs more than content knowing they've got to comfort of home waiting?
Depends on who you ask.
With a summer of questions and a roster overhaul likely riding on Game 5, the Mavericks found another gear and reason to believe. At least for a couple days. Dallas destroyed the Spurs 103-81 to close the gap to 3-2 with the series shifting back to the AT&T Center.
"I don't know about pride," Dirk Nowitzki answered when asked if that's why Dallas won. "We have guys who love to compete and want to win."
The Mavs ran like they hadn't through the first four games. Jason Kidd didn't wait to get picked up in the backcourt, new starter Brendan Haywood gave Dallas a presence in the middle for the first time in this series and Caron Butler attacked like a man rescued from Washington. The same Butler benched for the entire second half of Game 3 scored a playoff career-high 35 points and grabbed 11 boards.
"I wasn't going to second-guess myself," Butler said. He worked himself into a frenzy Tuesday by barking out there ... to himself.
That frenzy proved contagious, as the Spurs didn't find much easy in their first of up to three closeout chances. Two nights ago they won with Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker combining for 31 points. They had 36 this time, but didn't get another 29 from George Hill. San Antonio shot a shot a series-low 36 percent, had seven shots blocked (four by Haywood) and turned it over 18 times.
"We really battled tonight and played well the entire 48 minutes," Butler said, "and not just in spurts like we did in previous games."
Establishing tempo and defending weren't the only priorities for Rick Carlisle's crew. The Mavericks were determined to match the intensity Ginobili and Co. generated in San Antonio. Nowitzki admitted the energy in the American Airlines Center was different Tuesday and something the Mavs need to replicate more often.
"They came with the mental and physical toughness, and our starting group wasn't very good in either category," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "It was disappointing tonight the way we came out. Mostly as a group, just the mental approach to the game, that was disappointing."
The Spurs withstood the early surge of Dallas bravado, but it was clear as the evening progressed that San Antonio was waiting on Thursday. An opportunity to advance at home is all any team can ask for in the playoffs, and the Spurs have just that.
They also have Popovich. The same coach who called out his after Game 1 perhaps offered up another motivational bone in the second half disguised as rest. Pop let the Mavericks and his top dogs soak it all up when the outcome was decided.
Nowitzki, Butler and Jason Terry were among those on the floor for a good chunk of the fourth despite the lead topping 20. Nowitzki said it was no big deal, as none of the Mavs other than Butler played more than 32 minutes. Kidd sat out all of the fourth.
But what about the trio of Ginobili, Duncan and Parker? They were each done before the fourth started. Ginobili admitted that he began zeroing in on Game 6 before the third was done. A little extra stewing from the sideline, especially as the Mavs were out there living it up, can't hurt.
"Did his guys play like dogs again?" Carlisle deadpanned.
San Antonio had nothing to gain, while some can argue the Mavericks had plenty to lose when it was obvious the Spurs had conceded. Maybe the criticism of sitting some of his stars -- Butler and Shawn Marion -- in San Antonio stung Carlisle. Or maybe he just wanted to find some rhythm before heading south.
The Mavericks return to the scene of two uneven efforts and hard-to-figure Carlisle rotations. Dallas has won road games in the playoffs at San Antonio before, including twice last season and twice in 2006. The Mavs won both of those series.
San Antonio, though, has never squandered a 3-1 series lead in the Duncan-Popovich era. Returning to Dallas for a deciding game isn't an eventuality that anyone in silver and black wants to consider. Everything the Spurs faced Tuesday, the Mavericks are bracing for Thursday.
"You've got to think they're going to be fired up down there," Nowitzki said. "They don't want to come back up here."
very interesting quote, is there video to this?
ing bas Carlisle, we set it up to take it at home asshole!
Spurs in 6. It will happen. Chill.
I sincerely hope Timmy, Tony and Manu remember about game 6 vs Pistons, '05 @ home.
Maybe we should put that quote up everywhere.
I don't think the Spurs need any extra motivation, it's Game 7 for two teams in San Antonio tomorrow.
Yeah it gets so old when players like gaywood and coaches like carlise who have'nt done in the nba talk . We take em out tommorow and Pop should challenge ricky to a sword-fight.
i fully expect the spurs to play their best game of the series tomorrow and for the mavs to fold and fade away.
It wasn't anything inflammatory.
Pop was asked (by a Dallas writer) how Haywood defended Duncan. To which Pop replied, that's something you should ask Rick. (Pop wasn't having any of it; I got the impression he felt Tim's performance was on Tim or his condition, but didn't want to say anything that would discredit Haywood or be potential bulletin board material -- he could have just been his typical, ornery self, though.)
When Carlisle came to the podium he was told by that same reporter that he, the reporter, was asked by Pop to ask him about Haywood's defense on Tim. Carlisle didn't understand that the reporter's question was rebuked and deferred to him by Pop, which threw Rick off -- he had to think that the question originated from Pop at the moment with the way it was phrased to him. Thus, the wondering if there was another "dog" comment.
IOW, it was a whole bunch of nothin'.
No doubt in my mind we win tomorrow.
2005 Finals GAME 4: DET 102, SAS 71
2007 Western Finals Gm 3: UTA 109, SAS 83
2007 Western Semi Finals Gm 2: PHX 101, SAS 81
After all these complete blow outs, when things weren't looking good..
WE WON the next game.
And Finally...2003 Western Conference Finals
Game 1: Mavs 113, Spurs 110
Game 2: Spurs 119, Mavs 106
Game 3: Spurs 96, Mavs 83
Game 4: Spurs 102, Mavs 95
Game 5: Mavs 103, Spurs 91
Game 6: Spurs 90, Mavs 78
Spurs up 3-1, Mavs get a comfortable win in game 5, Spurs take game 6.
Blow outs happen, a loss is a loss. The big three have been in this situation before.
Believe in 6.
pretty bold Budkin.
what happened in the 2006 semifinals? I dont remember..... do you have those stats? When we blew you out in game 2 and beat you again in game 3. you guys are idiots.
Yeah, cuz that one series just demolishes the out of the other series being held up as examples
Dazed on the bench at the end of that game.
What happened in the 2006 Finals?
I don't remember...weren't ya'll up 2-0? Oh and up by 13 in the 4th quarter of game 3?
But I mean the Mavs really recovered after that tough finals loss, much like the Spurs did after their tough 2006 loss right?
Nice man, you guys got a banner hanging up in the rafters for that?
Man I remember seeing the look in TD's eyes that game, it was a look I had never seen from him before. It was scary at the time, because those 2 HUGE losses seemed to really get in his head, but we all know how that series ended up...Dazed on the bench at the end of that game.
You went up 3-1 and we pushed you to a 7th game and overtime... which just goes to show that a 3-1 advantage is a hard thing to blow, even for the Dallas Mavericks.
If Spurs don't win tommarow Spurs chances of winning game 7 is slim to none.
Just don't play Roger Mason, that's all I ask. The guy is 1-9 FG this series with 3 points, 2 turnovers, 8 fouls, and pretty much a non-factor on defense. In our 3 wins, his absence was more of a positive than negative.
let them all keep running there mouth. well see where it gets them.
Exactly. Not bulletin board material in the slightest.It wasn't anything inflammatory.
Pop was asked (by a Dallas writer) how Haywood defended Duncan. To which Pop replied, that's something you should ask Rick. (Pop wasn't having any of it; I got the impression he felt Tim's performance was on Tim or his condition, but didn't want to say anything that would discredit Haywood or be potential bulletin board material -- he could have just been his typical, ornery self, though.
When Carlisle came to the podium he was told by that same reporter that he, the reporter, was asked by Pop to ask him about Haywood's defense on Tim. Carlisle didn't understand that the reporter's question was rebuked and deferred to him by Pop, which threw Rick off -- he had to think that the question originated from Pop at the moment with the way it was phrased to him. Thus, the wondering if there was another "dog" comment.
IOW, it was a whole bunch of nothin'.
they better ..
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