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Great write up!
Thanks
It wasn't easy. It surely wasn't pretty. But the San Antonio Spurs were able to hold on in Game 6 to get their revenge against the Dallas Mavericks and advance to the 2010 Western Conference semifinals against the Phoenix Suns.
Early on, it appeared as if the Spurs were going to coast into the next round. Leading early by as many as 22 points, the Spurs then saw their energy level drop, the Mavs catch fire and the lead vanish by the middle of the third quarter.
When Dirk Nowitzki drained a three-pointer with about five minutes remaining in the third, the Mavs gained a one-point lead. However, the Spurs responded immediately with a three-pointer from Manu Ginobili and a layup by Tim Duncan.
The two teams battled back and forth in the final stanza, with the Mavs cutting the deficit to two points on a few occasions. While the Spurs had a number of important hoops down the stretch to hold onto their 97-87 victory, George Hill hitting his final six shots of the game will be remembered -- as will a pair of jumpers down the stretch by both Antonio McDyess and Tony Parker.
Most importantly, the Spurs got their revenge for the bitter results in 2006 and 2009. For a seventh seed that struggled the entire season to figure out the correct positioning of their puzzle pieces, a series victory over the second-seeded Mavs is quite an accomplishment.
-Tim Duncan's game wasn't graceful. He seemed tired, out of rhythm and sometimes in pain ... but he fought through everything with an amazing amount of heart. This was one of the gutsiest performance I've ever seen out of Duncan. He played 43 minutes overall, including the final 27 minutes without rest, finishing with 17 points, ten rebounds, five assists, three steals and three blocks. Duncan hit 8-of-17 field goal attempts but only 1-of-7 attempts from the line. Though seemingly out of gas by the fourth quarter, he had four momentous assists and made flawless rotations on the defensive end. Speaking of defense, Duncan's dedication on that end was impressive. His three blocks and three steals in Game 6 are more impressive considering he had three blocks and no steals in the first five games of the series. All in all, I was very proud watching Duncan battle his way through this game.
-The Spurs needed a lot of production from Manu Ginobili and he delivered. He led the way with 26 points while also dishing out five assists and pulling down a pair of boards. Ginobili hit only 7-of-19 field goal attempts but he made up for his misses by going 10-for-12 at the line and only turning the ball over one time. His three-pointer right after Nowitzki's three that gave the Mavs the lead was a huge, huge shot. And while I thought Ginobili's overall energy wasn't quite where it was earlier in the series and I thought Ginobili made a number of questionable decisions in the fourth quarter, the Spurs don't win that game without Ginobili's fearless forays to the rim that constantly put pressure on Dallas' defense.
-Tony Parker completed his first series as a sixth man with another solid effort. In 35 minutes, Parker had ten points, eight rebounds, seven assists and no turnovers, while hitting 5-of-12 from the field. Leading the team in assists while not turning the ball over helped the Spurs amass 23 assists as a team to only eight turnovers. Parker was at his best in the third quarter when he played a key role in slowing the Mavs rally. He had the assist on Ginobili's big three-pointer and assisted on Duncan's subsequent layup. Parker also drained two jumpers in the fourth quarter that helped keep the Spurs in the driver's seat.
-George Hill is growing up right before our eyes. In the first half, he was passive offensively but his all-out play helped put the Mavs in a hole. When Dallas caught back up, Hill put on his cape and came to the rescue once again. He stopped being passive and was 7-for-8 from the field in the second half. Hill's 4-for-4 fourth quarter featured a pair of three-pointers, a floater over Nowitzki and a miracle one-hander while falling out of bounds. For the game, he totaled 21 points, six rebounds and two assists on 7-for-12 shooting from the field. With the season basically on the line, Hill stepped up and delivered ... again.
-Richard Jefferson didn't do much to help or hurt the Spurs in Game 6. In 31 minutes, Jefferson had seven points, four rebounds and two assists on 2-for-5 shooting from the floor. His biggest play was a jumper early in the final period that helped the Spurs extend a run. Defensively, Jefferson played well and he aggressively pursued the ball when it was loose. This was far from a memorable game by Jefferson but he deserves credit for playing hard and being more of a positive than a negative.
-Antonio McDyess earned his salary for the season with yet another quality performance against the Mavs. Nowitzki was unstoppable (33 points on 13-for-21 shooting) but McDyess made him work about as much as humanly possible. On offense, McDyess had eight points on 4-for-6 shooting. The two midrange jumpers he hit in the fourth quarter were as big as any shots he made for the Spurs this season. When not defending Nowitzki, he had six rebounds and a acious block on Jason Terry. McDyess re-entering the game with five fouls with seven minutes remaining and not fouling out was another pivotal part of the night for San Antonio.
-Since I don't expect much of anything out of Matt Bonner in the playoffs, I was pleasantly surprised with his 12 minutes of action on Thursday night. He hit half of his four field goal attempts and pulled down seven rebounds to go along with his four points. Bonner missed his only three-point attempt, tended to hold onto the ball too long offensively and had four quick fouls ... but overall I was pleased. A non-disaster out of Bonner in the postseason is a positive.
-With McDyess in foul trouble, Keith Bogans played some important fourth quarter minutes against Nowitzki -- with some surprising success. Bogans creating a few stops when the Mavs were rolling made his time on the court were accomplishments worth noting. He played poorly for just about the whole series but thankfully his best minutes of the series were his final few minutes on the court.
-Since Duncan played so much, that left only five minutes for DeJuan Blair. He hit 2-of-3 field goal attempts and helped the Spurs increase their lead. Blair's defense was better and continues to show he won't back down from the pressure of the playoffs.
-I thought Pop coached a good game. Playing his best players a ton of minutes didn't take much skill, however his subtle decisions almost all worked out well. Going with Bogans against Nowitzki in the fourth was a success, as was his gamble of putting McDyess back into the game a little bit early with five fouls. Pop reportedly got on Hill to be more aggressive in the second half, which obviously worked out well for San Antonio. Perhaps most importantly, Pop didn't out-think anything and kept going with what was working.
Great write up!
Thanks
I love the "delayed..."
Man i can tell you it takes time to be a dad...
thanks for the recap, much much appreciated !
Xap'
thanks timvp.
And I want to say I was 100% wrong about Dice. I had no hope for him, I thought he was very bad in regular season, especially with rotations and bad passes on O.
Dice was great in this series. Great D, I didn't see him missing rotations and throwing bad passes. And to be even better he hit some clutch shots. As you said he earned his salary for the season with his play against the Mavs
May be delayed, the write-up is still just as good.
Amen to the comments on Duncan. That performance illustrates why he is the decorated champion, and most underrated great player, that he is.
I agree on the Bogans take, it was a good Pop move, his presence helped us in the fourth.
At what points did Duncan look like he was in pain? I agree with tired but the in pain is very troublesome.
Defensively, those blocks were timely and game changers.
That 3 by Manu to get the lead back in the 3rd was HUUUUUGE.
If he missed that, I truly believe the Mavs would have won that game.
Those were the shots Manu just wasn't making during until late in the regular season. Late in the season and all through the playoffs though, he has made those very same shots, just like he has his whole career
As funny as it sounds those shots, despite coming in the 3rd quarter, are defined as clutch in my mind. The ability to make those momentum shots is a great quality to have in a player and Manu has it in spades
Ouch! But accurate IMHO. I keep hoping (against hope I think) that maybe, just maybe, Matt will hit a couple in a row and actually believe that he belongs on the court in the post season. Of course I was in denial about Santa and the Tooth Fairy for years, too. Quality minutes from him would be such a huge bonus in the POs so I will continue to dream.
I think with the lack of bigs for the Suns he will get more minutes and help TD to get more rest. If he comes up huge in that department it could be the difference in that series. Not saying he will have the type of game he had against the Thunder or the final game against the Mavs but getting 15 - 20 minutes , even 10+ minutes, would make TD fresher and therefore more dangerous. IMHO
BTW great write up Timvp!
Thanks for the write-up timvp...It was right on the money as always.
While his Super-Manu form has been somehow stopped since his nose injury, his timely scoring is still there and that was something he missed during the start of the season and why the Spurs were so bad at close games.
Right on the money TimVP! Great summary!
I have hope for Jefferson in the next series. He showed improvement in this series and I think the rim will be open for drives more in this series than the one with the Mavs. If he's smart and Pop pushes it out of him, he could be a factor at getting to the rim and the foul line.
Thanks TimVP. George Hill's last shot when he was falling out of bounds should have been "And 1" becaused his defender bumped him pretty good. Mavs got some help in the second half like that at time.
Glad Mavs are toast for this year.
Early in the game Tim got body blocked by Barea right on his knee, and he came up hobbling, althugh after the immediate time out to check him out he blew it off and then on one of his over the back he kept grabbing his hand, and add to that the aches and pains he has had when he plays too many minutes, and I gotta agree it was game that took its toll on timmy physically.
Thank You timvp,
great summary!
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