Inside Report: Spurs-Mavericks preview — Cross-state saga continues
Earl K. Sneed
Mavs.com
The Mavericks and Spurs renew their rivalry Thursday night. But one key ingredient could be missing if Dirk Nowitzki is unable to play, writes Earl K. Sneed.
DALLAS — The Mavericks have made it no secret that Thursday night’s Southwest Division showdown against the San Antonio Spurs has been circled on their calendar since the last time the two teams crossed paths.
Since going into the AT&T Center on Nov. 26 and ending the Spurs’ 12-game win streak with a 103-94 road victory, the Mavericks have looked forward to the opportunity to do it yet again on their home floor.
And even though they wouldn’t mind claiming a second win over the team that ended their season in the first round of last year’s playoffs, it isn’t necessarily revenge that will fuel the Mavericks Thursday night when the two teams meet up at the American Airlines Center. It’s the division standings.
Although the Mavericks (24-6) have reeled off 17 wins in their last 19 games to ascend to the second-best record in the Western Conference, the Spurs (27-4) have been equally as impressive, sitting atop those very same standings for most of the year. That places even more importance on Thursday night’s nationally-televised faceoff.
“This division again is back to being one of the toughest divisions in all of sports,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said. “The Spurs are having a great year, and they’re gonna continue to be good. Look, this is a long, long year. We’re about a 1/3 of the way through in terms of the number of games played. There’s a long ways to go and a lot to be decided.
“And I’ll be saying that when there’s four days left in the season,” the coach added. “That’s just how it is every year, because there’s a lot of things that change the last four or five days in terms of seedings.”
But whether it’s by the end of the regular season in April or when the two teams meet up at the end of December, the Mavs admit that they don’t want to look up and see the Spurs ahead of them for playoff positioning at any time. And sixth man Jason Terry says that Thursday night is just another opportunity to work towards changing that, as the Mavericks enter the matchup 2 1/2 games behind the Spurs in both the division and conference race.
“Our goal is to win the Western Conference, and to do that we’ve just got to keep winning and getting better,” Terry said. ”It’s so far away from the end of the season, it’s not even funny. But since they [the Spurs] are close to us, and they’re ahead of us right now, beating them would give us another game up. So, that’s what we’re looking at.”
The Mavericks are also looking to display the type of play that has carried them to success during the early portion of the season, mixing balanced scoring on offense with a stingy defense. That winning equation will be utilized again as the Mavericks try to match fire with fire against the Spurs’ Big Three of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili.
However, against the Spurs and their trio of talented All-Stars, the Mavericks may be without their go-to player, as power forward Dirk Nowitzki’s status for the game remains uncertain after missing Tuesday night’s 84-76 home loss to Toronto due to a sprained right knee.
Nowitzki injured the knee during the second quarter of Monday night’s 103-93 victory in Oklahoma City, coming down awkwardly after being fouled on a jumper. The following night the nine-time All-Star missed his first game of the season. He’s officially listed as day-to-day.
But if the Mavericks are forced to take the court without No. 41, they know that they’ll have to show more of what worked well on Monday night and less of what failed on the second night of a back-to-back.
In Monday night’s double-digit road win over the Thunder, five Dallas players scored in double figures to pick up the slack when Nowitzki went down. The following night, just Terry and forwards Caron Butler and Shawn Marion met that mark, as the Mavericks’ offense struggled to just 41 percent shooting and a season-low points total, even as the Dallas defense held the Raptors to just 84 points on the night.
“I think we had trouble adjusting with our floor spacing and getting good shots, and it caught up to us by the end of the game. We held them to 84, so usually when that happens we get a win. But offensively, we didn’t have anything,” center Tyson Chandler said.
And now, with the NBA’s best team record-wise entering their home arena, the Mavericks will look to rekindle that offensive success even if Nowitzki is unable to go.
“We’re gonna have to get used to playing without the big fella [Nowitzki] for a little while,” Chandler said. “(Monday night’s) game we didn’t have to adjust as mush as we did (Tuesday night) because we kind of stuck with our normal rotations. And the only thing that was different was not having him for the second half. We came in with the same game plan, but obviously we’re gonna have to make some adjustments, because without the big fella stretching the floor, things are a little different out there.”
The team may have little time to make those adjustments if Nowitzki is unable to suit up versus the Spurs. But whether or not Nowitzki has on his No. 41 jersey or if he is once again in street clothes, the Mavericks know they will have to elevate their games with the Spurs in town.
“They [the Spurs] are the best team in the NBA right now,” point guard Jason Kidd explained. “They have the best record, and they’re playing extremely well. We’re going to have our hands full. If Dirk can’t go, we’ve just got to pick up the slack until he gets back.”
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