Spurs Flex Championship Resolve In Courageous Win Sans Duncan and Ginobili
Robert Kleeman/Bleacher Report
Just two seasons ago, the Avery Johnson-led Dallas Mavericks marched into the AT&T Center for a crucial spring match and scored a hard-fought, single-digit win over the defending champions. The confidence gained from that road win helped the Mavericks oust the Spurs from the playoffs in seven games that May.
That overtime victory in game seven remains the best performance in the franchise's history.
However, evidence continues to mount that those Mavs had two special seasons but were not a special team. The Mavericks won in San Antonio 119-111, beat the Amare Stoudemire-less Phoenix Suns in six games and then collapsed after a 2-0 lead in the NBA Finals. Have they never recovered from that futile tile giveaway or were they never that great in the first place?
After the Mavs dropped their sixth straight regular season contest to the Spurs, playing without All-Stars Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan, the answer would seem to be the latter.
No one can take away that gritty series win from the Mavericks, and after a 93-76 pounding at the AT&T Center, it would do them well to remember that magical moment.
These division rivalry games can decide home court advantage in the playoffs and postseason seeding, but more importantly, they divulge which of the teams boasts the moxie to win when they get there. Tuesday night's contest pitted two teams missing their super subs in Jason Terry and Manu Ginobili, with Tim Duncan joining the inactive list late with a sore knee.
Both teams have learned to fight valiantly without one or more All-Stars during several stretches this season. One emerged from this fight with a decisive edge.
The Spurs used resourcefulness, defense and hustle to slam the Mavs from the opening tip. They led 22-11 midway through the first quarter and never relinquished control of the game.
First, the Mavs let Tony Parker destroy them with an 18-point first quarter. Then, they had no answer when other Spurs decided to pick up the scoring slack.
If one game could offer a snapshot as to why San Antonio can still contend for a le and Dallas cannot, this rout would be the ideal candidate.
The Mavs knew they would not replace Terry's 20 points per game, but until a pratfall against the new look Houston Rockets Friday night, they were finding ways to win without their viperous shooter. When a big test arrived Tuesday, with both teams coming off two-days rest, the Mavs folded and the Spurs again played like champions.
Parker dazzled the home crowd with a 37-point, 12 assist night similar to one Ginobili enjoyed last December, when he lifted the Spurs over the Mavs at home without Duncan.
Why the Spurs won:
Dirk Nowitzki and Josh Howard, the two focal points of the Dallas offense with Terry out, missed a combined 22 of 32 shots. Nowitzki finished 5-15 and Howard 5-17.
Howard continued his pop-a-shot routine and bricked most of them. He launched six three pointers, five of them face guarded, and made only one. He recorded one assist but never played a meaningful role in facilitating offense for his teammates. He scored eight of his 19 points at the free throw line.
The Mavs shot an abysmal 15 percent, 3-19, from the arc.
The Spurs were the tougher, more aggressive team despite shooting nine less free throws than the Mavericks.
Matt Bonner was always overmatched but never outhustled when he defended Nowitzki. He sealed a key rebound in the fourth quarter that allowed the Spurs to stymie any chance of a Mavs rally. He also managed to avoid foul trouble, whistled for just one, a bump in the second quarter.
Kurt Thomas enjoyed his best rebounding night in a Spur uniform, pulling down 11 defensive and four offensive boards. He also dumped in 10 points and was active around the basket on both ends.
Tony Parker realized early in the first quarter that Jason Kidd, J.J. Barea and Matt Carroll could not stay in front of him. He punished them with superb drives to rim and sank several open jumpers.
Michael Finley torched his former team in the second half, making them pay for doubling Parker in the paint. Though the Spurs also shot poorly from three-point land, Finley drilled enough treys, four, to make the difference.
Parker played 37 minutes, three less than Nowitzki, and had a much bigger impact on the game.
Nowitzki and Howard did more than clang shots. They played passively, and the lackluster effort trickled down the roster. James Singleton and Barea were exceptions.
Bruce Bowen entered the game in the fourth quarter, with Barea starting to pour in the points, and frustrated him in the final minutes. Though the undersized Barea shot a respectable 7-15, three of this misses came in the final six minutes, with Bowen harassing him.
Parker was noticeably gassed in the second half after dominating the first with 26 points, so he started passing more, recording nine of his 12 assists in the second 24 minutes.
The Spurs communicated and rotated defensively. The Mavs looked lost, clueless and careless on that end.
Key Spurs performances:
Tony Parker—37 points, 15-32 from the field, 12 assists, five rebounds.
Michael Finley—16 points, 6-9 from the field, 4-4 from beyond the arc, five rebounds, one steal. He scored most of his points in the second half, 10 of them in the fourth quarter.
Kurt Thomas—15 rebounds, 10 points, 5-7 from the field, three blocks.
Fabricio Oberto—six points, 3-4 from the field, five rebounds, one block. He played a more valuable 25 minutes than the box score indicates. If two of his fouls afforded Dallas and-1 opportunities, his other two were questionable calls. He might be the best example of the team's resourcefulness Tuesday night.
Key plays for the Spurs:
Thomas has always been a tremendous pick-and-pop player and that quality came in handy with the shorthanded Spurs thirsty for offense. He hit several jumpers off this basic play in the first half.
Terry was missed most in the fourth quarter, where he leads the Mavs in scoring and is usually the beneficiary of passes in a two-man game with either Nowitzki or Kidd.
The pick and roll seems like such a rudimentary play and yet the Spurs did a much better job guarding it without their top rim defender than the Mavs. Parker enjoyed an all-you-can-eat buffet line of layups in the first quarter. No one stepped in to stop his penetration.
When Mavs defenders finally cut him off at the basket, he simply kicked the ball out to open shooters. The pick and roll came into play three times with Thomas and twice with Oberto.
Bonner missed five of his seven threes but all of them were wide open.
Other impact players and game summary:
George Hill played an inspired 15 minutes, though he missed five of six shots. He swooshed all four free throws and defended earnestly. He sent a Barea scoop attempt flying into the stands in the second half, illiciting loud cheers from the home crowd.
James Singleton notched 14 points and 14 rebounds, nailing two of three from beyond the arc. Barea scored 16 points, enough of them in the final frame, to draw a dreaded matchup with Bowen. Singleton and Barea were the only Mavs who played with any spunk, grit or purpose in the game.
The Spurs and Mavs suit up again Wednesday against teams who handed them agonizing road defeats.
The Portland Trail Blazers edged the Spurs 100-99 Halloween night when Finley's last-second, open 10-footer skipped off the rim. The Milwaukee Bucks humiliated the Mavericks 132-99 at the Bradley Center in January.
As the result of Tuesday's game shows, the first score was a tough break, the second part of a disturbing pattern.
These important, stretch-run games offer insight into the makeup and poise of the two participants. One 48-minute contest, when put in context with the rest of a team's season, can say more than you think.
The Spurs played courageously, with the heart of a champion. The Mavericks flopped.
What else is new?
I especially did like the way Hill took Barea down in the post on back-to-back possessions. Even though he turned the ball over (once by traveling; the other an offensive foul), I still liked his recognition and aggressiveness down there. It's rare that he'll ever have a defender that small on him. It was good that his teammates feed him the ball in that position. Like to see more of that.
Go Spurs!
i love my team.
this is good, but I prefer Tmvp's game thoughts
Hill got unfairly whistled by the refs when he scored back to back on Barea posting him up.. one non existent traveling violation and another non existent offensive foul...
A laker fan says a very good win!
We haven't won 6 straight regular season games against them, more like 5 out of 6. We lost Nov 4th, at the beginning of the season, without Ginobili.
http://www.nba.com/spurs/schedule/
Championship resolve? A bit of a stretch there.
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