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Having taken a punch, Mavericks out to strike first in Game 3
By Eddie Sefko / The Dallas Morning News
Other than winning, nothing in the NBA world is more important to coaches than hitting first.
Every one of them has harped to his players that they have to be the aggressor, to take the fight to the foe. Act, don't react. Nobody wants to be thought of as wimpy.
Which brings us to the Mavericks. It would be accurate to say they did not hit first in Game 2, although Jason Terry took exception.
"I'm not going to say it was a case of not hitting first," Terry said. "I'd say we didn't even swing at all."
True that. It's hard to put somebody on his heels when you refuse to ball up your fist as the bell sounds.
The good news is Game 3 is coming like a haymaker. And the Mavericks have been really good this season at getting off the mat after getting bloodied. No glass jaw on this team.
The Mavericks are 10-4 in games following a double-figure loss this season. And there is no doubt they know the meaning of Game 3. The Mavericks had the best road record in the NBA this season, and the quicker they remind San Antonio of that fact, the better.
It will not happen easily. Most likely, the Mavericks won't be able to pretty-up this series and manufacture wins.
The Spurs made it a down-and-dirty affair Wednesday with their 102-88 win in Dallas.
And the Spurs know their history. They remember the Mavericks winning twice in San Antonio last year in the first round.
"We've lost at home to them so many times, so we've just got to stay humble, keep working hard knowing full well that it's going to be a long series," Manu Ginobili said.
The Mavericks are going to have to show the same urgency, desperation and willingness to get nasty that the Spurs displayed in Game 2 if they expect to regain an edge – and home-court advantage – in this best-of-7 battle.
"It's a five-game series now," Shawn Marion said. "They came in and got a game. We've got to come out and get that first game down there."
Several things must happen for that to take place.
First, the Mavericks must rebound better than they did in Game 2, when the Spurs dominated the boards.
"They shoot a lot of long shots, so there are going to be some long rebounds," Nowitzki said. "We just got to come up with those."
Second, Nowitzki has to come back firing after a curiously dull game on Wednesday. He made just 37.5 percent of his shots (9-of-24).
But there is good news. Nowitzki did not feel like he was overly mugged by the Spurs' defense. He's more inclined to chalk up his shooting simply to a bad night.
"I felt great about the looks I got," he said. "I kept trying, kept working, tried to get to the basket a little bit. If they give me those same looks on Friday, I'm going to take the same shots."
And, more than likely, he'll make more of them.
Lastly, the Mavericks will have to simply play like they are on life-support, which essentially they are. If they don't scratch out at least one win this weekend, they will find themselves in the unenviable situation of being down 3-1.
Not an impossible recovery, but certainly tough against a hot Spurs team.
"There's always going to be a higher level of urgency from the team that lost," coach Rick Carlisle said. "That's a constant."
It had better be. Without hitting first, the Mavericks will be hitting the golf course first.
