Views from the other side

[duncan228]

After Caron Butler's breakout performance, it's a whole new series
by Tim Cowlishaw / The Dallas Morning News

Some home cooking from the officials, a buzzer-beater, anything to give Dallas one more point than the San Antonio Spurs would have been enough to keep the Mavericks alive Tuesday night.

Instead, the Mavericks managed to extend the first-round series and deliver an unexpected message to the Spurs at American Airlines Center.

It wasn't simply a 103-81 blowout win for Dallas. It was a good old-fashioned Butler-kicking.

Even if a monster game from Dirk Nowitzki would have done the trick, just as it did here in Game 1, what the Mavericks really needed was someone else to put a little fear in San Antonio.

Enter Caron Butler.

The former Wizard played like a winner Tuesday, scoring 35 points including 10 in the game's first six minutes. Although San Antonio showed brief signs of life to reduce the Mavs' halftime lead to seven, Butler led an early third-quarter surge to put the game out of reach.

By the time the score was 66-49, Butler already had 26 points and Spurs coach Gregg Popovich was benching starters and looking to Game 6.

It wasn't as if Butler hadn't been seen in the series before Game 5. But his 14.5 points per game average through the first four games had come on 39 percent shooting. His team-leading 14 turnovers had even earned him a place on Rick Carlisle's bench for the entire second half of a Game 3 defeat.

"I don't think he had seen this level of defense before," said Mavs center Brendan Haywood, Butler's former Washington teammate.

But in Game 5, Butler showed the entire package that made him the central figure of the Josh Howard trade during the All-Star break. He hit big 3-pointers, and he attacked the Spurs' defense with drives to the basket.

Butler also had 11 rebounds to go with those game-high 35 points. And zero turnovers.

Because of his production, this was the rare Mavericks playoff game in which 15 points from Nowitzki were more than enough.

"Offensively, he had a great rhythm going," Carlisle said. "I was thrilled to see him have a game like that. Since he came here, he's been a great pro. He's extremely aggressive, he's always one of our tougher guys."

The Mavericks were in desperate need of a display of toughness after losing three straight games to the Spurs. A fourth would have ended the season and who knows how much more.

Instead, the victory has a chance to represent a significant turning point in the first-round series for reasons beyond Butler's emergence as a problem for the Spurs. All the Mavericks need to achieve in order to get back home Saturday night is one road win. They led the Western Conference with 27 during the regular season.

And despite all the inevitable hand-wringing that followed the Mavs' miserable weekend in San Antonio – Carlisle can't coach, Dirk's too soft, Jason Kidd's too old, the team can't match the Spurs' hustle and grit – it needs to be mentioned that Dallas lost the two games by a total of seven points.

If it were a matter of returning to a place where the Mavericks had been embarrassed twice, that would be one thing. But that's not what happened.

Instead, they will revisit the arena where their third-quarter leads would have been maintained had Butler been anything approaching the force he became Tuesday night.

Butler's arrival in the series coincided with what almost looked like a departure for the Spurs' Manu Ginobili. He had seven points and four turnovers in 18 lackluster minutes in Game 5.

Before the Spurs can really start to worry about containing Butler, they need to reignite Ginobili, who has been able to continue playing since suffering a broken nose in Game 3 but not at his previous level.

Regardless, it's obvious that both teams have work to do before the second round begins ... for one of them.

"When you're backed into a corner, you've got to claw, kick, do whatever you can," Butler said. "Now it's a series."

[duncan228]

Blowout loss has Spurs concerned entering Game 6
By Brad Townsend / The Dallas Morning News

For the second straight game, Tim Duncan looked every bit of his 34 years.

In two games since breaking his nose, Manu Ginobili has shot 6-for-23. And for the second time in this series, Richardson Jefferson's performance was more bow-wow than wow.

Speaking of which, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich called off his top dogs well before the Mavericks completed their 103-81 whipping of San Antonio on Tuesday night at American Airlines Center.

It was a wise move on Popovich's part because, suddenly, the pressure shifts dramatically to the Spurs and their ability to win Game 6 on Thursday night in San Antonio. Jefferson scoffed at that notion. Ginobili did not.

"Oh, yeah," Ginobili said. "For us, it's a Game 7. It has to be. We definitely don't want to come here for a [Game] 7, and we've got to approach it as if there's no tomorrow."

At Tuesday morning's shootaround, Popovich admitted that he frets in situations like the Spurs faced entering Game 5. After any playoff win, but especially with a 3-1 lead, Popovich said "you have a tendency to relax just because you're a human being."

Now it's 3-2, and if the Spurs can't close out the Mavericks at the AT&T Center, they'll be in grave danger of becoming the ninth NBA team to blow a 3-1 series lead – and the first since 2006.

That isn't the only pressing matter. In his last two games, Duncan has combined for 15 points on 4-of-18 shooting in what surely will rank as the worst back-to-back playoff outings in his Hall of Fame career.

Duncan's four-point performance in Game 4 was at least partly attributable to Mavericks center Erick Dampier's defense. But Dampier didn't even play in Game 5, as Brendan Haywood started and gave Dallas energy on both ends of the court.

Duncan had no explanation for his struggles and didn't try to minimize the importance of Game 6.

"We'll approach it as a close-out game," He said. "We know they'll come with energy and won't want to go home. We'll have to match that energy."

To Popovich, who has four NBA championships, the "human nature" rationale was no excuse for Tuesday's 18-turnover performance, off which the Mavericks scored 24 points en route to their first triple-digit point total since winning Game 1.

"Mostly it was the case of they came with the mental and physical toughness, and our starting group wasn't very good in either category," 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."

Jefferson didn't seem overly concerned, but Ginobili sounded both perplexed and worried.

"They just played harder and better," Ginobili said. "They were sharp and played with a lot of aggressiveness, like a team that didn't want to go home. We were upset at the way we approached the game.

"Hopefully in Game 6 we take the game that way, because we don't want to come here."

[duncan228]

Terry: "No question. We're coming back."
Kate Hairopoulos/Reporter

Jason Terry was thrilled with the Mavericks' get-to-the-hole approach to Game 5. He'd been calling for Dallas to return to its attacking, uptempo style and had predicted it would need to score 100 to get another win in the postseason. He was right.

"Am I a genie?" Jet asked in the locker room. "A genie in a bottle?"

Terry described a new pregame ritual in which he had Eddie Najera, J.J. Barea and DeShawn Stevenson launch him skyward.

"I'm not big on death, but I was in a casket," Terry said. "And when they bounced me up, I fell up out of the casket and said 'we're not done yet.' We're going to have to do that again."

Terry predicted that the Mavs would return to the AAC for a Game 7, meaning of course they survive elimination in Game 6 in San Antonio:

"No question. We're coming back," he said. "We have to. It's our mission. Our job is to go down there and get this win and come on back."

*********************

Three burning questions following the Mavs' Game 5 victory

Can the Mavericks rally to win this series?

Suddenly, it doesn't look so impossible. Before the Game 5 win, the Mavericks faced this number: Only eight of 189 teams down 3-1 in a series have rallied to advance to the next round. Now, the Mavericks – the NBA's best road team this season – need only to win Game 6 in San Antonio on Saturday to put the pressure back on the Spurs' shoulders.

Has Manu Ginobili's broken nose affected his shooting?

Since Spurs guard Manu Ginobili broke his nose in the third quarter of Game 3, he hasn't been the player he was to start this series. Ginobili has played with a splint taped to his nose, and he's struggled with his shooting. Before the broken nose, Ginobili made 51.4 percent of his shots. Since the injury, he's shooting only 32.1 percent.

What was the difference for Mavericks in first half?

The Mavericks were able to take a 53-46 lead into halftime primarily because of the first-half offense of Caron Butler and the defense of Brendan Haywood. Butler finally rediscovered his aggressiveness and had 19 points by halftime on 7-for-11 shooting. Haywood started for the first time in this series in place of Erick Dampier and was active, forcing DeJuan Blair to pick up four quick fouls and Tim Duncan to settle for jump shots.

[SinBAD]

wow, they are trying hard to convince themselves that they are winning this series. Spurs will win a very tough one in San Antonio.The determination of Manu, TP, Duncan and Pop will push them to the next round. At least Pop knows their game plans now and can adjust.Spurs respond well after blowouts like today.

[Crookshanks]

How fickle these sports writers are... they were all jumping off skyscrapers and shouting doom and gloom forecasts after Sunday's game. Now, all of a sudden, this Mavs team is the greatest and the Spurs are on the ropes. Oh well - whatever gets you through the night.

[coyotes_geek]

How fickle these sports writers are... they were all jumping off skyscrapers and shouting doom and gloom forecasts after Sunday's game. Now, all of a sudden, this Mavs team is the greatest and the Spurs are on the ropes. Oh well - whatever gets you through the night.

No kidding. Who do those sports writers think they are? Spurstalk posters?

[duncan228]

Ex-Wizards cast winning spell for Mavs
Butler, Haywood put it all together to keep Spurs from making season disappear
By Jeff Caplan
ESPNDallas.com

Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle has delivered messages to the boys from Washington through playing time. Brendan Haywood lost his starting job down the stretch of the regular season, and Caron Butler suffered the ignominy of being benched the entire second half of a playoff game.

In Tuesday's do-or-die Game 5, both delivered resounding messages of their own with their best performances as Mavericks. Butler, who has been getting ripped in the local press -- and even by a Wizards blogger back in the District -- came out gunning and set a career playoff high with 35 points, plus 11 rebounds, that allowed the Mavericks to stave off first-round elimination by beating the San Antonio Spurs, 103-81, at American Airlines Center.

Butler left to a standing ovation with 6:09 to play and the Mavs blowing up the Spurs by 25. After Butler sat down, Mavs owner Mark Cuban jumped up from his baseline seat and hustled over to the Mavs' video board operator and ordered him to play the hilarious, in-house-produced Old e spoof starring none other than Butler.

As for Brendan "I just work here" Haywood, his reinsertion into the starting lineup obviously got his head fully engaged for 48 minutes of survival. His four blocked shots, one being a stuff of a suddenly struggling Tim Duncan, and helped the Mavs kick their offense into free-flowing, Jason Kidd-friendly transition mode. Combined with Haywood's six offensive rebounds and strong put-backs, Dallas owned the paint for the first time in this series.

Afterward, Haywood, who finished with eight points, eight rebounds and two assists, had a message for Carlisle heading into Thursday's Game 6 in San Antonio.

"No disrespect to anybody, but if you're talking about getting out and running early in the game, unless you're starting Eduardo Najera, you got to start me because I'm the more mobile of the two of us," said Haywood, referring to Erick Dampier, who not only didn't start in Game 5, but didn't play. "That's just one of the things that I think helps me and I think it helps the team."

Butler was sending himself messages throughout Game 5, talking out loud to remind himself to stay aggressive, think quickly and attack. He's acknowledged problems against the Spurs' sharp defensive rotations. He's been tentative, unsure whether to drive or shoot or neither, and in that split second of hesitation, his opportunity gets swallowed up.

It was why he was dangling at 38 percent shooting from the floor for the series and why he found himself benched for the final 24 minutes of Game 3. He played better in Game 4, and his dynamic performance Tuesday -- in which he scored 19 points by halftime, got to the free throw line nine times, drained 3-of-8 from downtown and overall shot an efficient 12-of-24 -- gave the Spurs more to think about.

"I was talking to myself, I was talking to my teammates, just trying to stay aggressive and keep myself going," Butler said. "I play my best basketball when I'm angry, so I just tried to keep myself going and, you know, our back is against the wall, if not through the wall. So when you're backed into a corner you've got to claw and kick and do everything you possibly can, and that's what we did tonight."

Butler and Haywood combined for nine steals and blocks as the Spurs coughed it up 18 times, reminiscent of Game 1 when the Mavs were quick to cut off paths to the basket and disrupted bounce passes and dump-offs in the lane, leading to 17 Spurs turnovers.

And it was Butler who set the tone for a triumphant third quarter that had all the makings for a second consecutive third-period meltdown. The Mavs led by as many as 17 in the first half, but the Spurs closed it out on an 11-2 run and trailed just 53-46 at halftime, which sent a nervous twinge throughout the AAC.

Butler took the Mavs' first possession off a Shawn Marion steal to the basket and got fouled. He picked off Manu Ginobili's pass and Kidd repaid Butler with a pass for a layup. A couple of possessions later, Dirk Nowitzki darted a pass to Butler for a 3-pointer for a 13-3 run and a 66-49 lead.

"He really is one of our tough guys," Carlisle said. "I was really, really thrilled to see him have a game like that. He is just a great guy. You just love to see a guy like that succeed and have that kind of night because since he has come here he has just been a great pro and a guy that is really into winning."

Within the next two minutes, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich had removed Duncan and Ginobili and raised the white flag.

Afterward, Nowitzki, who enjoyed a rare night when a reserved stat line -- 15 points, nine rebounds -- resulted in a victory, said he told Butler after his Game 3 benching to trust himself and play his game.

"He's obviously a pro and a veteran and he's seen a lot in this league and he knows how to play," Nowitzki said. "We need him to attack. That's basically what I told him: 'We need you to be aggressive at all times and we want you to shoot the ball and be a scorer for us'. He knows what he has to do."