Tony Parker and the Spurs came back in the fourth quarter to defeat the Mavericks and take a 2-1 series lead. Parker's lay-in with 18 seconds left sealed the win for San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)Yet again, a break in focus has done the Dallas Mavericks in.
In what was a close game throughout, the San Antonio Spurs were able to make a run when it mattered most in the fourth quarter. Dallas led 68-59 with 3:08 left in the third before San Antonio went on a 7-2 spurt to end the quarter and followed that up by outscoring the Mavs 28-20 in the fourth.
"You've got a nine-point lead in the latter stages of the game," said Jason Terry, who scored 17 off the bench. "A good team, a championship team, hold that lead and walks away with it."
A big reason for the Spurs outburst was the return of Manu Ginobili after exiting the game in the third quarter due to a broken nose. Ginobili returned mid-way through the Mavericks 19-2 run that saw Dallas get their largest lead (68-59) and was the focal point of the Spurs offense in San Antonio's dominant fourth quarter, scoring 11 of his 15 points in the final frame.
"I had no doubt he was going to return," said Tim Duncan, who had a team-high 25 points. "He has a strong nose on him."
Duncan, Ginobili, and Parker (who had 23 points off the bench) combined to score all but six of the Spurs' 28 fourth quarter points. George Hill, who started for the third straight game in the playoffs, scored the other six points and was a good fourth-option for the Spurs (just as Jefferson was in game-two), scoring 17 points for the game.
Dirk Nowitzki regained the form he showed in game one, scoring a game-high 35 points on 13-23 shooting. But he was the only consistent option for the Mavericks who had only three scorers in double-figures. In a surprising move to many, including me, J.J. Barea played the majority of the second-half (over the likes of Shawn Marion and Caron Butler), scoring 14 points off the bench. While he played a large role in the Mavs' third quarter run, his luck ran out in the fourth quarter as he committed three turnovers and made only one of his five attempts from the field. All while serving as a severe liability on the defensive end.
"Coach just goes with whoever is working that night and we went with a three-guard lineup," said Nowitzki. "It was working for a while but we didn't seem to have enough down the stretch."
The officiating was exactly tight either, as no-calls and blown calls were all over the court. According to the officiating crew, Dallas committed nine more personal fouls than the Spurs (five on both Erick Dampier and Nowitzki) and San Antonio shot 11 more free-throws on the night than Dallas.
"It just seems like we're under the magnifying glass when we play defense," said Dampier, who has the unenviable task of being the primary defender on Duncan throughout the series. "When we're on offense there's no magnifying glass. You've got to call it both ways. Dirk drives, he doesn't get a foul. They drive, they get a ticky-tack foul.
"Just keep it consistent. Don't be one way or the other."
More than the refs or the decision to go with Barea, the Mavericks' inability to stop the Spurs on the defensive end is the most glaring reason Dallas lost this game. Yet again, San Antonio shot near 50 percent (48.7 percent). The Spurs also scored a whopping 56 of their 94 points in the paint as the Mavs still have no answer for Duncan down low or on Parker or Ginobili drives to the basket - especially on pick-and-rolls.
"The only thing I can look at now is missed opportunities," said Terry.
For Dallas, the missed opportunity is a big-one. Failing to capitalize in a game they should have won.
(Portions of this article were taken from The Associated Press)
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