Mavs Hold On Against "Resting" Spurs - 96-89

The Spurs rested both Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan as Caron Butler (4) and the Mavericks took care of business, clinching the number two seed at home. The Mavs will take on the Spurs starting this weekend in round one of the 2010 NBA playoffs. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

To say that Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich is trying to push buttons (for his own team and as bait for the Mavs) would be an understatement. The San Antonio Spurs (50-32) head coach rested arguably his two best players (Duncan and Ginobili) - and played Tony Parker only 29 minutes - as the loss to the Dallas Mavericks (55-27) guaranteed a Mavs-Spurs first-round matchup.

"Well, I'm tired of those guys," Popovich said, tongue firmly in cheek. "They haven't done a darn thing for us for quite a while so I wanted to send them a message that we're a little bit angry at them."

Coach Rick Carlisle had his own theories on the matter.

"The way it unfolded it looks like they wanted to play us, so, they got us," Carlisle said. "You never know all the motivations."

"Airplane fuel is expensive, it's a short trip," Carlisle said jokingly. "I don't make a big deal about it."

Even with the Spurs' reluctance to play two "future Hall-of-Famers," as Carlisle referred to them, the Mavericks still had trouble putting them away. To begin the game, it seemed as though Dallas was caught off guard by the decision and San Antonio capitalized, jumping out to a 20-14 lead. A time out by Carlisle seemed to settle the team and Dallas closed out the quarter on a 16-2 run, making it 30-22 for their first lead of the game.

Although the Mavericks kept the Spurs at arm's length for the rest of the game (San Antonio never got closer than five points after that), Dallas didn't have that one break-out run that allowed them to rest their key starters. San Antonio got as close as six (87-81) in the fourth quarter, causing some uneasiness among the fans at American Airlines Center, but a couple of Brendan Haywood baskets on Dirk Nowitzki assists and two Jason Terry free-throws sealed the game for Dallas. It wasn't pretty, but the Mavs will take it.

"We've got to just forget about this game tonight," Carlisle said. "The game itself wasn't much to watch. But it's over, and that's good. We've got to move on to the playoff series now."

Caron Butler led the Mavs with 20 points, on 7-12 shooting, while Nowitzki chipped in 19 and Kidd 18 as the top scorers for Dallas. The Mavericks held the Spurs to 40.7 percent shooting overall and 9.1 percent on 3's.

Rookie DeJuan Blair was a force in the paint for much of the night as he was the main reason San Antonio was able to hang around all game long. Blair scored 27 points and brought down a career-high 23 rebounds for the second 20-20 game of his career.

"Blair made a case that he should be playing a lot in the [first round playoff] series," Carlisle said. "He's been solid all year long. He plays hard. I'd like to see us do a better job on him, but these are the numbers that he's capable of."

Haywood, who guarded Blair in spurts on the evening, had his own idea of why he was so successful.

"He has a good low-center of gravity," Haywood said. "When he gets somewhere on the court it's hard to move him. He had a great night."

With the win, playoff matchups are all set and the Mavericks will take on the Spurs in round one of the 2010 NBA Playoffs. Although Dallas probably didn't play as well as they would have liked, the final goal was still accomplished.

"We definitely wanted to get this win," Nowitzki said. "We did what we had to do."

Game one is Sunday night at 7:30 p.m. in Dallas. Expect an in-depth preview sometime in the three days leading up to the game.