Short-handed Spurs Beat Mavericks 92-83

The Spurs, playing without Tony Parker and Tim Duncan for the second straight game, beat the Mavericks with relative ease last night. They led most of the way, although Dallas made a push in the 4th quarter when they outscored the Spurs 19-13. The Mavs went on a 15-4 run that saw the Spurs shoot an ugly 1-of-10 from the field and commit six turnovers while the Mavs cut the lead to 83-79. Fortunately, with three minutes to go, Matt Bonner nailed a three-pointer that gave the Spurs enough breathing room to hang on for the win. It was a timely shot since the Spurs’ three-point shooting started tailing off right at the end there and was looking a little flat.
That Spurs defense that we’ve all come to know and love was back as the Spurs held the Mavs to 35% shooting for the game and the team finished with five blocks and nine steals. DeJuan Blair had a nasty block on Dirk Nowitzki, and Keith Bogans was harassing any Mav who touched the ball near him. He had a solid game hitting three three-pointers and had a nice block on Shawn Marion in the 3rd quarter. Richard Jefferson led the team with 29 points and was scoring from everywhere including a couple of threes and a huge dunk late in the game. RJ has been great this season at getting to the foul line and last night was no exception as he had 16 points in the paint and shot 10 free throws. The only problem is that he is shooting poorly from the stripe at only 61%. Last night he was only 5-of-10 on free throws. DeJuan Blair got his first start last night, and had a decent game, although he still only played about 20 minutes. Manu Ginobili abused Jason Kidd from downtown for a short stretch that saw him hit a couple of threes right in Kidd’s mug, including a buzzer beater to end the half. The Spurs hit two buzzer beating three-pointers in the first half, the other one was Keith Bogans in the first quarter. Without Roger Mason’s 1-for-6 (what the..?), the Spurs were 13-of-28 from downtown last night, and that, along with the more active Spurs defense, was the difference in the game. Check out some of the highlights below:

A few other observations:
- The Spurs are going to be in trouble if they rely too much on their three-point shooting. That shouldn’t happen with Duncan around, so let’s hope that his knees and ankles stay healthy and that he has at least a little lift.
- Drew Gooden was in the game, but I wouldn’t say he “played”.
- Theo Ratliff’s corpse made an appearance. He managed to grab a rebound and lose a bounce pass out of bounds before Pop stuck him back on the bench in less than a minute.

Spurs Relevant Stat Lines
Richard Jefferson: 29 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals, 1 block, 4 turnovers. Another solid game as RJ played 40 minutes last night and carried the team. I’m still not thrilled with his free-throw shooting woes right now, not to mention the turnovers (he and Ginobili combined for 8 of the Spurs’ 13), but he is doing exactly what we envisioned him doing when the Spurs traded for him, and that’s carry the team through injuries, and play agressively on both ends of the court.
Keith Bogans: 13 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 block. If he keeps this up then he may need to stay the starter. He was after it last night on defense and was huge with that first quarter three at the buzzer. The Mavs were trying to rally and would have had the lead going into the second quarter, but that was a nice kick in their crotch. There’s sure to be an onslaught of people proclaiming that Keith Bogans is the new Bruce Bowen over the next few days.
George Hill: 11 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 block. He played well last night. It wasn’t another 22 point outing, but he got into double figures and the 7 boards is nice.
Antonio McDyess: 9 points, 9 rebounds, 3 steals, 1 assist. Making a good case for remaining in the starting lineup, Dice hade close to a double-double last night and frustrated Dirk early on. He even managed to earn a BS technical foul in the process. (Actually, they may have changed it to Ginobili, but either way it was BS.)
Manu Ginobili: 13 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 block, 4 turnovers. Not a monster game, but he hit some timely shots (the halftime buzzer beating three over Kidd) and was scrapping for loose balls and doing everything he could to force turnovers. He even came up with the jump ball after he managed to wedge it between the rim and backboard (haven’t seen that in a while).
Matt Bonner: 11 points, 9 rebounds, 2 assists. I like that he was fighting for rebounds more and he hit one of the game’s biggest shots with that late three to stave off a Dallas comeback.
DeJuan Blair: 3 points, 6 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 block. First start of his NBA career, but not much more than usual. The block on Dirk was vicious.

Mavericks Relevant Stat Lines
Dirk Nowitzki: 29 points, 12 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 block. The only double-double of the night, and he did most of his damage late as he shot something like 9-of-632 for the game.
Jason Terry: 19 points, 2 rebounds, 1 steal. Terry did his usual thing – come off the bench, hang about 20 on the other team – but he was one of the only other Mavericks to really show up last night.
Shawn Marion: 11 points, 9 rebounds, 2 steals. Well, maybe Marion kinda-sorta showed up too, but he had his hands full trying to guard RJ all night.
Jason Kidd: 5 points, 9 assists, 6 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 block. He only took 6 shots last night which semi-explains the 5 points. He just really couldn’t guard anyone, well at least not Ginobili.
Josh Howard: 8 points, 5 rebounds, 2-of-11 from the field. He started off like he was going to go bananas, then started missing everything and sat for half the game. Not sure what that was about.

Coyote Ugly: Erick Dampier
Dampier returned to form last night by following his 14-point, 20-rebound performance against Houston with a 4-rebounds, 1-point dud against the Spurs. Those were his only contributions unless you count the 3 fouls and the shot he had blocked. He was 0-of-2 from the field and hit 1-of-2 free throws (hence the 1 point). The only problem with this is that I have him on one of my fantasy teams, sooooo… thanks for nothing, Damp.

HAVE YOU SEEN ME? Roger Mason’s Jump Shot
If found please return to: AT&T Center, San Antonio, TX.

Tags: Antonio McDyess, Bruce Bowen, Coyote Ugly, Dallas Mavericks, DeJuan Blair, Dirk Nowitzki, Drew Gooden, Erick Dampier, Fantasy, George Hill, Jason Kidd, Jason Terry, Josh Howard, Keith Bogans, Manu Ginobili, Matt Bonner, Richard Jefferson, Roger Mason, San Antonio Spurs, Shawn Marion, Theo Ratliff, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker