Mavericks 113, Spurs 92 (Series tied 1-1)
Blowing their play-off opener turned out to be great therapy for the Dallas Mavericks.
Eighth-seeded Dallas rolled to a 113-92 victory over San Antonio on Wednesday night, snapping a 10-game skid against the Spurs and evening their first-round series at a game apiece.
Dallas didn’t relent in Game 2 after watching a 10-point lead evaporate in the final eight minutes of the series opener Sunday.
“Game 1 actually helped a lot more than today,” Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki said. “We were down after Game 1, but in this building to be up 10 with six or seven minutes left, I think that gave us a lot of confidence coming into this one. Just keep executing the game plan.”
It was Dallas’ first play-off victory since June 12, 2011, when they rebounded from an 0-2 deficit to defeat the Miami Heat for the NBA title.
If not for the final eight minutes of the series opener, the Mavericks would have a 2-0 lead entering Game 3 on Saturday.
“It feels great, but it’s nothing to celebrate,” Dallas point guard Jose Calderon said. “I think we have to keep doing what we’re doing. I think we played two really good games.”
In Game 2, the Mavericks used an aggressive offence and a brutal defensive effort that discombobulated the normally even-keeled Spurs, who finished the regular season with the league’s best record.
Monta Ellis scored 21 points, Shawn Marion added 20 points, Nowitzki had 16, Devin Harris had 18 and Calderon 12 for Dallas, who never trailed after the opening minutes of the second quarter.
Manu Ginobili had 27 points, Tony Parker added 12 and Tim Duncan 11 for the Spurs, who did not have any other player score more than seven points.
“They beat us in every aspect of the game,” Ginobili said. “They played harder. Our defence was soft (and) not as aggressive as theirs. Not that I don’t expect them to play hard. We know they are a tough team, but having such a poor performance in the play-offs bothers me.”
San Antonio’s ineptness had as much to do with tying the series as Dallas’ stellar play. The Spurs averaged 14.4 turnovers during the regular season, but had 15 with 3 minutes left in the first half. They finished with 24 turnovers, which resulted in 33 points for the Mavericks.
“Just being very active,” Ellis said. “Not put them on the free-throw line. Trust that the help was going to be there. We locked in to the game plan that we had. They made some careless turnovers. That was good for us.”
Dallas were extremely physical in the first half whenever Parker and Ginobili drove the lane.
“NBA play-off games are physical,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said. “If you don’t have the right kind of posture and disposition, you’re going to get knocked back on your heels and your butt and tonight we did a better job of hitting first in some of those instances.”
San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich was dismayed early when no fouls were called – not that it mattered when they were. San Antonio finished 18-for-29 on free throws.
“It’s a bad combination to not play good defence at one end and give the ball up at the other end and not shoot free throws very well, either,” Popovich said. “That’s a bad combination at both ends of the floor. That means you get your butt kicked and that’s what happened tonight.”
OTHER WEDNESDAY PLAY-OFF RESULTS
Trail Blazers 112, Rockets 105 (Trail Blazers lead series 2-0)
LaMarcus Aldridge’s son JJ, who turned 5 on Wednesday, texted him after the Portland Trail Blazers’ play-off win and told him he looked like Spider-Man on one of his dunks.
To the Houston Rockets the Portland star probably looked like a superhero on more than just that one play.
Aldridge continued his dominance against the Rockets, scoring 43 points to lift the Trail Blazers to a 112-105 victory and a 2-0 lead in the first-round play-off series.
Aldridge has made the most of the return to his home state and put the Trail Blazers in control heading home for Game 3 in Portland on Friday. The former University of Texas star who grew up in Dallas laughed heartily and said `maybe’ when asked if he’d rather stay in the Lone Star state after the way he’s played in the first two games.
“(Leading) 2-0 going home feels great, but it’s not over,” he said. “We’re going to stay hungry, stay humble and go home and try to duplicate the same (success).”
Aldridge became the first player with consecutive games of 43 points in the play-offs since Tracy McGrady did it in April 2003 after scoring a career-high and franchise play-off record 46 in an overtime win in Game 1. He's also the first player in Trail Blazers history to have two 40-point games in the post-season and his 89 points in a team's first two play-off games trail only Michael Jordan (1986, 1988) and Jerry West (1965) in the last 50 years.
He’s helped the Trail Blazers win two road games to start a play-off series for just the second time in franchise history and the first since they took the first two against the Lakers in the 1977 Western Conference Finals.
Damian Lillard made six free throws down the stretch to help out in the win. But the guard gave all the credit for the win to Aldridge.
“What can they do to stop him? He was great once again, just like Game 1,” Lillard said. “When a lot of guys couldn’t get going and couldn’t hit shots, he just carried us. He played like an MVP again.”
The Rockets spent the last two days of practice focused on how to slow Aldridge down, but nothing they did seemed to faze the 6-foot-11 player.
“We tried changing it up tonight,” Houston coach Kevin McHale said. “Tonight, he was picking and popping and moving and we were having trouble running people at him. We were trying to get the ball out of his hands as much as we could.”
Aldridge credited coach Terry Stotts for moving him around early in the game to help evade Houston’s double-teams.
“I made tough shots,” Aldridge said. “I don’t think too much was easy tonight. I just got in that rhythm and started making shots.”
Heat 101, Bobcats 97 (Heat lead series 2-0)
LeBron James drove to the rim as time was winding down, got clobbered by Josh McRoberts and sat on the hardwood gathering himself for a few seconds afterward.
It was fitting. Miami took Charlotte’s best shot, and survived.
James scored 32 points and added eight assists, Chris Bosh scored 20 points and the Heat wasted two big leads before hanging on to beat the Bobcats 101-97 on Wednesday night to take a 2-0 lead in their Eastern Conference first-round series.
Dwyane Wade scored 15 points, and had a steal in the final seconds to seal the win for Miami. He stripped the ball from Chris Douglas-Roberts with the Heat protecting a three-point lead with about 3.0 seconds left, and the Bobcats never got another shot off.
“A very instinctual, high-risk play,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “The ball’s there and you know you have an opportunity to get it when most people can’t get that, and that saved the game.”
Game 3 is Saturday in Charlotte.
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist scored 22 points for Charlotte, who got 18 points and 13 rebounds from Al Jefferson, playing through a left plantar fascia strain and shooting 9-for-23 from the floor.
“He’s not anywhere close to 100 per cent,” Bobcats coach Steve Clifford said. “But we can play through him. You’ve got to respect the fact he’s out there battling. He has no mobility, basically. Limited mobility and yet he had 18 and 13, and he fought hard.”
So did Charlotte as a whole – maybe too hard for Miami’s liking.
“We got out of our here with the win, but we’re going to have to tighten up a little bit,” Bosh said. “We had a little bit of slippage today.”
Miami led 57-47 at the half, and the Bobcats – who missed 17 of their first 22 shots – were fortunate, after facing a 16-point deficit at one point in the early going.
And while Charlotte kept coming back, they never led in the final 41 minutes.
Follow us on Twitter @SprtNationalUAE
