San Antonio Spurs 97, Dallas Mavericks 94

by PegNews wire

The Dallas Mavericks couldn't quite get over the hump in an extremely competitive intrastate game Thursday night, as the Mavs fell to their divisional rivals 97-94 in San Antonio. The loss dropped the Mavericks to 38-20, two games behind the Spurs for the Southwest Division lead.

Jason Kidd could, once again, not get past the Spurs' Tony Parker, finishing with 7 points, 4 rebounds and 10 assists. Unfortunately for the Mavs, none of those assists came in the final, crucial minutes that saw multiple lead changes before San Antonio clinched it in the final seconds.

Dirk Nowitzki led the Mavericks in scoring with 28 points, but had a surprisingly poor game shooting the ball, just going 5-for-15. Dirk did make up for it by repeatedly getting mauled by the borderline cheating/physical defense of the Spurs, who sent Dirk to the line 21 times, 17 of which he sunk. Josh Howard added 16 points and 8 boards, while Brandon Bass also added 16 points with 6 rebounds. No other Maverick had more than 7 points, including Jason Terry, who airballed his way to a 2-for-10 performance.

As always, Tim Duncan dominated Dampier near the basket, finishing with 31 points and 15 rebounds. Manu Ginobili was relatively contained at just 17 points on 6-of-20 shooting, while Tony Parker had a quiet night with just 10 points and 4 assists.

Posted by Todd M.