Mavericks Trump Spurs to Cap Wild Comeback

<!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/20/sports/basketball/20spurs.html" target="top"><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Mavericks Trump Spurs to Cap Wild Comeback</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--></a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br>
By MIKE WISE<br>
<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>NYTimes.com</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br>
<br>
SAN ANTONIO, May 19 - Dirk Nowitzki traveled 274 miles downstate for a wild game of Texas Hold 'Em on Tim Duncan's porch. When the two best players left standing in the West had anted up and raised each other, they finally showed their hands.<br>
<br>
Duncan had a full house, 18,997 frenzied people at the SBC Center who watched the league's most valuable player put on a virtuoso, 40-point performance in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals.<br>
<br>
Nowitzki did him one better. He only had a flush - a nasty, driving baseline dunk with twp minutes left brought the Dallas Mavericks within 1 - but he had a wild card. Michael Finley was isolated against Stephen Jackson with 14 seconds remaining and drove by him for the game-winning layup.<br>
<br>
After a Duncan miss in the key, Nowitzki hit two free throws and the Mavericks had an improbable 113-110 victory.<br>
<br>
The Mavericks made an incredible 49 of 50 free throws, a team record, while the Spurs missed 17 of 48. <br>
<br>
Nowitzki led the Mavericks with 38 points and 16 rebounds.<br>
<br>
"They took the crowd out a little bit in the first half and they kept coming at us,'' Duncan said. <br>
<br>
Duncan's line of 40 points, 15 rebounds and 7 assists was impressive, but not enough to quell a resilient team that rebounded from an 18-point first-half deficit and from 14 points back with 8 minutes 5 seconds remaining.<br>
<br>
Game 2 is Wednesday night here and passions should run even higher. <br>
<br>
The game took an ugly turn in the final five minutes when Eduardo Najera inadvertently kneed Malik Rose in the back of the head under the Dallas basket. <br>
<br>
Najera struggled back up and made it to the other end, but Rose lay there, unable to move.<br>
<br>
Neither team elected to use a timeout, so after a San Antonio basket, Dallas Coach Don Nelson implored his team to push the ball, going 5 on 4 against the Spurs without Rose. Nowitzki ended up getting fouled, stepping on the injured Rose in the process.<br>
<br>
The move ticked off San Antonio fans, most of whom clearly viewed Nelson as a poor sport for not stopping play - though his decision was clearly within the rules. <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>They began chanting derisively at him while Rose was attended to, and at one point several objects came onto the floor, including a coin that bloodied the forehead of a scorekeeper.</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br>
<br>
The game was all San Antonio's with about 10 minutes remaining, as they built a 10-point lead. Manu Ginobili penetrated the left side with 9:30 left, making the defense chase him and forget Duncan, who caught the ball and dunked with malice. <br>
<br>
But Dallas kept coming. Finley finished with 26 points in 47 minutes.<br>
<br>
For most of two quarters, Duncan and the Spurs gave credence to the idea that the N.B.A. title was decided in the second round of the playoffs, when the league's most valuable player and his hungry teammates stunned the three-time defending champion Los Angeles Lakers in six games.<br>
<br>
The Mavericks were being run off the SBC Center floor, beaten at their own fuel-injected game.<br>
<br>
Yet with 3:34 left in the third quarter, Finley hit two free throws to tie the score. Nowitzki picked up his fourth foul with less than two minutes left in the third quarter, but even that did not deter Dallas, which took everything the Spurs threw at it in the first half and still managed to stay in the game.<br>
<br>
Duncan had one of those halves of which players dream. Almost robotically efficient, he poured in 26 points, hit 9 of 12 shots, 8 of 11 free throws and grabbed 9 rebounds. <br>
<br>
For much of the half, Nelson tried everything to stop Duncan. Man-to-man. Zone. Shawn Bradley. Eduardo Najera. He even broke out a playbook oldie with his team down double digits in the second quarter.<br>
<br>
Nelson, who has often infuriated opposing coaches with his tactics, decided to intentionally foul Spurs guard Bruce Bowen in the last five minutes of the first half. A 60 percent shooter from the foul line who did not make a free throw in April until the last week of the month, Bowen became the latest target of the Hack-a-Shaq defense.<br>
<br>
The strategy used to involve beating on Shaquille O'Neal and forcing the All-Star Laker center to go to the line - his admitted kryptonite. <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>But now it is employed to put shooting guards inaccurate from 15 feet on the line - the Bruise-a-Bruce.</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> <br>
<br>
The stop-the-clock move worked on a few possessions, but Bowen eventually made three of his last four, and five of 10 free throws altogether in the quarter. He made a 3-pointer along the right baseline in the final minute, but the Mavericks had sawed an 18-point lead in half by intermission.<br>
<br>
San Antonio did everything they could to neutralize the impact of Van Exel, who against Sacramento averaged 25.3 points over seven games - one of the most prolific performances by a reserve in league playoff history.<br>
<br>
Bowen pushed his abdomen into Van Exel's, Speedy Claxton chased him around as best he could.<br>
<br>
Van Exel finished with 14 points on 3 of 12 shooting. It did not matter, especially with Nowitzki and Finley and Nash (22 points) combining for 86 points.<br>
<p></p><i></i>