LOS ANGELES, 23 May 2003 — Tim Duncan had 32 points and 15 rebounds as the San Antonio Spurs survived a furious fourth-quarter charge, before turning back the visiting Dallas Mavericks 119-106 on Wednesday night, knotting the Western Conference finals at 1-1.
“Our second half has been shaky through the playoffs,” said Duncan, the league’s reigning most valuable player. “We get some leads and try to play it safe. But we attacked the whole way through, and defensively we were solid.” The Spurs will try to take the upper hand when the best-of-seven playoff series shifts to Dallas for games three and four today and Sunday. Malik Rose scored 25 points, Tony Parker 19 and Stephen Jackson added 17 for top-seeded San Antonio, which bounced back after blowing a 23-point cushion in the opener.
“I was happy to see us get a lead, watch Dallas make a run, and do the things we need to keep the lead,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “We have a penchant of figuring out ways to allow those deals to dissipate from time to time.” Michael Finley scored 29 points, and foul-plagued Dirk Nowitzki added 23 and 10 rebounds for Dallas, which fell short after chopping a 28-point deficit to eight in the final minutes. Despite the loss, he said the Mavericks remain “extremely confident” heading home. The contest was marred by tight officiating, which produced seven technical fouls and the first-half ejections of Dallas head coach Don Nelson and assistant Del Harris.
Nowitzki picked up three quick fouls and was forced to sit with 4:49 left in the opening quarter. Two minutes later, Nelson stood up and glared at referee Joey Crawford. When he refused to return to his seat, Crawford tagged him with two technicals, and tossed him. “Nothing that Nellie does surprises me,” Popovich said. “I was expecting him to do something clever and creative. He was real creative tonight.”
Nowitzki went to the bench with the Spurs ahead 17-14. When the German returned, the gap had widened to 47-26, three minutes into the second quarter. “It’s like a heavyweight prize fighter,” Nelson said. “When you get cut, you go after that cut, and they did.” An 18-3 burst capped by Jackson’s fast-break lay-up with 6:53 left in the second quarter pushed the lead to 55-29 before taking a 69-44 bulge at the break.
Trailing by 18 in the first minute of the fourth quarter, the Mavericks pulled to within 105-97 on Nick Van Exel’s three-point play with 4:58 left. But Duncan hit a 15-footer and blocked a jumper by Nowitzki, leading to a breakaway lay-up by Parker, that pushed the lead to 109-97 with 3:51 left.
After Van Exel drilled a 3-pointer, Duncan spotted Manu Ginobili for a 3-pointer, to make it 112-100 with 2:32 remaining that sealed the victory. “It’s the same old thing,” Duncan said. “It’s a tough being in a situation like that where we’re up so much, trying to play the clock out. We talked about trying to win the game instead of sustain the lead, something we fell into last game. “We needed to make a couple plays in a row and we did defensively and offensively.”
