Dirk Nowitzki was named to the All-NBA First Team. Nowitzki received 584 points including 105 1st team votes in the media voting. LeBron James (Cle), Shaquille O'Neal (Mia), Kobe Bryant (LAL), and Steve Nash (Pho) joined Nowitzki on the First Team. It was the 2nd year (also 04-05) that Nowitzki was named to the All-NBA First Team (and the only 2 times a Mav has been named to the First Team). The NBA suspended Jason Terry for 1 game for throwing a punch at Michael Finley while at the bottom of the pile that resulted in a jumpball late in game 5 (just after the Nowitzki jumpball). A lot of people are yelling at the league about this, but since I've been pseudo-covering the NBA (95-96) there has _always_ (37 incidents) been a suspension associated with a thrown punch - whether it connects, whether it was retaliatory, whether it was a pure reaction; the league does not care. The NBA has shown that if you throw a punch, you will be suspended. So Dallas will have to play game 6 without Terry. Hopefully the Wounded Tiger theory comes into effect. Game 5: Dallas at San Antonio (May 17) Another game and another lineup change for the Spurs as Manu Ginobili was re-inserted into the starting lineup in place of Robert Horry (and Michael Finley again started). The teams traded leads early on in the game. Tony Parker converted a 3-point play to give San Antonio a 12-8 lead with 6:20 remaining. 2 free throws by Parker gave San Antonio a 23-16 lead with 2:40 left, but 7 points would be the largest lead of the quarter. San Antonio brought out the zone defense for a couple of plays in the last few minutes of the quarter (but it wasn't very effective [but neither was the man-to-man defense as both teams had trouble stopping the other]). Parker had a fade away bucket near the quarters' end to give the Spurs a 29-24 lead after 1. Parker had 15 points and Dirk Nowitzki had 10 points. A bucket by Brent Barry gave San Antonio a 37-29 lead with 9:40 to go, but that would be their largest lead of the quarter as Dallas continued to hang around despite not playing all that great and Tim Duncan going nuts. Dallas went on a 6-1 mini-run to pull within 41-42 with 6:05 remaining. After DeSagana Diop picked up his 3rd foul with 6:20 left, Keith Van Horn was subbed in and saw his first action since breaking a bone in his hand - but he had the fun task of trying to stop Duncan and didn't do well as Van Horn picked up 3 fouls in the next 2 minutes and was subbed back out (he did return to play the last 2 minutes of the quarter and picked up another foul and stayed on the bench in the 2nd half). A jumper by Devin Harris tied the game at 47-47 with 3:40 remaining, but Duncan then converted a 3-point play to give San Antonio back the lead. 2 free throws by Jason Terry and a dunk by Jerry Stackhouse gave Dallas a 55-54 lead with 1:15 to go. Duncan hit 1-2 free throws and the Spurs got the rebound and Duncan got a dunk. After a missed layup by Parker with a couple of seconds left in the quarter, Stackhouse made the long pass to Nowitzki and he took it in for the dunk as the quarter ended. The game was tied 57-57 at the half (and with as well as the Spurs were playing, Dallas had to be very happy with the tie). Duncan had 21 points in the 2nd quarter to up his game total to 28 points on 11-11 FG and 6-11 FT. Dirk Nowitzki had 18 points including 8-11 FG in the half. San Antonio hurt themselves by shooting 6-12 FT in the 2nd quarter. For the half, San Antonio shot 61% FG and 10-17 FT and Dallas shot 56% FG and 8-9 FT. The teams traded leads early in the 3rd quarter. A layup by Josh Howard gave Dallas a 64-60 lead with 10:05 left. The Spurs then scored the next 6 points. Terry nailed a 3-pointer (Dallas' first of the night) to give Dallas a 69-68 lead with 7 minutes to go. San Antonio then went on a 13-2 run to take their largest lead at 81-71 with 3:35 left. Dallas started sprinkling in some zone defense with their man-to-man defense and the Spurs struggled against it and did not score again in the quarter in missing their next 4 shots and turning the ball over twice. Dallas scored the last 7 points of the quarter. San Antonio led 81-78 after 3. Parker had 12 points in the 3rd quarter. 2 buckets by Ginobili surrounded a jumper by Terry and gave San Antonio an 86-80 lead with 10:30 remaining. But Dallas then scored the next 8 points to go up 88-86 with 6:50 left as the Spurs missed their next 5 shots. Finley ended the run with a monster one-handed slam as the shot clock was running down and then Duncan converted a 3-point play to give San Antonio a 91-88 lead with 5:40 to go. An impressive layup by Ginobili gave the Spurs a 95-90 lead with 4 minutes remaining. Stackhouse hit 2 free throws. Parker lost the ball spinning in and Nowitzki drained the pull-up 3-pointer (his 1st 3-pointer of this series) to tie the game at 95-95 with 3:15 to go. Duncan was fouled attempting a layup and he hit 2 free throws, but Nowitzki found an open Harris near the basket for the easy layup to again tie the game with 2:35 left. Duncan missed inside, but Ginobili knocked away a pass attempt by Nowitzki and Ginobili was fouled to prevent a break away. Ginobili hit 1-2 free throws with 2 minutes remaining to give the Spurs a 98-97 lead. Stackhouse missed a 3-point attempt and Ginobili missed a jumper and Dallas called timeout with 1:15 to go. Ginobili poked the ball away from Terry to force the turnover with 1:05 left. Ginobili drove and missed, but got the rebound and passed it up so the Spurs could set up another play. Duncan passed to Parker under the basket, but he missed the reverse layup with 30 seconds remaining. Ginobili was called for a foul defending Nowitzki, but it was a foul they had to give and there was 15.4 seconds to go and Dallas called timeout down by 1 point. The Mavs worked the ball and got it to Nowitzki with about 10 seconds left on the elbow and he took a couple of dribbles in and as Nowitzki went to shoot, Bruce Bowen cleanly got his hand on the ball for the block and it was a jumpball with 6.3 seconds remaining. Nowitzki tapped the ball towards Terry and Ginobili tipped it away and Terry went on the floor to grab the loose ball and then was tied up by Ginobili (and the refs ruled that the Mavs didn't have possession securely enough before Ginobili got there to grant a timeout) - so a jumpball with Terry and Ginobili with 3.4 seconds left. It took a bit for the jump to actually occur as players kept moving their position on the circle. Once the ball went up, neither player got a clean swipe at it and the ball hit on the back of Ginobili's hand and Josh Howard got the ball and called timeout with 2.4 seconds to go. Dallas inbounded to Terry near the corner and he turn and flung the 19-footer, but over shot it and Nowitzki tried to finger touch the ball in, but it didn't even get above the rim and time expired. San Antonio won 98-97. Dallas leads the series 3-2. It was another tight and exciting game in this series and this time Dallas came up on the short end of the stick. The good news for the Mavs is that the Spurs played very well and yet the Mavs were still in there even though Dallas didn't play all that well. The game resembled game 1 where both teams couldn't score over the end of the game. The last field goal made came with 2:38 left and the last point (which was also the game winning point) came with 1:59 left. The teams combined to miss their last 7 shots in the last 2 minutes of the game. The Spurs' good defense (particularly plays by Manu Ginobili and Bruce Bowen) is what decided this game - strange as most of the game was spent with the teams struggling to get stops. Both teams shot well except for the last 2 minutes of the game. For the game, San Antonio shot 50.6% (39-77) FG including 3-12 3-pointers and Dallas shot 53.6% (37-69) FG including 2-9 3-pointers. San Antonio had the edge at the line and shot 22-31 FT while Dallas shot 16-19 FT. Dallas did out-rebound San Antonio 38-30 including 10-6 offensive - it was the 2nd time in this series that the Spurs had just 6 offensive boards (an opponent playoff low). The assists remained low as San Antonio had 18 assists and Dallas had 12 assists. San Antonio had 12 turnovers and Dallas had 13 turnovers, but 4 of Dallas' came in the last 5 minutes of the games. The largest lead in the game was just 10 points (by the Spurs - their largest lead in the series). Game 6 is in Dallas at 8:30 pm - it's being broadcast on ESPN and locally on channel 21 and will be 21's last Mavs game of the season. It was the 3-headed monster as usual for the Spurs. Tim Duncan had another monster game. He hit his first 12 shots, missed his next 5, and then went 1-2 FG in the last 6 minutes of the game. Duncan had 36 points on 13-19 FG and 10-15 FT, 12 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 blocks but also had 3 turnovers. Tony Parker had 27 points, but didn't score in the 2nd and 4th quarters (15 points in the 1st and 12 in the 3rd). Parker also had 4 assists and 5 turnovers. It was Manu Ginobili's defensive plays at the end of the game that deserve praise. For stats, he had 18 points, 4 rebounds, and 5 assists. Michael Finley continued to play well against his former team and had 12 points and 7 rebounds in 44 minutes as a starter. Brent Barry had 5 points on 2-2 FG and 5 fouls in 18 minutes. And that's it for the points - only 5 Spur players scored in this game (it was a tight 8-man rotation, though). Bruce Bowen did not attempt a shot as he continued to focus on defense and had the great block near the end of the game. 1 rebound, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 block, and 3 fouls in 34 minutes were his only stats. Nick Van Exel missed 2 shots and had 4 assists in 13 minutes and Robert Horry missed his only shot and had 4 rebounds in 11 minutes. Dirk Nowitzki led the way for Dallas with 31 points on 13-22 FG and 4-4 FT. He hit his first 3-pointer of the series in this game (though he has only attempted 6 in the 5 games). Nowitzki also had 10 rebounds and 4 assists, but did turn the ball over 4 times. Josh Howard had a quiet 16 points and 8 rebounds in 37 minutes. Jason Terry had 15 points, 4 rebounds, and 5 assists, but also turned the ball over 4 times. Devin Harris continued to cause the Spurs fits when he attacked the basket [though I've notice he tends to do better when he attacks from straight up from the top than from an angle]. Harris had 15 points, but no assists and was called for traveling with a little over 4 minutes left in the game. The centers were again plagued by foul trouble, especially with the home cooking towards Tim Duncan. DeSagana Diop hit a couple of outside shots and had 8 points on a perfect 3-3 FG and 2-2 FT and 7 rebounds in his 24 minutes. The Mavs never went to Erick Dampier offensively as he did not attempt a shot [not completely unusual, but he normally gets 1 or 2 plays]. He only had 1 rebound and 5 fouls, but did have 2 blocks, in 17 minutes. Keith Van Horn's return to action (his first since the end of March) was as center and he did not fair well. He didn't attempt a shot (I don't think he even touched the ball on offense much less looked at the basket) and had 1 rebound and 4 fouls in 3 minutes. And DJ Mbenga saw a minute of action as a center. Jerry Stackhouse struggled with his shot [yes, I yelled, "Stop shooting, Jerry!" at one point during the game]. He had 10 points including 4-12 FG ad 5 rebounds in 33 minutes. Marquis Daniels' only shot was a nice dunk. He played 7 minutes. Quotes [Popovich's, Duncan's, Parker's, Johnson's, and Nowitzki's quotes transcribed by me] Gregg Popovich: "Well, obviously another great competitive game between 2 good basketball teams. Neither team could play much harder. Either team could of won the game, just like games 3 and 4, could have gone either way. Just boils down to a possession or a stop down the stretch. And tonight that went our way. So a big win. It's good to give them a little bit of adversity. And we'll get another night and another game to try to do it again." Popovich if San Antonio deserved a break: "You don't deserve any thing. You just go play. You start thinking about what you deserve and what you don't deserve and it just makes you soft. You just play the game." Popovich on Ginobili: "I think Manu is the most competitive player I've ever been around. And those are the kind of plays where it shows. you know, people see him offensively having a game, making a 3, going to the basket, whatever; but he comes up with a lot of plays that help a team win basketball games. He really is the ultimate competitor." Popovich on Bowen: "You can see why the coaches rewarded him with a selection to the First Team All-Defense. He really takes great pride in it. How in the world you guard Dirk, I don't know. I stay up late at night just seeing his face because you just can't stop the guy. But Bruce comes up with plays and that one was unbelievable." Popovich on if Bowen's block was the best he's ever seen: "Oh yeah. Because he's doing it against a guy who's an MVP-type player." Popovich on Parker: "Tony had a pretty good 1st half. We've got to get him to match that in the 2nd half in one of these games, 'cause that will be a great help to us. But it's kind of funny, if you want to really simplify things and make a generalization, they're having a hard time guarding us in the paint and we're having a hard time guarding them out on the perimeter, if you think about it. And each team has strengths. And the inside obviously for us is Timmy and the outside is several people for them." Popovich: "At this level, the teams that are in the playoffs, everyone has got resolve. Game 3 was a really tough game for us and we came back and played in game 4 even better. And those 2 losses back-to-back were very, very difficult. So I'm proud of the guys for being able to come back and have this kind of effort. But you'll see Dallas'll come back and in the next game and they'll have the same effort. So everybody wants this badly. Both teams are filled with character and toughness. And I'm not surprised by it at all. I would have been surprised if we'd have beaten them by 20 or they'd have beaten us by 20 tonight, that would have surprised me." Popovich on Finley: "Michael's been great for us all year both as a player learning a new system, sometimes starting, sometimes coming off the bench, just a class act, quick leader in the locker room. Somebody that's respected to a very high degree. So when he's on the court, Timmy enjoys it. Not just because he can shoot it, but he tries to do everything the right way. He's really a wonderful player to be around." Popovich on arguments with the refs: "There weren't any heated battles between Avery and the refs or myself and the refs, that's not true. No, that never happened one time during the evening. You know, we talk to the referees and sometimes they'll say 'Move back' and we move back. But there was never any ill words or anything even close to a confrontation from either Avery or myself. So you just made it up." Popovich on not having any questions about Duncan yet: "Here in San Antonio, we're going to treat him like David [Robinson], when David was playing you assume he's going to do what he does. And, oh yeah, Timmy had that number of points and rebounds. But like I said, he's the base of everything, obviously. Everything goes through him. He sets our defense, he sets our offense. We just mistakenly assume it too much." Tim Duncan: "Great win for us. Of course, it's do or die right now. We're on our home court, we did our job here. We want to go back to Dallas. We've had 2 really tough losses there. We're really confident going into their building. And try to get another one." Duncan on Ginobili's and Bowen's defense: "They were great. Gino was all over the place knocking the ball away, getting on the floor. That's the kind of effort we're going to need here going into Dallas. And Bruce is great. He just stayed on him, stayed away from the fouls on Dirk, and just did a great job contesting his shots." Duncan on his game: "I back up a little towards the end there. I probably should of taken that last shot there instead of passing it down low to Tony. But I feel great. I'm going to continue attacking and hope the ball keeps going down." Duncan: "I had to be aggressive early. Just the importance of this game, just didn't want kind of to look back and say that I didn't give that effort. And I got a couple of shots to go down early and just kind of rolled from there. It helped Tony did a great job of really drawing the defense. I got a couple of dunks in there and you get shots like that to go down and all of a sudden your confidence goes up a little bit." Duncan on the change of his game since the season ended: "Not a whole lot has changed, honestly. Just trying to be aggressive. Bottom line, shots are going down. It's the difference what I did in the regular season and what I'm doing now, I've got some shots going down and once that happens, as I said, the confidence kind of grows and things kind of went from there. It's been great, with that, with any shots going down, I get more touches and I know I can pick and choose my opportunities to read a defense and to take a shot, knowing that I'm going to get another opportunity at the ball." Duncan on if going small makes it easier on offense and tougher on defense: "Yeah, I got to agree with all of that. We matchup a little better. Because of the versatility of Dirk, he just creates matchup problems. And we've tried a couple of different things and the lineup that we're in now seemed to work the best. This is our 3rd tough game in a row and the ball bounces one way or another, the series could be a different way. But we like the matchups that we have and we just have to understand that the guys are going to have to work a little harder to get inside, to get rebounds, and it's not going to be the responsibility of 1 big or there's not going to be 2 bigs in there to have that done. So we're working a little differently with our rotations because guys are in spots and situations that they've never been in before." Duncan on Finley: "I think Pop hit it on the head. I think he's a very intelligent basketball player. He understands spacing, he understands position. And all he needs is a little space to get his shot off. He's done that for us, he's done a great job of that. He's working his butt off on the defensive end. At times he's really had a tough time having to guard Dirk and then changing it up and having to guard Stack and Terry. So he's had a tough time with the matchups a little. But I think he's really given his all and effortwise, and I thought he did a great job tonight." Duncan on Ginobili: "Manu is a big finisher for us. He's a guy that we look to down the stretch to really finish games for us. And he did just that tonight. He made some big plays defensively. But he made some huge shots for us. That hook that he made down the lane over Dampier or Diop, who ever it was, that was huge for us. We were struggling for a basket then and he kind of found a way to get it done. And all season long we've looked for him in that situation to do those kind of things for us. And I think his rhythm feels good right now and his timing is really there right now and he's attacking the basket. So we're going to need him to continue to do that." Duncan on starting 12-12 FG: "I was hoping I wasn't going to miss and then I went through a stretch there where I missed like 6 in a row. So I came back to reality real quick. A situation like that, I was going to the basket and I was getting shots at the basket. So, honestly, it was all kind of a blur to the point where I didn't feel like I was in a zone or on a roll. I was just making the moves when they were there." Duncan on Nowitzki's putback chance: "It just seemed like the same situation like the last 2 games. It just came down to the ball bouncing one way and he had an opportunity at it." Tony Parker: "Big game for us and so obviously we wanted to be aggressive. And early in the game not settle for jumpshots. You know, just try to create and make some stuff happen. We was just coming back from 2 tough losses. So get back at home and you feel a little bit better, feel a little bit faster. So it was a great 1st quarter for us." Parker on his injuries: "Nobody cares. Nobody cares with all the injuries. A lot of guys in the league they play hurt and so that's what I'm trying to do. Try to be aggressive and try to do what I can." Parker on Finley: "He's a great shooter so obviously they have to respect him. He played great. He had a nice dunk. He was very aggressive in the 4th quarter. And so that's what he do, under pressure he makes big shots." Parker on if they slowed Harris down: "Not really, we're doing the same defense. [report: just a bad game?] I don't know, but we're doing the same defense. I think it was just a matter to pay more attention to him. Obviously game 2 and 3 we didn't respect him that much and he was going to the basket and nobody was helping. We was more focused on Jason Terry and Dirk Nowitzki, so he hurt us those 2 games. And so I think it's just a matter of he's talented so we have to pay attention to him and we can't let him score a lot of points." Parker on Ginobili: "Manu is just a competitor. He just competes. And he had a great steal at the end of the game, great steal. He just slowly and surely gets his confidence back. He's playing well." Parker: "One game at a time, one game at a time. We're one of the best teams on the road and we believe we can win over there. So it's just a matter to go out there and play with confidence and try to get one." Manu Ginobili: "We had the same mentality during this game that we had in the other games. 1 steal, 1 shot, 1 rebound, 1 basket has made the difference tonight. I haven't seen 4 games that have been this close. This just shows how evenly matched these 2 teams are. 4 out of the 5 games in this series have been close. It is crazy how a single play can decide the game." Ginobili on Dallas' frontcourt: "They are big. They have been in great position defensively. There haven't been many times when they have been out of position." Ginobili: "Game 6 will be a whole different atmosphere. They know they will have a chance to close out at home. We will have to play better to get a win there. We will need to play good defense and rebound the ball to be able to win there." Ginobili: "We didn't want to go on vacation yet. We knew that if we played hard, we could be in a position to beat them." Ginobili on his floater over Diop with 4 minutes left: "That's kind of a trademark move for me. It is something I always try to do when they are playing on the right side, I try to go back left. It is a move that I do a lot, but so far in this series, I just couldn't finish on top of him, so I'm glad that I could just once. They are big and they've been in great position. Not many times do you see them out of position or getting late to the shot. Give them credit." Bruce Bowen on the jumpball with Nowitzki near the end: "I didn't completely commit to contesting the shot at first. When he put it down with the dribble he didn't extend as much. I was fortunate to get my hand over the ball." Bowen on the jumpball with Nowitzki near the end: "I didn't totally commit to contesting his shot. He got me up a little bit, and when he put down the dribble, he didn't extend it as much, and I was able to recover." Bowen on the jumpball with Nowitzki near the end: "I was just fortunate enough to get my hand over the ball. He was raising up. I think he felt he got enough space in between me and him at that point and he went to go pull up." Bowen on game 5: "It was a matter of playing for tonight. You can't say we should have done this or that. Should have doesn't get you anywhere." Bowen on game 6: "We have no room for error. We have to go out there and take care of business." Bowen: "It's been a fine series, but you don't enjoy it when you lose. It's not about saying, 'Oh man, we should have done this or that.' That doesn't get you anywhere in life." Michael Finley on his dunk: "As a team we had to bring energy. The coaching staff has been encouraging us to take the ball to the basket. It got the team energized." Finley: "There is no pressure on them. They are a confident team. They will be loose playing at home. We can't take it for granted that we won tonight." Avery Johnson: "Well tonight again another heavyweight match. Just 2 teams that refuse to lose. You got to take your hats off to them and they got one more break than what we did and executed a little better than what we did down the stretch tonight. A couple of turnovers, a couple of situations that didn't go well for us. But again, this is a terrific series. Both teams not giving each other an inch. We were very disappointed with our defense in the 1st half. We came out and played a little bit better defense in the 2nd half, rebounded the basketball. At the end, JET got a pretty decent look at the basket and Dirk almost tipped it in, which would have been really sweet. But it didn't go in. But we put us in this position by having a 3-2 lead, by coming here and winning game 2 and going home and protecting our home court. So now we just hope that we go home and our fans are going to be really crazy and hopefully give us a lot of energy and adrenalin for this next game. We tried to make some strong moves tonight and we didn't get to the free throw line as much. And we're going to continue to make strong moves and try to get there. They got there a lot more than what we did tonight. So hopefully we can continue to make some strong moves and get to the basket. But I'm really proud of our teams, win or lose. And hopefully we can just get some better breaks at the end of the next game." Johnson on the end of the game: "Again, we just didn't take care of the ball and put ourselves n that situation. But we tried to get some jumpballs. I thought JET made a great attempt at getting that jumpball and Josh got the timeout. You know, ran a play that we practice. And JET got a good look and just didn't go in. The last one went in, this didn't go in and you get the good with the bad. But our guys are playing hard. We're battling. And they've put themselves in a good position. Now we just got to go home and play much better than what we played tonight for a longer period." Johnson on Duncan and Nowitzki: "Both players are really exceptional. Duncan has been playing well, along with Dirk, all series. And sometimes you got to pick your poison. Duncan got away from us too much in the 1st half, and we talked about it at halftime. And we did a better job on him in the 2nd half. But we got to put together a better game because he's been getting away on us pretty good this series. But we still had a chance to win. No excuses, no excuses. It was a good officiated game, very evenly called, and just 2 teams that just refuse to lose. And unfortunately for us, they had 1 more point than we had. But no excuses. All of our players are ready to go. And it was nobody's fault. We just want to play basketball." Johnson on San Antonio adjusting due to watching video of Stackhouse and Harris: "Just as much as we're watching video. You know, everybody's watching video. [reporter: different defense?] Not really, no. But you can't score 30 points every game in the Western Conference [semi]Finals, unless you're Tim Duncan or Dirk Nowitzki. Those guys are great players. And our guys are trying. Devin, you know, he missed a couple of layups tonight, layups that he had been making in other games. So we're hoping that those layups can go down in the next game." Johnson on the zone: "I thought it was a good curve ball. It was a good curve ball and got us in some good position to rebound. So I thought it was okay." Johnson on game 6: "Yeah, but again, if you're in this situation, had we not won game 2, then we'd be down 3-2. And had we not won game 2, we'd be in a tough predicament. But at the same time, we're looking at this next game as a game 7. We got to go home and try to play well and we'll be in front of our crowd." Dirk Nowitzki on the last play: "Well, you know, to go up 1, we ran a little play for me. I caught the ball on the free throw line and I thought Bowen was out of the way and I didn't see him behind me. So he made a heck of a defensive play to come back from behind me and block it. Probably should have separated more or given another up-fake, but like I said, I didn't see him. So it was a great defensive play. And then at the end, I thought that JET had a good look. I was right there at the rebound, but I didn't know how much time there was. I tried to bat it up. Looking back at it now, I probably had the time to catch it and lay it up. But you're a lot smarter afterwards. So we didn't really lose the game in the last 2 possessions. We had plenty of chances. I had a turnover with a minute left. Jason turned the ball over right at the top of the key with 50 seconds, so I think we had plenty of opportunities to win this game and it's a tough loss. That's basketball." Nowitzki on treating game 6 like a game 7: "Well, actually, we approached this one as like a game 7. Like I said before this game, we don't want the momentum to change in this series. So we gave it our best shot and it wasn't enough. So you know, we worked hard in game 2 to get the home court advantage and now we got to go home and win a big game. So to me really every game here in this series was a game 7 and that's the way we approached it. You know, every game besides game 2 was decided down the wire, it was a heck of a series so far. So hopefully we can win at home and take care of it." Nowitzki on the breakdowns in the 4th quarter: "That's basketball. Basketball is a game of mistakes and usually the team that makes less mistakes down the stretch wins the game. But there is a lot at stake in this series, obviously, and once in a while the presure gets to you and you make easy mistakes. It's tough. We still had plenty of chances and we move on." Nowitzki on if momentum shifted: "You know, we'll see that in game 6 I mean, obviously it was a tough loss for us. But we have a home game to win now. We won 2 already [at home] in this series, so we should feel good about our chances and go from there." Nowitzki on his shooting: "It felt great before the game, felt good in the game. I had a couple of good looks early. And just stayed aggressive all night long. But, you know, the final possession, I got my shot blocked. So what ever numbers, what ever you shoot, it doesn't matter when you lose, you know. I could have gone 22 for 22, if we lose it doesn't mean anything. So you know, hopefully I can help my team win on Friday." Josh Howard: "We had a pretty good shot at the end, Dirk had a chance to tip it in and it just didn't quite drop. But we are still up 3-2 and our fans are ready for us. We came here all ready and got 1, now we just have to take advantage of that. Now we get to go home on Friday and get ready for some big things." Terry on not driving for his final shot: "I don't know if I had a crease or not. But with 2.4 seconds left, I can get from the 3-point [line] to the basket easy. I settled right there. It's definitely my fault." Terry on Nowitzki blaming himself for not spending more time for the putback: "With 2.4 seconds left I settled for a fade-away jumper. With that kind of time I can dribble from there and get to the basket. I have to learn from that mistake. That is inexcusable. There is no excuse for that. I also turned the ball over with 34 seconds left as well. So tonight the blame falls squarely on me. Not Dirk, not anybody else, me." Jerry Stackhouse: "We had a shot there at the end. Dirk missed a tip in. Maybe he rushed it a little. Some of the breaks didn't go our way early in the game. That's just the way the ball bounces sometimes. But we are happy with the fact that we are still up and get a chance to go home and close it out." Stackhouse: "We can't look at what didn't happen. We have to look at it like we had a chance." Stackhouse: "We didn't expect them to just roll over. They are the defending World Champions. They fought hard, they did what they were supposed to do, yet we were still right there at the end of the game." Stackhouse: "We didn't expect them to roll over. They're the World Champs. They did what they're supposed to do. Every possession in the game meant something." Devin Harris: "We could have played better defensively the first 3 quarters. They shot a really high percentage against us and that is not characteristic of this team. We still had a chance to win at the end but the ball just didn't fall our way this time." Harris: "It is very important that we play this next one like it is a Game 7. We should play it like our back is against the wall." Harris: "We are always confident and always feel like we can win. We are still up 3-2 and it's not like they came out here and whipped up on us." DeSagana Diop on defending Duncan: "We've got to keep trying. He gets the ball so much you just have to keep battling." Game 5: San Antonio Spurs 98, Dallas Mavericks 97 at San Antonio (May 17) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% San Antonio 29 28 24 17 - 98 .583 .222 .536 .710 Dallas 24 33 21 19 - 97 .554 .250 .506 .842 Halftime: 57-57 3rd Q: San Antonio 81-78 Technicals: none Refs: Ron Garretson, Joe Forte, Bernie Fryer Attendance: 18,797 (sellout) IL: Sean Marks (SA), Darrell Armstrong (Dal) San Antonio Spurs REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Manu Ginobili 39 6-13 1-3 5-8 18 1-4 5 3 3 2 1 Tony Parker 37 11-24 0-0 5-6 27 0-2 4 5 3 1 0 Michael Finley 44 5-8 0-3 2-2 12 0-7 0 1 2 1 0 Bruce Bowen 34 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 1 0 3 1 1 Tim Duncan 44 13-19 0-0 10-15 36 4-12 4 3 2 1 3 Brent Barry 18 2-2 1-1 0-0 5 0-0 0 0 5 0 0 Nick Van_Exel 13 0-2 0-1 0-0 0 0-0 4 0 0 0 0 Robert Horry 11 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 1-4 0 0 1 0 0 Totals 48 37-69 2-9 22-31 98 6-30 18 12 19 6 5 Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Jason Terry 43 6-14 1-4 2-2 15 2-4 5 4 3 0 0 Devin Harris 31 5-12 0-0 5-6 15 1-1 0 2 4 1 1 Dirk Nowitzki 44 13-22 1-2 4-4 31 1-10 4 4 4 2 0 Josh Howard 37 7-12 1-2 1-3 16 2-8 0 0 2 0 0 DeSagana Diop 24 3-3 0-0 2-2 8 2-7 0 1 3 1 1 Jerry Stackhouse 33 4-12 0-3 2-2 10 1-5 2 0 0 0 0 Erick Dampier 17 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0-1 0 0 5 1 2 Marquis Daniels 7 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 1-1 1 0 1 0 0 Keith Van_Horn 3 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 0 1 4 0 1 DJ Mbenga 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 39-77 3-12 16-19 97 10-38 12 13 26 5 5 patricia Go Mavs!