NBA Playoffs 2010 : San Antonio Spurs 94 @ 100 Dallas Mavericks (0 - 1 for Dallas Mavericks)

Nowitzki scores 36 as Mavericks take Game 1 against Spurs

By Dave Ivey, for NBA.com

DALLAS (NBA.com exclusive) -- Double-teaming Dirk Nowitzki didn't work out well for San Antonio in last season's first-round playoff exit against Dallas.

Guarding him one-on-one in Game 1 of the series rematch Sunday was an even bigger disaster, however, as Nowitzki missed only two shots and scored 36 points in the Mavericks' 100-94 victory.

"You pick your poison and whatever you pick, you try to do it well," San Antonio head coach Gregg Popovich said. "Dirk got the best of whatever we tried to do with him tonight. We tried a lot of different things, but he beat them all."

Nowitzki was 12-for-14 from the field and a perfect 12-for-12 at the line, where he finished the regular season with a franchise-record streak of 74 consecutive made free throws. He scored 13 points in the third quarter, including a run of seven straight that gave Dallas the lead for good.

"They weren't doubling and they were just going to sit in his lap and see what he was going to do," said Mavericks point guard Jason Kidd. "He put a lot of pressure on them by taking the ball to the basket. In that third quarter, he was great."

It was Nowitzki's 12th career postseason game with at least 35 points. Caron Butler added 22 points and Kidd had another brilliant game with 13 points, 11 assists, eight rebounds and four steals. Brendan Haywood chipped in 10 points and Erick Dampier pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds to help Dallas post a 45-37 edge on the glass. The Mavericks had an even bigger edge at the charity stripe, attempting 20 more free throws (34-14).

San Antonio stuck around by shooting 50 percent from the floor and outscoring Dallas 50-34 in the paint. Tim Duncan had 27 points and eight rebounds and Manu Ginobili tallied 26 points and six assists. Duncan and Ginobili also combined for 11 of the Spurs' 17 turnovers, which the Mavericks converted to 20 points.

"We never got discouraged on the defensive end and we deflected a bunch of passes," Kidd said. "We were active and we tried to limit them to one tough shot."

Tony Parker added 18 points off the bench for San Antonio. Notable for his lack of production was Richard Jefferson, who finished with four points on 1-of-4 shooting and four fouls in 32 minutes.

"I think we've got to have a few more people step up and play worth a damn," Popovich said. "I thought we had a lot of guys that played like dogs."

The Mavericks led for most of the first half before the game tightened up in the third quarter with four ties and six lead changes. After the Spurs had seized a 61-60 lead with 5:22 left in the period on a dunk by Duncan, Nowitzki took over with seven straight points.

After Nowitzki capped his spurt with a three-point play, Popovich elected to employ a "Hack-a-Damp" strategy. Roger Mason Jr. intentionally fouled Dampier, a 60.4 percent free-throw shooter this season, on each of the Mavericks' next three possessions. Dampier made 4-of-6, however, and Dallas expanded its lead to 76-69 on a 3-pointer by Kidd with 59.8 seconds left in the quarter.

"We wanted to put him at the line and hoped he would miss free throws rather than Dirk killing us the way he was," Popovich explained.

The series resumes in Dallas on Wednesday night, giving Popovich about 72 hours to prepare some other tactic to thwart Nowitzki.

"There aren't many nights when Dirk is not special," Popovich said. "He was special tonight, but he had a lot of help. A lot of other guys played really well. Butler killed us and both big guys were really good on the boards and defensively. Jason [Kidd] was a gnat. He was a focused, driven individual, as usual. They had a lot of people play well. They played sharper than we did."

San Antonio Spurs (50-32)
field goalsrebounds
	pos	min	fgm-a	3pm-a	ftm-a	+/-	off	def	tot	ast	pf	st	to	bs	ba	pts
R. Jefferson	F	32:14	1-4	0-1	2-2	-8	0	7	7	2	4	1	2	0	0	4
T. Duncan	F	40:04	12-20	0-0	3-5	0	1	7	8	2	3	0	6	0	1	27
A. McDyess	C-F	23:02	5-9	0-0	0-0	-7	2	6	8	2	4	1	0	0	1	10
M. Ginobili	G	40:04	10-17	3-7	3-3	-1	1	3	4	6	2	3	5	0	1	26
G. Hill	G	17:45	0-2	0-0	0-0	-7	0	3	3	0	2	0	2	0	0	0
K. Bogans		16:12	0-1	0-0	0-0	-12	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
T. Parker		34:14	7-15	0-0	4-4	+3	1	0	1	4	3	2	2	0	1	18
M. Bonner		19:12	2-6	1-2	0-0	+7	2	2	4	1	4	0	0	0	0	5
D. Blair		07:56	2-2	0-0	0-0	-6	1	1	2	1	1	0	0	1	0	4
R. Mason		09:17	0-2	0-1	0-0	+1	0	0	0	1	4	0	0	0	0	0
I. Mahinmi	DNP - Coach's Decision
G. Temple	DNP - Coach's Decision
Total		240	39-78	4-11	12-14		8	29	37	19	28	7	17	1	4	94
			50.0%	36.4%	85.7%		team rebs: 2			total to: 17

Dallas Mavericks (55-27)
field goalsrebounds
	pos	min	fgm-a	3pm-a	ftm-a	+/-	off	def	tot	ast	pf	st	to	bs	ba	pts
S. Marion	F	32:24	4-10	0-1	1-2	+8	2	3	5	3	4	0	2	2	0	9
D. Nowitzki	F	40:26	12-14	0-0	12-12	+3	2	5	7	1	0	0	1	1	0	36
E. Dampier	C	29:52	0-3	0-0	5-12	0	5	7	12	0	3	1	1	1	0	5
C. Butler	F	39:52	8-19	1-3	5-6	+10	0	6	6	1	2	3	5	0	0	22
J. Kidd	G	41:18	5-12	3-6	0-0	+6	1	7	8	11	3	4	4	0	0	13
J. Terry		23:20	2-9	1-4	0-0	0	0	1	1	3	4	1	0	0	0	5
B. Haywood		17:43	4-5	0-0	2-2	+5	3	3	6	1	2	1	1	0	1	10
D. Stevenson		00:07	0-0	0-0	0-0	-2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
J. Barea		14:58	0-2	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	3	2	0	1	0	0	0
R. Beaubois	DNP - Coach's Decision
M. Carroll	DNP - Coach's Decision
E. Najera	DNP - Coach's Decision
Total		240	35-74	5-14	25-34		13	32	45	23	20	10	15	4	1	100
			47.3%	35.7%	73.5%		team rebs: 5			total to: 15

inactive

• Spurs: Gee, Hairston, Jerrells
• Mavericks: Thomas

technical fouls

• Spurs: --
• Mavericks: --

scoring

• Lead Changes: 7
• Times Tied: 5

arena stats

• Arena: American Airlines Center, Dallas, TX
• Officials: #15 Bennett Salvatore, #38 Michael Smith, #55 Bill Kennedy
• Attendance: 20372
• Duration: 2:31