Going into the fourth quarter, the Mavericks needed to make up seven points on the scoreboard against the Western Conference’s top squad and their chief adversary, the San Antonio Spurs.
While not an insurmountable number, especially for teams of the Mavs’ caliber, overcoming the deficit would require the Mavs to showcase their trademark chemistry and click on all cylinders. When two guys score all but two of your fourth quarter points, I’d say that didn’t happen. It also didn’t help that Tyson Chandler, the man known for the energy he brings, fouled out with 3:32 to go. The Mavs lost 97-91.
For the record, Jason Terry scored 14 of his 19 in the fourth quarter and Dirk Nowitzki connected for nine of his 23 during the final quarter. Neither team scored anything until the 8:31 mark when Terry netted a jumper. (That equates to this: Two of the league’s best teams both had prolonged dry spills of 3 ½ minutes at the same time.)
As would logically happen when Terry and Nowitzki are the team’s offense for the quarter, once The Jet reached fight, he scored seven in a row for the Mavs to put them within three at 78-75. Then, Nowitzki made three jump shots sandwiched between a pair of Terry free throws. Sounds OK, but Manu Ginobili (25 points), Tim Duncan (22 points) and Tony Parker were doing the same thing for the Spurs, and thus San Antonio’s lead expanded to double digits at 93-82 with 1:35 remaining in regulation. A Terry 3-pointer situated the Mavs to within four with 38.9 seconds left.
But Parker, who finished with 33 points, hit the free throws that iced the game. With the loss, the Mavs dropped to third in the Western Conference, half a game behind the Lakers.
Notes
- Shawn Marion left the game with an undisclosed wrist injury in the final minutes of the second quarter.
- The Mavs did recover from being down 18 points to tie the game at 60 in the third quarter, but promptly allowed San Antonio to score nine straight.
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