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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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GAME FLOW
SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- It didn't matter that David Robinson went
0-for-5 and was scoreless with no assists or blocks.
|  | | Battle on: Dirk Nowitzki led the Mavericks with 30 points, but Tim Duncan got 28 plus the victory. |
Fellow All-Star Tim Duncan scored 28 points and grabbed 15
rebounds, reserve Antonio Daniels had 18 points and Danny Ferry
sank four 3-pointers as the San Antonio Spurs beat the Dallas
Mavericks 104-92 Tuesday night for their ninth win in 10 games.
Six Spurs scored in double figures, most notably Avery Johnson,
a starter who was sidelined the last two months with a bruised left
thigh. He came out strong in his first game since Dec. 11, tying
his season-high of 14 points and handing out three assists.
Ferry, who started for San Antonio as forward Sean Elliott sat
out with a rotator cuff tear, tied his season-high with eight
rebounds.
"They played a great game and gave us all we could handle,"
said the Mavericks' Michael Finley, who scored 26 points. "I
thought the key was their bench -- Danny Ferry in particular."
Finley combined with Dirk Nowitzki to score 17 points to the
Spurs' six to make it 93-82 with 2:54 left in the game, but Dallas
couldn't overcome what had been a 22-point deficit.
While Nowitzki scored a total of 30 points and had 10 rebounds,
the Mavericks were held to 40.7 percent shooting from the field.
"The guys did an excellent defensive job on a very good
basketball team with the personality for scoring," Spurs coach
Gregg Popovich said. "This is one of the three or four games we've
played where we've played defense for 48 minutes."
And Duncan gave 39 solid minutes on offense.
Finally appearing to be back in top form after offseason knee
surgery, all the Mavericks could do to try to stop Duncan was to
foul him.
It was the obvious tactic with Duncan shooting 55.5 percent from
the line this year, down from last season's career-best 76.1
percent.
Though he went only 14-of-24, Duncan racked up half his points
from the free throw line.
"It's something we didn't use until we were desperate," Dallas
coach Donnie Nelson said.
San Antonio broke the game open by scoring 13 straight points to
make it 41-30 with 3:48 left in the first half.
Johnson, who was averaging 5.4 points before he was sidelined,
sparked the run with a layup followed by two jump shots.
"Words cannot describe how I felt tonight," said Johnson, who
is in his 13th season. "I couldn't have planned it any better. It
is always great to get a win, but the way we did it made it
special. We played great defense against a strong offensive team."
The Spurs widened the lead to 46-34 when Derek Anderson leapt
and intercepted Nowitzki's pass, hurling it to Duncan for an
emphatic alley-oop dunk with 1:46 left in the period.
Howard Eisley scored seven of his 13 points for Dallas in the
final 1:28 to narrow it to 51-41 at the half.
The Spurs went up to 62-46 with 8:54 left in the third on
back-to-back 3-pointers by Terry Porter and Ferry. Porter finished
with 13 points.
Nowitzki scored eight points to the Spurs' four over a 3½-minute
period toward the end of the third, but the Mavericks couldn't
whittle the lead below 10.
Game notes
Johnson received a thunderous ovation when he entered the
game with 4:03 left in the first quarter. ... The Mavericks had won
the last three games against the Spurs. ... The Spurs placed
forward Malik Rose on the injured list with a sore right hip. They
had gone 8-1 with Rose in the starting lineup. ... Gary Trent
started for Dallas as point guard Steve Nash missed his fourth
straight game with a sore left hamstring.
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ALSO SEE
NBA Scoreboard
Dallas Clubhouse
San Antonio Clubhouse
RECAPS
Charlotte 77
Indiana 66
Toronto 120
Cleveland 105
Miami 101
LA Clippers 99
LA Lakers 113
New Jersey 110
Philadelphia 107
Milwaukee 104
Sacramento 97
Utah 94
Chicago 96
Atlanta 92
Houston 99
Washington 89
San Antonio 104
Dallas 92
Denver 96
New York 77
Portland 109
Minnesota 88
Vancouver 99
Boston 98
Phoenix 93
Golden State 83
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